From Social Networks To Market Networks

Most people didn’t notice last month when a 35-person company in San Francisco called HoneyBook announced a $22 million Series B*.

What was unusual about the deal is that nearly all the best-known Silicon Valley VCs competed for it. That’s because HoneyBook is a prime example of an important new category of digital company that combines the best elements of networks like Facebook with marketplaces like Airbnb — what we call a market network.

Market networks will produce a new class of unicorn companies and impact how millions of service professionals will work and earn their living.

What Is A Market Network?

“Marketplaces” provide transactions among multiple buyers and multiple sellers — like eBay, Etsy, Uber and LendingClub.

“Networks” provide profiles that project a person’s identity, then lets them communicate in a 360-degree pattern with other people in the network. Think Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

What’s unique about market networks is that they:

• Combine the main elements of both networks and marketplaces


• Use SaaS workflow software to focus action around longer-term projects, not just a quick transaction


• Promote the service provider as a differentiated individual, helping to build long-term relationships

An example will help: Let’s go back to HoneyBook, a market network for the events industry.

An event planner builds a profile on HoneyBook.com. That profile serves as her professional home on the web. She uses the HoneyBook SaaS workflow to send self-branded proposals to clients and sign contracts digitally.

She then connects to that project the other professionals she works with, like florists and photographers. They also get profiles on HoneyBook, and everyone can team up to service a client, send each other proposals, sign contracts and get paid by everyone else.

This many-to-many transaction pattern is key. HoneyBook is an N-sided marketplace — transactions happen in a 360-degree pattern like a network. That makes HoneyBook both a marketplace and network.

A market network often starts by enhancing a network of professionals that exists offline. Many of them have been transacting with each other for years using fax, checks, overnight packages and phone calls.

By moving these connections and transactions into software, a market network makes it significantly easier for professionals to operate their businesses and clients to get better service.

We’ve Seen This Before

AngelList is also a market network*. I don’t know if it was the first, but Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi deserve a lot of credit for pioneering the model in 2010.

On AngelList, the pattern is similar. The startup CEO can complete her fundraising paperwork through the AngelList SaaS workflow, and everyone in the network can share deals, hire employees and find customers in a 360-degree pattern.

Joist is another good example. Based in Toronto, it provides a market network for the home remodel and construction industry. Houzz is also in that space, with broader reach and a different approach*. DotLoop in Cincinnati shows the same pattern for the residential real estate brokerage industry.

 

Looking at AngelList, Joist, Houzz, DotLoop and HoneyBook, the market network pattern is visible.

Six Attributes Of A Successful Market Network

Market networks target more complex services. In the last six years, the tech industry has obsessed over on-demand labor marketplaces for quick transactions of simple services. Companies like Uber, Mechanical Turk, Thumbtack, Luxe and many others make it efficient to buy simple services whose quality is judged objectively. Their success is based on commodifying the people on both sides of the marketplace.

However, the highest value services — like event planning and home remodeling — are neither simple nor objectively judged. They are more involved and longer term. Market networks are designed for these types of services.

People matter. With complex services, each client is unique, and the professional they get matters. Would you hand over your wedding to just anyone? Or your home remodel? The people on both sides of those equations are not interchangeable like they are with Lyft or Uber. Each person brings unique opinions, expertise and relationships to the transaction. A market network is designed to acknowledge that as a core tenet — and provide a solution.

Collaboration happens around a project. For most complex services, multiple professionals collaborate among themselves — and with a client — over a period of time. The SaaS at the center of market networks focuses the action on a project that can take days or years to complete.

Market networks help build long-term relationships. Market networks bring a career’s worth of professional connections online and make them more useful. For years, social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook have helped build long-term relationships. However, until market networks, they hadn’t been used for commerce and transactions.

Referrals flow freely. In these industries, referrals are gold, for both the client and the service professional. The market network software is designed to make referrals simple and more frequent.

