The Great Work at Home Rip-Off
Apr 2nd, 2007 by Freddie
Happy Monday!
Today’s your first edition of the new look Money Tree.
As I mentioned to you last week, I’m passing Monday and Thursday’s edition on to Stuart - as I take to the skies in search of the BEST biz-opps out there.
Don’t worry, I’ll still be doing one special issue each week (in addition to your twice weekly Money Tree).
And of course you’ll still find my daily rant on the blog:
http://www.themoneyanimalblog.com
So without further ado, let me pass you over to Stuart Oldsmith…
Wait a second did I leave out a ‘G’ there?
Right, that’s more than enough from me!
Ta for now.
Freddie
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Thanks Frank. We’ll never forget your name and all the great… um… stuff and er… things you contributed. In particular, how can we ever forget the time when you…um… Oh to heck with it. Let’s get cracking, because…
I’m seriously fed up.
Why?
It’s my friend’s birthday and… I’ve GOT to buy her a present and a card. Know that feeling?
Look, don’t get me wrong, I’m not tight or anything it’s just that… well… I have more than one friend (yes, really).
In fact, when you tot-up my family, their spouses and brats plus all my friends then it comes to a total of 97 people. Not all require presents, but let’s just say eyebrows would be raised if no card was forthcoming. Is it the same for you? Being stinking rich, you see, people get annoyed if you don’t stump-up a card as a bare minimum (And the present had better be something worth having too!).
And don’t even get me started on Christmas…
It’s not the cost (although don’t you think cards are a totally STUPID price???) it’s the fact that if you divide 97 into 365 it means that you have to think about someone’s sodding birthday every um… 3.7628865 days – approximately.
And what the hell do you buy people these days?
Honestly, we all have so much stuff we really don’t need a lot more. Maybe it’s a male thing, but my idea of utter hell is dragging my weary bones around a ‘shopping centre’ (aaaagghhh!!!!) listlessly searching for a gift.
I can’t stand it.
And it’s okay for me because I can afford it. Most people can’t and actually get into more debt to buy gifts. Not through some spontaneous act of giving from which they derive great joy - oh no. They go into debt to buy things they don’t want to buy for people who don’t want to receive them!
I personally know one family who took out a £2,000 loan to cover the cost of last Christmas! They’ll be paying £200 a month for the next year. It’s MADNESS!
So what’s my point? Well, do I have a great business idea for you, or what?
You’re seriously going to love this one. I’m far too busy with other projects to exploit this to the max, so feel free to use this one yourself and clean-up BIG time!
Just think of all those people who don’t want to receive crappy gifts (hideous vases and ghastly ornaments etc.)
- they could use your services - for a tasty fee!
Here’s how your business works. You could offer to receive the gift on their behalf and read the trite note that accompanies it. They need never even see the hideous thing! Hey – this gets even better… You could offer different levels of service. Let’s see now… for £5, you would receive the gift on the customer’s behalf, unwrap it, admire it for eleven seconds, and then put it in the loft with all the other things that are too precious to have on general display…
For £10, you could receive the gift, open it, give a little start of joy, say: “Darling! You SHOULDN’T have.
It must have cost a FORTUNE!” to nobody in particular, stand it on your mantlepiece for three days, and THEN put it away in the loft.
Or the Rolls-Royce, super deluxe service. For £25 you could do all the above, admire it every day for six months, and then arrange to have it accidentally knocked off the mantle-piece by a careless maid, and thrown away!
Now is THAT a great business idea, or what?
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Time Saving Tip of The Day
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Start your day 15 to 30 minutes earlier. It may be difficult initially, but you’ll be gaining that much extra time in your day. It’s really amazing what an early start can achieve – and we don’t really need as much sleep as we think we do.
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SCAM ALERT
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The Office of Fair Trading has identified that the number one scam targeting consumers is…
…The Great ‘Work At Home’ Rip-off
Some of the poorest and most vulnerable people are stuck at home and unable to go out to work. Usually they are single parents with young children. A few extra pounds a week would make a HUGE difference to their lifestyle. SO they make a good target for the scamsters.
Work-at-home and business opportunity scams are often advertised as paid work from home. E.g. “Earn £30 an Hour Addressing Envelopes.”
On application, would-be workers are asked for money up- front to pay for materials and, after payment, hear nothing despite many requests and phone calls.
How cheap and nasty is that???
A few years ago there was a classic (and rather brilliant, it has to be said) example of this. A company based in Wales advertised “Earn £300 a Week From Home For an Hour a Day”. They posed as a bio culture company who wanted home workers to grow a certain (harmless) mould in special dishes in their airing cupboards, pack it and ship it back to them – the home worker would then be paid handsomely.
To ‘show good faith’ the punters were requested to send in £100 for ‘the equipment’ which duly arrived (a few cheap plastic dishes and packs of powder). The instructions were highly complex which ensured that 99% of people cocked it up and didn’t grow any mould (no mould, no payment). Those stalwart few who did manage to gro some mould and send it back were met with a letter stating the mould was not to the right quality and suggesting they try again! That company was eventually prosecuted and closed down.
So beware ‘Home Working’ opportunities.
Quote of The Day
“You cannot climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”
