Owning a home based business has many perks. You get to set your own hours; there is no travel, minimal inventory and the freedom of working for yourself. No bosses, no coworkers, and no politics allows for less stress in your life. There are many opportunities to choose from.One key to being successful is to do your due diligence. Check out the company online. Google the company and its owners to make sure this is a legitimate home based business opportunity. Be sure that the company you choose provides good support. There should be ample conference calls, webinars, a call center and a sponsor for you to talk with. You should feel very strongly that this is a product or service that you feel passionate about.You absolutely must believe in your success from the very beginning. Know that you will have a learning curve and frustrations. Owning a home based business is not easy. Be willing to put in the time and effort it takes to be successful. Decide never to quit. There will be challenges to overcome. Look at the challenges as opportunities to learn something new and find a way to overcome them.Did you know that Thomas Edison failed 2,000 times before inventing the light bulb? He viewed this not as a failure but as a new way not to invent the light bulb. Learn from your failures and move on.Be positive and surround yourself with positive people. There will be naysayers and negativity. Ignore it. Keep company with others that believe as you do. Continue to believe that you are successful. Find a mentor that has been successful at what you want to do. Ask for help and home based business advice from others that have already achieved what you want.Set goals. Know what is important to you. Is it sales, marketing, financial stability, your reputation? Set short and long term goals. You achieve what you put your mind to, so set your goals high. Write a vision statement for where you want to be five years from now and then read it every day. Believe.The compensation plan of the company you choose should be easily understandable. It should pay out immediately and not after some number of sales. Check the affiliate programs and what other offers are out there.Look at the reality of the situation and know that this will take some time and some money. No one ever starts at the top, but if you are willing to put in the time and effort and believe in your personal success, then it will come to you. You must stick to it. Refuse to fail.Finally, take action. The best home based business advice I can give is if it feels right do it. Jump in, get started and learn what you need to know to be a success. There are home based business owners making millions, hundreds of thousands and much less than that. Decide who you want to be and get going.
5 Home Based Business Marketing Tips
Starting a home based business can be one of the best ways to increase your income and start moving closer towards achieving your financial goals. However to be successful it is important that you focus on doing the things that need to be done in order to make your business a success.This means that you must focus the majority of your daily efforts on doing the things that will lead to not only making sales but also to earning you a good profit. The good news is that when you plan and prepare a realistic budget and stick to it, this is much easier to accomplish.The mistake that many first time home based business owners make is that they do not take a structured approach to building their business. This causes them to be easily distracted, jumping from one thing to another and as a result they may end up over spending, accomplishing very little and soon just quitting.However by following a few simple tips you can significantly increase your chances of achieving online success and reaching your income goals.Here are 5 Home based business marketing tips that can help you:1.) Set clear, specific, realistic and achievable goals. Many people start off with hopes of striking it rich within their first few weeks of being online. This rarely if ever happens, especially if you have no prior business experience, training or additional guidance.It is much better to start with small achievable goals like getting a certain amount of traffic per day and then increasing that number until you are starting to see results.2) Identify your target market – This is an important step that a lot of new business owners skip but it is important that you identify A.) who is your idea customer and B.) What is the best way to reach them. This can save you a lot of time with your marketing budget and efforts.3.) Have a strategy that you can use to develop your plan of action. This strategy could and should include more than one approach for marketing your home based business.For example your strategy could revolve around using search engine optimization and this could include article marketing, bookmarking at different social media sites as well as using other forms of social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.4.) Create a plan of action and systems for doing things. This should include ongoing tasks management systems which allow for things to be done on a regular basis. You should not rely on how you feel each day to determine what will get done that day.By creating a plan of action or a work flow system you can set up daily action items to be done each day that will move your projects forward and allow you to achieve your income goals and objectives.5.) Manage your time well. Having daily achievement goals is a great start to achieving success with your home based business however unless you are maximizing your time usage, you may not be getting as much done as needed. This can prevent you from realizing even more success even faster.By following these 5 tips you will be able to stay focused on doing what needs to be done to make daily progress and achieve your income goals.
Home Based Businesses – Starting a Home Based Business – Trials and Success Pathways
To get started a business at home you will need good business ideas or options available. A great idea or opportunity that is definitely well looked into, formulated, and implemented can propel your success to impossible heights.Governments throughout the world are working hard to renovate the global economy, but on top of that we can’t sit still and wait for our governments. We will need to take matters into our hands to safeguard our financial futures.This content is focused at those who wish to solve their financial problems by starting a home business enterprise. Also, it is directed at those who have already tried but they are getting nowhere – they want to restart on guaranteed pathways.Setting up a home business enterprise can be overwhelming because there are way too many options, traps, deceits, and betrayals in the way. Fortune emanates from following a carefully worked out success pathway through this jungle of opportunities and threats.This short article discusses:1. The problems and risks of starting a work from home business.
