Any business opportunity that is worthwhile and is capable of generating income will have some unique qualities. I understand the claims that you can make millions on autopilot while cruising round the world on holidays. I think the saying “no pain no gain” would no longer be meaningful if it was possible for people to invest like that on automatic programmes and begin to generate income without any hard work. That is not realistic. I prefer to earn my money because it makes me feel valuable!
Characteristics Of A Good Business Opportunity
According to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, these are the key characteristics of a good business opportunity:
Customers Love It
A business exists for the purpose of creating and serving customers. Bezos who has led Amazon to become an online giant with e-commerce juggernaut with a $1 trillion market capitalization, says that Amazon is not “competitor obsessed” buy “customer obsessed”. This philosophy can be see, at work in the way Amazon has grown and redefined customer service.
People want products or services because they solve problems for them. Any business opportunity that does not meet this criteria is not worthwhile.
It Is Scalable
A business is scalable if it can grow not only in size but in terms of demand and still be able to function properly. Any business opportunity that has opportunity for growth has already has limits imposed upon it.
There Is Strong Return On Capital
Return on capital is a measure of performance of a business and generally, the higher the better. Usually, a business with a higher return on capital will be capable of generating more cash internally. It is also a measure of future performance.
Long-term Prospects For Innovation
Bezos is of the mindset that any good business opportunity should have scope for scope for long-term thinking and invention. This is because if you are going to invent, you have to experiment and this means focusing on the long-term as many inventions do not work initially. You have to look ahead because everything takes time.
How To Distinguish Between Scams And Genuine Online Business Opportunities
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in US has provided the following guidelines to help evaluate the authenticity of business opportunities.
- Is the the opportunity to good to be true?
- Is it possible to earn such amount of money that fast without enough training and experience?
- Is the opportunity certain to provide security for many years to come because if you invest all your savings and time in it, you have nothing to fall back on if it does not.
- There will be evidence that such business opportunity works and even the organisers should be able to testify how the system has worked for them.
- It is better not to make a decision in a hurry or under pressure. It’s better to take time to make a decision. It can be tempting to make a decision in a hurry especially in a seminar pitch.
- If any answer to the above questions is negative, this may be a warning to be careful.
In addition, the FTC has provided the following 7 steps as a general precaution before getting into any business opportunity schemes online or offline.
- The need to study the contract documents and disclosure statements carefully.
- The need to consult a professional such as an attorney before getting into any legal agreement.
- Ensuring that all the terms and promises by the seller or vendor are included as part of the contract documents.
- Earning claims can be investigated.
- Comparisons can also be made with similar business opportunities.
- Others that have already participated in the business opportunities can be contacted.
- Government and other agencies that can provide information about the such businesses can be contacted.
References
Umoh, M (2018). Jeff Bezos: When you find a business opportunity with these traits, ‘don’t just swipe right, get married’. [online] Website name. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/13/amazon-jeff-bezos-4-traits-a-good-business-opportunity-should-have.htmlL [04 Oct. 2018].