Market networks increase transaction velocity and satisfaction. By putting the network of professionals and clients into software, the market network increases transaction velocity for everyone. It increases the close rate on proposals and expedites payment. The software also increases customer satisfaction scores, reduces miscommunication and makes the work pleasing and beautiful. Never underestimate pleasing and beautiful.

Social Networks Were The Last 10 Years. Market Networks Will Be The Next 10.

First we had communication networks, like telephones and email. Then we had social networks, like Facebook and LinkedIn. Now we have market networks, like HoneyBook, AngelList, Houzz, DotLoop and Joist.

You can imagine a market network for every industry where professionals are not interchangeable: law, travel, real estate, media production, architecture, investment banking, personal finance, construction, management consulting and more. Each market network will have different attributes that make it work in each vertical, but the principles will remain the same.

Over time, nearly all independent professionals and their clients will conduct business through the market network of their industry. We’re just seeing the beginning of it now.

Market networks will have a massive positive impact on how millions of people work and live, and how hundreds of millions of people buy better services.

I hope more entrepreneurs will set their sights on building these businesses. It’s time. They are hard products to get right, but the payoff is potentially massive.

by James Currier (@JamesCurrier)

Is Markethive one of the new pioneers called a Market Network?

Please comment below what do you think?

From Social Networks To Market Networks

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Tips for Choosing a Home-Based Business

 

The market is wide open and the demand for working from home is getting more and more popular. With many people suddenly finding themselves unemployed because of changes in their work place, many more are also looking at the idea of working from home.

A home internet business is one that is conducted out of your home, using a website in order to attract and interact with customers. Starting such a business can be an exciting and relatively low-cost way to make extra money or launch a new career, whether you are providing services online or using a website to market your products or skills. Despite the advantages, starting a home internet business is difficult, and most internet businesses fail.   To make yours a success, you will need a clear plan, a polished website, and an effective marketing strategy.

Starting a business from home allows you to save money on office overhead — check with the local zoning officials to make sure your home can be used for commercial purposes.   Now that you’ve decided that a home-based business is for you, where do you start? There are so many opportunities for home-based businesses, how do you decide which to choose?

Your first consideration should be if the company has consumable products.   If you sell mattresses, you will need many more customers than if you sell soap or toothpaste.   Pick a company with consumable products so that your customers will be repeat customers.

To decide on a product or service, look to your unique abilities, training, or experience. Ask yourself how you can utilize these things to create a product or service that creates value better for customers than your potential competition.

Your home-based business should be something that you are passionate about and love to do. Find a company with products that you will be using. By using the products, you develop your personal belief system in the products and the company.   As your personal belief system grows, your testimonial about the products and company will be more believable.

Are the products of a good quality and affordable?   The more expensive the products are, the more your market will be limited. Choose products that offer good value and in a price range that the majority of the public can afford.  This will give you the largest possible customer base to draw from.

Consider the start up costs of your home-based business. Also look at the cost of maintaining the business.   Are there quotas to maintain?   The last thing you need is to end up with a lot of stock that you have already paid for and now have to store until it can be sold.

Consider how much time you are willing to put into your business.   Some businesses are easier to do as part-time businesses than others.

Do your homework!   Before you make your final decision, make sure that you have done your investigation of the company or companies that you are considering.   You will be forming a business relationship with this company, therefore ensure that the company is solid financially and has sound business practices. If you need questions answered or need support, is a “real person” available?   There are times when searching through a list of FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) just doesn’t work.  Plus, it’s good to develop a working relationship with people in the company that you are doing business with.

Once your business is selected, and you know what is needed, then preparation needs to be started. Of course you want to do it right, so, with your budget in mind, start getting ready to open those doors for business.  Don’t forget your website, and also the advertising.

 

Judy Curtis

Developer

 

Tips for Choosing a Home-Based Business

Is It Time for a Home-Based Business?

