Friday, July 21, 2006

Avoiding Home Business Schemes

Copyright: Earl Williams
The NetMarketer

When you work from home you want to be careful not to end up being scammed. There are six tips to recognize any scam. One should always use a checklist every time they consider an endeavor. These are things you will want to avoid.

1. Avoid deals you do not completely understand. The big print might make absolute sense or get your attention. It is the fine print that will be the determining factor though. The more important your deal the more important it is for you to read and understand the terms. If you actually read the fine print you might be losing more than gaining. Ask multiple questions and get legal help if need be.


2. Avoid deals requiring multitudes of money up front. Don’t spend all at once. Make sure you will get what you pay for. You want to be sure that the golden egg in that basket is real before the scammer has your cash.


3. Avoid deals you are asked to do in a hurry or under the pressure of time. Time should not be important when you are making a business deal. Both parties will want to be sure they know exactly what they are getting into. If someone is trying to rush you in making up you mind it is because they don’t want to give you time to realize it is a scam.


4. Avoid deals with people or companies you have never heard of or know. The best reference is that if you have no clue whom you are dealing with you should find out. Let them know that you will be checking out their business and background. Make sure you follow through and find out all you can. This will keep them from being able to lie to you.


5. Avoid deals that you are being manipulated or schmoozed into. If some one is trying to bully you, charm you, manipulate you to death, or anything else. Make sure to tell them you know what they are doing and walk away.


6. Avoid deals set up to look like a pyramid scheme. These scams are made to look like legitimate MLM and network marketing business but are illegal. The earlier people in the plan get paid with money taken from the new people. These companies have you spend thousands of dollars up front and claim you will be raking in the money in weeks.


The most important thing to remember is that if it is too good to be true than that is what it is, untrue. There is not a person on the planet that does not want to get rich quick. Some people do get rich quick, but not many. People who have more money than they know what to do with earned it over time with hard work. Or someone who worked for it willed it to them.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that all those too good to be true solicitation e-mails and ads you see in the margins of high traffic websites for making thousands of dollars a week with no effort through a home based internet business can’t be for real. Yet there are still thousands upon thousands of people every year whose dreams of easy cash, early retirement and free living override their common sense and encourage them to invest in these home business scams.

As far as other tips for avoiding home business scams are concerned, there are a multitude of resources all over the Internet that list which opportunities are scams and which ones have real income potential. Truly the best of the best tips for avoiding home business scams we can offer is to listen to the little voice inside you. If that voice is telling you the scam’s promises are too good to be true, then listen to that voice, because it’s probably entirely correct!


You may republish this article in its entirety, provided you leave the byline, author's note and website hyperlink intact.

About the Author:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
The NetMarketer

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Determining The Right Product For Your Market

Copyright: Earl Williams
The NetMarketer

A major part of evaluating home business opportunities is determining if the product you wants to sell is marketable, if the market is saturated, and what a competitive asking price might be.

Even if someone wants to start a home business that is not Internet based but rather marketed in the local area, an online auction vendor or aggregator site is still a great way to determine what is out there in the industry, and what the going price might be.

Rule of thumb, according to online merchant experts, is to price the item at about two thirds of what the major online auction sites are asking for the same or similar item, or 65 percent of the top bid over the past sixty days. In evaluating home business opportunities for local sales the buyer must take into consideration that the local cost of living can alter the asking price. Market research for evaluating home business opportunities in this case would weigh most heavily on other local competitors in the industry.

Some of the standard procedures an entrepreneur should do in evaluating home business opportunities are to check both the credibility and the performance of the parent firm.

Home Business opportunities should be evaluated poorly just because they don’t report big dollars in revenue. A small company can be a sound home business opportunity. One advantage of working with a small firm is the accessibility to the executives in the firm, to help answer the evaluating questions about the home business opportunity it represents but to help the entrepreneur get started.

Great sources of information when evaluating home business opportunities are people you know and trust that have dealt with the company. If the small business owner doesn’t have any such resource she or he should then turn to financial statements if it’s a public corporation or to firms such as Hoovers for information about the stability of the firm. Local help would be the Chamber of Commerce and the Better Business Bureau.

Vendors of the firm that the entrepreneur is evaluating for home business opportunity are great resources, as they can tell you that the firm pays their bills on time and has been ordering large quantities of products for an extended period. This means sales are good. One important thing for a hopeful entrepreneur to do in evaluating the company is to ask for current and former customers and contact them for honest critiques of the firm. Evaluating home business opportunities should never rely only on the clients the firm offers. You should seek out others that the firm hasn’t put forth as good testimonials. They will be the one who can give you the true picture of what the business is really about. But don’t just go on these testimonials along, you have to take everything into consecration.


You may republish this article in its entirety, provided you leave the byline, author's note and website hyperlink intact.

About the Author:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
The NetMarketer

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Planning For Success

Copyright: Earl Williams
The NetMarketer

Here are some general start-up tips for a successful home business.

The first tip is a word of caution. It’s easy to think that because your home business can bypass the lease or construction aspects of starting a business, and the overhead costs of furnishing, maintenance, landscaping, utilities and so forth, that you can skip over some other processes to. That attitude, rather than heading someone down the road to a successful home business, could lead to financial business disaster.

An entrepreneurial spirit and a great idea are terrific assets for a successful home business. Other things are important too, however.