2. The personal qualities you will need for success at a home business.
3. What you should be doing to get going in your home based business.
4. The spectacular perks you may expect from a work from home business.
5. The different start-up options and solutions open to you if you embark on a work-from-home business.
6. The tools and procedures you should have for good results in your home business enterprise.The rush of people to the Internet mean that it continues to make sense to begin a home business. So, many newbies are joining the work from home business bandwagon.Virtually all come with impractical expectations though, thinking that you can do little work for explosive pay. While it is true that we have less cumbersome as well as more painful approaches to generate business from home success, it’s false to think that one could make a nice income without work.This article examines several problems that a newcomer will face and exactly how to conquer them.With the world currently steeped within an economic crisis of large proportions the subsequent questions become significant:1. How must we manage individually with this worldly situation?
2. Can we, acting independently, change such mind boggling negatives into positives?While governments all round the globe seek to handle this crisis, we must make a move for ourselves both individually and collectively. One positive method of achieving this is to set about a home business start-up.The online world is growing annually as more and more men and women explore it to look for information and purchase goods and services.All the time a lot of us, like you and me, make the decision to get started on a business at home, yet not everyone find themselves succeeding at it. Many struggle and give up after a few years, while others come through with different levels of achievement.The matter with starting a home business is that there is excessive hype and a great number of lies encompassing the process. The online market place is brimming with dishonest artists aiming to make a quick buck, and it is easy to fall prey to these people.Their common tactic is to convince you that you can easily earn money on the web. A number of get-rich-quick schemes have been enacted via the internet and these schemes are very luring to beginners.Who doesn’t want a fast way to become rich, anyhow? Isn’t that the smoothest approach to financial freedom? In spite of this, with anything that sounds too good it is certain that there’s a catch.The individual who’s endorsing or selling a get-rich-quick scheme is after your hard earned money, and the thought of getting rich quick (with no effort at all) is the speediest way to convince a beginner to order.This tactic only works best for newbies, and yes it works until the newbie grows up to recognise that there’s no quick method to generate a profit (unless through fraud or you win a lottery).The thought of acquiring sales by making get-rich-quick promises is really a scam. It’s a scam because the seller makes money by deceiving the buyer. The conventional rookie will move from one get-rich-quick scheme to another until he or she gets the message… that it’s a fraud!The newcomer then gives up in discouragement, or continues to look for the fundamental truths of business at home success. If you’re a rookie and your first port of call is this article then you are a fortunate newcomer.This information should certainly take you out of the hands of the many get-rich-quick thieves out there who infest the net. It’s going to steer your time and effort along the best path to work from home success, so that you don’t waste your cash through dealing with Net crooks.In conclusion, starting a business from home needs useful business ideas or options, and this exceptional idea or opportunity that is well investigated, created, and implemented can push your success to unimaginable heights.Two or three things you must realize:* You’ve what it takes to ensure success at your work-from-home business.* A lot of people who started a business from home have excelled, and these folks are not gods.* Everyone who undertakes a major project like a home based business starts out uncertain, scared, shy, and overwhelmed. So you are not alone!* As you work on your home based business, you will grow psychologically and intellectually. This will drive away your uncertainties and concerns. You’ll become self-assured and in control.* When you’ve finally got there and you’re making the cash you wish from your home business, you’ll look back (like others have) and wonder why the trail couldn’t be straighter. But again that’s life! It’s always easier to be smart after the fact.To round up, this article deals with the following topics:1. The issues and dangers of starting work-from-home business.
2. The personal qualities you’ll need for getting good results at a home business.
3. What you ought to be doing to get going in your home business.
4. The spectacular benefits you can expect from a work-from-home business.
5. The several start-up options and solutions available to you in case you embark on a home business.
Cloud-Based Solutions Are Ideal for Boomer Home-Based Businesses
When retiring or laid-off Baby Boomers launch a home-based business, one of their most important decisions is choosing what type of solutions to utilize.Previously, the answer was clear – use resident software for performance and security. However, in the era of high-speed Internet connectivity, switching to cloud-based solutions offers many advantages:
Lower costs – no software licenses or equipment to purchase and maintain.
Instantly available – you do not have to install anything on your home computer.
Often available with no long-term contracts.
Accessible over the Internet from anywhere.
Secure access.
Free updates.
Satisfies the need for disaster preparedness – If you lose your hard disk or your house burns down, your critical business information is still available from any laptop!
