Finding The Right Opportunity

In the modern economy, every generation or so, there is a great opportunity for wealth creation. In the 50s and 60s, franchises provided the means for the independent entrepreneur to create at the very least, a nice income and a rewarding career. What Ray Kroc and Harlan Sanders did may have seemed very risky at the time, but in hindsight, things turned out all right for them and many others. What was once a new and uncertain concept is now an accepted standard as a business model. In fact, today, we scarcely go through a day without doing business with at least one franchised business.

In the 70s and 80s, there was a tremendous growth opportunity in the stock market. For example, if you invested $1000 in WalMart in 1970, it would be worth $1,587,000 today. O. k., let’s shorten that maturity; putting $1000 in WalMart in 1980 would have grown to $222,000 by the year 2000. Either way, you would have realized a tidy sum through the growth of Sam Walton’s "risky" venture.

The opportunity in today’s economy can be found on the internet. Notice I said, can be found on the internet. You can also spend a lot of time and money not finding the right opportunity. In this day of unregulated "free speech" on the internet, any person can make all sorts of false claims promising unfathomable wealth if you will just follow the magical system…after sending in some money.

How can you tell if a business is legitimate? How can you spot a scam? How can you determine just what is the right opportunity for you? These first two questions are a bit tricky while the third one – also a bit tricky – really depends on you. For the first two questions, let’s look at some "red flags."

There is a common pattern to many on-line business opportunity presentations. You will see a very impressive home page with promises of instant wealth. The landing page will be filled with testimonials about elegant homes, luxury cars, and lavish vacations. You read the complete web page until you arrive at the part where you are directed to send in some money to see what’s behind Door # 2.

At this point, when you have no idea what if any products or services exist, and you don’t know what industry is involved, it is time to run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. If a company keeps this sort of information a secret, you must ask yourself, "why?" A company should be proud of its products and services. After all, if a company is not forthcoming with information, it probably has a reason for hiding things. Is this the kind of company with which you’d like to be in business?

Now, let’s look at what a legitimate business might have to offer. I spent several years looking at internet based businesses, not really knowing what I was looking for…outside of a tremendous income opportunity, of course. Then I put a lot of thought into what I was really looking for and I wrote down the things that I wanted to see in the company I wanted to be associated with.

Not surprisingly, the answers I came up with were the same whether it was going to be an internet business or a traditional brick and mortar business. First let's look at what you might want in a company. Your list might differ some from mine because I am somewhat conservative and I want the company to be solid and dependable, as opposed to a high-risk venture company. Your personal philosophy might be different, but the basics are probably very similar.

Here's what I wanted in a company.

1. Stability & longevity in the company

2. Top quality products

3. An expanding marketplace

4. High profitability

5. Support

That's a pretty good place to start. Understand that since the internet is relatively new and it is still evolving quite rapidly, you won’t find companies with 100 year histories. But you can find companies that already had a successful track record and evolved into an on-line business. Some products are very adaptable to the internet. How can you tell the quality of the products that you will make your life’s work? Take a look at them. If the company is a straight shooter, it should let you take a look at the products that you may soon be marketing.

An expanding marketplace is self-explanatory. Just think about building your business based on the future of VCR tapes. Not a pretty picture, is it? High profitability is a personal preference, but it makes a lot of sense in an internet based business. Some businesses are high volume/low margin; others, typically with higher ticket items are low volume/high margin. (Think of the difference between a fast food restaurant and a luxurious fine-dining establishment.)

The last issue is support. Have you ever started an (ill-fated) internet business not really knowing all that you should before diving in? What happened when you needed help? Where was your "personal mentor?" Maybe you were told to, "…just call customer service. Anyone can help you." How did that work for you? This is an issue that you need to discuss with your company contact until this question has been answered to your satisfaction.

Your idea of what you want in an internet-based business model may be a bit different than this. That’s all right. The main thing is to identify those things that make sense and are what you want. Then find a business that fits your model. Within each item on my list, there are many sub-categories that I didn’t go into here. This is just a bare bones outline that will hopefully help point people in the right direction.