Looking around today, you can easily find an endless number of people having computer with a good Internet connection at their home. However, they just use that computer and Internet connection for extracting some information, for making online bill payments and for booking their flights and so on. If you are also among such category of people, then you are surely underutilizing your resources.It must be surprising for you to know but it is a fact that nowadays, millions of people are taking use of just these two to earn a very good amount of money. If you also want to earn money like these people, then you must start thinking about Internet home based business.As the name applies, such business runs solely through Internet and you can do it from your home. If you want to know about such form of business, the following features can help you to have a better overview.No requirement of capitalUnlike other business options, where the person is required to invest a very good amount of business as capital, this form of business does not require any investment. All a person is required to have is a computer with a fast Internet connection.No fixed working hoursAnother important feature of the home based business is that there is no fixed working hours. Unlike other business options, where a person is required to work full time for fixed hours, such thing is not at all applicable with internet based business.No additional qualification requiredFor most of the jobs or business options, it is important to have some additional qualification. However, that is not the case with these home based business options. A person needs to be only 18 years of age and he can start such form of business easily.So if you also want to start making extra money, then you must opt for Internet home based business now!
5 Website Rules For Home Based Business Owners
No matter the size of your business, you need to have a website- especially if you are a home-based business. Your website is your best marketing tool and it is the best way that you have to show your potential clients your level of professionalism and ability to provide your product or service.A website also greatly broadens your reach as a business. No longer will you be confined to only selling to people in your surrounding areas. Now you can sell to customers worldwide.Having said all of the above, you need to make sure that you set your website up correctly or it won’t work to its full effectiveness. The purpose of this article is to share with you 5 rules that you need to follow when designing your web presence.You need to remember your audience- The internet is always full of new fads and full of people promoting get rich quick schemes that talk about getting your site to the top of the search engines. Most of these schemes are useless and can end up doing you more harm than good. You need to remember that you are producing your website for people sitting in front of a computer. You are producing content for your customers.Your website needs to look professional- You need to make sure that your website looks professional. It doesn’t need to be high tech but you do need to make sure that it looks professional. It needs to look a it better than a word document.You need to account for search engine optimization- Search engine optimization is important for home-based business owners. If you don’t have customers visiting your site you won’t be making any money. If you don’t make any money you are going to struggle to feed your family. You need to make sure that you don’t let SEO overtake the fact that you are writing for real peopleYou need to make it easy for your readers to contact you- You need to make sure that you have a contact form on your website to make it easy for potential customers to contact you. Make sure it is easy to find and prospective customers know exactly what they need to do should they require further information.You need to capture user information- Every person that visits your website is a potential customer, even if they do not buy from you that day. You should offer visitors to your site a freebie to try and entice them to give over their email address. That way you can subscribe them to your newsletter so that they do not forget about your business and may buy from you in the future.This article contains the 5 golden rules of websites for home-based business owners. Make sure you follow the advice outlined above and you should see more success from your website almost immediately.
