The main factor most often overlooked.

Do these headlines look familiar?

Plan #1. "Make 10,000 a month, easy work only a few hours a week, no experience needed!"

Plan #2. "Secrets the Rich won't tell you!" or "What they know that you don't."

Plan #3. "What your banker hopes you'll never find out!" or "Cut your mortgage payments in half!"

Plan #4. "Federal Government grants" for all kinds of activities.

Plan #5. "Government auctions! Buy surplus for ten cents on the dollar."

This growing tide shouts its titles with their glowing promises while clogging our inbox and spam filters. No doubt, these promise-peddlers hope to capitalize on the increasing numbers of commuters yearning to be free from that job they hate plus the awful daily traffic jam, with all its accompanying waste of time and money, resouces while generating ever-increasing pollution.

Jousting with the Pros.

As an added challenge, think of all those slick late night TV commercials with their can't lose spiel. The whole idea is to get you in person to their seminar where you can be exposed to some of the most clever, manipulative professionals highly trained in working an audience into a kind of feeding frenzy. (If you've ever been to an auction you'll know what I mean.) First and foremost, they almost invariably ask for your money before you leave the seminar without having the time to really test their scheme. And the amount they brazenly beg for isn't just peanuts either, more likely it's 2,000 to 5,000 or more. Be on guard for future hidden costs, once they have your credit card number, you could be charged for additional stuff not mentioned in the initial presentaion.

By contrast, if you went to your bank with an acceptable business plan showing the total funding needed to set up operation, they wouldn't ask for any money up front. Just the opposite, they will lend you the full amount subject, of course, to their definite rules regarding repayment. You are required to show the workable practicality of your plan to gain their assurance that you will repay them out of your profits.

This has been the foundation of business funding in general since the beginning of organized society. So it should be with any ethical money-making plan, regardless of what the internet or TV promises. If their sure-fire plan is so good, then let them give it to you free. Then, only then should they be paid from the profits that are glowingly promised to you. Oh no! We want your money right now. It's a can't lose deal only for them, certainly not for you.

Website offers, gateway to Paradise?

How many times have you waded through a web site of 20 to 30 pages that just rambles on and on about how great is this previously unknown discovery and how it will totally change your life into some Edenic paradise. They tell you all about the "What" but never mention the "Who." If you're not bored silly by the time you get to the order page, you'll finally discover what it's all about, including the money you have to shell out up front.

Things aren't always what they appear to be.

Returning to the TV or Internet commercial, you'll see that picture invariably showing a youthful individual preferably under 40 standing in front of a mansion and surrounded by expensive cars. All of this may be true and you may very well be seeing a genuine "rags to riches" winner. However, bear in mind that given today's software capability anyone half-smart can access the various photos needed to assemble a very convincing scenario that may have absolutely no connection to reality.

Tell me a story.

Then look at all those glowing testimonies. If the background shows people leaving what looks like a seminar setting, i.e. a large hotel meeting room, then it's easy to pick the ones most excited about the plan and record their words. By listening carefully to their comments you won't hear about how successful they've been or show any tax returns as proof. Can they do that? Unless they are a repeat attendee, there's no way, seeing that they haven't tried the plan yet. It's more likely that you will hear glowing opinions on the presentation itself which was indeed conducted by professionals who are top-notch in this field.

Making you look good by Fakery Unlimited

As a commentary on our changing times, there are on-line jobs now being offered that involve writing testimonials that can be precisely tailored for a particular presentation and then marketed as a stand-alone product. Entering the words "write testimonials" will bring up 1000's of websites on this subject. Here is one that I found, that lays it out clearly as a job opportunity: http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-credibility/testimonials.shtml

Let me make it clear that there is a place for sincere testimonials that have been solicited from genuine customers. Usually the most convincing ones will have a name and a general location given along with a photo.One note aside here, photos that look too "professional" can arouse suspicion, better to have an ordinary day-to-day quality that would be more like one that would be taken by a regular non-professional. Just be sure that you have their permission in writing. It's a very powerful and effective tool for establishing credibility, especially for on-line transactions. The kiss of death results from insincere comments that have the appearance of mass production.

