Many people are looking to start a home-based business. Go to any Internet search engine, do a search, and you will easily find a yielded of at least 11,800,000 results. This is an incredible and overwhelming amount number to wade through! The sad fact is that many of these so-called Internet home business opportunity vendors represent an opportunity for one person – themselves. Thousands of people are getting scammed everyday.

While you certainly can find a legitimate and promising Internet home business opportunity on the Web, just how do you tell the wheat from the chaff? How can you make sure you are finding a viable home-based business opportunity that will give you financial freedom? Here are the most commonly asked questions about the legitimacy of business opportunities, and their answers. When researching any work at home opportunity, make sure you have them handy.

The first question, and the one you should certainly ask, is where you can obtain the company’s pre-sale document of disclosure. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires that a business that offers a franchise or a business opportunity must provide prospective buyers with this document. The FTC doesn’t insist that the firms keep these documents available to the public however, so they’re not generally easy to find. 13 U.S. states do keep the franchise papers on file, while 26 states require anyone with a business opportunity to sell file its disclosure statement. These files are available to anyone who wishes to look at them if an appointment is made to review them or make copies right there at the office where they are stored. In California, the franchise documents are available online. This is a crucial step that all business opportunity seekers need to follow.

What potential Internet home business opportunity buyers want to know almost as often is where they can find out if complaints have been filed about the company, and the details of those complaints. They also want to know, of course, if the complaints have been resolved.

The answer, unfortunately, is there is not a good database, either through a state or federal agency, local municipality or private organization. The FTC as well as the Better Business Bureau keeps track of complaints but it’s quite easy to change business names and locations once complaints stack up. The best protection is the FTC’s franchise rule that requires that firms provide potential buyers with the names, addresses and phone numbers of ten other buyers of this Internet home business opportunity. These must be the ten geographically closest to you. To find a Better Business Bureau near you, you can always do an Internet search or contact your local small business affairs office.

It is imperative for your own investigation into the authenticity and soundness of this Internet home business opportunity that you call these business people and ask them about the firm they bought. What’s important as well is that you visit each business location, even if at their home; keep in mind that
fraudulent business opportunity sellers can line up a number of friends and family to handle calls about their bogus business success. This step may not be possible for most online business opportunities, but would work better for those looking at local business opportunities.

Under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act any person who requests it is entitled to any information on the potential Internet home business opportunity that the FTC has on file.

Another resource is the Business Franchise Guide, found often in law libraries. This discloses the guidelines of each state and the U.S. federal government on franchisers and business opportunity vendors.

As you can see, there are resources to use when investigating a home-based business opportunity. Use them to find a viable and legitimate opportunity that will work best for you.

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