In your search for a reliable home based business, have you asked who you'll be working with day in and day out? These include founders and leaders of the parent company, colleagues who may work alongside you, others who'll help train you, plus your potential clients or customers. Let me add here—based on my recent research--what I believe to be the fastest and safest course today to build a successful home-based business. That's to join a successful parent company as an independent associate. This way we can still work for ourselves, control our own schedule, and determine our own income by how hard or how smart we choose to work. We also gain advantages already set up that we could never afford on our own. Things such as computerized marketing systems, training, support, payment-collections and delivery systems, and access to proven products or services (POS.)

What type person do you choose to associate with? You may hear people say, “Your net worth is determined by your network.” I believe this is true. If you want to be successful, spend as much time as possible with successful people. Model them. Watch how they dress and speak and walk. What do they eat and drink? Do they take drugs or drink excessively? Ask questions and observe how they answer. What are their values? Are they honest and reliable with a sincere desire to help others? Or do they seem to be scam artists only after a fast buck? Sometimes it's hard to tell. I've heard Dr Phil say, “The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” So check out what your potential associates have done in the past. Do they have a good reputation? Have they been successful in prior ventures?

This is especially true in the MLM business. A few professional MLM-ers launch a company and build it up with lots of hype and perhaps one or two good products. They then quickly sell out (or disappear with the money from their distributors and bankrupt the company) and then move on to their next venture. They often take their original “team” with them. Once the smoke-and-mirrors illusion fades, the abandoned company often falters. And when you've signed on and worked hard for two or three years, so does that “residual-income” you had counted on for your retirement. There are a number of MLM companies around today that fit this description.

My current recommendation is to determine if the leaders of the company are solid professional business people with reputations for honesty and fair dealing. Ask around the industry. Search out their information on the Internet with your favorite search engine. If in doubt, I would look for a company that pays larger commissions at the time you make each sale. Take your money today and save or invest a portion for your family's future. Or seek out professional advice to help invest those funds. I found one company that markets wealth-building strategies and professional advice for average-income people like you and me. Millions of people could benefit from such information in today's economic climate.

Financial success is certainly important, but so is personal success and personal growth. By associating with people whom we admire and respect, either as our leaders, trainers, co-workers, or customers, we give ourselves the maximum opportunity to improve our lives. As much as possible, make sure you'll enjoy associating with the people who are already in the companies that you're considering. Would you be proud to say you know them? To have them call you a friend? Can you learn something from them? Try to improve yourself as you go along. If you seriously want to earn boatloads of money, who will you want to be around once you're wealthy? Go ahead and begin associating with those people today. Remember the old saying: “Birds of a feather stick together.” This is absolutely true today in Internet marketing or Network Marketing.