You've probably looked for a way to make more money at home but were confused by all the offers. You found that there are so many hyped up ads promoting "work at home" or "home business opportunity" programs that you concluded that you couldn't believe any of them.

It's a sad fact that most people who join a home based business make little or no money. When they see their poor results they are disappointed and typically quit the business.

This is so common in the business opportunity industry that most people instinctively shy away from anyone using the forbidden word "opportunity". And, many people classify all opportunities as scams.

But, some home based businesses are thriving and many people are successfully making great incomes. To help you overcome your confusion and distrust of home businesses I'm going to offer three characteristics of an "excellent" home based business opportunity. If you find an opportunity that has these characteristics, you can be pretty sure that you can succeed in making money.

So, here are three characteristics that I think are important in an effort at salvaging the reputation of the home based business industry.

Honest Presentation of the Effort Required for Success
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People often come into a home based business with unrealistic expectations. They've heard the business hyped up to such a level that they believe others will eagerly join them in this new venture. "After all," they think, "how could any thinking person pass up a money making deal such as this?"

We've all heard people promoting one business or another that made claims that "everyone gets in". And, we've surfed the Net enough to visit sites that claim that there is no work involved. They claim "You don't need to sponsor anyone or sell anything; everything is done for you."

So, honesty up front, before you get involved would be a welcomed change. Here are examples of what it takes to become successful in a couple of popular opportunities that require sponsoring others for success.

Bill Britt, a famous Diamond in Amway, told 60 Minutes of his efforts in this way: "There is no secret. I simply showed the plan to 1200 people. 900 said, 'No.' and only 300 signed up. Out of those 300, only 85 did anything at all. Out of those 85 only 35 were serious, and out of those 35, 11 made me a millionaire."

Describing the requirements to succeed at EDC Gold, co-owner Craig Garcia indicated that members needed to get 200 to 280 people to sign up for their opt-in list in order to get 50 to 60 free sign ups for the opportunity. At an average closing rate of 5% this then yields 2 to 3 paid members.

Notice that in both examples the success ratio is only 1 to 3%. That is, you must successfully contact around 100 people to bring from one to three productive members into your organization.

No matter what home based business you're in, it requires time, energy, and consistent and persistent effort. All this brings us to the second characteristic of an excellent home based business.

Personal Development Training
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So, you realize that making your work at home business a success is going to take effort. But, are you self-disciplined enough to put forth that effort?

If you're like most people, you're conditioned by your job. You've got a start time and a pretty fixed quitting time. And, when you get home, you deserve a rest and some entertainment.

But, now you're involved in a work at home opportunity Unfortunately, too many people treat that as a "leisure" at home opportunity. It's a spare time opportunity that they'll get to when they have some time.

To succeed, you need to consider your home based business as your primary vocation. You need to see your job as simply a means of allowing you time to develop your home based business. It's like drawing a line in the sand with "Job" on one side and "Business" on the other. When you can step across that line so your thinking and actions are dedicated to your business, you know you've made the transition.

An excellent home based business is one that helps you make the decision to cross that line. It provides personal development training that helps you see yourself as a business person rather than simply as someone with a job. It helps you change your mind set to think of yourself differently.

Without that change in mind set, you'll never put forth the consistent and persistent effort required to succeed. And, this brings us to the third characteristic of an excellent home based business.

Tools and Techniques Training
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Once you've made the commitment to make your home based business a success, you need to know what to do.

So many people are confused. They simply don't know what to do next. Too many home business opportunities provide lots of motivation, but little in the way of tools and techniques training.

An excellent home based business must provide training classes that describe and demonstrate the steps you should take to succeed. These classes should show you how to use free techniques as well as paid techniques.

Once you understand what to do, you can perform those functions repeatedly. And as you get comfortable with then, you can add more advanced tools and techniques to further enhance your success.

Conclusion
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Before you become involved in a home based business, you should look under the hood to see what that opportunity has to offer in each of these critical areas. Then, decide on the opportunity that has the best combination of an honest description of the effort required, personal development training, and training in the tools and techniques that produce success.

Once you've completed evaluating several opportunities you can decide on the one that provides the best opportunity for success.