How to Sell a Home-Based Business
You’ve accomplished what many have sought but few have achieved: a profitable home-based business. Now, you want to turn your sweat equity into cash by selling your business. Maybe you intend to travel & play, start another business, or just sit by the pool and relax. Whatever your intention, you will need cash to do it.There Are Plenty of Prospects for Your Business, but Few Are BuyingIn 2010, the number of prospective buyers looking for home-based business opportunities is at an all-time high. Corporate layoffs and cutbacks have left many Americans short on cash and looking for ways to supplement their household income.In spite of the abundance of prospective buyers, business brokers say that 4 out of 5 small businesses listed for sale will not sell. Those that do not sell are either taken off the market, sold at auction, or just closed down. Why, with so many willing sellers and willing buyers, are 4 out of 5 businesses not selling?Financing is Difficult to GetThe 2010 economy is defined by tight credit. Currently, banks rarely make small business loans, even to long established bricks-and-mortar companies with hard assets like machinery and real estate. Banks almost never loan money to purchase a home-based business. Buyers of home-based businesses generally don’t have the resources to pay cash for a business. Even though the seller is willing to sell and the buyer is willing to buy, there is no money available to complete the transaction.In this article, I’ll hit on a few key points that will make your business more attractive to buyers. Then, I will tell you the one slam-dunk approach that is guaranteed to sell your business, in spite of the economy.Make Your Business More Attractive to BuyersBuyers are motivated primarily by income and opportunity. To prove income, you must have kept good books and have your tax returns in order. If you have kept your books yourself and done your own tax returns, have your records reviewed by a CPA. Have your CPA re-cast your financial statements to show your Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA). EBITDA evaluation removes all discretionary expenditures from your financial statements and boosts your stated income. The higher your income, the more your business is worth. Use the re-cast income to value your business; you’ll get more money for your business. The Business Reference Guide published by Business Brokers Press lists a Multiple-of-Income for businesses like yours. Multiply the “Multiple” by your annual income to arrive at a ballpark selling price for your business. The Reference guide is expensive, though, and you may do just as well to use the online valuation software provided by BizBuySell.com.It must be easy for a new owner to take over your business; have your operating procedures, suppliers and contacts written down. Your business must also offer a buyer the opportunity to use their abilities to make the business their own. Entrepreneurs want to be their own boss, to do things their own way. If your customers buy from you because they really like doing business with you personally, the new buyer is at a disadvantage from the start. Make sure that your business is, indeed, transferable, and offers a genuine opportunity for the new owner to grow.How to Guarantee the Sale of Your BusinessThe primary reason a home-based business does not sell is lack of financing. A seller who offers to finance the business purchase for the new buyer greatly increases the chance of selling the business. Done correctly, owner financing can be a low-risk and profitable undertaking. If you decide to offer financing for the business, be sure to have the note drawn up by an attorney and have your interests filed at the county courthouse.What Are the Advantages of Owner Financing?The biggest advantage of owner financing is that your business will actually be sold, and sold for the asking price. Buyers don’t argue price with sellers who are providing financing. Also, the seller collects interest on the selling price, which increases the net gain from the sale. There is advantage, also, to the buyer: the loan is repaid from the profits of the business.How Can I Be Sure I Will be Paid?There are four keys to insuring repayment of an owner-financed loan: 1. Get a substantial down payment 2. Secure the note with the business itself 3. Make sure the buyer has attachable assets outside of the business (real estate, CD’s, stocks) 4. Get a personal guarantee. If these four bases are covered and the buyer defaults on the loan, you can repossess the business and/or attach his personal assets for repayment. Again, discuss these details with an attorney.What if I Don’t Want to Wait Years for My Money?Most sellers who finance their own business do not wait years for repayment; they sell the note at a discount to a note broker. Usually, if the buyer has put a 25-30% down payment on the loan, the interest is sufficiently high and the term no longer than 60 months, the note is eligible to be sold to a note broker. In as little as 3 months, a seller can cash out the note they are holding and walk away without ever collecting another monthly payment. The note broker becomes the owner of the note, and collects all the payments. If your intention is to sell your note to a broker to cash out your sale, it is best to work out the details with the note broker prior to the sale. For more information, Google the search term “secure your business note”.If you manage to sell your home-based business, you are a remarkable entrepreneur, indeed. You have beaten the odds twice: you have created a successful home-based business, and then sold it for a profit.
