6 Ways To Avoid Being Scammed When Buying A “Business Opportunity”
6 Ways To Avoid Being Scammed When Buying A “Business Opportunity”
Following a dream can blind us to what would otherwise be the most obvious of hucksters. We've met countless people who purchased business opportunities or signed up for multilevel programs they had no business getting involved in because "it sounded so good." Even worse are the many painful stories we've heard from people who were taken in by unscrupulous partners, investors, agents, or reps who seemed to be the "answer to all their prayers." If you're a stay-at-home mom, a senior citizen, someone with a disability, unemployed, seeking a second income, or a college student, you are even more likely to be victimized, according to the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
Make sure you don't get taken. Whenever you hear someone saying the things you've been yearning to hear or things that sound so good you never dreamed you'd hear anything like them, let it be a warning signal that sets off an alarm in your head with bells, whistles, and bright shiny lights saying "Proceed with Caution." For example, If someone requires you to sign a two-year exclusive distribution contract, you're giving up all other opportunities during that period.
With this image in mind, here are some guidelines you can use to protect you and your family from the tempting sights and smells of opportunity knocking:
1. Don't make decisions about opportunities from your heart alone. Run all such "offers" through careful, objective scrutiny.
2. Always arrange to take the time you need to make an objective informed decision. Do not let yourself be pressured into acting immediately. In fact, the more someone pressures you to act this very minute, the more suspicious you should be. My wife once had a salesperson tell her, for example, that she had to sign a contract that very day after a thirty-minute phone conversation or they could not proceed. We ran like a couple of rabbits. What kind of company would want to do business with someone who would make a decision like that on the spot?
3. Don't be tempted by special offers that prevent you from making an objective, informed decision, for example: "My prices go up tomorrow. This discount only applies today." Fine. Find out what the price will be once you've had the time you need to make an informed decision and consider that paying the difference will be well worth the investment. If the cost at that time will be prohibitive, look elsewhere.
4. Do not do business with any company or individual that refuses to give you the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of other people they have worked with.
5. Never, never ignore that little voice in your head or that little twinge in your stomach that's telling you to proceed with caution. That's your intuition and if you don't listen to it, later you'll be saying, "Something told me this was too good to be true. Why didn't I listen!" If you have any doubts, wait. Gather more information. Give your doubts time to surface so you can either dismiss or address them with confidence.
6. Ask yourself, what's the worst thing that could happen? Sometimes an offer sounds so good, you just want to throw caution to the wind and go for it. Before you do, however, make sure you're willing to live with the worst thing that could happen. For example, if you impulsively send off $100 for a guidebook, the worst thing that could happen might be that it would sit on your bookshelf unused. But if you buy a $10,000 business opportunity at an expo, that could set your family finances back more than you can afford.
6 Ways To Avoid Being Scammed When Buying A Business Opportunity - To learn more about this author, visit Jeff Casmer's Website.
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When we decide to pursue our dreams, to go for what we truly want instead of settling for whatever comes along, we automatically become vulnerable to being taken advantage of. Dreams are often so fragile and yet so formidable that they're easily trampled on or abandoned. So whenever someone comes along who tells us what we so much want and need to hear, we can be like putty in their hands.
Following a dream can blind us to what would otherwise be the most obvious of hucksters. We've met countless people who purchased business opportunities or signed up for multilevel programs they had no business getting involved in because "it sounded so good." Even worse are the many painful stories we've heard from people who were taken in by unscrupulous partners, investors, agents, or reps who seemed to be the "answer to all their prayers." If you're a stay-at-home mom, a senior citizen, someone with a disability, unemployed, seeking a second income, or a college student, you are even more likely to be victimized, according to the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
Make sure you don't get taken. Whenever you hear someone saying the things you've been yearning to hear or things that sound so good you never dreamed you'd hear anything like them, let it be a warning signal that sets off an alarm in your head with bells, whistles, and bright shiny lights saying "Proceed with Caution." For example, If someone requires you to sign a two-year exclusive distribution contract, you're giving up all other opportunities during that period.
With this image in mind, here are some guidelines you can use to protect you and your family from the tempting sights and smells of opportunity knocking:
1. Don't make decisions about opportunities from your heart alone. Run all such "offers" through careful, objective scrutiny.
2. Always arrange to take the time you need to make an objective informed decision. Do not let yourself be pressured into acting immediately. In fact, the more someone pressures you to act this very minute, the more suspicious you should be. My wife once had a salesperson tell her, for example, that she had to sign a contract that very day after a thirty-minute phone conversation or they could not proceed. We ran like a couple of rabbits. What kind of company would want to do business with someone who would make a decision like that on the spot?
3. Don't be tempted by special offers that prevent you from making an objective, informed decision, for example: "My prices go up tomorrow. This discount only applies today." Fine. Find out what the price will be once you've had the time you need to make an informed decision and consider that paying the difference will be well worth the investment. If the cost at that time will be prohibitive, look elsewhere.
4. Do not do business with any company or individual that refuses to give you the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of other people they have worked with.
5. Never, never ignore that little voice in your head or that little twinge in your stomach that's telling you to proceed with caution. That's your intuition and if you don't listen to it, later you'll be saying, "Something told me this was too good to be true. Why didn't I listen!" If you have any doubts, wait. Gather more information. Give your doubts time to surface so you can either dismiss or address them with confidence.
6. Ask yourself, what's the worst thing that could happen? Sometimes an offer sounds so good, you just want to throw caution to the wind and go for it. Before you do, however, make sure you're willing to live with the worst thing that could happen. For example, if you impulsively send off $100 for a guidebook, the worst thing that could happen might be that it would sit on your bookshelf unused. But if you buy a $10,000 business opportunity at an expo, that could set your family finances back more than you can afford.
6 Ways To Avoid Being Scammed When Buying A Business Opportunity - To learn more about this author, visit Jeff Casmer's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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