Some rules for survival:

Contact the BBB in the home town of the company. If there is no address given or any way to contact them, try GoDaddy.com or Whois.net If they are legitimate, there should be a simple way to get in touch. If not, by now alarm bells should be going off in your mind. If you plan attending a "get rich" seminar in person, leave your checkbook and credit cards at home or someplace that you can't get to in the heat of the buying moment. You will at least learn some things about presenting a potentially profitable activity. With more and more tele-seminars being offered it's just possible that the days are numbered for the traditional mass gathering at a fancy hotel ballroom along with all the hooplah.

Finally, if you believe you have been scammed contact the following:

Consumer Protection Association of America 1-888-727-4272

or if the solicitation came by mail, Postal Crime Hotline 1-800-654-8896

The turning point, YOU

Regardless of how fancy is the web page or how great seems the plan, the most important factor of all, by far, is YOU. The best of business plans will never work until there is someone both willing and able to work it.

Simply put, every plan involves a PERSON. This is one of Life's basic truths.

The fiction

Before we go on to examine your place in this overall scheme of working from home, let's put these offers in context by taking a closer look.

Plan # 1. If you happen to find an outstanding restaurant or other place of business, do you keep this information to yourself? Not at all! You love to tell your friends about it. After all, if you did make $10,000 a month and you had kinfolk who were financially struggling, wouldn't you show them how they could be doing the same? You could hardly wait. In today's Internet world, the good word would travel so fast, it would not need a 20-page website. Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that word-of-mouth advertising is by far the most efficient and cost-effective method of all. You could say with some measure of truth, "It practically sells itself!" (Realistically, it would still require some effort on your part.)

So the big question is, If this $10,000 a month plan is so great, why are the peddlers spending so much money on expensive, showy advertising, instead of using it themselves?

You know the answer.

Plan # 2 is a favorite ploy to appeal to your ego and possible class envy, that somehow you'll open the magic portal to privileged inside information that "they" want to keep all to themselves. There may be useful information inside, but it also has a price tag. Oftentimes you will find the same data available for free on the Internet, whose vast store of knowledge makes it possible.

Plan # 3. This is a legitimate concern in these days of rapidly rising living costs, but again this information is free. Most times all you have to do is ask your mortgage holder. It is common knowledge that simply pre-paying your principal by a set amount each month can dramatically reduce the life of your mortgage. Or, some mortgage companies allow you to make a half-payment twice a month. This may require a degree of self-discipline such as doing without Starbucks each month; only you can decide which is more important.

Plan # 4. This sounds like manna from heaven until you get into the actual nuts and bolts. Yes, there are Government grants available for worthy causes, but with strings attached.

They don't just hand you the money and forget you. You must be willing to accept their oversight and do exactly as they say or they can pull your financial plug. Basically, you must dot every I and cross every T just the way they tell you.

Plan #5. Government auctions are not the bonanza you've been led to believe. Oftentimes, in order to get the one item you want, you have to buy a "lot" of items, the size of which is determined beforehand by the auction staff. We were told right up front that all items were to be sold at fair market value, not ten cents on the dollar. Auto auctions are very popular, but the Government auctions we attended disallowed starting the car's engine before the auction. Also, keys were missing and most of them were in very bad condition, with leaking oil, obvious rust spots, and some with parts missing. All items were sold without return privilege and with strict payment terms.

The fact

In all the many plans I've looked at (yes, I've thrown away money, too), none of them really emphasized the fact that I was going into business for myself.

Now to the pivotal point to this whole business of considering which plan is right for you.

With regard to a legitimate work-at-home plan, much more depends on the person rather than the plan. Much will depend on your temperament, considering that you are looking at self-employment. Start-up of a business requires energy, self-discipline, and focus, three characteristics commonly found in successful entrepreneurs. Think Andrew Carnegie, John Harvey Kellogg, Henry Ford, and Sam Walton just to name a few.

Drawing upon 40-plus years of experience in the workplace has led me to believe that there is a definite money-making temperament. This particular make-up is not all that common; if it was, there would be a whole lot more bosses and fewer employees. To name this quality we can turn to Hippocrates and Galen, who developed the idea of the four basic personality types and coined the term Choleric, known today as movers and shakers, people who are most definitely action oriented. They hit the deck running when they wake up and they don't need an alarm clock.

Self-examination lacks objectivity; consult your spouse or close friends for a more accurate assessment than you can give yourself. If you find yourself lacking in the three qualities mentioned above, don't give up. Balanced partnership can result in a synergy exceeding any individual expression. In a future hub we'll be looking at the basic personality division of task versus relational skills in order to understand why some succeed working from home and others somehow never reach their goals. Stay tuned.

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends!"