Sometimes free for up to 2-3 users or basic functionality!!
Cloud-based solutions are those (e.g., accounting or customer relationship management) not resident on your home office computer, but which rather reside on a remote server and are accessible over the Internet. Typically, cloud-based solutions are less expensive and offer an easy means of quickly adding functionality. They are especially beneficial when you have partners, contractors or employees working at remote locations because databases and activities can be easily synched, ideas and projects improved through online collaboration, and sales/marketing management simplified.For example, many home-based businesses use online QuickBooks or FreshBooks for accounting. Pricing is reasonable and partners can access and update information from any location. And having an easy accounting solution is critical for any small business, especially at tax time!A plethora of cloud-based solutions exists for backing up critical business data and online collaboration. Two of the most popular are Google Docs and Dropbox. Residing online at distant servers which are backed up daily, they also provide the benefit of disaster preparedness should your home office suffer a burglary, fire, flood or earthquake.Cloud-based solutions can also assist Boomers who have client-based home businesses. Consider DocuSign, for example, which facilitates secure online delivery and signatures for agreements. These services are professional, save a lot of time, and enhance customer relations.Baby Boomers discover soon enough that achieving success with a home-based business requires time management. There is a hard way to get things done and the easy way. Leveraging cloud-based solutions is economical while also adding ease-of-use and functionality. Compared to resident desktop solutions, these online tools are hands-down winners!In short, Baby Boomers starting or operating a home-based business can expedite their launch, cut costs, acquire professional functionality and make their operations run smoother by simply embracing cloud solutions. What’s not to like?!
Work-Life Balance Tips for Small Businesses
People involved in small business get a bad rap for their workaholic ways. You know because you either know someone who is involved in small business or you are that person. Let’s look at some facts about small businesses in San Diego and then ways people involved in small business everywhere can a better create work-life balance.According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 99.9-percent of the 27.5 million businesses in the United States are considered small firms with fewer than 500 employees*. According to the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, the majority of companies in San Diego County are small businesses with 50 employees or less. One out of every five small businesses in San Diego County are in the business services segment which includes consulting, engineering, accounting, research and management. The additional types of business segments in descending size order are wholesale trade, manufacturing / repair, transportation, consumer services, specialty construction, builders, retail, finance/real estate/insurance and an “other” segment (the unclassified small businesses in the county). In San Diego County, the average number of people employed by a small business is 7.3 people.Everyone related to small business – the owners, the employees, the people who cater to and support small businesses – here are three tips for more balance in your life:1. Schedule time off. Small business owners value the importance of sticking to a schedule and deadlines. Decide how much time you can schedule to relax, be social or spend time with family in the next week and also how much time you would ideally like to have for such activities in the future. Then, schedule time away from work. Maybe this upcoming week you can only dedicate one hour away from everything work related; block out that hour on your calendar immediately. Knowing that your ideal amount of time is two full weekdays per month, a small business owner can set aside those specific dates in February now. Once those days are on the schedule, they must be respected as if they are meetings with the most valuable client. Commit to taking the time off for the things that matter most outside of business and protect that scheduled time.2. Turn off the cell phone. This goes for small business owners and anyone who has ever thought about work outside of the workplace. Especially when spending time with others outside of working hours, turn off the distractions of business. By removing the distractions of phone calls, text messages, instant messages, e-mails and phone alerts for a short time, you can truly relish in your time away from the office.Do you (or the small business owner you know) feel anxiety rise up inside of you when you merely consider turning off your phone? What if you took up the challenge of turning your phone off for one hour next week? Maybe it’s turning off the phone for the hour you’ve scheduled for yourself and your family. Maybe you turn off your phone before you fall asleep or leave it off while you get ready in the morning. Another suggestion is to shut off your phone during your commute if you drive. Since you shouldn’t be on it if you are driving, turn it off and turn up your favorite tunes. Whenever you decide to turn off your phone, you are claiming that time for yourself, which is a crucial piece of the work-life balance equation.Once you’ve turned on your phone again and realized that your business or work hasn’t imploded or exploded, your anxiety will be less the next time you cut off this type of communication. And what if your business does start to implode or explode? If you are not the sole person in your business, then someone will get ahold of you through your significant other, neighbor, friend, coworker or someone will show up where you are to tell you. If you are the sole person in your business, find another business owner in the same situation and work out a trade where you ensure each other’s businesses don’t go awry. Which brings us to the next point.3. Appoint a second-in-command for when you are inaccessible. You will take time off whether it’s an hour next week or a full month next year, and you don’t want to worry about your work during that time. That would eliminate the balance. Select a second-in-command and let the person know in what circumstance they will be in charge and how to reach you if a true emergency arises. (You may want to clarify what you consider an emergency with this person.) Let everyone in your company and important vendors know who is in charge in your absence moving forward. That way if something comes up in the hour you are in a business meeting or at your child’s play or in the month you are on vacation abroad, all employees and important vendors will know who to go to. Your second-in-command acts like the gatekeeper to your time away and assesses when he or she needs to contact you. Finally, when setting up your away messages with the times and dates you will be out of pocket, list your second-in-command’s contact information. Your away message may be on your website, in your social media messages, in an e-mail bounce-back message, on your store’s door, and on the phones in your business. If you’d like that breath of fresh air without the worry, then take the steps needed to prevent work from finding you unnecessarily while you are claiming more life in your work-life balance.With the majority of businesses in United States and in San Diego County operating as small businesses, work-life balance is necessary to continue and grow. By scheduling time off, turning off the cell phone and choosing a second-in-command, you can protect and freely enjoy your time away from the small business you run, work for or support. Here’s to work-life balance in small businesses everywhere!* The U.S. Small Business Administration sources data from the Office of Advocacy estimates based on data from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau, and trends from the U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics and Business Employment Dynamics.
