Business Opportunity:

A business opportunity, or bishop, involves the sale or lease of any product, service, equipment, etc. that will enable the purchaser-licensee to begin a business. The licensor or seller of a business opportunity usually declares that it will secure or assist the buyer in finding a suitable location or provide the product to the purchaser-licensee. This is different from the sale of an independent business, in which there is no continued relationship required by the seller.

A common type of business opportunity involves a company that sells bulk vending machines and promises to secure suitable locations for the machines. The purchaser is counting on the company to find locations where sales will be high enough to enable him to recoup his expenses and make a profit. Because of the many cases of fraudulent biz-ops in which companies have not followed through on their promises, or in which profits were much less than what the company led the investor to believe, governments closely regulate these operations.Multi-level marketing is often presented as a business opportunity, such as the phrase, "Let me tell you about an incredible ground-level business opportunity."

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission receives complaints and helps coordinate enforcement action against fraudulent business opportunities’ business opportunity consists of four integrated elements all of which are to be present within the same timeframe (window of opportunity) and most often within the same domain or geographical location, before it can be claimed as a business opportunity. These four elements are: