clipped from: www.businesshackers.com Pick up any “business opportunity” magazine at the local newsstand, and you’ll see a glossy, attractive publication designed to attract people who are actively seeking ways to earn extra money, buy a franchise, or open a business of their own. After all, it’s the American Dream to own your own business and get rich, right?
You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Most people are too busy earning a living to make any money.” Common sense tells us that we’re not going to get rich working for someone else (with the possible exception of the lucky folks who started with Microsoft or Google in their early days and got rich through stock options). The average American employee lives from paycheck to paycheck, with barely enough income to cover living expenses, leaving nothing for investment toward building wealth for a comfortable retirement. Hence the allure of the “Business Opportunity.”
As you flip through one of these “BizOpp” magazines, you’ll see a wide variety of advertisements for different types of businesses, ranging from simple “starter kits” for around $29 all the way to sophisticated franchises costing $100,000 or more. For most people, it’s impossible to raise enough capital to consider opening a true franchise. The franchise fees alone are often prohibitive, running into tens of thousands of dollars even for the lesser known businesses, or several hundred thousand dollars for better known companies. And that’s not even including the outlay required to actually open the doors for business.
At the other end of the scale, most people are aware that the cheap starter kits and “business in a box” packages are basically junk. But that leaves a whole host of medium-priced business startup concepts, ranging in price from around $500 on the low end to $10,000 on the upper end. I refer to these as “pre-packaged business opportunities.”