Dear Moneymaking Insider,

If you've tried to start a business or are thinking about starting a business I urge you to read this issue. It'll shed some light on how to avoid a start-up failure.

It's a brilliant, engaging piece of feedback from one of our regular contributors' readers. I'm absolutely sure you'll recognise some of yourself in this... And if you do, there's some strong advice that'll help you turn your business start-up failure into a flying success!

A four step business opportunity strategy for 2011

By Tim Bazley

I've been a Biz Opp seeker for quite a few years now and haven't really found anything totally suited to me yet. I've seen some superb opportunities and realise it's my fault I've not made anything work, but it's only recently that I've found out why.

Now that I have, I've created a strategy that’ll weed out all unsuitable opps right away and leave a small number to try that'll stand a good chance of working.

But first let's look at the main reasons why I haven't been able to make opps work for me in the past:

1. They have involved (either partially or totally) doing things I don't like

It's very easy to gloss over this and get excited about the money you're going to make when looking at the sales blurb for an opportunity but come that first Monday morning, any less-than-appealing aspects will become all too real and that's when you'll say to yourself "nah - this is going back for a refund!"

For example, one recent Internet marketing opp I looked at involved sending loads of emails out to potential joint venture partners.

Literally sitting at the PC and writing individual emails then sending them out and repeating dozens or hundreds of times - Yuk!!

2. They've involved too large a learning curve

Let's face it, we all lead very busy lives nowadays.

We get up early, go to work all day long, fight our way back home through heavy commuter traffic and arrive home tired.

The last thing you want is to wade through pages and pages of complex information trying to get to grips with a home business format.

We've all seen these products for sale that come with 25 x one hour long DVDs to watch and half a dozen 400 page manuals to wade through. Forget any opportunity like this; it's just not going to happen.

The best opps come with just a one hour long DVD or a 50 - 100 page manual that can be read and understood in just a couple of hours or less.

3. Coupled with the above, you don't want anything that is going to be really hard to implement / begin either

Forget any opportunity where there's a long list of complex tasks to complete before you can launch it and begin to make money.

The initial stages that'll end up earning you at least a smallish but useful amount of money need to be things that can be set up easily in just one afternoon or a couple of evenings.

Of course there may be more complex strategies involved, which you can always learn and implement later to increase earnings once you've seen a little money start to come in.

But the basics, to bring in the first little bit of money, need to be able to be set up quickly and easily.

This brings me nicely onto the last vital thing any opportunity must have...

4. You must be able to see money coming in very quickly, within a few weeks at most and certainly before the product's guarantee period runs out

It doesn't have to be much, maybe just R300 here, R500 there, but that money must start to roll in quickly. There's nothing like cold hard cash in your hand to give you the motivation, excitement and momentum to carry on.

So my strategy now when buying a business opportunity is:

A. The work involved must be enjoyable for you.

B. The underlying principles must be simple enough to understand completely with one quick read through.

C. It must be able to be implemented quickly and easily.

D. You must see some cash rolling in before the month is out.

Of course it goes without saying that you should buy any opp from reputable sources that offer solid refund policies, but if you stick to one that meets the above criteria, you'll have the greatest chance of making it work.

Now that my eyes have been well and truly opened to what to look out for, I've got high hopes of finally finding the right biz opp in 2011.

In the name of success,

Chris Densley
Managing Editor of MoneyMaking Insider