When thinking of starting a home business, many are torn between starting their own business or buying into a home business opportunity.
In my opinion, the benefit of business opportunity is that you are buying into a business that has already been setup and may have proved successful to others. It reduces the time and cost of starting a business from scratch, especially if the bizopp already provides the tools you need (e.g. a website template, marketing tips and manuals, etc.).
The downside of bizopps is that it may be beneficial only to the owner of the program – not to those buying into the biz opportunity. In PowerHomeBiz.com, we have met many entrepreneurs who complained of being scammed from the bizopps they thought were legit. Some were very disappointed to see that the bizopp, which promised them that they could earn X amount of money, did not deliver. Worse, they even lost money! The perceived benefit of bizopp which is lesser risk did not pan out well for them.
Another reason is that you will be competing with hundreds, if not thousands, of entrepreneurs who have bought into the business. Worse, you may all have the same website that looks exactly alike except for a few cosmetic changes here and there. From Success University to Liberty League to Quicklister, we have advertisers running simultaneously and all of them have the same exact websites! Given that there’s no extra content that will set one bizopp buyer from the other site, marketing and advertising costs become higher in a bid to stand out from the crowd.
By starting your own business from scratch, the advantage is you have more control, more leeway on how to approach the business. You can be more innovative. You also have lower chances of getting scammed (which is pretty common in bizopps) because you are starting a business yourself. Whether you are starting a daycare business, virtual assistant business or a web publishing business, you have more room to grow.
Plus, if your business idea proved to be a success, then you can create your own bizopp that others can buy. Or you can sell it to companies like Yahoo. Or attract investors. You can never grow a bizopp in this way because you just bought a part of the business; not the entire business.
In my 2 cents, I prefer starting with a business idea, instead of a bizopp. There is more room to succeed with your own business; more risks of course but I’d rather have people buy into my idea than me buying into their idea.
I’ve tried to start with a combination of my own idea from scratch, and an established business opportunity. I can definitely see potential for the combination to yield success. My only drama is keeping myself in check, regarding time management and procrastination issues!
Good article! I’m glad to see someone commenting on the cookie cutter business opportunities out there. In my opinion, the sense of accomplishment from launching an original business idea is far greater than any amount of money that could be made from someone else’s idea.