This is the first post in a series of articles that will help you avoid scams and invest your time and money into legitimate business opportunities. You can find the whole series in the Business Scams section.
Scams Are Everywhere
Searching for a business opportunity is a daunting task. With so many options available in both the online and offline arenas it can be difficult to find an opportunity that is right for you.
Adding to the difficulty is the fact that some people will do almost anything to get hold of your money, including setting up cleverly disguised scams. Whether online or offline, scams are everywhere. Con artists have become increasingly clever at disguising their swindles with glossy prospectuses, fancy websites, and energetic seminars.
Here is the first tell tale sign you should watch out for when trying to decide whether a potential business opportunity is scam, and it is a sign that I have some personal experience with.
Failing to Mention Products/Services
I don’t know how it happened, but my name and address has somehow found it’s way onto a mailing list that panders money making ventures. Every few weeks I receive a package in the post offering me the opportunity to invest my time and money in a business that will supposedly add thousands of dollars a month to my bank account for very little effort.
Each package I receive is different in size and shape from previous packages, but they all contain a covering letter and a glossy brochure. The brochures come in various shapes and sizes so they look different at first glance, but when I read them I find that the content is always the same.
No matter how many times I write “Return to Sender” on the envelope and mail it back to the person who sent it to me, I will inevitably receive a new package a few weeks later.
One thing that remains constant with all the glossy brochures I receive is that they fail to mention what products or services I am supposed to sell. The content is completely dedicated to telling me about automated systems and financial returns beyond my wildest dreams, but nowhere does it state what it is exaclty that I will sell to generate these returns.
This is a sign of a scam.
By neglecting to make it clear what product/service I will sell, the sender of the brochure has alerted me to the fact that they are running a bogus business.
Distracted by Numbers
The layout of the brochures are designed to distract people from the notion that the underlying business has no viability. The cleverly designed brochures distract readers by constantly mentioning the financial returns that are apparently possible by investing in the business.
Don’t be Fooled
When evaluating a business opportunity you must find out what products/services you will sell and consider whether people will buy them from you instead of buying them from an alternative supplier, or not at all.
There are thousands of legitimate business opportunities in both the online and offline worlds, and all of them sell products and services to people who want them.
Businesses that offer products and services that people don’t want, or that don’t offer any products at all, will eventually fail.
Read the next post in the series Part 2 – Emotional Triggers
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