Avoiding those online work scams

If you are like much of society today, you are looking for a better way of life than the "paycheck to paycheck" job that is restricted by hourly pay and bosses that determine what your time is worth and how much of that time they want to posess. You are looking for something to give you the freedom to set your own hours and be able to have time with your family while earning an income that you can depend on.

Unfortunately, many fall for the scams and broken promises of the "internet trolls" who simply want to take your money and run. Many promise immeasurable riches with no investment and absolutely "doing nothing". In all honesty, there is no business that would ever just give money away to anyone (especially the money they claim you will make) just for doing nothing! Sadly, it is very easy to find those who will fall prey to this scam because most of us would love to believe that we could get rich very quickly and never have to actually work! But let's face it... if that were true, then who on earth would still be working today??? Fortunes are earned through work and knowledge. If you are not willing to learn as much as you can and work hard to achieve your goals then you are just as well off with an employer paying you an hourly wage.

However, if you are serious about learning how to find a business opportunity that suits you and learning to avoid the scams, then I am willing to do all that I can to help you. No, there is no charge and no ads that will bombard you to accept my help. I will explain to you why I am willing to help you at no charge.

I became involved in network marketing (MLM) over 20 years ago. It was very easy for me to realize that the concept was excellent and workable. However, the company that I got involved with, while still around today, failed to tell me many, many things about this form of business. I was absolutely clueless as to what a good compensation plan should entail. I was clueless as to what a high demand product was. I was clueless as to what range of profits I would need to make in order to be able to earn a good income without recruiting members. I had no idea how important a simple and interesting business plan was nor did I know how to check out the company that I was becoming involved with. Fortunately, I did know about this particular one but had no idea how to tell others about it.

Needless to say, with a highly expensive start-up cost, a very long and boring business plan, products that were overpriced and low profit, a compensation plan that was not only very hard to achieve but next to impossible to maintain, it wasn't long before I was in the hole from this business venture. But my belief in the MLM concept never waivered. I knew that if I found the right company that this would be the best marketing strategy that I would ever encounter. And it is. It has just taken me many years of mistakes (some costly) to figure out exactly what I needed to know to find the right company. Now that I have, it has been my pleasure to help others in their search for the right business to avoid many of the mistakes that I made along the way.

One of the very first things that I learned was to be sure that I checked out any company that I was interested in before joining any business. If you can't get a contact number on the company, along with a contact name, then chances are, they have something to hide. It is also good to check them out with the BBB even with contact info. Keep in mind that almost any business will have some type of complaint as you can't please everybody all the time. What is important is whether or not the complaints are resolved once they are filed.

Another thing I found out the hard way is that the "free to join" businesses normally mean no income until you either upgrade or make some other type of purchase to qualify. Many businesses may be free to join. But whether or not you get income from it and how much may just depend on how much you are willing to invest once you "join for free". Almost any legitimate business opportunity will require some type of investment on your part for a couple of reasons. For one, it helps the companies determine who is serious and who is just curious about a business. If they just allow anyone to join and send out training materials free for the asking then it will get very expensive to provide with all the curiosity seekers out there. Another reason is just plain common sense business. If you aren't willing to invest a little in yourself then why should a business invest time and money to train you. A person is more likely to put more effort into success if they have something invested in it themselves. Plain and simple. This brings me to my next point.

If you find a business that you are interested in and they require an investment, ask yourself a couple of questions. Of course, the first is, "Can you afford the investment?" If so, is the investment affordable to most that may want to join your team. This is very important because if it takes a large investment to join then you are limiting your prospect field to ones who can afford that investment rather than the majority who may be really interested but just can't afford to invest a lot. Also, you should know what you are getting for your investment. If you have to pay several hundred dollars to join and you only get some printed materials that really aren't of much use then there is no way to get a return on that investment. Make sure that your investment will be recoverable by reselling what you receive in your start-up package.

Now, you should also consider your product. If the product is of low quality, then your return customer rate will be lower. Make sure that the quality of the product is good and it is something that you would be proud to use yourself. After all, if it isn't good enough for you, why would you expect anyone else to buy it? If the product is a bit more expensive than most, you should find out what makes it so different from other products that it should cost more. Make sure that the price fits the quality. If so, then you won't have to worry about marketing the product on a more expensive scale.

Next, consider your competition market. Is this product something that has thousands of competitors out there? If so, you may want to check out other companies before deciding on one specific. Try to locate a good company with a good product that is as unique as possible. I had many offers to join nutritional businesses and still get them daily. While the products may be great, there are at least a thousand others out there claiming to be just as good. I kept looking and found a product that has only 6 major competitors. The less competitors, the broader the target market.

Now, is this product consumable? Will the customer use the product up and need to order more to replace it? This is where your repeat customers come from.

How about retail profits? If this is an MLM or network marketing business, can you make enough from your retail profits to earn a good income without recruiting if you choose not to recruit? This is important as this is your immediate income and the residual that comes from recruiting sometimes takes a lot of time to build. If you can't make a good profit from the start then you are more likely to drop out when your income takes a while to build.

Consider training and support very carefully! This will be very important in building your business. You can't expect to start a business without some excellent training and support from your upline and company. Ask if the offer free training calls, materials and one on one personal training if needed. I can not express this enough. The support you get here can mean the difference in succeeding or giving up on your business.

Look very closely at the compensation plan. It is very important before joining any company that you are able to understand the compensatiopn plan as this is how you will build your residual income. Make sure that the goals are reasonably able to be reached on a normal part-time basis. Find out if you have to maintain a certain sales quota in order to qualify to get paid. If you have to sell a large quantity of products in order to get paid the profits you have earned then you should not even look into the company any further. While it is standard practice to use different sales quotas to qualify for bonus levels and such, it should not be a qualifying factor in getting paid what you have earned honestly. If you have any problems understanding how network marketing and the compensation plan works, feel free to contact me and I will be glad to help you understand these factors.

Another important factor to consider in looking for the right business is enjoyability. If it is not something that you can enjoy and involve your family in, then you will be less likely to whole heartedly work it for very long. It will begin to feel too much like a total sacrifice with no rewards for you to be able to be passionate about your business. Being passionate about what you do and your product is very important in being successful.

One very important question to ask is if the business is willable. It would be a shame to spend several years building a successful business with excellent income and losing it all if something happened to you. You would want to be sure that you could pass it on to your family.

Beware of all the new and pre-launch businesses. Don't fall for getting in on the ground floor. This is simply a way of saying that this company is new and we have no clue as to whether or not you will make or lose money! If they say that you will make more money if you get in on the ground floor then something is wrong. There should always be an equal earning opportunity to anyone joining a team, be it now or years later!

I am sure there will be questions I have not answered in this hub so please feel free to contact me if you have any more questions about how you can find the right opportunity without being scammed. And remember the old saying... if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Beware of any company that makes any income claims at all as this is illegal. They may ask if you want to earn an extra $500 or whatever a month but as far as saying that you can specifically earn so and so with a chart showing numbers, this is illegal!

I hope you find this information of some use and I will also be glad to help anyone with tips and pointers on working their new business and provide some useful articles if needed. Best of luck to all of you!

© 2007 Bonnie N. Ramsey

Bonnie Ramsey

Diamond Team Leader