Are there ANY legitimate home businesses?

resinguy

resinguy

Joined
Feb 19, 2006
Messages
14,591
Or are they all scams? My wife is looking for some supplemental income for the family, and as she is researching various home business "opportunities", they all look and smell like scams. A new one though, has caught her interest. It's called Internet Sales Institute ( of Boise, ID) and offers to set people up with a turn-key package as eBay powersellers. There is, of course, an up-front investment required, but they promise continued access to their consulting services until you have doubled your initial investment. Point being, they claim, that it is in their own best interest to get you profitable quickly, so as to not keep spending their consultants valuable time on the client. They are accredited with the BBB in Idaho, with a good rating, and claim to not have anything to do with an outfit of the same name out of Utah.

Has anybody heard of this operation, and more broadly, are there really any "work from home" businesses? (please, no AmsOil, Herbal Life, Tupperware, or pyramid marketing)
 
I had a look at these "opportunities" once as well. I had this crazy idea that maybe I could retire a little earlier and make a few bucks from home.

While I concede that there MAY be some legitimate ones out there, everything I saw smelled badly of scam.

I don't know anything about the operation you have mentioned. I'd certainly be looking into them fairly closely and thoroughly though before I sent them any money!
 
There are plenty of people running legitimate businesses from their homes, but I don't think any of them started out by getting set up with a turn-key package with, of course, an up-front investment required. If any of them did that it was a dead end and they didn't really get started until they realized that and started over.

If she wants to sell things on ebay she can just do it, without paying anybody to tell her how. It's not that hard.... Of course there are things she'll need to know, but she can find them out easily enough at the local library or on the net. There aren't any secrets of how to get rich quick; it's all public information and easily accessible.

This sounds like one of the drop-shipping deals where they make lots of money telling people how to get into drop-shipping. If they could make lots of money drop-shipping they would do it themselves.... Search TGB&U and elsewhere on the net to see how enthusiastic customers are about drop-shippers. :thumbdn:
 
There are plenty of ways to make money from home,just don't expect someone else to do the work for you while you rake in the cash,it doesn't work like that.There are a lot of people making money selling on ebay,the trick of it is getting into something that interests you or her and is sellable.Another thing that she could look into,is medical transcribing,I think that's how it's spelled but she has to like typing.There's opportunities out there,you just need to find them and you don't need some them for you.
 
Cougar Allen said:
There are plenty of people running legitimate businesses from their homes, but I don't think any of them started out by getting set up with a turn-key package with, of course, an up-front investment required. If any of them did that it was a dead end and they didn't really get started until they realized that and started over.

If she wants to sell things on eBay she can just do it, without paying anybody to tell her how. It's not that hard.... Of course there are things she'll need to know, but she can find them out easily enough at the local library or on the net. There aren't any secrets of how to get rich quick; it's all public information and easily accessible.

This sounds like one of the drop-shipping deals where they make lots of money telling people how to get into drop-shipping. If they could make lots of money drop-shipping they would do it themselves.... Search TGB&U and elsewhere on the net to see how enthusiastic customers are about drop-shippers. :thumbdn:
Click to expand...

beau5278 said:
There are plenty of ways to make money from home,just don't expect someone else to do the work for you while you rake in the cash,it doesn't work like that.There are a lot of people making money selling on eBay,the trick of it is getting into something that interests you or her and is sellable.Another thing that she could look into,is medical transcribing,I think that's how it's spelled but she has to like typing.There's opportunities out there,you just need to find them and you don't need some them for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reasoned replies so far. :thumbup:

No, she's not certainly expecting to get rich quick, or rake it in with no work. Just some side income, with a modest amount of time per week, 10 -20 hours. She has sold some odds and ends before on eBay several years ago, but, as you say, it is a matter of having something to sell. I suspect this particular operation is about some kind of drop-shipping deal; when she asked what she would be selling, the guy said "whatever is in demand at the time" and that their on-going consulting service would keep her abreast of market trends.

I'm naturally skeptical about all this (OK, I drank the Busse Kool-Ade, but other than that, I'm skeptical ;) ), but she wants to do something to contribute, and I would like to help her find it.
 
Most of the time, when someone designs an oportunity for you......it's
so they can make money while you work...
 
One other problem with getting into a business where someone else sets you up is that you will be competing with everyone else they set up in the exact same business.
 
Paralegal, dog poop clean up, window screening, there are plenty of service businesses that are needed all the time, if you show up to and under promise and over deliver, you can make money. I would avoid the internet scam stuff, and have your wife attend a Chamber of Commerce meeting. Your city is dying for your wife to start a business....
 
resinguy said:
Has anybody heard of this operation, and more broadly, are there really any "work from home" businesses? (please, no AmsOil, Herbal Life, Tupperware, or pyramid marketing)
Click to expand...

My sister sells Avon on the side for extra $. Not sure if you consider Avon is this last group.
 
Hey Resinguy,

My wife was in the same boat. Saw the same scams, the same ads.

She hooked up with a friend of ours who is part of a direct sales business. Not a pyramid scheme, not a flash in the pan soap thing. The home office is up here in our home state even.

She sells naturally based skin care and body care products. They share their products through "spa parties". They get together with a bunch of their friends, and my wife puts on a spa demo. The guests love the stuff and getting together with pals. They do facials and foot stuff and whatever women-folk do. My wife likes the fact that she gets to connect with other women that she otherwise wouldn't in normal course of the day.

She isn't getting rich at it, but she has a chunk of change she didn't have before. She's in on the ground floor of the outfit though, and has the opportunity to kick it up to whatever she wants. She's just keeping it where she wants it, as she's the mama of our two boys. We got baseball games and beer-b-cues and stuff, and she works the whole thing around the life we wanna keep.

I won't pollute this thread with an ad, but if you want to drop me an e-mail, I'll hook our wives up for a chat. Gotta go, beer's gettin warm.

Good luck with it brah.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top