When it comes to home business and working at home, scams are a true problem. Residual income opportunities are often a great source for these scams, but not every residual income home business opportunity is a scam. In fact, there are many that are legitimate and can actually provide a nice income source. The way to weed out the scams is to know the signs of a scam. Then once the scams are weeded out a person can get to really making a good income.

The number one rule in working at home and avoiding scams is to never pay for a job. Any opportunity that wants a person to pay just to work for them is not worth it. For every one of those opportunities there are plenty of real opportunities for free. The only time paying anything for a job is okay is when the company gives the person something. If a person pays for sample products, for example, then that is fine. Many direct sales jobs require representatives to buy a start up kit and they are fine. It is when a company wants a person to pay for nothing. Any charges for administrative costs or processing is best left unpaid. There are more options and spending money on signing up for an opportunity is not a good idea.

The following list sorts out the other things to watch out for to help avoid scams. These things are all something to consider about every opportunity. By considering them a person can avoid wasting time on something that will never help them build a home business residual income.

• Good products or services. The products and services should be real. They should be something people would buy and something that is in demand. If nobody will buy them then the chances of the business surviving are not good.

• Support from others. Every business opportunity should offer support from at least the sponsor. That is the idea in most residual income opportunities. A team is built and the team works together to form a strong business. If there is no support then success could be hard to find.

• The company has staying power. The company should be built to last. They should have a good reputation. They should be solid. If there are any signs of weakness then the business may not be a good way to build an income. A good criterion to select a company is that it has existed for some years and it is doing well.

• Getting started is not too hard. If the company makes getting started difficult then that could lead to problems. A hard to start business could make a person give up or they could point to trouble down the road keeping the business going. If it is too hard to get started how will a person ever succeed?