Over the years, my husband and I researched and considered countless businesses, wanting to make the move to be home-business owners. Trust me when I say that many of them were ruled out immediately, just based on a less-than-professional website presence, expensive startup, or even lack of information disclosed without signing up. But some that we considered, when the above criteria were met, were found with a Google search to have little or any information pertaining to them and what was there was mostly criticism and that led us to rule them out without looking back.
Since that time, we have learned a great deal about search engines and how they work and that everything you read online is not necessarily what really could be construed as a fair assessment of an opportunity, or even small business. A good friend of mine actually owns a business based on exactly this dilemma that a large number of businesses and opportunities—and even individuals—face in the Google universe. Her business assists people and other businesses in moving the "favorable" remarks, reviews and statements to the front line in searches. And therefore, forces the negative results to the back of those results that you view when you Google. Fair? Well, consider what makes its way to the web, and you will know that utlimately, you should base your decisions on a company on the sources posting those views.
Let me expand...
A perfect example is that the company I worked for prior to being a home business owner distributed software for the desktop publishing and graphic design industry. It is a huge industry and has been growing exponentially since the 1980s. They have been around for decades and provide exceptional presale and post sale technical support, boast a knowledgeable staff and bend over backwards to accommodate customers, making it a top priority to see that customers leave having had a good purchasing experience. However, there is always that one customer who fills his days with complaining and finding fault in even the best of companies. This company I worked for was based in the UK but had a US presence and website as well. They actually had sold the US branch back in the early 2000s to concentrate on expanding the UK/European market. But when the party who had purchased that US branch decided to sell it in 2009 to pursue other outlets, the UK company purchased it back from them in order to move back into the US market they had originally had.
They received an email from a customer who had bought a software product YEARS ago from the previous owner. They had lost their serial number for the software and were requesting we provide it again for them. Since the previous owner did not convey the customer data for serial numbers, we had no record of this information. But being a customer-service oriented company, we jumped through hurdles to contact the original software developer and obtain their serial number. After providing it, this customer never once thanked us, and proceeded to maintain a forum presence in which they complained about the product and the difficulty they had using it. They even threw in our company name. No attempt was made to contact us in regard to her "difficulties" and we had done everything within our power—even though we made NOTHING off her sale—and yet out there in the world wide web was a disgruntled customer spewing negative information that was not even qualified information.
This incident alone made me realize that you CANNOT always believe everything that you read when you are researching a potential opportunity. You need to consider the source and realize that there will always be people out there who live to complain. They actually make it their mission and no amount of service, response or assistance will change that person's outlook. A subsequent Google search of this customer actually provided numerous postings involving many companies and products and not one of those was positive.
Take some time to read everything you can about a company. But also be fair in your assessment as the best judge of an opportunity is those who have actually taken advantage of it, and REALLY worked that business. If they didn't follow the recommended or proven marketing advice and training and they didn't consistently put in the hours it takes to become successful in the endeavor, they are NOT a reliable judge of that company's potential. They are just individuals who have nothing authentic to say because they never worked the business as it was intended to be worked. Had they done that, they would be one of those "positive" reviews you may have read.
In closing, I'm not saying to ignore all the "warnings" from people advising about scams or false claims about what is out there. There are plenty of those scams and they should be avoided at all costs. But also, contact some of the other business owners and ask pointed questions you have concerning the actual workings of the business, what will be involved, the startup costs, what you receive with that investment, how long they have been working the business and what you can expect to realistically earn. We did. And any business owners we couldn't get a straight answer from, we ruled out. Those that took the time to provide us the information we most wanted, were definitely considered. And in taking time to do an adequate assessment of a business, you will find that you end up exactly where you want to be—with one that you love to extol about the virtues of!
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