"I was able to give up work and run my own home business around my children"

Let me share with you how I was able to quit my job by building my own, simple to run home shopping network.

This website is designed to help you understand my journey so far and give you all the information you need to make the business work for you too.

Browse the sections of this website using the tabs above, where you can read more about my personal story, view training and support material and visit my online store.

You can contact me on 07729 494492 or email Hazel@Heath8844.fsnet.co.uk

If what you're doing now doesn't make you happy, it's time for a change.


The Lunatics have taken over the Asylum!


Why is it that, in many large organisations today, care and respect for the individual has almost gone out of the window (flown over the cuckoo’s nest)? I remember a very wise man, who ran a very profitable stationery and office equipment company my husband worked for, saying, ‘The more we give our staff in bonuses and rewards, the more we get back from them!’ Well isn’t that amazing – treat people well, catch them doing things right and then reward them accordingly, they repay you with loyalty, respect and their best work.

The problem with all of this is that it is a lot easier for managers to see when people are failing or not achieving and then start disciplinary programs to get them ‘back on track’. I don’t know about you, but when someone mentions disciplinary programs, I feel like I’m already in detention. It takes really good man-management skills to actually find each individual’s strengths in order to work with and get the best out of them. None of us are the same, we all have different strengths and weaknesses but that’s what makes for good teamwork – if of course the manager of that team can see how to use the skill set available. It wouldn’t do for a football team to be full of right-footed attackers after all would it? (Although I know a team that, at times, appears to be full of people with two left feet).

The art of people management seems to be disappearing under a deluge of computer programmes somewhat akin to Big Brother (George Orwell’s version, not the annoying television programme). I think even a monkey could one day be trained to push buttons which show ‘this person hasn’t achieved the target in this area, let’s get rid of them’. I know computer generated information is essential and brilliant for working out statistics but it then needs a human at the other end to translate the statistics into something useful and formulate a well thought out plan, moulded around the individuals, to achieve what is necessary.

I’m afraid that, too often, accountants and statisticians end up driving the sales arm of a company and, when that happens, all is lost unless you have a very experienced team of managers underneath them to find new and innovative ways of achieving targets. Many companies employ or promote people to managerial positions who have a ‘driver’s style’ of management which is all well and good but can sometimes be translated into a ‘beat them with a stick’ approach and can be a very unimaginative and basic approach to people management. Certainly there has to be the drive to succeed but it also has to me tempered with some respect and thought for the individuals. Knowing how to identify and develop skills in people is key. Work doesn’t have to be a necessary evil, it shouldn’t drive people to nervous breakdowns. Managed properly, if people are just not right for a job they’ll know and move on seemingly of their own accord. If they are right for the job, given the right level of support from their manager they will flourish and achieve at the height of their capabilities. Unfortunately some companies just don’t see this and end up losing high quality people who go on to ‘move mountains’ elsewhere, all the better for companies that have seen the light!

Lots of different income streams - it's the way ahead!

I don't know about you but when I was growing up it was expected that you did as well as you could at school and maybe University and then got yourself a good job that paid you a good wage and that was your lot. In this day and age of uncertainty about the stability of peoples' jobs it seems that more and more people are finding themselves an alternative income stream. This serves two purposes, one to perhaps give you those extra luxuries, pay for family holidays, meals out etc or just to help you pay all the ever increasing bills, it also gives you that little bit of back up should anything go wrong with your main occupation.

Car boot sales seems to be one of the many ways people find of raising some extra cash in their spare time, in fact I was talking to a sales assistant in a large electrical store the other day who was telling me that he was growing tomato plants to sell for a pound a time at car boot sales - he has a friend who is doing very nicely out of it, he and his wife also decorate wedding cakes (if you're interested I know where he works)

If you have your own website which actually isn't that difficult to set up these days, you can get into a bit of affiliate marketing where you get money if someone buys things via a link on your website. I am also a Kleeneze distributor which means I get orders by posting catalogues through peoples' doors or by advertising online and I can increase that at any time I need to, I can even hold parties or raise money for charities, it's very flexible. Now to add to that a very good friend of mine manufactures plastic beer barrels, kegs and cask, and it sounds like a great way of exploring some of the thousands of microbreweries that are springing up around the country - I like a nice drop of beer and, if I can help in making more of it by supplying great barrels, I'll try my damnedest. You spend so much of your life working you may as well mix business with pleasure as much as you can. (I knew the valuable research I did at Leeds University and from then on into the many beers available would come in handy)