If you’re one of our members then you’ve probably noticed a few changes around the hmp site. It was good before but now it’s the best. And this isn’t an idle boast. We’ve listened to our members, we’ve combed the web and we believe we have brought together the very best resource on the web for anyone looking for a flexible life with a flexible income.

• Our job board now has over 600 flexible jobs on it, growing daily.
• Our new ‘Extra Income’ section shows the very best in instant income opportunities from around the web – vetted by our members
• The Library now has over $250,000 worth of courses, guides and software available for our members to download …and sell!

Combined with our expert panel, our member useable social network and customer service second to none we are ..the best!

Here ends the lesson.

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The thing is, it does work. Why do some people make a fortune and some don’t make money at all? Simply put, because the people who make thousands or millions in cash knew all the lies in this business.

So what are the big internet lies? Below are the biggest internet lies that you should know:

1. Starting And Running A Business On The Internet Is Expensive
Do you know that you can start your business with zero cost? You can actually earn your income by joining a very high quality affiliate program. Usually, as an affiliate marketer, your job is concentrating on marketing only. All the follow up, delivery of the product, answering questions from customers and so on are done by the owner of the programme.

Usually the ‘expensive’ statement often comes from people who are living in non-U.S/European countries, especially if the country’s local currency is weak compared to the U.S. Dollar. If it is not a currency issue, it is a vision issue. See and think small to get small. See and think big and your results will have a tendency to match your thoughts.

2. You Can Make Easy Money from the Internet
Most people believe you can make money overnight and by doing nothing at all. This myth is what sets the realistic apart from the unrealistic. You have probably heard of stories of how people make 5 to 6 figure incomes in the shortest period of time imaginable.

These stories might be true but did you know most of them had failed miserably several times before they made the real money? They learnt from their mistakes and moved on. It may seem as if some gurus are overnight successes with the wild numbers some people have brought in during a day or a week selling information or products online.
Some interesting facts about overnight success – it normally takes months if not years to realize. In other words, they prepare, they create joint ventures, they get ready and then build up anticipation for a launch – then BOOM it explodes!

3. You Must Know HTML, Programming And Graphic Designing In Order To Start Your Business
You don’t need to know all of these at all. In fact, one of the biggest shockers was the discovery that most of the biggest web gurus today don’t have the first clue as to how to build a web page.

These gurus earned more money because they knew how to reach people. They either outsource (hello?)for professional help or establish Joint Ventures with other individuals who can compensate for their lack of knowledge in any one of these areas.

As a matter of fact most successful people are true successes because they only focus their time on what brings them success.

If you want to create your web pages without having to learn programming, HTML and designing skills, just find someone else that can do it for you. There are many professional web designers you can find on hiremyparents.

4. On the Internet, There Is No Need to Know How to Sell
This statement has made people who hate selling attracted to the ads that read “no selling required”. Think for a moment; is there any logic at all that you can make money without doing anything at all? Usually these programmes are unworkable and some are run by fly-by-night operators.

In this business, don’t try to sell to other people. Instead, you inform your potential customers. Show people what their lives would be like with what you offer and you will have a sale without selling anything at all!

5. You Don’t Have To Build A Mailing List At All
Laughing out loud – that is like saying, “I don’t want to be in business”. Put this in your head, your mailing list is as important to you as the “Yellow Pages” is to a conventional B2B business.

“The money is in the list”. You’ve probably heard this from most gurus out there. But you should also have this word in your mind, “The money is in the relationship”. The idea of networking with people is unattractive to most who hate to sell.

Remember though, you are not selling anything. You are just showing people their life and how it can easily be enhanced by what you have to offer.

All the above are just some of the big Internet lies. Actually there are a lot more Internet lies you should watch out for. You have to be smart in order to really achieve more success than you could possibly imagine on the internet, and it’s as hard work as any conventional job, but if you crack it your potential client base is planet Earth.

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One of our experts, Antonia Chitty, has just launched a brand new business programme specifically geared towards parents. The press release is below, I urge you to take a look:

One of the downsides of running your own business is that you are the one who needs to solve all the problems and drive the business forward. Doing this singlehandedly can only get you so far. Fortunately, Mumpreneur Guide Antonia Chitty has devised a programme to help mums in business get support and solve their business problems, any time.

The Mumpreneur Guide Business Programme is an online programme that mums running a business can access at any time through the internet.  You can work on modules to help you with business finance, marketing, sales and much more. By working through the programme you can find out where the gaps are in your business planning.

What’s more, the programme means that single handed business owners get support in developing their business. Antonia says, “Each month you can flag up areas that you need input and I’ll help you work through your particular blockages. The programme offers incisive questions that can make you think about your business in a new way.”