Six Powerful Marketing Strategies To Help You Clinch The Deal
To help you seal a lucrative deal, you should incorporate the following six powerful marketing strategies:
Identify Your Target Market – This is very important as not everyone would be interested in what you have to offer. While your products may prove to be just perfect for some, not everyone would be interested. One of the first steps when striving to develop an effective marketing strategy would be to identify your target market. To accomplish this, you should take a long hard look at your overall market, then go on to identify various market segments and evaluate them to see which one would give you the best results.
Making use of a Positioning Strategy – Do not just develop a me too positioning strategy as this will lead to your consumers comparing your goods or services with your competitors when they think of purchasing it. You should develop a strategy that positions you away from your competitors by offering superior benefits that is based on a well-developed marketing mix strategy adopted by your organisation.
Providing an Outstanding Sensory Package – By marketing an unique sensory package where your customer get to touch, smell, feel and even taste your products or services will forever change the way you do business with them. You can compare it with your body language where you would make use of various hand signals and facial expressions. This kind of marketing strategy proves to be very powerful as it impacts on how your customer get to interact with your products with regards to the way it is positioned, instant recognition, favourable impressions, and even emotional gratification.
Marketing Mix Foundation – Laying your marketing foundation correctly that would include your product, promotion, pricing as well as fulfillment will ensure you have the right marketing mix combination in place and serve to attract as well as retain your customers. The core ingredient to effective marketing strategies would be to utilize the right marketing mix if you hope to attract your target market.
Analyzing the Competition – It’s been said that competition is good and the spice of life. If you let them, your competition can drive you crazy. On the other hand, it will ensure your competitive juices starts flowing as it will inspire you to greater things where you look for ways to differentiate yourself. You will start analyzing as to why your customers buy from them and not you, and also what they are buying.
Main Marketing Indicators – You need to track your marketing strategies by looking at the size of your target market. In addition, you should check to see what part you are covering with your various marketing activities. Then try and determine how much of this market you would be able to cover and even convert into interested buyers. You may look at it as a marketing funnel where each step would be narrowed down into the next one.
By incorporating all of the above marketing processes or strategies, you will soon develop the right marketing mix that would enable your business to become very good at pulling in targeted customers and also retain them.
6 Advantages of Pay Per Click Advertising
What are the main advantages to be had from marketing your business online via pay per click advertising?
1. Anything from a local to global audience at the touch of a button
The first top advantage of pay per click advertising is that worth nothing is the fact that you can easily select the focus and scale of your target audience at the click of a button in your account.
If you want to focus your online advertising on a small, localized area, within a few square miles of your business or store, you can choose to do so. If you want to advertise your products or services across more than one continent, you can choose to do so thanks to the technical advantages of PPC.
Being able to geographically target your audience is a huge pay per click advertising advantage, particularly because the boundaries that you set can be changed at any time. There are also lots of other ways to continue targeting your audience, such as their social or cultural preferences which can be gleaned from your audience’s social networking activities for example.
When using print advertising or other forms of online advertising, it is very difficult to get this kind of control over your target audience. The advantage is in the control and freedom that you have regarding geographical targeting.
2. Online advertising that is financially accessible to all
The second main advantage is the fact that you can advertise via pay per click regardless of your budget.