Essential Traits For Successful Home Based Business
Some work at home businesses have made some people very rich and successful, while others are perpetually struggling to create a successful home based business. The main difference between those who are making it and those who are struggling are the attributes of business success which lack in the later group.Just like in any other business, home based business needs a lot of hard work and effort to succeed and generate a continuous source of income, although to most people this type of d business may seem very easy. Choosing the best home based business that will give you the freedom to work at home is a huge challenge. When it comes to deciding on which work from home business to pursue, one should take time and do some research prior to jumping into it. Whether the motive is to supplement you income, or launch the business that will take you to the top, the work from home industry is rich with opportunities and possibilities.Anybody can start an online home based business these days, but this does not mean that all these businesses are make money. The low cost of starting with an online home based business opportunity makes this type of venture particularly profitable one. Earning enough money from home to provide a full-time income is the dream of nearly everyone. The low starting costs coupled with potential presented by the huge market makes the online business so attractive to individuals. But to be successful, people need to separate the myths from the realities. It is expected people should always do due diligence when considering online home based business. People should always be cautious and sceptical about the business opportunities being offered, since some of these are dubious.Running a home based business in not different from any other business, there are traits which an individual should have, and if used effectively will ensure successful outcome.Market Research and SalesIdentify the target market for your product or service. This is paramount to the success of any business. Having the product or service without actually identifying the target market in need of the product or service does not result in a successful business. Success only comes after the products or services are converted into sales.PerseveranceAll it takes is some hard work, perseverance, Internet marketing skills and an original idea to succeed online. Anything can be achieved through hard work, determination and perseverance. A never surrender attitude is one of the prerequisites to succeed. Perseverance is part of the entrepreneurial life, as well as agony, accomplishment, failure and sacrifice. It seems a lot of individuals have the misconception that an internet home business opportunity will start generating vast sums of cash with only limited involvement, forgetting that a lot of hours have to be sacrificed each week with their day job.SummaryIf one wishes to make a success of home based online business, commitment and perseverance are critical but so is finding an opportunity that stands the test of time.
How Much Money Should a Small Business Budget for Marketing?
You’ve heard the common phrases, “It takes money to make money,” or similarly, “You have to spend money to make money.” Well, that’s just fine as a catch phrase, but how much money are we really talking about?Taking money out of your profits to spend on marketing can sometimes feel very painful, and it’s hard to know when to do it and where to spend it so that it is most effective.The Small Business Administration (SBA) recommends that small businesses should allocate 7-8 percent of its budget to marketing. So, by this calculation the annual marketing budget for a $1 million business would be $70,000 to $80,000. That equates to an average of $6,250 per month.In fact, the SBA further recommends that some industries, especially consumer-focused industries should plan as high as 20 percent for their marketing budgets.Closely in line with this, the CMO Council, a peer network for Chief Marketing Officers reported that consumer-focused companies (B2C) averaged around 17 percent while business-focused companies (B2B) spent roughly 11 percent on marketing.When you look at it as a percentage, it is an easier pill to swallow. When you think to yourself, “Yeah, 10 percent sounds like a decent amount to spend on my marketing… I mean, I need to grow somehow.” But then when you have a very small $120,000 business and you’re asking yourself to shell out $1,000 a month to promote your business – it becomes MUCH more difficult to do.I owned a business called Local Search Services where we offered small businesses the ability to have their business listed on the Google Local, Bing Local, Yahoo Local and other local and regional search engine directories.The service was one that absolutely everyone needed and still needs. We only offered the service to small businesses that we knew beforehand were not showing up in those directories at all. It would only take us about 45 minutes to complete, we did the service on site, and it would only cost $125.In the vast majority of small businesses we entered; from day spas to hamburger joints to law firms and dance studios – you would have thought we were asking them to purchase a SuperBowl Commercial. The business failed because we couldn’t get small business owners to see the value of having something that was so necessary get completed for so cheap.So where am I going with all of this? What’s my final advice? One word: plan. Plan to spend money on your business to help it grow. Plan to put money into marketing and advertising on a monthly basis and choose the best places to spend that money.It’s much easier to spend money on marketing when you have already allocated that money towards that use.Think about this, if you went into a bank or a venture capitalist asking for money to fund your small business, and you presented them with a financial budget that showed that you were going to spend little to no money on a marketing budget – you would be denied every single time!So why, in reality, do we try to do that? If we know that marketing is a vital part of the survival and growth of our business, why do we have such a hard time opening the checkbook and spending money on marketing?I know the answer to that question, and that is because we are unsure. We don’t like spending money on things that we simply do not know if we will get a return on our investment.What usually happens with a majority of small businesses that I see is that they spend as absolutely little as possible on their initial marketing. They get the cheapest website they can find. They spend no money on branding and have their 17-year old nephew create their logo since he’s taking a class in high school. They run a coupon in some mailer and have the mailing company artist design it for free and they are told they will reach 100,000 people in their inexpensive mailing and that’s why it appeals to them. And then none of those things work.So the erroneous assumption then becomes, “see, marketing doesn’t work… it’s just a big waste of money, so I’m going to spend as little as I can on any future marketing”. Unfortunately, they did not allocate the right amount of their budget in the beginning, when it was crucial to their success.It may seem self-serving for a marketing professional to recommend this, but I would suggest that a small business owner spend at least 30% of startup capital on marketing within the first 6 months. Doing so can build a strong foundation of branding and marketing that will carry your business forward.When you plan to spend money on marketing your business, you can spend that money much more wisely, and get greater results because of it; and that’s all you really want out of your marketing, no matter what your budget is.
