Now maybe the reason youÂ're interested in setting up a home business is because youÂ've seen an ad somewhere, or youÂ've been approached by someone. It was all about a great work-from-home money-making opportunity, and youÂ're excited. Finally, you can quit your job!
If youÂ're thinking of working from home by someone elseÂ's rules, though, you have to realise that at least 99% of the offers out there are scams – after all, if it was that easy to pay a few dollars and make thousands, wouldnÂ't everyone be doing it by now? Here are the biggest scams out there, how to recognise them, and how to avoid them.
Location, Location, Location.
Where did you see that work from home offer? If you got it in the post, or by email, or saw it on a poster taped around a telephone pole, then I can guarantee you right now that itÂ's not a legitimate offer. If you saw the ad in a newspaper, in a jobs magazine or on a jobs website, then itÂ's a little more likely to be legit – but not much. Always check out any offer, and assume itÂ's a scam until you have iron-clad proof to the contrary.
Envelope Stuffing.
This is the most established work-from-home scam, and itÂ's been going for decades now. Basically, once you pay your money and sign up to work from home, youÂ're sent a set of envelopes and ads just like the one you responded to. You might make some money if someone responds to your ad, but eventually there just wonÂ't be a market for it any more. Anyway, work from home offers like this are illegal pyramid schemes.
You wonÂ't make any money putting letters in envelopes – get over it.
Charging for Supplies.
The practice of charging for supplies is hard to pin down to any one scam – itÂ's the way almost all work-at-home scams work (including the envelope stuffing, above). YouÂ'll be asked to make a small ‘investmentÂ' for whatever materials would be needed to do the work – and then youÂ'll be sent very shoddy materials that arenÂ't worth anything like what you paid, and youÂ'll find that thereÂ's no market for the work anyway.
If anyone asks for money upfront, run. A real company should be willing to deduct any ‘feesÂ' from your first paycheque – if they wonÂ't do that for you, then thatÂ's because they donÂ't ever plan to pay you.
Working for Free.
This variation on the scam is common with crafts. You might be asked to work at home making clothes, ornaments or toys. Everything seems legitimate – youÂ've got the materials without paying out any money, and youÂ're doing the work. Unfortunately for you, when you send the work back, the company will tell you that it didnÂ't meet their ‘quality standardsÂ', and will refuse to pay you. Then theyÂ'll sell on what you made at a profit, and move on to the next sucker.
Never do craft work from home unless youÂ're selling the items yourself. Note that you donÂ't need to be selling to consumers (you could be selling to wholesalers), but you still need to be the one deciding what you make and getting the money.
Home Typing, Medical Billing, and More.
There are lots of work-from-home scams that involve persuading you that some industry has more work than it can handle, and so has to outsource to people working from home. For example, you might be told that youÂ'd be typing legal documents, or entering medical bills into an electronic database. These scams have one thing in common: they all say that all you need is your computer, and they all then go on to say that you need to buy some ‘special softwareÂ'.
This software might appear to be from a completely unrelated company, but donÂ't be fooled – the whole reason the ‘work-from-homeÂ' ad was there to begin with was simply as cynical marketing for the software.
As you can see, running a ‘home businessÂ' that just involves ‘workingÂ' for one company is a bad idea. You donÂ't know who youÂ're dealing with. HereÂ's the clincher, though: even with entirely legal work-at-home offers that do pay you for your work, you still wonÂ't make anywhere near as much as you can with your very own home business. So why bother with them at all?
James Calvin will show you how to market your product to the World using the only REAL techniques that make the Internet pay off. Go to www.MillionaireMarketingManual.com NOW. You may freely distribute or publish the above article as long as this bio and an active hyperlink are accompanied with it.