PPC is an effective form of online advertising that can be run on anything from a few dollars a month to millions of dollars a month. Regardless of the amount of money that you spend on your pay per click advertising, it can also still be highly successful, which is another advantage to bear in mind.
It is not how much money you spend that counts. It is how that money which you invest is spent which will start to bring in new clients and new customers to your business.
The advantage of paid search advertising as opposed to other kinds of online advertising or print advertising is the fact that you can achieve fantastic results from that advertising on any budget whatsoever.
3. Making changes is quick and easy
If you use print advertising to market your business, it is very difficult, expensive and time-consuming when you want to make changes to that advertising campaign. When you advertise, the third advantage is the fact that making changes to your campaign costs nothing (unless you are changing how much you are spending) and can be done at the click of a mouse.
You can make changes to the advertisement text within your advertisements, you can make changes to the times of day when your advertisements are shown, you can make changes to the landing pages on your website that your advertisements lead to. All of these changes can be made within a few minutes. It is that simple.
The list of what you can change is endless and therefore the advantage lies in the ease and speed at which you can market your business via this medium.
4. Development and improvement using advertising tools is never ending
The fourth advantage comes in the form of ppc tools which are under constant development and designed to make your pay per click advertising campaigns even more successful every time.
For example, if you need help optimizing your campaigns, you can use Google Analytics to make sure that you make informed decisions. You can also use other pay per click advertising tools to run a second campaign in secret for a period of time. In this way you can test out theories for that campaign to see what kind of results you might get from that campaign. All of this can be done as a test run without actually running the campaign for real and having to invest money into it.
Paid search experts are developing and improving these tools every day. These developments are never ending. The constant development behind the scenes is another clear advantage for all the advertisers who market their businesses using this medium.
Feeling constantly supported is nothing but a clear advantage to be had from marketing via this kind of advertising.
5. Online advertising that can be managed by advertising experts
In addition to all the advantages outlined above, one of the most important advantages is that you can outsource your needs to experts in the field. This then frees up your time to concentrate fully on running your business and you can also be safe in the knowledge that the best of the best are in control of your campaign from the very beginning.
People choose to outsource their pay per click advertising needs to our firm because they know that with our help their advertising is going to be more successful. We are trained, experienced and knowledgeable so that you don’t have to be.
6. Google AdWords campaigns and Google AdWords marketing
It is highly recommended that you choose to advertise your business via Google AdWords for the following reasons.
One of the advantages of Google AdWords relates to the fact that Google is the largest search engine in the world. Therefore if you want to make sure that your advertising is seen by your target audience, you have the best possible chance of doing so via Google.
Through AdWords the advantage is that you can either market your business via text-based advertisements or advertisements too. The Google Display Network is huge and full of effective image advertisements run by a whole host of advertisers all over the world.
The Finer Points of Internet Auctions
WHAT IS A PENNY AUCTION?
Penny auctions have exploded in popularity with the massive growth of the internet. However, few people know the true origins of penny auctions.Beginnings actually stretch back to the Great Depression. Those were hard times for everyone, but even harder for farmers. Farmers struggled to bring in steady income because of droughts and crops not selling as well as they had previously. As a result, the banks would foreclose on the farmers who couldn’t keep up with their mortgage payments.
The banks weren’t satisfied with just repossessing the house, they wanted to raise as much capital as possible, so they resorted to selling off the possessions of the owners of the repossessed houses. There was not much the farmers could do about it so they began bidding ridiculously low prices, pennies, on the items while threatening others who dared to bid higher than a few pennies.
The auctions of today hardly resemble their tremulous beginnings. Being part of a penny auction today is exhilarating, fun, and addictive. It combines the selling format of auctioning with a little bit of chance factored in.Auctions are a game of strategy but also a game of luck.
The premise behind penny auctions is giving people the chance to win an item at a drastically reduced price.Auctions make that possible by spreading out the cost of the product among multiple bidders. In order for a person to take part in an auction, they must pay a set price for each bid. For example, if a person wanted to bid on a fifty dollar Amazon gift card then he would spend a dollar for each time a bid placed. If he ended up winning the gift card, then he would only have spent a few dollars for a fifty dollar gift card. Usually penny auctions sell bids in packages.
HOW PENNY AUCTIONS WORK!
The main foundation of penny auctions is the pay-per-bid format. It is the key that allows bidders to win items at the fraction of their retail value and allows the auction owners to keep their site profitable. Most y auction sites run on the same premise: people pay a set amount for each bid, whenever a person places a bid within the closing seconds of the auction time will be added, the last person left with a unique bid after the clocks runs out will win the item. There are a large variety of items that can be won, but they tend to be popular electronics or gift cards to popular stores.