Market research and careful planning are of paramount important to the success of a home business, as they are for any business. A business plan is a must. It must include details on the products and services the firm will offer, the type of business equipment and the cost of it that will be needed in the coming five years. It should also include information on the competition in the designated market area. This information should include ways that the new home business will be successful in competing – how it is unique and how it is an improvement over what else is out there in the same industry.

A successful home business is one that is set up as the right legal entity. One of the first things new home-based entrepreneurs should do is learn the legal consequences and liabilities of the various business types, as well as the tax consequences of each. A home business might be more successful as a partnership than sole proprietorship, for example, if additional cash flow is needed, or the entrepreneur is deficient in a crucial home business skill such as advertising, marketing or accounting, for example. An accountant can advise on the various options such as limited liability corporations, S corporations, standard corporations, limited partnerships and so forth.

Unless a successful home business is going to include walk in customer’s homeowner’s or renters insurance should provide adequate financial protection against theft or natural disaster. Of course, as equipment and furnishings are added, the insurance would need to increase. If clients were to come to the home office location, liability insurance would protect the firm from the financial devastating situation of customer injury.

A successful home business is one that is well planned and well funded. There is no such thing as too much preparation.

You may republish this article in its entirety, provided you leave the byline, author's note and website hyperlink intact.

About the Author:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
The NetMarketer

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Putting Christ in Commerce

Copyright: Earl Williams
The NetMarketer

If an entrepreneur wanted to buy an established Christian home based business there are several resources on the Internet dedicated to that. One Christian home based business marketplace that we studied included not only the listings of Christian businesses for sale, and Christian franchise opportunities but several other features as well helpful to would be Web entrepreneurs.

The categories of information and pages on this Christian home based business site included the mall itself (where the businesses for sale were displayed), Christian blogs, a category called Bible, one entitled E-cards and another called Articles.

Under the Christian home-based business mall heading we found the ten top choices in home-based businesses. What was questionable, though, about these so-called opportunities was that each wanted the consumer to fill out a feedback form but not one of them indicated the type of business or the contact information. So, while this site offered some good articles and information it may likely be one of the Internet marketing ploys disguising themselves as Christian home based business resources simply because the term Christian suggests honor and trustworthiness to many. This is something an entrepreneur looking for a home-based business opportunity must be wary of.

The blogs section of this Christian home based business mall is set up with the mission of answering important Christian topic questions on marriage, evangelism, theology, prophecy, salvation, hell and yes, Christian home based business. Over 4000 questions are presented her.

The Bible section is a category of quizzes one can take to test and learn about what the scriptures say about dozens of topics. The user can choose to test their bible expertise on finances, creationism, poverty, abortion, stem cell, world religions and many other subjects.

The free e-cards might be just the thing to create top of the mind awareness for a Christian home based business. For little time and no expensive whatsoever the owner of the Christian home based business can send a birthday card, a happy holidays message, a sympathy card, a congratulatory message and many others to clients, co-workers, vendors, business associates and friends and family.

The articles portion of this site offers tips to the owners and managers of Christian home based businesses on topics as diverse as home equity loans, affiliate programs, getting an online degree, buying business insurance, and taking care of her or his health.

So, while the home based business opportunity list of this allegedly Christian site is somewhat questionable it’s still a helpful resource.


You may republish this article in its entirety, provided you leave the byline, author's note and website hyperlink intact.

About the Author:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
The NetMarketer

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, July 03, 2006

Get Started with a Small Home Based Business Opportunity

Copyright: Earl Williams
http://www.NetMarketer.org

If you are tired of the corporate world, and you are looking for a way to break out, you may want to consider starting a small home based business. This can be one of the best ways to gain both financial and personal independence.

Many people stray away from starting a home based business because they are afraid that the workload is going to be too much to handle. There are a lot of stories circulating around about people who own their own businesses having to work 20 hour days, seven days a week. Even though there are people that are extremely dedicated to their home based business, it is a myth that you will have to work 100-hour weeks in order to be successful.

One of the best ways to get started with a home-based business is to keep it small from the beginning. There is no reason to get ahead of yourself and start hiring employees and renting out warehouse space. There are many small home-based business opportunities that you can look into.

One small home based business opportunity that is very popular in today’s day and age has to do with selling products via the Internet. The reason that this is so popular is because you do not have to deal with opening up a retail location, or stocking tons of products from the start. The only things that you will need to do is decide what you want to sell, and get everything set up online. By doing this you can be in business in no time. This small home based business opportunity will give you the ability to work the hours that you want to work; you will be in sole control of everything.

Another small home-based business opportunity that you may want to check out is becoming a freelance contractor. By doing this, you will be able to take on the jobs that are of interest to you, and forget about the ones that you do not want to complete. The great thing about being a freelance contractor is that you can do this in almost any industry. The most common ones are writing, sales, marketing, and computers/internet, but you can be a contractor for any industry.

A small home-based business opportunity may be just what you are in need of. There is no reason to be scared of these opportunities, because you will be in charge of everything that you are doing. Remember, one of the reasons that you are probably leaving the corporate world is so that you can have freedom and independence. With a small home based business you will be in charge of everything that you do from beginning to end.

You may republish this article in its entirety, provided you leave the byline, author's note and website hyperlink intact.

About the Author:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.NetMarketer.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------