During the past 15 years I have sat though more business opportunity presentations than I can possibly remember. I have attended work-from-home opportunity meetings in: homes, huge hotel conferences, food courts, coffee shops ….. You name it!

The first one I recall was back when I was about 18 years old. I remember being invited by an old high school friend of my mom’s house. I remember diving out to what seemed like the middle of nowhere, this persons house was way out in the boonies big time!

I meet this couple in their home and they walk me down to their basement. Wow – it was like a training center down there! There were chairs set up, flip charts and products on display. I had never seen anything like this before. I don’t recall all the details, but knew that there was no way in the world I was going to do this deal! I had my plan. I was going to Purdue University the following year, become a Dentist … make multiple six figures, buy a nice Porsche 911 Turbo and a 10,000 sq. ft home and live the good life!

Well, little did I know that my future would be filled with several of these presentations and that I would one day say yes to a few of these companies.

I’ll spare you the details of my 10 years being pitched just about everything and get to business.

Here’s the problem.

People make emotional buying decisions and say Yes to just about anything because they are broke.

When someone is broke – Everything looks good!

Armed with a credit card and some serious debt people say Yes out of desperation!

No one seems to have any sound criteria for evaluating an opportunity. No one knows what makes an opportunity great nor do they now what red flags to look out for.

My point here is not that networking companies are all bad. The point is that there are some solid companies out there and people need to be educated on how to find them.

This economy is in the garbage can. If you aren’t out actively looking at these opportunities or have a “Plan B” to your day job you just might get your ass handed to you and be taken out with the trash – so pay attention.

Business Criteria – What to look for in a Home Based Business:

1. Are you hearing “This is a ground floor opportunity” mentioned a lot?
2. Is a majority of the revenue generated from recruiting? of is it from actual product sales?
3. Does the company focus on all the big money you are going to make? or the value to consumers?
4. Does the company publish their annual income statistics?
5. Are there high start up costs?
6. Do you need to continue feeding large sums of money into it to build your business?
7. Can you buy into a position and earn a higher commission?
8. Does the company have a proven track record?
9. Is the business complicated to understand?
10. Can someone enroll in the business 10 years from now and still be able to succeed?
11. Are you being front loaded with products and being asked to set up a warehouse/distribution facility in your home?

Stay tuned because I will be following up with a post that will explain each of these in detail …. I didn’t want to completely blow your doors off all at once!

Oh yeah …. remember this word I will be talking about it here real soon – “Internal Consumption”

This word will demolish your chances for success faster than anything out there!

Have an Awesome Day …. and Stay Sharp!

Robert Avila