Avoiding the fake Golden Eggs.

[IP2]

Many would be entrepreneurs are so desperate to get into business that they often fall into a common trap...Business Sales.

Being your own boss or running your own company can be a wonderful and rewarding experience, but so many business start up ideas have nothing to do with you being entrepreneurial...they simply want you to sell!

If you are an excellent sales person this may suit you, but if your aim is to run your own company and control your destiny you are going to be disappointed.

Very few successful Business Opportunities are ever handed out on a plate and if they are, you need to consider if what you are receiving fulfills what you wanted. The majority of "Business Opportunities" are from people that have come up with a failed project idea and as a last resort have decided to sell the idea to other people wanting to get into business and promise the returns they themselves had deluded themselves into, by assuming others can sell something they could not.

Most of these "Business Opportunities" should be sold as "Marketing Opportunities" to those that can sell Ice to Eskimos...but they have learnt, true sales people will be selling something else with far more ease and so they have opted for the soft target.

My advise if you are starting out in business, selling one of these ideas, is hand over no money until you have taken a week out of your life and seen exactly how much you can earn from selling the product to people you never knew before that week...if you don't make a living...dismiss that Golden egg!

[Indizine]

Good post John, only thing is, people go into it looking for all the plus points and not to weed out the bad ones, if there are any to be found. Almost like head in sand, dont want to find anything wrong because that would spoil the dream.

[Peter W]

I agree with all of this. I have had to bring a few potential entrepreneurs back down to earth over the years. You rarely get any thanks for it...

[OldWelshGuy]

My advice if you are starting out in business, selling one of these ideas, is hand over no money until you have taken a week out of your life and seen exactly how much you can earn from selling the product to people you never knew before that week...if you don't make a living...dismiss that Golden egg!

I would agree with your post with the exception fo the bit I highlighted above. I have an opportunity for people to work with me on an exclusive regional basis, selling people into portals on a mnathly basis.

I don't charge for the opportunity to run an area, other than an ongoing management fee for each persoan they sell in. This is to cover the cost of hosting, advice and SEo for their region (as well as adwords and other PPC).

Now I spend a complete day with them showing them and advising them, and for this I charge £500. Exclusive franchises like this sell for £7,500 to £15,000 yet I charge nothing (other than days consultancy to teach them how to do it properly). Online/telephone help is free, but further 'days' are charged at £250 + travel costs.

Now under my scheme, no-one would sign up as they would expect me to go along and spend aday out of my life, to in effect PAY to give someone a businessness opportunity!

So I would say that it is definitely a case of caveat emptor, but also judge each case independently. If I don't think the person making contact with me is up to the task, I will not allow them to have the opportunity. If they don't have the basic skills needed, or have the wrong attitude (i.e. I am going to get rich for doing nothing), then they are not the preson for me.

[James Smith]

I do like Peters comment "I agree with all of this. I have had to bring a few potential entrepreneurs back down to earth over the years. You rarely get any thanks for it..."

Sounds familiar! Must admit I always work on the basis of "well they wont thank me now, but they just might in 2 years time". Its normally the mad keen ones who need bringing down the furthest and are hardest to deal with I find.

Back to "business opportunities" many of them stink quite frankly. Don't get me started - lots of money seems to be wasted in the early days of peoples businesses on these things. Apart from well drilled big name franchises I find it very rare that clients actually make a long term business out of these things - the franchise is often just a psychological crutch to take people out of the safety net of employment. Tip if you are selling these - add a zero. The more zeros the more people will value it. Typical conversation "so what did you get for your £10,000 fee?" "well it was very good value, we got a days training, a nice logo, a huge manual, some overpriced supplies and a certificate saying we can operate in our local area".........."and for this you paid £10k?" "yes - we looked around and some wanted £15k, didnt we get a bargain!".

Time for a quick accountant exit.....

[Indizine]

James that is so funny if it wasnt so serious too, but it's so true, ive heared that one a few times!