Home Based Business For Under 100.oo Start Up – The Best Choices For Success
The best home based business option these days is to find a business you can start and operate part time while continuing your job, until you are making enough to quit and devote full time to your business. You should start your search by making a list of all the potential choices that appeal to you. Then evaluate each one carefully and realistically. The best home based business for under 100.oo start up, for you is already out there … you just have to find it!
Now a days, people who wish to stay at their homes can still earn a lot of money. You can choose from a wide range of products and services that you can market online, and all of them promise to provide you big income. So whether you are a stay at home mom, prefers to work at home or just wanting to add more income, there is a good home based business for you.
Have you ever considered starting a home based business, but just can’t decide what’s the best home based business for you? You are not alone! Many, many people have dreamed of having their own work at home business. But of course the “dreaming” is the easy part. Choosing exactly which and what kind of business to start is quite another matter.
A home based business that needs only an Internet connection to run, is a good business for you to own. The startup cost is low, no inventories to maintain and so on. This means that the risk involved is very low, You can join a MLM program and spend months with nothing happening. At this point, most people decide to quit and start looking for some other program or, even worse, some people will simply give up on trying to make money on the Internet.
The important point is that an Internet based business can earn you a very decent income, just like a regular business. You have to work hard in your home based business just as you would in a regular business. Making money on the Internet is no easier than making money in the conventional way. The harder you work, the better your chance of financial success. The basic difference between an internet business and a regular business is that, in online business, you have a lower risk involved as it is very possible to set up a home based business for under 100.oo start up cost.
The ability to create a passive income this to me is a big one. Just the thought of making money while I am asleep gives me great joy, I wake up every morning anxious and rush to my computer to see how my business grew during the night.
The benefits to starting your own online home based business are almost endless (I am sure there are many advantages you can think of that are not listed here in this article) but there is a couple for you to think about.
Here is a couple of things you can start with, when your online adventure is just starting and it has to be a home based business for under 100.oo start up.
A possibility is to start selling your own ebooks. Ebooks are books in electronic format. This means your customers can instantly download your ebook from your website. No need to wait days waiting for the ebook to arrive. Your customers can be anywhere in the world.
They can still download your ebook once their payment has been processed.You don’t have to have special training to be able to do this business. This is a simple business anyone can operate. It is a business where you can start with little investment, and still become hugely successful.You can always find a hot subject to write about and people will always buy information. Especially when they can get it
instantly.
If you don’t have the time or desire to create your own ebook, you can make money by purchasing resale rights to someone else’s products. It lets you start selling the product right away. All you have to do is make the necessary changes to the sales page, upload it to your server and start making sales.
So, you have to advertise. You have to drive traffic to your website. If you don’t advertise and drive traffic to your website, no one is going to buy your ebook. Advertise your ebook through search engines, ezines, articles, forums and any other means available to you.
Start up a home based business by selling things on E-bay. Find a niche that is hot in E-bay, find a dropshipper that sells those kinds of products, and start selling on E-bay. Learn the tips and tricks of how to effectively sell on E-bay and how to maximize your profits.This way you also can benefit from building yourself a list of prospects you can sell to later on.
Another home based business for an entrepreneur to start up is a service-based business. Maybe you know how to get a complete idiot’s site to the top 10 search engine rankings for a certain keyword. There are people will pay money for that, you just have to position your business in front of them. Maybe you can give consulting services in a certain area, or can do other services that people
outsource.
For totally newbies i would recommend affiliate marketing in the internet marketing niche. You do not need to create or stock a product, you do not need to deal with complicated payment processors, you do not need to spend extra time on support or processing refunds and you still get to learn the fundamentals of internet marketing.
