How would you like an autopilot, residual income from you own legitimate online business, operating 24/7 on your behalf?

Of course you would! But there's usually risk and cost in setting up and getting it going, especially if you are new to starting a business or operating online.

You need to learn about building websites, purchasing domain names, hosting, getting merchant accounts and configuring autorespondersand that's assuming that you can find a business with a good potential to start with!

That's why you should not ignore turnkey business-in-a-box solutions. This means that you leave all the technical stuff to the professionalsfrom thinking up the idea to putting together the business plan, to designing the website and marketing materials. With this approach you can get up and running almost immediately!

But these can still cost money and you can be out of pocket whilst waiting for customers to come along and buy.

The great news is that there are some solutions around with very low initial costs, but finding and recognising these quality business opportunities can be hard.

Let's examine some of the key ingredients that you should look for when reviewing such a business opportunity.

Firstly does the business offer a real product or service that people want to buy - and more importantlyare already buying?

Is the market growing or contracting? You need to understand the business potential going forward.

Let's consider an examplea lottery syndicate business. The customer pays to join a lottery syndicate to increase their chances of winning a lottery prize, the business automates their entries in the lottery syndicate and automatically claims their prizes for them.

It provides a complete online control panel for them and pays them when they want. A great service for any lottery player.

This example business opens up a global opportunity to play lotteries by joining a syndicate. It is easy to explain the benefits to a customer as most people have either played lotteries, know people who play lotteries or currently play a lottery.

It is also easy to explain to potential customers as most people understand what a lottery syndicate is and have a general understanding that it can increase your chances of winning a prize.

It is in a growing marketplacethe online gambling market - and this is projected to grow at an amazing rate for the rest of this decade.

So to summarise this first criteria - there needs to be a real demand for a real product and preferably in a growing market.

Secondly you need to check that there are some genuine testimonials of people who have already made money with the business. So for the lottery business are people finding success with the end product and are people finding success with the business?

If you can see some testimonials that's one thing - but how about following up with the company and speaking to those people directly before joining? That way you can ask the questions that the company literature hasn't answered!

Thirdly you need to check the quality of their website and marketing materials. Have they put some real effort into it to make it easier for you to make money? Do they have professional tools that you can use immediately? Are there any hidden costs or can you get going straight away with little or no investment?

For example do they provide you with web landing pages and is their website intereactive and interesting - eg with streaming movies to get the message across as clearly as possible?

Do they provide the essential web marketing tools like a complete autoresponder sequence for you and a tool to help you build your own opt-in email list? What about a viral marketing campaign tool, banner ads and a website hits tracker?

Do they provide offline resources as well such as leaflets, flyers and DVDs?

In short have they given you all the tools you need to do the job well?

Finallyand it probably goes without sayingthat you need to understand the business model, ie how you actually make money! Usually this is talked about at length by the provider, but check that you understand the explanation and can see how it would work for you.

However without a market and the tools to sell into that market any information about the business model is purely academic!

So let's summarisesome key ingredients for getting a successful autopilot income set up quickly are: * Professionally designed website with full support * Legitimate legal business with a proven track record * Affordable ways to get new customers * Limited up-front investment risk * Rewards for your effortnot just rewards for others! * In a growing market, selling a useful product that people want!

Good luck with finding a business opportunity that works for you!

Copyright 2006 Andy Gray