 

In today’s economy, it’s hard for a large majority of the population to make ends meet.   Everywhere we look our expenses creep upwards while our income lags behind.   One salary households struggle to get through the month and have been known to “rob Peter to pay Paul”.   Even in households with two salaries coming in, there are times when there is more month than money!

Juggling the family finances can at times be trying.   What’s the answer?   Perhaps a second job . . . It’s an option if you don’t mind giving up some family time for additional work time.   Try paring back the expenses , if that can be done.   Stretch your dollars as far as you can. Go through the storage bins and closets and have a yard sale or advertise items online as that could bring in some extra cash.   Most of us have been around this block at one time or another!

Enter the technological age with all the advances in how we connect with our world. The portability of an office is at hand in the form of smartphones and tablets. Business can be conducted from any location as long as a phone and internet connection are available.    Given the ease in which you can conduct business using modern technology, it is not a wonder that the number of households with home-based businesses have shot up substantially in the last few years.

Whether a person starts a home-based business on a part-time basis or whether a person jumps right into full time at the onset, there are many advantages.   Among these perks are personal freedom and independence. Time spent in traffic can be redirected towards spending more time with family. There are no bosses, no dress code, no set work schedule, and no office politics to deal with.    Personal drive, discipline, and time-management skills are required.

There are tax advantages to having a home-based business.   A percentage of most household bills including mortgage or rent, utilities, property taxes, insurance, phone and internet bills can be deducted based on the percentage of your house that is used for your home office. Be sure to follow the Tax Guides for Small Businesses as set out by the Government.   Any improvements or repairs to your home office are also deductible business expenses. Be sure and keep all receipts.

Many home-based business expenses are tax deductible including tax preparation fees for your home-based business; education expenses for classes you take to improve your business skills; software and office supplies purchased to use for your business, and transportation used for business purposes (deduct expense for mileage traveled for business at a per mile/km amount).   All items you need to conduct your business are deductible.

There are other positives when considering a home-based business.   Start up costs of a home-based business are considerably less when compared to starting a brick & mortar business or owning a franchise.     You get to expand your skills as you deal with all aspects of running a business. You get to set your own schedule therefore it will be a little less stressful when having to juggle demands of work and family. You are rewarded as the harder you work, the more money you can make.

There are a multitude of home-based businesses to choose from so be prepared to spend some time and effort checking out the opportunities before deciding which opportunity to pursue. Be sure to take into consideration your lifestyle. Think about whether you would want to be able to conduct your business from more than one location; if not now, perhaps in the future.   Plan ahead.   It’s just as easy to choose a business that can be conducted primarily over the internet than a business that requires a more permanent location.

In this day and age of the entrepreneur;   why not give starting a home-based business some thought . . . it may be just what you need!

 

Judy Curtis

Developer

 

Is It Time for a Home-Based Business?

Learn How Entrepreneurs Make Millions

 

There are three basic ways of earning money which include trading time for money, trading money for money and trading expertise/value for money. Society and the formal education system promote the first method of earning money which involves trading time for money. In other words, you work for someone else for a specific amount of time and then they pay you. You have a JOB!  Working for someone else drains your energy and you don’t make much money.

The second way to earn money is utilized by a small portion of the population and involves trading money for money. In other words, you are earning money through investing. Investing can be risky; and if you lack additional funds then how can you invest any money in the first place? Therefore, many people can’t even try this option because they only have enough money to meet monthly expenses.

The third way to earn money is the best option. This entrepreneurial option involves trading expertise/value for money. This is the strategy of entrepreneurial experts. You have a flexible schedule, work less, and earn more. You can make thousands of dollars a day in this option.

In order to earn money through trading expertise/value for money you need to first figure out who you are and what you can give to others. What information do you know that could help others? You can find value from previous work experience or even from your hobbies. From this you can create your intellectual property.