There are two types of auctions: lowest unique bid auction and highest unique bid auction. Lowest unique auction sounds confusing but it is actually quite simple. A unique bid is when only one person has a bid at a certain price. Bids usually start at one penny, a bidder can then place a bid at two pennies. Until another bidder places a higher bid, the most recent bidder will be the lowest unique bid because that was the only bid at two cents and nobody bid higher. However, penny auctions generally don’t stop at one penny. It is not uncommon to find auctions that end up at a couple hundred dollars based on the popularity of the item being auctioned. However, the same principles apply for those auctions. Highest unique bid auctions follow the more traditional auction format such as eBay. The person with the highest bid at the end of the auction wins the item.
Auction site owners turn a profit by selling bids. Say twenty people are bidding on a ten dollar gift card at one dollar per bid, at the end of the auction if there were twenty bids placed in total then the site owner would have made twenty dollars with a ten dollar profit.Auctions do seem like a win-win situation:The site owner makes money while the bidder gets an item for dirt cheap. However, not everyone wins in penny auctions. The people who paid one dollar each bid but left with nothing to show for their investments will not be so happy.
HOW TO WIN!
Penny auction has a lot of chance mixed into it, but one can incorporate strategy that will help raise the chances of winning. Playing smart can make all the difference between gambling and auctioning.
The first crucial tip to winning penny auctions is to know how to manage your bids. Your goal should be to win as much as possible without spending a ton of money buying bids. Managing your bids means that you should already know how much you are willing to risk in order to win an item. The amount of capital you are willing to risk will determine how many bids you can use. Once you know how many bids you have to spend on an item, then you will be better able to manage how and when you place a bid. That will keep you from blowing away all of your bids in the first few seconds of the auction.
The next tip is to practice time management. When fighting in the trenches of penny auctions, you have two enemies: other bidders and time. Knowing when to bid is a must if you want to have success. Placing a bid when there is a lot of time left on the clock is never a good idea. You have to remember that the key to winning a penny auction is being the last one standing when the clock runs out and that each bid increases the amount of time left. It would be a good practice to wait until the last few minutes of the auction before you begin to bid.
The final tip for successful auctioning is to keep your emotions under control.Auctions have a lot of similarities to gambling, and just like gambling, your spending can get out of control. If you keep your emotions level, it will keep you from making rash decisions and blowing loads of cash. Keep your mind clear so that you can gage the behavior of the other bidders and outsmart them.
HOW TO AVOID SCAM SITES!
Penny auctions are a great addition to the web whether you want to win an item that otherwise you wouldn’t be able to afford or if you simply enjoy the thrill that comes with bidding in auctions. Unfortunately, scam sites have tarnished the reputation of the legitimate penny auction sites. However, there are ways that you can protect yourself from scamers and enjoy your auctioning without having to worry about losing your money due to dishonesty.
Checking the reputation of the auction site before you start spending your hard earned money is always a good idea. Chances are other people have tried the site before you and some of them have left reviews. The reviews are your way to gage whether a auction site is trustworthy or not. If a site is getting overwhelmingly negative reviews, then that is a clear indication that you should steer your business elsewhere.
Another tool you can use to protect yourself is checking the Alexia ranks of the auction sites. Alexia rank will give a solid view of how much traffic the auction is getting. If you see a huge difference in the amount of traffic Alexia is projecting and the amount of active bidders on the site, then warning signals should be ringing in your head. Some auction sites have been known to set up robots that automatically bid on projects in order to keep the auction going and inflate the price. That is known as shill bidding. You can sniff out those sites by comparing the traffic the site should be getting to the amount of users using this site.
CONCLUSION!
New legislation may come out later down the road that will officially make penny auctions gambling, but until then, it is a fun, exciting auction that allows one to win the item they’ve always wanted but couldn’t afford.Auctions are also quite lucrative for the site owners because of the pay-per-bid strategy they’ve incorporated. Penny auctions had humble beginnings with farmers who just wanted to get back at the banks who kicked them out of their house. More recently, auctions have enjoyed an explosion in popularity with the rise of the internet.
There are two main formats fora auctions, lowest and highest unique auction, however they both run on the same premise where the last unique bid wins the item. Winning a penny auction will require a certain amount of mental tactic and a bit of luck. However, you can increase your odds of winning by practicing certain techniques such as managing your bids wisely, learning how to work with the time, and keeping a level head and your emotions under control. When you combine those three strategies to your bidding plan, you will find that you win a lot more often.
It is important that you do your due diligence to protect yourself when participating in auctions. Not every auction is run by honest and trustworthy people. There are people out there who just want to take your money. You can protect yourself by ensuring that you only bid on sites that already have a very positive reputation from real users.
