The proliferation of the Internet has opened doors to concepts like tech-boom, online jobs, eCommerce, dotcom billionaires, etc. Together with it also, the scams and frauds have flourished, where simple ordinary people all over the world are siphoned off their savings after being promised of untold riches.

How do you differentiate the bad actors from the good? There is one simple concept from economics.

What is eCommerce?

eCommerce like a traditional commercial activity has to have either (or both) of these two things – goods and services. Goods means physical products to sell, and services means providing skills, expertise or knowledge for a fee.

For example, if you make, or trade in, furnitures and household items, these are called goods. If you sell it online it becomes eCommerce. If you are a consultant or tour guide, you are selling your expertise or skills. This is service.

A combination of two exists and the examples are online retail platforms such as Alibaba and Amazon, which are selling physical goods that others produce, and take a cut from every transaction. Basically they are like giant shopping mall with many shops and outlets operating from their buildings. There are a few local Bhutanese online retailers such as Azha Pasa and Druksell.

Simply put, if a business does not fall under any of the above three, then something is off. It could also be something illegal or dangerous too. As a cliche goes, if there is no product in terms of goods or services, you could be the product that they are selling.

Scams are getting sophisticated.

Some of these companies have exploited the legal loopholes in some countries and have registered the “business” with offices and websites. Be extra careful. Always ask this simple question: what is the product And then the follow-up question. Is it legal in my country? Is it legal everywhere?

Scammers are also getting better and making it look more legal and ethical that it is difficult to not be lured into it. Some make it look like a proper job offer. Here the red flag to watch out for is if they ask you to deposit money to them. No proper job offers require you to put a deposit. Period.

So, without generalising, there could be very few exceptions, I have a simple piece of advice – stay away from it.

Start your own shop.

If you want financial independence, start your own shop or business – or provide a service. For example, Thimphu needs some cleaning, gardening, house-keeping services that can come for a couple of hours every week. And soon with all the children away, we may also need old-age care givers. We still need more contractors who can build some smooth roads. There is lots of space for good services.

Start small. Put your heads down and work. Keep going for 10,000 hours (Malcom Gladwell’s Theory) to see the first good outcome. Amazon started by selling books. Wipro sold vegetable oil in the beginning.

The road to prosperity takes time.

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