Mums who have tried the programme say, “I like the way The Mumpreneur Guide Business Programme works. It’s hugely convenient.” Marian, starting a copywriting business

“Antonia is a very good coach! She is very insightful, has great ideas, can get to the point without loads of meandering and side tracking and obviously knows what she is talking about!” Lisa Cole of www.lactivist.co.uk

There are a limited number of free trials for the Mumpreneur Guide Business Programme available each month so you can check it out for yourself. Go to http://www.themumpreneurguide.co.uk/mentorme.php

I was watching a bit of TV last night and there were a couple of Irish entrepreneurs selling genuine Irish dirt, bits of earth, in a nice bag to the American market. They were selling tons of the stuff. Can you imagine going to the bank with that business plan? The manager would have to change his pants.

But however bizarre it sounds these guys are making it work. I’ve no clue what research they did, if any, they just had an idea and it turned out to be a pretty good one. So is your idea a good one?

The good news is that in today’s world of blogs, twitter, facebook and bebo you can certainly get an idea of whether there’s a market for your business idea. As I’ve mentioned before research is everything and nowadays it’s very easy and cheap to do.

No.1 thing to do, start a blog. Make it look nice with some frilly bits and start to talk about stuff relevant to your market. Use various methods to spread that message around the web and see what happens. That’s what we did at hmp. We wanted to know if there was a large enough market out there for us to create a specialised job board for people looking for flexibility. Turns out there are 1000′s of you, so we did it.

Since then we’ve continued to post on the blog because as well as market research it’s also a great customer service tool. There’s no better way to get input and direction than from a direct connection with your readers and service users. We’ve got a whole raft of free online courses in the pipeline – why? Because our members asked for them.

Most of our members are 30+ ladies and gents with drive, imagination and one or two business ideas they want to try out. The problem is that everyone keeps telling them to build a website, set up a facebook page, run a twitter campaign, submit articles, write a viral ebook, look at PPC, distribute their RSS and create a buzz – but no-one has told them how. We listened, via the blog and social media, and now we’re reacting to our markets needs.

In todays connected world you can increase the odds of business success by talking to your market and then build on any success by using the same tools to find out what that market needs and respond to that input. And best of all – it’s free (or nearly). You no longer have to invest in a long term lease to test the water of potential markets, just send a tweet.

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You must experience the same. Every website and ‘mom’ blog is full of MLM, turnkey, don’t have to work, retire on a beach, send the kids to Harvard business models that just ‘can’t lose’. They set you up with a ready to go website, that looks like the website they gave a 1000 other people, and tell you to put your paypal address in and wait for the currency flood. Listen to me! The only person making money is the guy/gal selling you this bullshit notion that an online business is easy money. I’m actually quite insulted.

I’ve been in both worlds, internet and real, as an entrepreneur and every business I’ve had runs on the same principles – make the best product you can, market it, sell it and try to get them to come back again with excellent customer service. You can’t just set that on auto-pilot, in any medium.

If you want an online business the opportunities are endless and the market huge but don’t expect it to be easy, and stay a million miles away from anyone that tells you it is. You have to work just as hard to keep the basic principles going every day as you would in a bricks and mortar enterprise. It’s still a business, you have to treat it as such.

 

This Guys My Favourite –

 

Image by Kaptain Kobold via Flickr

You have to make a change – you know this. Kid number 4 has come along or the commute is killing you, whatever, you want to work from home but what the hell do you do about it.

There are 2 broad camps, as inferred by the title – start a home business or work from home on someone else’s business.

Now for some of you the choice is simple, that little entrepreneur synap starts firing and you’ve been working for the ‘man’ for 20 years already – time to go-it alone. For others the thought of going out there without a safety net and a steady paycheck is a little too much to consider.

Personally I think there’s a middle ground, the option I took when I first started working from home – do both.

Use resources such as the hmp job-board to take on part-time and freelance gigs consistent with your skills and related to the business you want to set up in the future. If you want to set up a pr/marketing firm then use these jobs to build your resume and the breadth of your skills. As you go on you should be building your website and blog (keep an eye out for our free course – coming soon) and adding authority content that engages and creates leads.

As your following and portfolio grows you can start to apply for jobs as a company with a provable history and demonstrable authority. You can raise your prices and point people to your, by now, impressive site which will not only help you convert leads but will actually capture them from around the web.

Now, I know all of this is easier said than done but you’ll be amazed at how fast your website and reputation grows if you add a little content everyday to your site and do it in the right way. hmp only started it’s job-board in October ’09 and we have over 4000 members from all over the world – that’s 3 months!

