Eight Questions You Must Ask Before Buying a Business Opportunity

Here's an advance look at the guts of the keynote address I'll be giving at the Work-at-Home Business Expo at the San Mateo County Event Center (pictured above) on Aug. 21 at 2:30 pm. (Update: It's been postponed to Apr. 29, 2 pm.)

The Eight Questions You Must Ask Regarding a Home Business

A. Questions you must ask of yourself

1. Am I a self-starter, not a procrastinator? That's critical in all self-employment but especially in a home-based business.

2. Am I resourceful? able to come up with solutions to the frequent problems that come up in running any business. And when I'm stuck, will I be able to usually find free and low-cost help?

3. Am I good around money? Do I have a good sense of whether an item is really worth buying? Do I have the ability to buy things inexpensively?

4. Am I a good salesperson? able to, in a low-key but persistent way, close deals?

5. Am I resilient when the inevitable setbacks occur?

B .Questions you must ask of the seller of the business opportunity

6. Would you show me the spreadsheet showing, for each franchisee, their annual net profit, ideally going back a couple of years? Be wary if all they want to share is "The average profit per franchisee is...," let alone, "We project that the average franchisee will earn..."

7. What are the common denominators among your successful franchisees, other than the obvious: being smart, hard working and resilient? For example, previous experience as a salesperson.

8. Would you give me a complete, unedited list of all the franchisees? That will enable you to call some at random rather than ones cherry-picked for you by the franchisor. After speaking with a half dozen by-phone, visit, at their home-based worksite, the two who seem most like you.

My father's story (inspirational)