10. How well known is business opportunity? Whether it's online or offline, some business opportunities are "household" names and are easier to promote and sell as a result.

11. What is turnover rate in business opportunity? Those that have a large turnover rate among members are usually poor choices. Turnover means simply number of members that leave biz op within each month. A large turnover usually indicates that members are not happy with their experiences.

12. How much overall does it cost? You need to be able to comfortably afford fee of business opportunity, or you will start out "in red" which is not a good way to start any home-based business.

13. How much control does corporate entity have? If everything is controlled by corporate entity (the "home" office of business opportunity, so to speak), your creativity and way you market may be hampered severely.

There are many business opportunities from which to pick. Everything from larger scale offline ventures, to smaller scale online ventures exists. Research into all above is necessary when choosing an appropriate business opportunity. Fees are sometimes necessary to cover costs of shipping and handling, or costs of marketing materials. Others charge fees simply because their "name" is important to them as they have spent years building their reputation, and they only want "serious joiners".

There also exist many free opportunities that cost nothing to join and can be a good way to experiment with marketing and world of home-based business. But very best business to get into as a home based business is a product driven business where you purchase only amount of product you will consume every month and it’s a product that will benefit you. Such a business is Organic Greens. For details on business side, email Loring Windblad directly. For product information go to organic greens.

The choice of whether to pay or not is an individual choice that should only be made when weighing all possible factors. If in doubt, simply research and patiently wait a while. After all, biz op will always be there tomorrow (if it's a good one)!

When Loring returned to US he became an electronics instructor at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and he quickly made contact with Post Photo Hobby Shop and got a part time job, thus learning more about photography for himself but also helping to teach others fine art of photography.

Loring’s next posting was to Panama where he continued with local Post Photo Hobby Shop as a Photo and Color Printing Instructor for 2 ½ years, and also picking up work as a free-lance photographer. Loring soon began photographing such things as kids visiting with Santa, then developing and printing and delivering photos, Then action work such as youth Karate matches, Pop Warner football games, Little League baseball games, and both team and individual photos. And, of course, weddings. All these photo endeavors paid surprisingly well, and Loring was soon not only very busy but making enough money to more than support his photography needs. And teaching helped keep Loring up with everything in photography field so soon everyone with a question about cameras and photography was coming to him.

Being around military bases there was always opportunity for youth sporting event photography. And wedding photography. From 1970 thru about 1977 Loring did a pretty brisk business in photography, made a lot of friends and took a lot of pictures. And made a pretty good “extra income” that not only paid for all his cameras and supplies but provided a lot of extra money supplementing his income.

But it was hard work and long hours and Loring’s son, silver smithing and rockhounding were getting in way. The transition was made leaving photography behind and embracing a new business – jewelry making and silver smithing.

LORING WINDBLAD’S SILVER-SMITHING BONANZA Loring was always a rock collector. This gave him an eye for rocks that were different everywhere he went. As a soldier in US Army he managed to live in France for four years, Panama for five years, and Southeast Asia (Vietnam) for 2 years, as well as extensive periods from coast to coast across United States including California, Georgia, New Jersey, Kansas and Arizona.

Loring was divorced while he was in Vietnam when his son was three. Eight years later, in August of 1975, his ex- called and said, “I can’t handle your son any more. You’ve got to take him!” Without getting into gory details….”Well, ok”, and his son came to Arizona to live with him.

Loring, Jr., was an excellent artist and got straight A’s in art in school. He was now in a new environment and Windy, as a way of keeping his son’s interest up in arts and new things, began taking Jr. and his friends out on camping and sightseeing trips in Arizona desert. Loring also was taking Geology courses with local Junior College, and began imparting that knowledge to his son and his son’s friends while on their outings in desert and mountain country of SE Arizona, Basin and Range country.

Rockhounding gave desert jaunts with his son extra meaning. Identification of various kinds of rocks and geological formations soon were followed with explorations of old turquoise mines and an education in copper-related gemstones of turquoise, malachite, azurite and chrisocolla. Use of Army’s lapidary hobby shop led to cutting slabs of stones, revealing hidden patterns, then cutting stone slabs into cabochons enhancing pattern intricacies.

What are cabochons without jewelry? Silver smithing classes followed and then Junior turned his cabochons into some jewelry pieces for his mother and sister. Then came wax carving and lost wax casting, running full gamut of classes and skills available. In order to keep expenses down Windy located wholesale outlets which supplied him with components to assemble jewelry such as chains, pendants, findings, etc.

After two years, Junior decided it was time to move back with his mother and Windy was left with all sorts time, of jewelry skills and pieces of original jewelry building up, some pieces rather unique. He turned to local flea market and soon established himself as a regular jewelry maker, attending almost every weekend. Sales increased, and soon Windy began his jewelry business, The Stonewerkes, Southwest Originals in Wood and Stone. He was attending weekend flea markets and Art in Park and Craft shows all over Arizona to sell his products. And he built up a chain of 8 businesses in two states which also handled his jewelry on consignment.

Loring actually took his “rockhounding” hobby turned jewelry business a large step further. He subscribed to all commercial and trade magazines as well, and then combined his talents as a photographer and as a writer, photographed his silver smithing and lapidary work, wrote photo-journalism articles on “how to” silver smithing projects and then sold them to magazines.

Loring says “You never know when what you do as a hobby can end up being a very profitable business. Over past 40 years I have had rare pleasure of turning three hobbies into professions: photography, electronics and now rockhounding. And using other skills such as technical writing and typing in those endeavors. From humble beginnings….”