How to Find Great Live Auctions for Resale Items
Hi, my name is Walt. I’m an auctioneer with 25 years of experience in the auction business and licensed in the state of MA. I own Quick Auction Service, a company that specializes in building and running custom auctions, I’m also the webmaster of my own site and have been on eBay for 8 years. Besides eBay, the types of auctions I run most frequently are antiques and on-site estate auctions, although I’ve run everything from business overstock auctions to charity & special event auctions.
I enjoy sharing my knowledge and stories of the auction business. My goal for article is to help folks get the absolute most out of their auction experience.
Whether your fresh out of the package or a seasoned dealer I think I can offer something in this article to help you with your auciton adventures.
There may be as many reasons to attend auctions as there are types of auctions to attend. Maybe you want to attend an auction to buy items for re-sale on eBay, or some other market. Maybe you want to furnish your home with wonderful antiques, or you want to furnish your home as inexpensively without sacrificing quality.Some folks are just looking for a fun night out. With a little perseverance all these things are possible.
There are antiques and estate auctions, auto auctions, overstock auctions, absolute and no reserve auctions, real estate auctions, specialty auctions where only one genre of items are sold, tailgate auctions, live auctions, online auctions, sealed bid auctions, silent auctions, charity and fund raising auctions and many more.
Can you really buy for pennies on the dollar at an auction? You bet! Many times I’ve seen folks buy and re-sell at the same auction on the same night for a good profit, although be advised, this should only be done after the auction is over.
There are a lot of ways to find an auction, but here are some tips on how to find and attend the best ones.
Visit the genre of shops in the area that apply to the type of auction you want to attend. IE: If your looking for a good antique auction to attend, stop in the local antiques shops and ask for what there are for good auctions in the area. Sounds obvious right? But listen to what they don’t say as well as what they do say. Oftentimes when a dealer speaks poorly about an auction he or she attends, it may be likely that they are trying to keep a good thing secret. Think for a moment, why would a dealer keep attending a lousy auction?
Newspaper ads: I personally like to find ads in the classified ad section rather than flashy display ads. Flashy ads are usually indicative of an auction that will be high priced, may have reserves, (a set price on an item), and usually an enormous crowd. While any auction can be profitable to attend, it is usually best to steer clear of the glitzy ones, at least for the beginner.
Here’s the minimum you want to find out before you go. If there is a phone number in the ad, call and ask for the terms of the sale. What forms of payment do they accept? Is it an absolute auction? An absolute auction is one that has no minimum or reserve bids on items. These are the best auctions to attend! Is there a buyers premium? A buyers premium is like a tax that everyone who makes purchases at that auction must pay above the winning bid price. Most auctions these days do charge a buyers premium, 10% is not unreasonable but I feel much more than that is greedy, and the auctioneer that charges over 10% is counting on most bidders not doing the extra math as the bids quicken in pace.
A fair auction will have ample time to inspect the merchandise, usually at least 2 or 3 hours. Find out when inspection starts and make sure to attend! Never attend an auction if you can’t make the inspection, not unless your prepared to gamble. Most auctioneers sell at a rate of about 100 items per hour, which is why they sell “as is”. They simply don’t have the time to give a detailed description of all the items. Since almost all items at auction are sold AS IS, there are sure to be some damaged, refinished, fake and incomplete items at any given auction. Beware of any auctions that offer very little or no inspection time.
Good auctions will usually have 150 to 400 lots. A lot may be one item or a group of items. The exception to this are specialty auctions, auto auctions, real estate auctions etc.
When you attend your first sale, take note of the 1/2 dozen or so dealers that buy the most often. See if you can find out about other area auctions they attend.
When you do find an excellent auction, attend it as often as possible. By frequenting good sales, you help increase the bottom line of that business. It’s difficult for many auctioneers to keep the quality of merchandise consistent, so good attendance certainly helps. And when an auctioneer gets to know you as a buyer, he/she will go out of the way to accommodate you, to keep you coming back.
Hiring An Auction Company
Estimating your assets value:
Typically, one of the first questions a business owner will ask me is, “how much will the assets bring at an auction”. After taking the time to review the assets, the auctioneer should give the client a conservative estimate of the sale based upon his experience and the current market trends. It is important that the company give realistic expectations so the seller can make informed decisions based on their best interest.
Compensation and Expenses:
Is the company you are considering working for you or against you? The agreement you decide may determine this.
