Good Starting Point for Work At Home Ideas
If you are thinking about starting a business, the following 4 places will provide you with hundreds of valuable and profitable business ideas for free. The information provided offers a good starting point for brainstorming. However, when you have narrowed down your list to the most favorable business ideas, it may be worthwhile to pay for more detailed reports.

1. HOME BASED IDEAS
At ENTREPRENEUR.COM you will find an icon labelled 'business ideas'. You may click here to see the business ideas page. You will be able to browse ideas by category e.g. business services, sports and food. On the same page you will find 'home based', 'part-time', 'low-cost' and even 'unusual ideas'. This site also offers numerous 'how-to-guides' on growing your business and it is free.

2. DIGITAL PRODUCTS
If you are interested in selling digital products e.g. e-books and software either as a publisher or affiliate, then CLICKBANK.COM is the place to start looking for business ideas . At the top of the home page you will see the 'marketplace tab' which opens to reveal a list of product categories. If you click on your desired category, search for individual products using the 'sort by popularity' tab. You will see a list starting with the most popular products in the category.

If you wish to explore how you can sell the digital products as an affiliate, you may click here to read my article 'How I made my first internet marketing sale'.

3. CHEAP STUFF
If you wish to know what people are buying when they set their mind on bargain mentatility, then EBAY.COM is your starting point for low-margin product and business ideas. Ebay offers a lot of useful information although the pages keep changing. Right now you can see the hottest selling items by clicking here http://product-index.ebay.com/best_selling_1.html

If you want additional information on what is trending up or the most watched items, then you may click here www.pulse.ebay.com The products are listed in categories and sub-categories and you will also be able to see the top ten largest stores and popular searches.

4. BOOKS AND OTHER
For business ideas on popular books and other general items, AMAZON.COM provides a list of best sellers by category. Towards the bottom of the home page on the left side you will find a table of 'Features and Services'. Click on Amazon bestsellers. and start by browsing the 'movers and shakers' category.

I believe the above information will get you started on knowing what people are searching for online with their wallets open.

Since Clickbank, Ebay and Amazon are very successful businesses which offer a marketplace for buyers and sellers, it follows that you should be able to find at least 1 suitable and profitable business idea - and it will be free.

There are 3 principles of investment which many people ignore or take for granted yet they form an important part in selecting investment strategies.

1. Leverage. To what extent are you able to increase your returns by using other people's money i.e. borrowed funds?

For example; Compare two banks, B and C, which are able to lend you money at the same interest rate. Bank B requires you to put down 20% while bank C requires you to foot 3% of the initial cash outlay. If you had $3,000, this means bank B can lend you $12,000 while bank C can lend you $97,000. The amount of money that you can earn from investing $100,000 far outweighs what you can earn using $15,000.

Using other people's money usually comes with many strings attached but it affords a giant leap to someone of little means when trying to cross the chasm of poverty and being broke,

2. Probability. Every venture has a chance of success and failure. Probability puts a number that is easily understood to the chance of success or failure. For example; If 100% represents guranteed success and 0% represents guaranteed failure, then any percentage point between 0% and 100% will give you an idea of your chance of success.

As a rule of thumb, embark on a venture when the probability of success is at least 70%.

In the corporate world, mathematicians who use statistics and scientific models to determine probabilities for business are called actuaries. I do not expect you to consult an actuary for simple financial decisions but I would like you to appreciate the importance of determining the probability of success for any venture and especially in comparison with other similar ventures.

It may be interesting to note that in very simple terms, there are only 3 main outcomes to any investment venture. 1) You will make money2) You will lose money3) You will neither make nor lose money

If these 3 outcomes are equally likely, then each outcome has a probability of 33⅓%. This probability is crucial because it implies that even if you are just average at investing, and if you invest many times for a long period of time, at least you will make money 33⅓% of the time. It is sad to note that many retail mutual funds managers have failed to achieve even 33⅓% success rate.

What is the success rate of your mutual fund manager or investment advisor?

3. Risk. In the context of this article, risk is the factor, thing or event that could make you lose a significant portion of your initial investment.

In my other article titled,

Do You Know The Secret of the Safest Investment Strategy? , I introduced the importance of managing risk. You may read the article by clicking here

When considering risk I want you to deterimine as much as possible the things that could go seriously wrong and cost you to lose more than 10% of your investment? Then put measures to avoid or lessen the impact of such events. Some simple strategies may include insurance, partnerships, mentoring, consultancy, piece-meal roll out etc

In another article I will present 5 basic principles of investing which even your barber should be aware of. Experience tells me that often what we expect to be common may not be as common as we think. It may therefore pay off to have a word with your barber and then read the next article on the basic principles of investing.

The 6 main Pros and Cons on Offshore Investing  
Offshore investing by definition is simple. However, just like any other type of investing, the how and why is clouded by varying schools of thought and contradicting philosophies based on ethics and morality of business, profit-making and estate planning in foreign economies. In this article, we will avoid the complex matters of offshore investing and offer an introduction that serves the curiosity of average Joe.

DEFINITION : Offshore investing is directing assets to a foreign country with a view to preserving value and/or earning income and profits. A foreign country is any country other than your main country of residence. Assets in this context mainly refers to money when people are discussing offshore investment in general.

PROS
1- Lower Taxation - Some regions e.g. Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Nauru have a reputation as tax havens. You can read more about the speficic tax advantage of each region at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_havens Taxation is these tax havens can be influenced by source of income, residency and citizenship.
2- Higher Rates of Return - It makes business sense to invest in regions which maximize shareholder earnings in the long-term by either reducing the cost of doing business or increasing revenue.
3- Confidentiality - Some regions do not have stringent disclosure requirements which enables individuals and companies to hide business ownership and wealth information from the public and predatory legal suits.

CONS
4- Money Laundering -Money and assets generated through illegal means in one country may be temporarily diverted to another as a means of hiding the true source. Money laundering and profiting from crime is illegal.
5- Unethical Business Practice - Example: Investing in a country which does not enforce human and worker rights so that you can knowingly endanger the lives of your employees by not spending money on safety and fair working conditions. The focus in this respect is profit maximization by practising policies which are illegal in your country of residence.
6- Tax Evasion - Hiding income from tax authorities in your country with a view to not paying tax. This is illegal.

Is Offshore Investing Good or Bad? It is worthwhile to mention 3 issues of discussion which arise when offshore investing is discussed in academic circles.

1- Is it fair and acceptable (ethically and economically) to direct wealth earned in one region to be invested or spent in another region? Does offshore investing contribute to economic decline of the region from which assets are removed?
2- Does offshore investing contribute to the general lowering of taxes and wages and thereby adversely affecting quality of life by encouraging transfer of capital to regions with lower taxes and wage rates?
3- Does offshore investing contribute to market inefficiency by circumventing rules on disclosure of financial information and lack of transperancy?
4- Should offshore investing be considered a valid and necessary means of wealth diversification on the basis of region only?

Let me read your thoughts on the good and bad of offshore investing by writing your comments below.