However, many people get suckered into home based business opportunities that are actually scams. The following are some of the top realities of home based business opportunities:

1. Most of them are scams.
   The reality of most of the home based businesses you see is that they are actually scams. In most cases, they will have you pay upfront for start-up fees, materials, equipment, or training materials in order to get your business going.
   
   However, people soon find out that for a number of reasons, they will never end up making any money. Some of the most common home based business scams are typing or transcribing from home (you pay for training materials or tests and then find out your typing speed or transcription skills aren't up to par), assembling things from home (you purchase the materials or equipment with the idea of selling the completed crafts back to the company, only to find the things you make are never up to par), and pyramid schemes, in which you pay fees for start-up costs and try and recruit people to sell expensive or useless items.
2. You won't end up making a lot of money
   If you do happen to find a legitimate opportunity, chances are you aren't going to be making thousands of dollars a month or even year. Keep in mind that on average, people involved in home based businesses such as multilevel marketing actually make somewhere between $2,000 and $5,000 a year, not month.
3. It requires hard work.
   If you are lucky enough to find a legitimate home based business opportunity, you will have to work hard in order to make money from it. This means marketing your products, finding people to help you sell (if that is part of the business), making phone calls and sales calls, and investing money of your own.
4. You will be held responsible for a number of things.
   Let's say you get involved with a legitimate multilevel marketing business opportunity, or one in which you work as a distributor selling beauty products. You are held responsible for the things you tell your potential customers about the products, such as claims of what they can and can't do as well as the safety of them in some cases. In addition, the same goes for what you tell the people you recruit about the work required of them as well as the income potential. You will also be held accountable for your brochures and marketing materials. So while it may be tempting to stretch the truth to make a sale, in reality it could end up costing you in legalities.

You can avoid home based business scams by steering clear of anything that requires you to pay a fee for anything upfront, whether it be for training materials or start-up costs. In addition, be cautious of common schemes, such as pyramid schemes, filling out surveys online, and assembling things from home. And always check the better business bureau.

While home based business opportunities may sound attractive, in reality you will seldom make the money promised.