Maybe the reason you’re interested in setting up a home business is because you’ve seen an ad that perked your interest or you were approached by a friend or colleague about a great home business money-making opportunity and those entrepreneurial juices started to flow. Your imagination starts to flow and dreams of quitting your job fill your every thought.
Hello, hey, ok… time to stop dreaming. I hate to burst your bubble or stop your fantasy ride but before you give your boss a piece of your mind there’s a few things you need to consider.
First, you need to realize that probably 99% of all home business / work from home offers out there are flat out scams. After all, if it was that easy to pay a few dollars and make thousands, wouldn’t everyone be doing it by now and why tell you about it?
Below I’ve listed and briefly discussed how to recognize and avoid a few of the biggest scams out there.
Location Location Location Check out every offer and assume it’s a scam until you have iron-clad proof that it’s not. A few things to consider are: Where did you see that work from home offer? If you got it by traditional mail or by email or saw it on a poster taped around a telephone pole, then I can guarantee you right now that it’s not a legitimate offer. On the other hand, if you saw the ad in a newspaper, in a jobs magazine or on a jobs website, then it’s a little more likely to be legit – but not necessarily.
Envelope Stuffing Will this scam ever end? Well, not until people stop falling for it. This is the most established work-from-home scam of all time and it’s been going on for what seems like forever now. How it works is that once you pay your money and sign up to work from home, you are sent a set of envelopes and ads just like the one you responded to. The whole idea is to simply get names of people who are interested in home business ops and get a quick buck. You could make a little money if you mail to the right mailing list but don’t count it. Work from home offers like this are simply illegal pyramid schemes. You will not make money putting letters into envelopes – so get over it and move on!
Shoddy Supplies The practice of charging for supplies is hard to pin down to any one scam – it’s a common most work-at-home scams work (including the envelope stuffing scam mentioned above). You’ll be asked to make a minimal “investment” for whatever materials will be needed to do the work and then you’ll receive a collection of very shoddy materials that are worth a fraction of what you paid for them and last but not least you’ll soon realize that there was never a market for work anyway.
Don’t walk – run if anyone asks for money upfront. Any company worth its salt would be willing to deduct any “fees” from your first paycheck. Any company not willing to do that, is in all likely-hood simply out to scam you into giving them some upfront money and then as the saying goes “leaving dodge” as quickly as possible.