Need advice on a Home Business Opportunity?

A friend of mine started a biz opp about 2 weeks ago. The other night while I was having dinner with her, she got an email that said she made a sale. She's never tried to sell me on it, but she did mention that she makes $500 - $1000 per sale.


What really gets me is that she never works on it. She pays for leads and the program includes people who close her sales for her.


From what I can tell at the site http://www.dsire2succeed.com it deals with the travel industry and I can't find any negative information online about it.


I'd love to hear your experience and why I should or shouldn't invest in it myself.





Please do not advertise your own opportunity, I'm not interested. Just looking for advice from those working the same business.





Thanks!

Need advice on a Home Business Opportunity?
Who is Lee R? I don't see an answerer by that name??





Here's a few things that you should take a look at before getting involved in any company. I'm not trying to advertise to you what my husband and I do, but give you examples, using my own business, on what you need to look into with this business. Questions you should find out before getting involved. If you had of said that your friend has been involved for a few months and said she kept getting notices on a sale, and was getting paid,I would of told you to go for it. But being as she's only been involved for two weeks, has she (probably not being as it's only been two weeks and that's not enough time for the account department to issue her a commissions check) but has she received any money yet? Do you have proof of that? (Not saying she'd lie about it either) Is it just emails being sent? Here's some things you should check into, like I said using my business as an example as to what we've done before getting involved. Find out these things and if your satisfied with the answers then go for it.





1. How long have they been in business? We checked to see how long our company was around, at the time it was nine years old and now it's 15. Do you know when they started?


If it's under 5 and you have to put an investment down, it would be risky. When we checked out the business we chose, it was almost 10 years old, so the probability of it disappearing was fairly low.





2. Are they registered with the BBB. Ours is registered. I think this is important one.





3. Who's involved with the company? Like in ours Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki has endorsed our company. We also have three former state attorney generals on the legal advisory commity. Do they have the legal backing?


Check to see if anyone has endorsed this company or is involved in any way with the company.


Also, meet with the co-founders. We've personally met our co-founders and found from our first meeting that they were incredible people with incredible visions. See if their's a time where you can meet them. If your going to be doing business, there should be a time where you should have the chance to meet with them and find out what their goals for the future is, for their representatives as well as their company.





4. What is the compensation plan now, and what was it like before. See the history of the compensation plan. Has it ever increasedand never decreased in the company's history. We checked with the records in our business and found that in over the years, the compensation plan had only gotten better each year. As long as we've been involved, we've now witnessed the compensation plan always increasing. Check the history on yours. Make sure the compensation plan is worth the time and effort.





5.Have they been featured in magazine's? For instance our company has been featured in several magazines Like Success, Fortune, USA Today etc. Check to see if they have. You can get a lot of information on the company by reading about them.





6. Has Inc 500 rated them? This magazine had rated our company the 22nd fastest growing company in revenue in it's first 5 years. Inc 500 shows the top 500 businesses in revenue growth. Check to see what Inc 500 rated the company your looking at. If their not on the list and they've been around for over five years, it would worry me.





7. Do they have a physical address that you can go to? Check for an address not just a P.O. Box If you can go to it, go and see the corporation. Asks questions.





8. Where are their headquarters? Do they have headquarters?Our world headquarters is in Farmington Hills Michigan, Personally been there, (If your here in the states) Other headquarters in Amsterdam, Sydney and Montreal etc. If they claim to be world wide, where are each headquarters located. Are they accessable?





9. What does the start up cost take care of? In my business headquarters takes care of all the billing for my customers, Inventory, Customer services, Order Entry, Employees, workman's comp, Cross referencing, Licensing, Insurance, paperwork, accounts payables, accounts receivables etc.





10. What is the product and service you would be selling.


Is the product and service in high demand? For instance we offer services that people are already using every day and paying for anyway, but at a lower cost. Things like Local and Long distance telephone services, Internet, video phones, digital phones, cellular phones through all the major cellular providers. We make a percentage every single month they pay their bills. Everyone uses them and everyone pays for them. When money gets tight, would they keep your service or be able to run to the store and be able to purchase them on sale? Leaving you to have to wait until they run out of what they just purchased, or wait until their finances get settled? This is what I mean by high demand.





11. The product and services that you'd be providing, would you use and purchase yourself? Do you pay less then the normal person purchasing? ( you should have some sort of discounted rate being as your representing the company)





So many different things to check out in making sure a business is a good one to get involved in. If the business feels right to you, and all questions are answered with proof, then I'd say jump in. Running a business is different then a job though. You have to treat it like it's your child and not just something your going to "try" you have to believe in the product and service and go at it full force. This is your future your talking about, no one else's.


I hope my examples of what we looked into with our business helps you be able to find the same answers in your business. Forget about asking the common question and asking someone how much they make in their business to determine if you'd get involved in it or not. In a business, it doesn't matter what one business is making over another. It only matters what you do in "YOUR" business. I hate it when people ask me how much I make. Because they're not going to walk into and start up their business making what I make. I've been involved with my business for over six years. So yeah, I will make more then someone who just starts their business. If you tell someone how much you make, then it's a psychological thing that they expect to make that amount in a week, and that is just not going to happen. Six years of building a business verses 1 day. So don't even ask. Look at the possibilities for YOURSELF.


Hope this helps!


Tiffany
Reply:It sounds like yet another YTB spin off, but with the promise of no work and lots of earnings. You know the saying, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."





Here are some questions to ask:


-How many agents do they have?


-Do they actually sell travel?


-What are their annual sales?


-What are the average and range of earnings by their agents?


-How long have they been in business?


-Does this business protect your compensation plan or do they just make promises they can't deliver?


-Are they SEC regulated?


-Are they publicly traded?


-Do they offer any guarantees?





I hope this helps. Good luck!