If you’re looking to work at home to make some extra cash or as a full time job then starting a home based business is what you need to do. Starting a home based business has many advantages and is easier to do then you think. Most people can achieve success with their home based business working as little as a couple hours a day right from home. Let’s talk about the advantages of working from home.One advantage of working at home is you get to set your own hours. As I said before most people do very well with their business putting in as little as two hours a day. What I usually do is before I get the kids up for school I spend about one hour working on my business as I drink my morning coffee. After I drop them off I spend one more hour as I eat my breakfast. So by about 9:00a.m I’m done and have the rest of the day to myself. Now you should keep into account that it took me about 2 months to get to this point. Before that I would say I spent about 4 hours a day getting my business started.Another great advantage of having your own home based business is that your store is open 24/7. Unlike having a brick and mortar store where your only open during certain hours your store is open all day and you have customers from all over the world who can visit. This will give you the potential of making money as you sleep.Here’s another advantage. You will have no inventory to handle or store. With your own home based business you won’t have to pay rent to store products as you will be selling some one else’s products. All you do is get customers to the sellers sites and make a commission per sale. It’s that easy. There’s no money to handle to pass hands, except your commission checks.There are a lot of other advantages to working at home with your own home based business but these are the ones I feel are the ones most important to people. I know these were the main reasons for me. Look into starting up a home based business, it has been a life changing experience for me and I’m sure it will be for you.

Do you love your home based business? I mean do you really really LOVE your home based business? Do you love your products, do you love the opportunity and are you so crazy in love with the business as a whole that you can’t wait to tell your family and friends all about it? If the answer is no you may have a problem. Because the people who have the most success in a home based business are the people who are totally and completely in love with their home based business. So I ask you… are you?I see people all the time who are trying to get other people into their home based business but the problem is that they don’t have any real passion for the business themselves. Sure they might like the business and they might see the opportunity but when you’re not in love with your business it shows and it will defiantly turn people off to your opportunity. When you’re in love it shows. It shows in the way that you talk, the way that you move, you just have a little sparkle that you may not have had before and people can see it from a mile away.So when you are trying to get someone into a business that you’re not in love with you’re already fighting a losing battle. People are very skeptical when it comes to home based businesses. They’ve just heard too much negative and even if they are actively seeking an opportunity they’re still probably going to be a little bit skeptical. That’s why you have to present your business opportunity with passion. They should be able to tell that you love what you do and if they can see that they will be much more likely to get involved in your business rather than someone elses… if they can’t see it you may end up getting rejected and they’ll find someone who truly loves their business.So if you’re in a business that you’ve not in love with get out now! You’re never going to have the success that you will have when you find a business that truly makes you head over heels crazy in love. It doesn’t mean that the business has to be perfect (no business is) but it should be perfect for you!

Fundraising Auction Tip: You should always provide potential bidders with a printed Auction Listing of both your Live and Silent Auction items at any Fundraising Auction. A printed Auction Listing is vital for several reasons:

An Auction Listing informs bidders of the order of sale, and what is coming up next. If you keep your bidders guessing, they will simply not bid.

If bidders are not 100% certain of what they are bidding on, they will not bid. A printed Auction Listing should answer any and all questions about what is being sold in order to encourage bidders to bid as much as possible.

Bidders often need time to plan their bidding strategies, especially on multiple and/or larger value items. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Couples often need time to consult with each other about what they are willing to spend on something. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Potential bidders need to know the specifics, the benefits, and the restrictions on any item they are going to bid on, especially on travel and/or other higher value items. A printed Auction Listing should answer all of their questions, in writing.

After bidders see that they have lost an item to another bidder, a printed Auction Listing makes it easier for them to re-strategize on what else they can bid on.
Printed Auction Listings generally come in 3 forms:

Printed in the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-inserted into the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-delivered to all attendees, or left on each dinner table in the room.
Auction Listings cost practically nothing to produce and they can make the difference between the success and failure of a Live and Silent Auction. You should never conduct a Fundraising Auction without one.

