You may have heard that one way you can tell that a work from home opportunity is not legitimate is by whether you are asked to pay a fee. There are opportunities out there where you can get started with a free work from home option but in many cases starting a home based business will cost you money. The tough part is deciding on a business that suits your needs and budget.

Are You Looking for a Work from Home Job?

A work from home job is one where you work for an employer and provide services at a set rate per hour or per unit of work. There are many types of work that can be performed from one's home and they are not limited to customer service and clerical jobs.

If you are offered a work from home "job," you should not be asked to pay a fee for software, training materials, or anything else. These expenses are a legitimate cost of doing business and the employer should be providing them at their own expense.

One way that you can turn your job into a free work from home opportunity is to approach your current employer and negotiate working off site for a few hours or one day per week. As both you and your employer become more comfortable with the arrangement, you can start to increase the time spent working from home and decrease the amount of time you spend in the office.

Is a Home Based Business a Better Fit for You?

When you are running a home-based business, you are the owner and manager. Rather than start your business from scratch by either finding or developing your own product, you can join an existing business as an independent representative. The advantage to choosing this model is that these companies can offer you a ready-made product that is already well known to consumers.

In addition, becoming an independent representative provides you with training and support from other company reps. You don't have to develop your own marketing plan; the company has already developed one that will work, as long as you follow it precisely. If you want to be in business, this is a way to get started with a relatively small investment on your part, and hit the ground running.

While you should never pay someone to give you a "job," if you are starting a business, you may be asked to spend some money up front. In the latter case, the fees are legitimate. You may need to buy a starter kit and/or samples, and this is perfectly reasonable in the circumstances.

Before you start a work at home job or a home business opportunity, it is always a good idea to check out the employer or the company first. It only takes a few minutes to run the name through the Better Business Bureau web site or to type the name into a search engine with the word "scam" to find out whether you should continue or not.