Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Avoiding Work at Home Scams

Working at home is a great idea, in theory. Who wouldn’t want to sit at their own home computer, sipping a cup of coffee, wearing their pajamas, and making thousands of dollars a month? Who doesn’t want to work part-time for full-time pay? The problem is, far too often work-at-home wannabes end up getting burned by “legitimate” at-home employers.

Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between legitimate home business opportunities, and people who are simply out to take your money. However, there are a few simple steps you can take to ensure that you remain scam-free during your quest to find work from home. Remember, there are certain occupations in industries that are more likely to offer legitimate opportunities. With this in mind, let’s review the steps.

First of all, avoid anything that tells you you’ll likely be a millionaire overnight. We all know if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Don’t get stuck stuffing envelopes or doing assembly at home. These types of work-at-home businesses just don’t make sense, and therefore are likely illegitimate. Remember, a little common sense will take you a long way when you’re looking for work at home. Thoroughly investigate every avenue of possibilities, don’t just take their word for it. Be very careful when asked to pay money for something. While some at-home companies require modest startup fee and offer legitimate returns, the goal of working from home is to make money, not to spend money. Legitimate employers will pay you — not the other way around. If you are asked to pay something up front, be sure you have thoroughly researched the company first.

If you’ve stumbled upon an opportunity that you think might work for you, and you feel it could very well be the real deal, it’s time to start acting like a gumshoe. The three most trusted stops in investigating work at home opportunities are the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Fraud.org. These three organizations are dedicated to recording and maintaining information about various businesses. The FTC, in particular, will go after individual work from home corporations.

Before accepting a work at home opportunity, there are some question she should ask. First of all, ask about what you’ll actually be doing. As in, what tasks will you perform? According to the FTC, it’s important to ask the programs that sponsor to provide you with step-by-step instructions for completing the job. You should also inquire about your pay. Will you be paid based on commission or salary? Who will pay you? And last, but certainly not least, when we you get your first paycheck? Many people fail to inquire about payment up front, in the end there bombarded with excuses when payment doesn’t come. Finally, trust your gut instincts. If your gut tells you to go the other way — hit the ground running.

Can You Really Make Money from Home?

So many people are searching for legitimate work at home opportunities. Time and time again we hear about people who have been ripped off, scammed, and disappointed by the amount of money versus the amount of effort they’ve put into their search for work at home. Working from home is the ideal situation for most people because we all desire to spend more time with our family, get the things done that we need to get done around the house, and actually live in our home instead of at the office. Unfortunately, most people go in the wrong direction when looking for legitimate work from home.

The typical search for work at home goes something like this: Sit down at the computer, type the phrase work at home, become bombarded with millions of bogus claims of making huge amounts of money from home, weed through the endless ads, settle on something to try, find that it’s not worth your time, chalk one up to experience, and start all over again. The search for legitimate home businesses is a vicious cycle, unless you know where to look.

Instead of searching for the phrase work at home, search for the phrase home-based business opportunity, business opportunity, or entrepreneurial program. You see, people looking to make millions instantly at home are a dime a dozen. However, individuals who are serious about maintaining an at-home career will dig a little deeper during the search process.

The most important thing to remember is not to become discouraged. There are legitimate at-home business programs, and other opportunities for individuals who are serious about working from home and aren’t looking for pipe dreams. All too often we expect instant gratification. Unfortunately, even in the world of working from home as a telecommuter, instant gratification is nearly impossible. While some people do make millions doing next to nothing, it’s very rare.

The good news is, while you should expect to have to pay your dues and do some work in order to obtain a lucrative career from home, it is possible to make full-time money with part-time hours. Don’t believe the hype when people tell you that you can make millions in five minutes, because that’s just not true. However, instead of working eight hours a day, you can work two or three hours a day for the same pay.

Don’t give up on your search, and be sure and follow each and every lead. If you follow sound advice, you won’t get burned before you know what you’re looking for. Consider checking online resources for noted scams and bogus work-at-home opportunities. At the same time, you can check other online review sources for reviews of available, legitimate work-at-home opportunities.