A Case Study

Let me share a real-life experience with you. Once I was hired to conduct a Fundraising Auction for a nationally renowned organization. The event was held in a major hotel, in one of the country’s largest cities, with several hundred “black tie” participants attending. It was an extremely professional event, with the music, singing, lighting, speeches, and awards all perfectly timed and choreographed. Everything was done to perfection… exception the Fundraising Auction.

Although I had signed an agreement to serve as their Auctioneer nearly one year in advance of the event, no one bothered to contact me for any advice or help. Approximately one week prior to the Auction date, I contacted the group to see if they had replaced me with another Auctioneer. But they said that I was still their man.

Upon arriving at the event I asked for a copy of the Auction Listing. I was told that there were none. I’m not sure whether they felt that the Auction Listing wasn’t necessary, or whether someone forgot to have them printed. This was never made clear. When I asked what I was to use at the podium, I was told to copy the list of Live Auction items from a committee member’s computer. It took me about 30 minutes to copy three pages of hand-written notes in order to prepare for my role as their Auctioneer.

I knew that they had created a PowerPoint program showing the various Live Auction items. When I asked whether the PowerPoint slide order corresponded to the order of sale I had copied from the committee member’s computer, I was met with a blank stare. The committee member left to check the slide order, and returned to let me know that the slide order did not correspond my notes, and he provided me with the correct slide order… hand-written on a paper napkin. This forced me to re-arrange my three pages of hand-written notes before taking the podium.

There was a Live Auction Table with descriptions of the Live Auction items that were to be sold, but the table was not clearly marked, and it received significantly less attention than the Silent Auction Tables, which were clearly identified. Since the Live Auction Table was located adjacent to the “Raffle Table”, it appeared that most people thought it was part of the raffle and therefore paid very little attention to it.

According to the event program (which did not include an Auction Listing), I knew approximately when I was to begin the Live Auction. At the designated time the Master of Ceremonies announced the start of the Live Auction to the several hundred people in attendance, and introduced me as Auctioneer. As I approached the podium I realized that photographs of award winners were still being taken… directly in front of the podium where I was to stand… which required me to stand aside for several minutes until the photographers were done. Can we say “awkward moment”?

As the photographers cleared, I approached the podium and began my Live Auction introduction. Approximately one minute into my introduction, the “Raffle Committee” approached the podium and stopped my Live Auction Introduction in order to pull the 8 or 9 Raffle Winners. These drawings lasted about 5 minutes. Upon it’s conclusion I was allowed to resume the start of the Live Auction.

When standing at the podium two intense and extremely bright spotlights were pointed directly at the podium. The lights were so bright that I literally could not see the center 1/3 of the room. I could see the tables on the right, and on the left, but was totally blinded when looking straight ahead. It took perhaps five minutes before the spotlights were turned off.

While at the podium and describing Lot #1, I had to ask someone to start the Lot #1 PowerPoint Slide… because apparently no one was assigned that job.

So with only the Auctioneer’s verbal description, and a PowerPoint slide, it appeared that few people in the room had any idea about what we were selling… or when we were selling it… until it was announced by the Auctioneer. As a result, bidding was extremely light and the final results fell several thousands of dollars short of where they should have been
The learning experience is this:

The Live Auction is where you place your better items, and where the real money should be made at any Fundraising Auction. Let bidders know as far in advance as possible what you will be selling, and the order of sale, so they can get excited about the Auction, and plan their bidding strategy accordingly.

Auction Listings are absolutely vital to the success of both Live & Silent Auctions. In my opinion, revenues at this Auction fell thousands of dollars short of where they should have been, because no Auction Listing was provided to the guests.

If bidders are not perfectly clear on what is being sold, including both the item’s specifics, benefits, and restrictions, they will not bid.

When you have a committee of volunteers, especially volunteers having full time jobs and/or very busy schedules, the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer can help to keep the committee on track.

And once you retain the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer… use the services that you are paying for.