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Are you looking for an online home based business opportunity?  You’ve probably already found out that the possibilities are almost endless.  Do a search online for "online home based business opportunity" and you are going to get so many results that you may not know where to begin checking out the different offers.  There is also the fact that, although there are several reputable companies that will offer you a good online home based business opportunity, there are also those that are just looking to steal your money.

You will want to know which companies that offer you an online home based business opportunity are legitimate, and which ones are out to scam you.  There are a couple of "red flags" that you can look for when you are investigating an online home based business opportunity. 

Too good to be true

It may be an old cliché, but it’s almost always a good one to live by: "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is".  When you look into an online home based business opportunity and it is promising you thousands of dollars a month right away, you should probably move on.  If they say that you will hardly have to put any work into this opportunity to make an exorbitant amount of money, then you can probably assume that the opposite is true. Somebody will be making a lot of money, but most likely it will not be you.

Start-up and/or Processing fees

Yes, some legitimate companies will charge you a fee to take advantage of their online home based business opportunity, but you have to be careful. If a company is promising you riches for a "small fee" (which usually is not so small) and not giving you much information about how you will be making money or how your fee is applied, they’re probably not legitimate. More than likely you would pay that fee and never hear from them again. This is, unfortunately, a common online scam.

Keep these red flags in mind, research every company you are interested in, and you just may find the right online home based business opportunity for you.


This Business article was written by Michael Fansler on 6/13/2006

Michael Fansler is the president and CEO of his own home-based courier service. He has had 3 books published on entrepreneurship and how to succeed with a home-based business. His favorite website, and one he highly recommends for anyone interested in owning their own home based business someday, is http://www.homebizcritic.com