Fraud Advisory Services

The need for proper research when seeking a part time business idea from the Internet is  is essential if fraud is to be avoided. No retailer would buy a new business premises or shop without spending £1000s on due diligence investigations. He would get a survey, look at any accounting records for previous businesses and do a business plan based on the research done. Why should you invest time and money trying to start a new business working for yourself without doing the same?
There is no need to spend money employing somebody else to investigate, but there are a lot of simple steps you can take. Here are three of the most basic:

• First – read as much as you can on the subject. You can never do enough research. You will soon realise if a business idea is a scam or fraud. What you want to know is not only will it work, but will it work for you. The research may include surfing the net of course, but look for solid and respectable publications you can pour through. Have one on your bedside with a pack of post its for interesting snippets or chapters. Have a trade journal, print off reports – don’t just rely on marketing hype from your surfing!
• Secondly – once you have ascertained that there is a viable business idea, jot some numbers down. You dont have to be an accountant to see if the business is viable. There is no use paying say £500 for start up costs, having £100 going out every month and spending 10 hours a week on a part time business to make £200 per month. Yes it would pay for itself but is it really worth it. You might have £700 in the bank at the end of the year – on which you ought to be paying tax at your full rate. If it was just a part time business to earn some extra cash, 10 hours a week work for a £10 per week cash return is not great! Often the numbers look ok till you set them out in black and white.
• Thirdly – decide if the particular business is for you. For example Internet Marketing can work if you get it right – but only if you learn, learn, learn about the business and then are able to churn out several 100,000 words of articles every year. Can you learn about a complex subject and then have you the patience to write? – If you can say yes to both, then as the “blurb” says you can build a useful business that needs little maintenance.

As a fraud investigator I see a lot of business opportunities that are clearly frauds and some that simply need a lot of hard graft. I am looking at as many as I can on my dedicated web site to investigate which have potential and which are scams. Read about my daily approach to fraud on my investigators diary blog.