Mompreneurs - Avoid These 7 Biggest Mistakes When Starting A Home Made Business

If you're starting a home based business you can avoid a lot of the common pitfalls by following these 7 tips. I've made all these mistakes (and plenty more!) and hope that by sharing them you can launch your business quickly and successfully.

Being able to generate your own income from home is really exciting and empowering, and you can make as much or as little you as need if you are willing to keep learning, and to take massive action.

Mistake 1: Not Having A Plan

Starting any business without a plan is a recipe for disaster. With a well thought-out plan you have a clear idea of what you're trying to achieve and how you're going to get there. Having a plan helps you avoid some of the pitfalls as you can determine which opportunities fit with your strategy, and those which you should park for another time.

There are many types of plan you could put in place when you start a business - a business plan, marketing strategy, social media marketing plan to name just a few. But, to get you started let's simplify this down into a simple plan you can write on a single sheet of A4, and which is all you need to get started.

If you can write down the answers to these questions, you'll have enough of a plan to get you started:

    Who is your target market? (Be specific and very clear on who you are targeting. For example, for a dating site you might target 40+ divorced women).
    What problem are you going to solve for your market? (What problem keeps them awake at night, or what pain can you ease? Always think about how you can provide value, not what you can sell)
    Where does your target market congregate? (look for forums, blogs and social media sites where your target market spends time)
    How can you get your target market to like and trust you enough to buy from you? (think relevance, value, and being human and authentic).

Mistake 2: Succumbing To Information Overload

When you start a business, especially an online business, you'll soon be inundated with tempting "must have" offers, free reports and bonuses galore. In fact, this free report is just that!

If you're not careful it's very easy to get side-tracked and to start to drown in the avalanche of information. Your email box will fill up and you'll have days worth of information to wade through... and you will never have time to read or absorb it all.

The answer? Pick your top three priorities from the action list that stems from the plan you made above and only sign-up for information relating to that topic. Once you've bought, downloaded or opt-ed in to a particular information source try to resist the temptation to subscribe to any more until you've implemented the advice from that source.

I know this is a really hard discipline to master but it's well worth it to stay focussed. You will move ahead with your business much faster.

Mistake #3: Falling For "Get Rich Quick" Schemes.

Unfortunately there are many unscrupulous marketers out there (some of them very good at what they do) and it's so easy to be tempted by the "make $1Million in 24 hours by clicking three buttons" offers. We are all human and the idea of a short-cut, make money quickly product is hard to resist (I know, I've fallen for it many times and bought all sorts of time-saving, traffic boosting products, that haven't improved my web traffic or income one bit).

The claims are not necessarily untrue, but they often made by an experienced internet marketer with a large mailing list. They have already built trust with their list, so when they send their latest offer to their tens of thousands of eager followers, their products are snapped up, making them millions. So, the claims can be true but unless you are in the same position as these internet gurus you won't achieve the same results.

Avoiding these scams is common sense if you accept the fact that making money from your business takes time and persistence.

Mistake #4: Trying To Sell Products To Make A Quick Buck.

If you want your home based business to make you a sustainable, passive income (which means you are making money whether you work or not, on autopilot) then your goal should be to build up a loyal list of followers. This is where blogging is so effective. You can write about things that interest you, in your own style, and people will follow your posts if they like you, and you're offering value. You can move people up the "value chain" from visitor to prospect, and prospect to customer.

It's a massive mistake to start by choosing a product that you think is a bestseller, and then try to sell it. What you think people will buy may not be what they want at all, and if you get the wrong market you could end up paying for products and marketing, and not selling anything.

The secret? Find a hungry market where people are already buying and position yourself in the middle of this stream of income.

Mistake #5: Using Someone Else's Copy, Or Badly Rehashing Existing Copy.

If you want to make good money, you need to put the work in upfront and produce original content. Make a real contribution with your forum and blog posts and comments, and write original articles for your niche market. It will be appreciated and you will build a long-term business that keeps on paying you.

What people are looking for online is the answer to their problems from a real person that they like, and can relate to. So, write as if you're talking to a friend, and inject some of your personality into your writing. Be honest and authentic and you'll soon have a following of potential customers.

Mistake #6: Expecting Instant Results.

Like any other business, a niche website or internet marketing business needs time and persistence to gather momentum. At the beginning you will need to write a lot of content (articles, blogs, comments, forum posts etc.) and you will see little return. But this is not wasted effort because once you start building traffic to your site, and you start building your list, you'll see a snowball effect. And content you write is on the web forever so people will be searching for information and finding your material for years to come. And when they do, you get paid!

Mistake #7: Not Understanding Your Market.

As part of your planning process (see mistake #1), make sure you understand your market. Spend time with them in the places they congregate and see what questions they're asking, what problems they have, and what the hot topics are.

Do some basic keyword research to ensure you have a hungry market of buyers. Use the Google Keyword Tool to find the keywords your market is using to search on, and you can then pepper these throughout your website and posts to attract traffic from the search engines, and to get your site indexed.

Tip: Always check the profitability of your niche using sites such as Amazon, Ebay, Clickbank and Dummies.com to make sure there are people buying in your niche. In the internet world, competition is good and indicates a hungry market.

So, hopefully now you have enough information to put a basic plan in place for your business and to avoid some of the common pitfalls. What next?

Make an action list from your plan, say 3-5 tasks you need to do to achieve your business goals. That may be to make $1,000pcm in additional income, to replace your salary or to build a list of 1,000 subscribers.


Article Source: Cassie Hicks