Taking the middle road of Home Business v’s Home Job is like having 2 jobs but the security it gives you and the resume it builds will give you a stronger foundation for your future home business.

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Details of the eCommerce Advisor position are on our Job Board as well as the geographical positions available.

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So you’ve decided to make the giant leap and start a home business, slowly at first – for God’s sake don’t quit your job – and then work on the goal of making it a full time income replacer. Through various hmp members I’ve seen that choosing a business to start and doing the day-to-day is often the easy part. You may have the sweetest product in the world but if no-one knows about it you’re going to fail, period. With cash in short supply there are still some great methods of promoting a home business but they do need work and lots of it. Take a look at the options below and look out for my new course launching for free in the members area soon – a full idiots guide to building a website you have complete control over and how to drive targeted (very important) traffic to it.

The first thing that you will want to do when you are promoting your home business is to write up a plan, this is sometimes referred to as a marketing plan. In this plan you will want to outline everything you intend to do as far as promotion is concerned. By doing this before you even get started, you will ensure yourself of having a guide to help you through the different stages of marketing. Many people overlook this step because they think that they can simply promote as they go along. This is true, but by having a promotional plan in place you will be much more successful.

One of the best ways of promoting your home business is through the use of a website. By having a website, you will be able to promote your business to people from all over the world. There was a time when this option was not available, but those days have come and gone. If you want your home business to be successful, you will need to have a top notch website that you can rely on.

In addition to promoting your home business with a website, there are other ways that you can do this online as well. Placing ads in ezines has been proven as a successful promotion method. The main advantage of doing this is that you can reach a target audience that is interested in what you have to offer. This is much better than simply placing an ad in a publication that does not even correspond with your company. Of course the hot topic at the moment is social marketing with the likes of facebook or twitter, but so many people (99%+) just don’t get it. Again, look out for the free course in the members area soon.

Of course, promoting your home business can also be done in more traditional ways as well. Many people feel that direct mail is still a great way to promote their business. This can be done by obtaining a mailing list, and then sending out some materials that will intrigue people to contact you. Even though this method is a bit outdated, and can still be very successful if done correctly.

Promoting your home business is the only way that you are going to be able to grow. By starting out with a plan you will be able to ensure yourself of guidance along the way. Remember, there are hundreds of promotional tactics available. Find a couple that work for you and stick with them. You will be seeing results in no time at all!

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1. Are You a Salesperson?

Some people have a natural talent for sales, while others couldn’t sell water to someone stranded in the desert. For the home based worker who has the ability to sell, network marketing may be the perfect home based business. Network marketing typically involves selling products in one or more niche markets, as well as selling the opportunity. Also known as multi-level marketing, network marketing pays commissions based on a percentage of your sales and on the sales of your “downline,” or those you have recruited to sell the product. Each opportunity has its own commission plan, and many pay bonuses on top of commissions.

2. Are You Experienced?

If you have years of experience being a home worker, you probably have a good idea of your strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand, if you’re new to being an entrepreneur, you probably need training. Look for a company that offers the tools and training you need in order to succeed. The type of training you receive can encompass everything from weekly conference calls or webinars (Internet-based seminars), to one-on-one coaching from your upline, to training manuals and other written materials.

3. Are You Internet Savvy?

If you know your way around the Internet and know something about setting up and hosting websites, the possibilities are endless. You can create your own websites, for example, and start generating affiliate revenue and Google AdSense revenue.

If you haven’t the foggiest idea of how to set up and host a website, be sure to find a company you can partner with who will do the heavy lifting. There are many Internet-based opportunities for the home based worker from companies that provide what are called “replicated sites.” They’ll design and host your websites for you, so that all you have to do is work on marketing in order to drive traffic to your site.

4. How Much do You Want to Work?

Before selecting a home based business opportunity, honestly assess how much you want to work. If a stay-at-home mom needs extra money, she may only want to work two or three hours a day. If someone wants to quit the rat race and work full time as a home worker, money for moms simply won’t be enough income. Sometimes a single home based business will provide all of the revenue a person needs, while other times you have to embark on several opportunities to diversify and multiply your revenue streams.

5. How Hands-On do You Want to Be?

Some home based business opportunities require that you be actively involved on a day-to-day basis, either in order fulfillment and customer service or in marketing your websites or businesses. Other opportunities are more passive in nature, in that you have to spend a lot of time initially, but they become self-perpetuating. If you’re a home worker who enjoys being an ongoing active participant, choose an opportunity that requires you to interact with other people. If you prefer to be hands-off, select a business that will basically run itself.