How to Investigate a Business Opportunity

A Home Business Article Contributed by Elizabeth Fox-Wise

So You are Considering Buying into a Business Opportunity?

A business opportunity is often referred to as a "turn key" business. Basically you are purchasing instructions, materials and support for running a particular business. You might also be purchasing the rights to use the company's name and in that sense the advantage of the company's reputation.

Some Business Opportunities cost $100 or less to get started, others require you lay out thousands of dollars to get involved in their business opportunity. Irregardless of the amount of money you have to invest, there is one thing that you should always keep in mind. Before deciding to get involved in any business opportunity you must do some investigating. Remember the familiar phrase "Let the Buyer Beware" when considering purchasing a business opportunity this is the phrase you need to live by!

How to Investigate the Potential Business Opportunity

The first thing you want to do is call information for the city in which the business is based and get the phone number for their local Better Business Bureau (BBB). Call the BBB in their city and state and ask if they have a reliability report on the company you are investigating.

This report will tell you basic information about the business - how long they have been in business - if any and how many complaints have been filed against them - and how the business resolved (or didn't resolve) the complaints. If you are satisfied with the BBB report don't stop there! Check with National Fraud Information Center to see if they have had any complaints against the business opportunity as well.

Call the Chamber of Commerce in the City or Town the business opportunity is based. See if they are a member of the chamber of commerce. Just because they are not does not mean they are not reputable, however. You can also ask th chamber of commerce if they know of any reasons that you might not want to get involved in that particular business opportunity.

Where did you hear about the business opportunity? Was it in a magazine ad? Call the editor of the magazine and ask him or her if they have had any experience with the business opportunity you are considering. Have they been advertising long? So they pay their advertising bills on time?

Ask the company offering the business opportunity if you can have a list of people who have bought their opportunity in the past two years. If they are a legitimate business they will be happy to share this information with you as they are proud of their happy customer base. If they will not do this, it is likely the business opportunity has something shady it is trying to hide.

Finally, When Considering a Business Opportunity, Trust Your Instincts

Always follow your instincts when it comes to investing in a business opportunity. If the company doesn't seem quite right to you, Or the opportunity seems "too good to be true" , it is better to err on the side of caution. Give yourself more time to investigate the opportunity or walk away and move on to look at another.

Never pay money for a business opportunity until you completely understand what you are buying into and are comfortable with the decision.