A business owner should carefully consider how the auction company is compensated. The most common commission structures include: straight commission, outright purchase of assets, guaranteed base with a split above to both auctioneer and seller, guaranteed base with anything above going to auctioneer or a flat fee structure.
In a straight commission structure, the company is paid an agreed upon percentage of the total sale.
In an outright purchase agreement, the auctioneer simply becomes your end buyer. The company purchases your assets and relocates them. While this can be an option in some unique situations, keep in mind that they will want to purchase your assets at a very reduced price to make a profit at a later date.
In a minimum base guarantee, the auction company guarantees the seller that the auction will generate a minimum amount of sales. Anything above that amount either goes to the auction company or split with the seller. While a seller might feel more comfortable doing an auction knowing that he is guaranteed a minimum amount for his sale, keep in mind that it is the best interest of the auction company to secure a minimum base price as low as possible in order reduce their financial liability to the seller and secure higher compensation for the sale.
In a flat fee structure, the auctioneer agrees to show up for the sale and call the auction. There is no incentive for the auctioneer to get the best prices for your assets. The auction company is compensated regardless of the outcome of your sale.
What is the best option for business owners? In my experience, an agreed upon straight commission structure. This puts the responsibility on the auction company to offer the best outcome for everyone involved. There is an incentive for the auction company to work hard for both parties, set up and run a professional sale, get the highest bid and sell every item on the inventory. Successful auctions translate to a higher bottom line for both the seller and the auction company.
Auction Expenses:
In most auction agreements the expenses to conduct an auction are passed to the seller. If the auction company pays for the expenses, it is simply absorbed in higher commission rates.
All expenses should be agreed upon in advance in a written contract. Typical expenses will include the costs of advertising, labor, legal fees, travel, equipment rentals, security, postage and printing. A reputable auction company will be able to estimate all expenses based upon their experience in previous auctions. An agreement should be actual costs charged as expenses, not an estimated amount.
Advertising is typically the highest cost in conducting an auction. The auction company needs to set up an advertising campaign that will promote the sale to its best advantage and not overspend to simply advertise the auction company.
Once the auction is complete, the auction company should provide a complete breakdown of all expenses to the seller, including copies of receipts within the auction summary report.
Buyer’s Premium:
What is a buyer’s premium? If you attend auctions regularly, you are very familiar with this term. The auction company charges a fee to the buyer when they buy an item at auction.
The buyer’s premium has been around since the 1980′s and is standard auction practice. It was first used by auction houses to help offset costs of running brick and mortar permanent auction facilities. Since then, it has spread to all aspects of the auction industry. It is prominent in online auctions and allows auction companies to cover added expenses incurred from online sales.
It is the responsibility of the auction company to provide clear disclosure of the buyer’s premium to both the buyers and the sellers. Those not familiar with auctions are often taken back by the buyer’s premium. They looked upon it as an under handed way for the auction company to make more money. Reputable auction companies will provide full disclosure within the auction contract, advertisement and bidder registration.
Typically, an auction company will charge online buyers a higher buyer’s premium percentage than those attending an auction in person. Extra fees are incurred with online bidding and are charged accordingly to online buyers. This provides the seller a level playing field for both online buyers and those attending the auction in person. Without the buyer’s premium, there is no way to do this.
Pre-Sales:
We’ve all been there. We’re looking forward to attending an auction only to find that some items were sold prior to the auction date.
As an auctioneer with over thirty-six years of experience, I can honestly state that pre-sales will hurt an auction. When a company decides to liquidate their assets, it is easy to sell off high-end pieces of equipment through online sources, equipment vendors or to other businesses. The seller receives instant cash and avoids paying a commission to an auction company.
Auctioneer’s find themselves appearing to acting in a self-serving capacity when potential clients say they are planning to sell off parts of their inventory prior to an auction. It’s hard not to consider the auctioneer’s commission when they warn you not to pre-sell anything. Yes, the auctioneer wants to earn a commission on those sales but it is more important that the auctioneer protect the sale from potential negative backlash that comes from pre-selling. The buying public knows when an auction has been “cherry picked” prior to the sale and it reflects in their bidding. It becomes a sale of “leftovers” and that impacts prices.
A buyer who purchases prior to the auction usually does not attend the sale. They already bought equipment at a good price with no competition. If they do attend the auction, they tend to let others know of their great pre-sale purchases which again, impacts prices and the overall excitement of the sale.
It is important to understand that auctions work best with a complete inventory. You want competition on your higher end equipment. The easy to sell items make it possible to gain respectable prices for hard to sell items.
When a business owner decides to liquidate their equipment assets, there is only one opportunity to do it right. Hiring a reputable auction company will assist you with a professional, orderly and timely liquidation.