"A fool and his money are soon parted"Thomas Tusser

Before you take offense and think I’m referring to you as a fool understand that I came upon this knowledge the hard way. Some of my money I lost through believing the hype (well written but hype non the less) that the websites and a sense of frustration because I wasn’t keeping pace with my debts. Take this opportunity to benefit from my less than savvy investments of both time and money.

Work-At-Home Business Opportunities: Are they for REAL?
Yes and NO!

Do Your Homework Before Working From Home

Earn $500 a Week Working From Home
Replace your full-time income with part-time hours
Set Your Own Hours and Schedule
Fire Your Boss and Take Charge of Your Life!

Is It Too Good to be True?

For many North Americans, the possibility of generating huge amounts of easy money from the comfort of their own home is a tough one to pass up. The options that bombard us revolve around these core opportunities: assembling jewelry or other manufactured items, clipping newspaper advertisements, answering surveys, stuffing envelopes, posting ads or processing worksheets. For someone who is looking for work or a chance to bring home extra income without taking on another employer, work-at-home opportunities can seem like an ideal solution.

Look before you leap. There is a lot of truth to the saying, “If it sounds too good to be true then it probably isn’t. These jobs are not always everything they're made out to be. In fact, while many work-at-home opportunities are legitimate, many can end up costing you instead of filling up your bank account. Many of the amazing opportunities having you become as fraudulent as they are by having you post ads encouraging people to fall for the same non existing opportunities.

What we’ve found is there are some work-at-home opportunities in the marketplace that are designed simply to get you onboard then put you into a position where you are constantly putting more money out to try to make your money. These fraudulent schemes often require you to invest money before you even begin to work. Common sense should tell you that you don’t typically pay the employer to come to work for them.

If they are requiring you to purchase inventory then it isn’t a job it is a business venture. In this case it isn’t unusual for someone to invest in start up costs. Be extremely wary of the claims of the income you’ll earn. Are people actually earning the enormous mountains of cash they are claiming? Yes, but as in any business or industry there are the superstars who earn astronomical incomes. Is it possible for you to be among the superstars? Yes, but unless you’re willing to put in the effort that the superstars invested it isn’t likely to happen. And understand that it is rarely as easy as they’d make it sound. What's more, these work-at-home opportunities can require much more of your time than you ever imagined.

Recognize the warning signs! If you do your homework, you stand a much better chance at spotting a questionable or fraudulent work-at-home opportunity. If you don’t trust your own judgment or have a trusted advisor to ask you can email us your question.

Keep a lookout for the following red flags:

• advertisements that include exaggerated claims about the amount of money you can earn in an unreasonably short period of time
• requirements for you to invest money up front unless it is advertised as a business opportunity (a legitimate company will come with a money-back guarantee on your investment)
• claims that "no experience" is necessary
• they won’t tell you who the company is or what you’ll be doing
• difficulties contacting the company behind the opportunity.

Use your common sense! You can’t afford to waste your money on get rich quick schemes. Do your homework before working from home. Take the following precautions to be sure that what you're getting into won't cost you more than you bargained for:

• contact the company to find out all the details about the job's requirements;
• check whether your earnings will be based on salary or commission
• ask the company who will pay you and when you’ll receive the payments
• determine all costs involved, such as supplies, marketing, long-distance bills, membership fees, etc.
• search the Internet and contact various agencies such as the Better Business Bureau for background information about the company.

That being said Working From Home is a wise choice for many people.

Home-based businesses are the trend of the future. Government and industry reports show that increasing numbers of men and women are now opting to work out of their homes. In fact, the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that 4.12 million entrepreneurs are now working at home, most of which are in services industry.

Here are seven reasons to work from home rather than take on another part-time job.

1. To gain personal freedom. This can be a double edged sword because not everyone can handle the freedom of working under your own supervision. You need lots of self-discipline to make yourself do the work required when it is so easy to go back to the distractions that put you into debt in the first place.
2. To reap financial benefits. If you’ve chosen the right opportunity or work from home job you can earn anywhere from double what your hourly rate is now to ten times that much. When I first started working for myself from home it took a bit of getting used to when I made as much as $450 for an hours work. Before that would have taken me at least 20 hours or more to earn that much.
3. To exploit tax advantages. Using your home as a place of business offers a number of tax advantages. For starters, it allows you to deduct a part of the operating and depreciation expenses on your home. This means that a percentage of your rent or mortgage payment, depreciation, property taxes, insurance, utilities, and expenses for household maintenance, repairs, or improvements are deductible. You can also be entitled to deduct expenses from using a vehicle for your business, including gas, insurance, depreciation, and others. Consult your accountant for a careful evaluation of what can be and what cannot be deducted from using your home office. Many of my clients who began working from home told me that their income tax refunds were anywhere from four to ten times larger than before. We’ve coached them into putting that huge return against their debt to wipe it out much quicker.
4. More time with family. A home business allows family members to be involved in the business and possibly reduce taxable incomes too. Husbands or wives can help in various aspects of the business, while children have the opportunity to see what their parents do for a living and be part of bringing in wealth. By working from home they also eliminate the need for daycare expenses. I know of couples who’ve opted to have each spouse work a different shift in regular jobs so that one parent is with the children at all times. Unfortunately they never see each other. You don’t have to be a relationship specialist to see the end result of that strategy. Working at home can be good for the whole family.
5. Sense of accomplishment. In many jobs a person can become almost faceless, merely a cog in a bigger wheel. Working for yourself you can set any goal you want and go after it. Many work from home opportunities have large companies behind them that recognize and reward for the effort put in.
6. No one controls your paycheck but you. If you pick the right work from home opportunity you can earn what you’re worth. For some people this might be a bad thing but for many others this may the only time in their lives where they controlled when they got a raise. You also never have to worry about layoffs because you have no boss.

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