Don't Let the Hype Turn Your Off, but Do Not Stop There Either

You've heard the hype! Maybe dozens or even scores of times!

The experience usually begins with a relative, a friend or sometimes a stranger questioning you about your current financial situation and insisting that he or she has the answers you need. All you need to do is attend this important business meeting, usually at a local hotel or restuarant on a particular evening where one of the top performers in this "business opportunity" will explain everything. You decide to attend!

The evening you arrive, the room is comfortable, often arranged with classroom-style seating, sometimes with a "white board," or a flip chart at the front of the room. Sometimes there's a table with a laptop and LTD projector set-up so you and others in the audience can watch a Powerpoint presentation. You signed up at the door and sometimes invested one dollar in an attempt to win the "pool" at the end of the evening. The people seem friendly enough, some dressed in business attire, and others more casually clad. Upbeat music plays in the background. You potential sponsor usually meets you and introduces you to other "leaders" each of whom appear to be warm, friendly and successful.

Right on time, the sound of upbeat music fills the room as you sit near the front along with one, two or more "first-timers," also known as "guests," you later discover. A well dressed man or woman strides purposely to the front of the room and announces: "Let's get this party started," or something to that effect. After a brief personal profile this person begins describing the presenter for the evening. The presenter--man or woman--is always a leader in this business, one of the top paid performers, a dynamic, awesome person who is building an awesome organization and who has some awesome things to tell you about this awesome, outstanding and amazing business opportunity, better than any other opportunity on planet Earth today.

Even as the welcoming applause fills the room, the warning bells of doubt and skepticism begin chiming softly in your mind!

"Good evening," the presenter says with unbridled enthusiasm. First, I want to thank each of you for taking time from your busy schedules to come and see what this outstanding opportunity is all about. Please relax. I'm not here to convince you of anything," the presenter declares convincingly. "I'm here to give you some information. That's all it is--information, and what you do with it is up to you."

The hype has hit!

Hype means to publicize in an exaggerated and often misleading manner. Stop and think! Because presenters make exaggerated claims does not always mean that a product, service or opportunity is untrue. Additionally, almost any information other than the whole story, can mislead you. Consider a well-known advertising exaggeration: "This washing powder gets your clothes whiter than white." Exaggeration, yes, but not necessarily untrue. Like almost all other washing powders, this particular one will get most of your white clothes clean. In other words, as a consumer you should not refuse to buy this clothes detergent because a well-meaning advertising copy writer exaggerated the product's potential with a superfluous assertion .

At the same time though, you should not buy this product or any other product, including so-called business opportunities without further investigation. Consider this example of a misleading statement: "Get in the car before I kill you." Many individuals apparently infer from those words that the attacker will not kill them if they get into the car. Maybe not, but that's not what the person said. BEFORE means "in front of the time that." In other words get the car in front of the time that I kill you. You see, the gunner promised to kill you. He or she just wants you in the car, for whatever reason, before killing you. Therefore, do not reject a home based business opportunity just because the presenter interjects a little, even a lot, of hype.

Rather, listen carefully for answers to the following questions:

1. Does the company provide quality products and/or services currently in broad demand in the mass marketplace?
2. Are these products and/or services you currently use so that paying for them does not require any "new" money?
3. If you or others bought these products and/or services will each of you receive a significant increase in value for the same or a slightly increased cost?
4. If you contracted with this company to use and recommend these products and/or services, is there at least a 70/30 chance that you can build a list of at least 5,000 customers who will buy at least $75 a year in products and/or services?
5. Does the company's presentation focus more on quality customer services--that is, moving products/services to end users--than on recruiting other participants?
6. Can you afford to buy the products and services at retail cost before you become a representative?
7. Does your proposed "sponsor" appear to be more interested in recruiting others than in helping you to achieve success?Print this and take it to all of your next business opportunity meetings. Do not sign the contract yet. Answers to these questions constitute the first step in a process called: "performing due diligence." You still have a great deal of preliminary work to do.
   

Print this and take it with you to all so-called opportunity presentations and get the answers to these questions. Even with answers to these questions, you are not ready to sign a contract, e.g. "sign-up" for this opportunity. These questions constitute the initial step in a business process called performing due diligence. You still have a lot of work to do before you know if this contract provides an opportunity you should partner with to help you achieve financial, time and debt freedoms.