Top 10 Red Flags When Researching a Home Based Business
Red Flags when Researching a Home Based Business 1. No Physical Address or Contact Numbers The Internet has made it simple for new home based businessesto create a presence without having any real infrastructure orsubstance. While not all mlm businesses require a physicaladdress, those that are offering goods or services to reps andconsumers would be expected to have some traceable location. Thelack of a phone number makes it all but impossible to pursue anycustomer service, ...
...commission, or other representative issue. 2. Executives with a trail of short lived, closed companiesbehind them. Every story is a success story when you hear them from a repselling on a new deal. But how successful can the executives ofa new company be if this is their third or fourth new mlmcompany in as many years? 3. The Vague Executive Bio No company names, or other traceable details about theirsupposedly stellar careers. Phrases like "Has had fifteen yearsof success in the Network Marketing Industry" are meaninglesswithout specific facts to back it up. They may have beensuccessful in collecting a salary check and filling the companycoffers, but wouldn't you expect them to name the variousnetwork marketing companies they've "built from the ground up"if all they've left is a trail of happy, successful reps? 4. The Bigger, Better Biz Opp Repackaging a network marketing business opportunity that hasfailed elsewhere does not a success story make. Sometimes abusiness opportunity that has failed elsewhere is rewrapped in anew website, a new name, a new comp plan and sold as a new,viable opportunity. Often, the failures are blamed on poormanagement, etc., when perhaps it is the "opportunity" at fault. 5. Answers to Due Diligence Questions that do everything butanswer the Question We continually run into this as we research mlm companies.Simple questions like "Where is your corporate office" that areanswered with questions like "Why do you want to know?". Oranswers about the business stability that garner responses like"Of course this is a great mlm opportunity, you can tell just bylooking at our palatial offices." 6. Payment Accepted by Check or Money Order Only Eliminating the ability for reps to pay for product with acredit card eliminates their ability to dispute charges if thecompany fails to deliver. 7. Offshore Address Speaks for itself. 8. No Tangible Product Without a tangible network marketing products, its difficult toshow there is something being sold to an end-user other than theopportunity - which can be the defininition of Pyramid Scheme. 9. Minimal or Non-Existent Refund Policy Any legitimate mlm company will stand behind its product orservice. A lack of a refund policy, or one that expires in avery short period are often questionable situations. Others mayincorporate a non-refundable setup charge, or non-refundable RepKit fee. 10. Stock Hype "We're a publicly traded company, so we must be legitimate."New network marketing companies that "go public" before orshortly after their launch typically do so by doing a reversemerger - acquiring the public "shell" of a dead company. Or, a"parent" company "aquires" the new company to add value to atraded stock. While none of these items might individually flag an opportunityas "Stay Away", several of them together might be cause to takea closer look at the opportunity and do further due diligence -if the answers are available.
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