Step 1 - Will I Get Rich Quick?

No.

Wasn't that simple?

Home Based Businesses are currently all the rage and sweeping across the Internet like mini tornados. They look awe-inspiring in the distance, but can wreak financial havoc up close and real personal.

This doesn't mean, of course, that you can't be successful working from home, but it does mean you should take a careful look before jumping into anything which involves you parting with sums of cash. Briefly, here are some questions you should ask yourself first. These will be answered later on in this section.

• Does the effort required sound too easy? Some companies offer big bleeping sums of cash to stuff envelopes. Think about it - most legitimate businesses will use minimum-wage employees to do such a thing - how can they afford to pay *you* so much more?
• Does this particular home-based business need more equipment than you have? And does the offering company provide said equipment for "just a little bit more money?" For example, let's say that you decide to include a business website to showcase your products. Chances are, the offering company will give you that for yet "just a little bit more money!" Thing is, though, does said company provide quality, visible design? Are their rates competitive (there are *lots* of web site developers around)?
• Does the company provide a comprehensive history? Are there verifiable references? Was the email which described the opportunity addressed directly to you, or was it simply blasted out to any and all?
• Are you buying promises, not products or services?
• Let's say that you are selling an item for $9.97 which you have to fulfill (i.e, place in an envelop, address said envelop, mail said envelop, etc.). Do you have the time required for fulfillment as well as running your business?
• Would you sell this product to your family? Can you stand behind it?

Are these the real costs? Not by a long-shot.

Step 2 - What Are The Real Costs?

The real cost to a bizopps is far more than just sending in $39 to whatever company is trying to seduce your money away from you.

Some of the costs include the following:

• What product? Before starting your home-based business, what product will you sell? Have you done the research to show that people want your product? Never get sold on something because someone else declares it's the next best thing to free winning lottery tickets - always verify claims yourself.
• Knowledge. Are you familiar in-depth with your product? Do you know who your competitors are? Do you know the best way to market it? If your family was interested in it, would you be proud to sell it to them?
• Marketing. A great big very important thing! Marketing is what gets your name known to your targeted audience. It's advertising, copy, time, effort, time, hard work and much much more.
• Mentoring. Are you assured to great guidance when you buy and market?
• Packaging. If you have a great product, but your packaging is as exciting as blank space, you will lose out on that crucial first impression. When writing my book, I hired a graphics artist to design the front, back and spine of the cover. I knew what I wanted to convey - the additional artwork emphasized it.
• Production cost. Does your product require any assembly? How about materials?
• Inventory. Does it require inventory? If so, where will you keep excess inventory? I recently converted my dining room to a storage facility.
• Web sites. Business web sites are crucial to providing a storefront and letting your customers know what you have to offer. Do you know enough not to get ripped off when buying a web site? And after you buy a site, there is the monthly hosting fee to take into account and more.
• Credit card processing. Once your cusomter is interested in buying your product, how do they purchase it? Do you know how to get a merchant account without getting ripped off? Do you want to process credit cards realtime on the Internet? Again, another cost.
• Stress. While one can never put a precise price upon stress, it certainly will take its toll on you. Is your home-based business your only source of income? Will you have to worry about more bill-paying? If your stress levels increase, can you catch the warning signs soon enough and manage them?

With all the hype and froth out there about internet marketing, what makes a bizopp good?

Step 3 - What Makes A Bizopp Good?

There are several components that make some bizopps stand out from others. They include:

• Happy Provable Customers. Forget this "Love your program! Jay in NM!" stuff. You want to see actual testimonials from real, verifyable people (ideally, you should contact them and discuss in person just why they are happy.
• Realistic Claims. Hype hype and more hype are just dandy for reading pleasure, but let's face it - you will not make 83,492 dollars by stuffing envelops or sending out recipies to five select people!
• Proven Track Record. How long has the company been around? Are there financial end-of-the-year reports you can check out?
• Quality of Product/Service. Research the product or service on the Internet. No, don't just go to the web site of said product/service/company! Instead, visit Google for example and search for

<business> links

or

<business> experiences

For example, perhaps you are interested in learning about the Association of Certified Liquidators. The above query might return to the page www.contractorhell.com/acl.html , which has a list of sites where you can find consumers like yourself discussing it.

The above is (obviously) only a smattering of what makes a bizopp something worthy of your valuable time.

When considering what biz-op to invest in, be sure to first check out Tony Blake's Entrepreneur's Forum at www.ablake.net/forum and the Friend's In Business board at www.friendsinbusiness.com/board1. Lots and lots and lots of folks have tried various and sundry biz-ops - the Internet allows you to ask around and read other people's experiences!

And of course, before you go into any business at all, you should first do your darndest to make sure you're not being scammed.

Scam Alert!

It's truly a sad fact of life that many many zillions of scams are out there both on the Internet and in the real world.

Before jumping into any opportunity, do the following. You might end up saving big bucks.

1. Check out the Scams 101 Course Catalog. Lots of common-sense debunking.

2. Next, go to ScamBusters and see if your "opportunity" is mentioned there.

3. From there, mosey on to the Better Business Bureau and read their alerts. Remember, though, no mention there doesn't mean the opportunity is legit - folks might just not have gotten around to complaining.

That out of the way, let's now go to Step 4 - finding good bizop links.

Step 4 - Where Can You Find Bizopp Links?

Lots and lots of places, of course. But keeping in the spirit of not deluging you with tons of information and resources, let me list some of the best.

• Home Jobs Online. Great collection of information regarding HBBs.
• Home Office Magazine. Put out by Entrepreneur Magazine, this site has lots of resources for being successful with your business opportunity. You'll even find a special section for business startups.
• Work At Home Moms. Useful for work at home dads, too! :-)
• BizyMoms. Ditto!
• Work at Home Success. Lots of good common-sense ideas and links to do some great research.

Never go into HBBs thinking it will be a piece of cake. I've been an entrepreneur now for 5 years and while doing okay, spend at least 50 hours plus working on my business. I wouldn't change things, mind you, but your success is definitely proportional to your efforts.