What is Intellectual property? How big is the market for Intellectual property? Is there room for you in the Intellectual property market? These may be a few of the questions you have when you are investigating the information marketing business. First of all, anyone can create intellectual property. You don’t need to be a Rocket Scientist. You just need to have an area or expertise, or access to an expert, and a drive to succeed.

Intellectual property combines e-commerce and book publishing. For example, you can write and sell an eBook. Recent research has found that approximately 6 out of every 10 American adults surf the Internet on a daily basis seeking out entertainment, education, and to shop for products. People are more comfortable buying online than in the past. The market through the Internet is global and encompasses millions of people. Therefore, the information marketing business has room for everyone!  When you market on the Internet, you market to your niche. Therefore, you don’t have to worry whether or not your neighbor will want to buy your product. The Internet opens the niche market for you.

If creating and selling intellectual property on the Internet is so simple, why isn’t everyone doing this? The formal educational system and previous societal beliefs are to blame. In school, we are taught to finish school and then become an employee at a company. The entrepreneurial spirit is not promoted; in fact it is almost shunned. Don’t let societal beliefs stop you. The intellectual property market is wide, diverse, and ready to fill your pocket book with cash.

Now is the rise of the entrepreneur. More and more people are finding out that home based businesses are the best way for an entrepreneur to go. Home based businesses are preferred by entrepreneurs because they require the least capital. In most cases of home based businesses, you require very little capital as you don’t really have to rent office space. Just think about all of the money you will be able to save by bringing your business home.

 

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Attain top SEO and reach billions of people on the Social Networks is a typical day for the Entrepreneur at Markethive

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When you gather the troops of Entrepreneurs as a family, with a common goal, the power of the Inbound Marketing of Markethive explodes exponentially.

Broadcasts in the trillions begin to happen, reaching SEO results unheard of and building lifelong partnerships with other Entrepreneurs is Markethive.

I started using Markethive a few months ago. The Tools are incredible, rotators, tracking, coop press releases, email autoresponders, capture pages, the blog platform is genius, the knowledge shared and the family of other entrepreneurs just makes the results of marketing with Markethive the very best.

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Do Blogs Bring in More Traffic?

The Blog!  Blogs are popping up everywhere. Your favorite website has one. Your favorite television show has one. Even your teenager has one.   Blogs  —  What are they? Why are they everywhere you look?

Most simply put, blogs are like journals.  Instead of being made of the paper and cardboard kept secret by an even thinner piece of cardboard and a lock your baby brother frequently opened with a paperclip, these journals are online.  Why does it seem like everyone has one?  Well, because almost everyone does; and there is a good reason. Blogs can be used as journals, both private and public; they can be used as ways for fans to discuss the latest episode of their favorite show; or they can be used by major companies, especially those that are Internet-based, because unlike the traditional forms of advertising, blogs bring in more traffic.

For business purposes, there are many ways companies use blogs. For example, a company may have several blogs on its website, each one dedicated to something different: customer concerns, product updates, etc. In addition to being helpful to customers and other website visitors, these blogs bring in more traffic to the website.  Depending on the website, more traffic usually means more money.

So, how exactly do blogs bring in more traffic? The search engine visits your page more each time you update, ultimately moving your blog higher and higher on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page).

Some pointers? First, the blogger will need to decide what he or she is going to write about. Choose a popular topic, one that people are interested in. Underwater Basket Weaving wouldn’t be a very wise choice as not many people seem to be interested in it. Unless, of course, you’re business is underwater basket weaving, in which case you should by all means write about it. Next, focus on some keywords; these are the words that search engines are going to pick up on. Don’t overdo it with keywords in your blog, but use them whenever you effectively can. Lastly, make sure you write content that will attract, and keep, a strong readership. You want your readers to keep coming back, right?

Go ahead, join the millions of people and businesses alike. Get yourself a blog.  Or corner your boss and suggest writing one for your company.  Explain how blogs bring in more traffic, more traffic means more money!

Judy Curtis,

Contributor

 

Do Blogs Bring in More Traffic?