Home Business Opportunities
Many Americans are now searching the internet and classifieds section of their daily newspapers to find a source of steady income that can help them make money even during a time of financial crisis. Fortunately, there are many home business and internet business opportunities that can provide a nice income for those entrepreneurs or stay at home workers who are willing to some work researching the various opportunities that are available.
Examine the Marketplace and Demand for the Product or Service
The most important first step that someone should take when deciding on a home business opportunity is to find a product that serves a large and established industry. In other words, the product that you are selling must be in demand. For example, you do not want to be selling ice in Antarctica or typewriters to a population of computer users.
When evaluating any new business opportunity you should seriously investigate whether there is a real need in the marketplace for your goods or services. This will help save you a lot of time in the long run and could also save you a lot of money. If your business is going to be sold on the internet, one great resource that you can use is the Google AdWords Tool. Using the free Google AdWords Tool will show you exactly how many people used Google in the past month to search for your product or service.
For example, if you are selling travel businesses, like I do, then you would look to see how many people searched for terms such as "vacation travel". According to Google AdWords Tool there were approximately 2.5 million searches using those words last month. That's an extremely high number, meaning that there is a large market for the travel industry.
Conversely, if you are investigating a business opportunity that sells "personalized welcome mats" you will only find that there were 880 searches last month on Google for that keyword phrase. 880 searches is not a lot when you consider how many people are searching online everyday. This does not mean that you can not be successful selling "personalized welcome mats" but it does mean that you will be working a lot harder to capture a large portion of a relatively small market.
Investigate the Company that you are Doing Business With
There is an old business adage that says: "You can make a bad deal with a good person but you can not make a good deal with a bad person". This holds true today just as much as it did 100 years ago. The internet is a great resource for finding out about the company that you will be working with.
Try Googling the name of the company. If 8 out of the first 10 results are negative reviews about the company, its products, services or management then this might be a big warning sign to stay away. When investigating the company try to see if you can contact anyone who has already signed on with them.
Ask the referrals that you correspond with if they are happy with the products they are selling and also find out if they are happy with the training and support that they receive from the home office. You do not want to be working with a company that takes 3 weeks to answer your emails. Also find out if they have email support or phone support or both.
