I started looking for viable work at home opportunities back in 2001. It was a time consuming process, but in retrospect, I give myself a pat on the back every month when I cash the check from my home based business. The purpose of this article is to perhaps help others make their selection with a little less time and effort than I had to expend.

Having spent many years running traditional "bricks and mortar" type businesses, I didn't buy for one second the numerous heavily hyped, or worse yet, scam operations that touted the instant and fantastic riches that could be achieved (often with little or no effort required). While doing my research as to which business I would eventually pursue, this type of claim became an instant trigger for me to move on to check out some other "opportunity".

I mean, give me a break, if those claims were close to being true, why would they share their "secret" with anyone else? They would just execute their "magic system" and in short order would have made all the money that exists in the world...yeah, right!

In the course of my investigations, a few other natural filters surfaced to help me narrow down the realistic and legitimate opportunities from among the far too numerous unfounded offers. Early on, I determined that the "get in on the ground floor" offers were essentially smoke. After all, if I wanted to take a chance on the lottery, I would have purchased a ticket. Because of my business management experience, it soon became clear to me that three of the primary factors that would influence my choice would be:

* successful longevity (how long has this particular company been successfully doing business?)

* reasonable income

* support systems and training resources available to help the participants succeed.

One thing that really struck home with me was a statement made by the founder of the company that I eventually selected for my home based business. It went something like the following:

"Hardly a day goes by that I don’t hear from an affiliate questioning why he or she is not seeing a big check yet. More times than not, the person asking hasn’t even been involved for more than 90 days and is only barely beginning to even understand how the whole system works. And frankly, even if the number was six months, it’s still much too early to be expecting a significant income stream to have developed.

I always say that if you’re not willing to give a business at least a year, don’t even bother getting involved. You need to understand that it takes time to get to know all the nuances of the compensation plan. It takes time to determine which products you want to lead with. It takes time to develop a game plan. It takes time to figure out what marketing activities deliver the biggest bang for the buck. Anything worthwhile takes sustained effort. If you’re not thinking long term, you’ve set yourself up for failure."

To sum it up, the selection process should focus on reality (there is no "magic" in home based businesses) and reject any so-called "opportunities" that seem too good to be true.

Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and resides in California. For more details, visit his website at http://business-at-home.us