How dare they!  The goal is to work from home, not allow them to work from home.  I am going to give my own experience based upon a few companies that I have worked with in my own personal quest towards home based work so that you can get a good idea of the whole picture. 

Company #1.  AmeriPlan.  This is a national discount health benefits company that allows IBO’s or Independent Business Owners the ability to work from home.  There is a fee of $50 per month to work for them, with you being able to own your own “business.”  However, that business comes with huge restrictions, such as despite their claims of daily pay, you must build up at least $25 in the trust account before they will send you a check.  You must register your websites with them, which costs $25 or they will cancel you.  Also despite paying the IBO fees each month you are not allowed to use the AmeriPlan name or logo in any advertisements that you do!  You are virtually alone in how you can market this business.  No flyers on cars, no flyers left on people’s doors.  Your options really are limited when you are unable to tell people on a flier exactly what company you work with and are representing.  I spent several months with this company, and was very close to payout for a check numerous times, however something would always come up and my check would not appear but money would be deducted from my trust account for some reason or another.  How great, I was paying them to bust my tail and getting nothing in return!  No thanks, I think I will pass along on this opportunity, cut my $1 loss since I was lucky enough to sign up in November when they had a $1 promotion and move right along.

Company #2.  Panda Research.  Ok I have had over $500 pending in my Panda Research account for the last 4 months.  Only $22.50 has been confirmed, which took less than 2 weeks to confirm.  However, I have fully completed all of the required offers to get that nice little $500 payout and cannot seem to actually be paid.  However, I have spent a good many minutes filling out dozens of forms and signing up for a whole lot of trials that were supposed to have payouts attached to them.  So far, there has been nothing but dashed hopes and dreams, I was hoping this alone would replace my entire income, however since it is falling painfully short of fulfilling my income needs, it is however taking loads of time after the forms are filled out to cancel the trials before my credit card takes a massive hit. 

Company #3 & 4.  Cash Crate and Treasure Trooper.  I am going to sum this up quickly; they are almost identical to Panda Research.  While I do not have as much money pending with these companies as I do with Panda Research there is still money sitting in the pending state that has been there for months while once again I am filling out forms and having to contact companies back later to cancel the trials that I never wanted in the first place.  Once again, another hope of home based income shot out the window. 

Company #5.  Daytipper.  While there is no striking it rich at $3 a tip claims it would be very much possible to make a nice bit of gas money without a lot of headache or stress.  Getting tips accepted is not the problem; the problem lies in actually being paid for it!  Who wants to work with a company that has no morals and will publish your material without paying for it as promised?  Surely not me, while I have heard of many being burned by Daytipper, I managed to escape unharmed, I was only ripped off for $6, however I stopped submitting after 2 tips were accepted until I saw if I was going to actually be paid or not.  Well it has been almost 2 months now, no payment and they do not even return e-mails to inquire as to when they will be published.  This is on the top of my avoid list since they lie and do not payout. 

Company #6 & 7.  Avon and Mary Kay.  I will admit some women do great at this, however how often do you really want to be chased by a woman with a brochure when they used to be your friend and now see you only as a wallet with money to snag?  This can cause huge strains on friendship, as well as force you to step out of your emotional comfort zone.  While there are great possibilities with these two companies compared to the others, they do still have downsides in the amount of commissions are not the greatest, as well as it takes a lot of work and effort to build up a good client list that will generate good income without losing all of your friends and family because of turning into the annoying pushy sales person that everyone hates.  In addition, the fact that it is mostly cosmetics being sold really limits the market that you can sell to, most men will never purchase make-up, and if they do, they are not buying much.