Working from a home-based business has its perks. First, it provides you with a second stream of income. You work for primarily for yourself, meaning you are your own employer. Finally, it provides you with a second stream of income if your primary stream of income is not enough. 

Home-based businesses also have their drawbacks. Since you will work in a residential area, there is no parking or storefront and you usually need to get a dedicated phoneline for job. Sometimes, when you are working for another company as a consultant, the company whose products you are selling may not give you the tools you need to succeed at you are on your own.

Home-based businesses are also a murky area. 97% of opportunities purporting to be home-based businesses are actually scams. Examples of scams include stuffing envelopes when you only get paid the processing fees, assembling a product and being told the product is defective, processing medicals by first buying expensive software – only to find out that most hospitals and insurance companies do the processing themselves, forum spamming only to get banned, and pyramid schemes where the product is impossible to sell.

If you’re not sure if your offered opportunity is a scam, there are several signs that you are dealing with a scam artist. First, there is a payment fee required to start your employment. Then, the pay they offer is to good to be true. There is no hiring or screening process; they will hire anyone. The company is usually not well-known and seems to have no customer base, or the company name is similar to a familiar and famous company. The company will also have no permanent location and harass you until you respond to them. Scammers also overpromise results and have fake websites and fake news stories.

In some cases, the consequences of a scam can mean your livelihood. I was once offered a work-from-home job of packing and repacking electronic parts and mailing them. The pay was actually pretty good. Well, it’s a good thing that I looked up this sort of job – I cut and pasted the email into a Google search. It turns out that these work-from-home “opportunities” involve you packing and repacking stolen electronic parts. If I hadn’t researched the scam, I might have followed through with in and wound up in jail! 

Other problems with a scam can include loss of time and money. You may also suffer a damaged reputation. If the pay that’s being offered looks good to you, you might even quit your job only to fall for the scam – and worse yet, your employer may not hire you back! Finally, scammers promulgate scams for the vulnerable, so there is a good chance that your contact information (and any other personal information you gave them, including financial) may be sold to other scammers.

One of the home-based business opportunities available that is not a scam is the Big Ear home-based business opportunity. In this home-based business opportunity, you have a market since you will be selling earplugs. They also have an approval process before the hire you and you become what they call a “provider.” They will also provide the materials you need and plenty of inventory lists, so you will always be well-stocked and supported. Finally, they do not pull the wool over your eyes and will admit that their home-based business opportunity provides only a second stream of revenue and should not be your only job.

 The world of home-based business can be murky. In a world of scams, you never can quite be sure if you are dealing with a scammer or a legitimate home-based business opportunity.  One such legitimate business is the Big Ear Home-Based business opportunity, but there are plenty more out there that are just as legitimate. Consider yourself forewarned and forearmed so you don’t get scammed. 

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