The BIGG Successs Show
I Want to Start a Home-Based Business. How Do I Make Sure It's Legitimate?
What earnings claims may say about a business opportunity. Read our show summary at BIGGSUCCESS.COM.
Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today, we'll discuss how to make sure a business opportunity is not a scam. "The Big Success Show" with George and Mary Lynn seems like we're going through some tough times right now, and people are looking for ways to save a little bit, or perhaps make a little bit more money. And Mary Lynn, I think you'll agree with this, seems like our number of questions about part-time and/or home-based business opportunities has gone up lately, and people specifically are wanting to know how can you tell if they're legitimate. And that is a very good question, because there are a lot of scams out there. Many that promise that you'll get rich quick doing little or no work. And they are get rich quick for them, in many cases, right? So let's look at how to determine if an opportunity is legitimate, and one of the first things to look at is earnings claims. Does the company you're considering make claims about how much you'll make? Legitimate operators either won't do this at all, or they'll tell you the number of people who actually hit those numbers, as well as the total percentage of people who actually achieved it. And that way you've got a good idea in your mind as to what's my likelihood of being able to do this myself. And in my experience, Mary Lynn, I would say the really good operators are more likely to just not tell you at all. All right. So for somebody who's never looked at earnings claims before, this could be a little confusing. So let's do a real world example here. All right. Well, Mary Lynn, you've got your computer in front of you. Yes. So type in home-based business opportunities. All right. Man, you type fast. Thank you very much. Okay. Now, don't scroll down. Just look right there on your screen. How many business opportunities do you see advertised? Let's see here. One, two, three, four, five, six. All right. How many of them make an earnings claim? Looks like five. Five. Five out of six. Right. I've got one here that says make $250,000 or more from home. Sounds good. That says $500 to $8,000 at home per month. Okay. This one says $30,000 to $150,000 in 12 months. Yeah. So every single or, you know, in almost every single instance, they're making some sort of a claim. Let's look at the most regulated business opportunities, which is franchises, right? Very few of them will give you their numbers. All right. So let's check this out. I'm going to type in franchise opportunities. I see four businesses advertising an opportunity without scrolling down. All right. Now, how many of those Mary Lynn are making earnings claims? I see one. Let's click on that one. Okay. Ah. See, this isn't even a franchise. This is one of those home-based businesses from my search before. All right. So I think you see the point here is that, you know, in many cases, the regulated businesses aren't going to make the claim and those that aren't will. Now, the thing is, just because it's a franchise or more regulated doesn't mean it's a good opportunity. Just because it's not a franchise doesn't mean it's not a good opportunity. You've got to do your research. And coming up, we're going to look at one home-based business opportunity that made earnings claims and see how much confidence they put in their own claims. Today we're talking about how to investigate business opportunities to make sure they're legitimate and we said to be aware of operators who make earnings claims. We clicked on one of the home-based business opportunity sites that we brought up earlier. This one claimed you could make $250,000 a year. Then we scrolled way down to the bottom of the page and clicked on the tiny little link that said earnings disclaimer. We printed it out and right here it is in my grubby little paws, Mary Lou, that's right. And it's in all caps and 13 and a half point type pretty different from the very tiny little link that it took to get us here, right? And here's some highlights, no quote. Any earnings or income statements or earnings or income examples are only estimates of what we think you could earn. End quote. It continues. Money and all claims or representations as to income earnings are not to be considered as average earnings. Testimonials are not representative. Oh, and don't forget to read them our favorite part, George. Yes, our favorite part is this. We do not guarantee or imply that you will get rich, that you will do as well, or make any money at all. There is no assurance you'll do as well. If you rely up on our figures, you must accept the risk of not doing as well. So I love how they make a claim and then disclaim their claim. Yes. When you see this, you should exclaim your skepticism. Good one, Mary Lou. Once again, we're not saying that this particular example is a scam, but we'd highly recommend you getting more information. Yeah, and the thing about these earnings claims, at least here in the United States, is if they make them, they are required by law to tell you both the number of people as well as the percentage of people who are hitting that number. So don't be afraid to ask for documented proof of any earnings claim. We have an excellent article that tells you what to do from here to investigate a business opportunity. And you'll find that link on our site today at BigSuccess.com. That's also where we have a written summary of today's show. And tune in next time to see if the fireworks go off. Ooh, blah. Until then, here's to your Big Success. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]