Basically being an affiliate is for you to find a good converting product like an e-book, which you can locate at clickbank,shareasale,paydotcom or another network. Next when you have found the merchants product you are going to promote, then you will need to do a keyword research which you can do free or you can use some of the many keyword tools there is around the net. But in the beginning you can use the free ones, they are just as good.Just go to your favourite search engine, and write “free keyword tool” in the search field.
Personally i like to use the Free Keyword Suggestion Tool from Wordtracker. After the research you need to get some traffic to the site your promoting, and there are several ways to do this. The quickest way is to use pay per click from the search engines.You can use google, msn, yahoo, froogle or any of
the smaller engines. Then when people see your ad, they click it and will be forwarded to the product you promote and you will get a commission which is usually a place between 50-75%, that`s pretty cool i think. That means when you get on the right track with this, and you start making sales, You can actually go to bed and wake up richer than the day before. I can tell you one thing..the feeling you get after you have made money in your sleep, is indescribable.
You could also write a article related to the product you are promoting, and in the authors box, put a link to the product, and then submit it to some article directories, and make money that way around.
The next method i really like, its a good and easy money maker, especially if you are looking for a home based business for under 100.oo start up, is to join a membership system style program, where they offer something like a 3 tier affiliate system, which will pay you in three levels, it could be.. lets say you get 10 people to your website and they sign up under you, then you could be making $6150 just for sending these 10 people to your website.
With these systems you get a complete website already uploaded and ready to make sales, and usually you are selling tools to be used in the marketing world, like ebooks, software, ecourses and so on. And they usually is priced under $100
In conclusion remember this online adventure of yours also have some downsides such as sacrificing much of your precious family time for the sake of your home based business. But when you succeed after a while, and start making money, then hopefully you can cut down the time you use in front of the computer and spend it with you family.I wish you the best of luck with your search for the perfect home based business.
Making Taxes Easy for Small Business
Many economic scholars see small businesses, to be the largest contributor to economic growth and employment creation on the planet. The ratio of small business, to big business in different countries varies. It is predicted that small business as a collective, will eclipse big business as a force in the economic landscape in future years. Be that as it may, fact remains that small business, is crucial to every countries economic development.
Limited research however, has been conducted on a variety of issues affecting small business. The global small business failure rate remains high, at an unacceptable rate of 80%(some say 95%), within the first year of formation. Common concerns about small business are confined to only cash flow problems, and under capitalization. Whilst these two, are major culprits in business failures, they not the only factors. Weak marketing, skills shortages, bad management, capacity are other factors, contributing to business failure. Taxes can also be added to the list as a cause of business failure.
Since many start-up businesses cannot afford to procure the services of a tax consultant/ advisor, they eventually fall foul of the taxation requirements of their respective tax authorities.
A small business is treated no different from a huge multinational corporation in many tax regimes around the globe. This treatment comes with its own set of problems. The one being the failure of the small business. Tax authorities, vigorously pursue errant taxpayers, be they big or small. In fact, it can be proven that harsher enforcement by tax authorities are reserved for small businesses!
Governments have yet to honestly acknowledge the role of small business and stop paying only lip service to its promotion. The current tax system for small business, in most countries will have to be revisited. No one is suggesting that tax authorities should grant small businesses “special treatment” forever. Just a breather, so as to enable them to grow at a faster pace.
To accommodate a small business and its growth, whilst being fair, a concept known as “thresholds tax”, can be implemented for small business. It is in place for individuals, and also known as progressive taxation. Simply put, it means, the more someone earns, the more they taxed. Many countries levy a fixed percentage tax on “profits” of businesses, big or small. This tax is not fair, and fairness is a prerequisite for a good tax system. Even the slightly different tax regime for “Small Business Corporations”, in most countries still does not address the problem.
The controversial “profit” in business accounting, especially small business has not been thoroughly researched by tax lawmakers. Profit does not always equate to positive cash flow.
The working capital factors tied into profit, results in severe cash flow setbacks for small business. It is therefore unfair to tax the small business on profit, like the bigger companies, since bigger businesses finance their profits and/ or working capital via many methods, internal and external. These avenues are not available to smaller businesses.
Herewith some suggestions on making taxes easy for small business.
Give small business a tax holiday of about two years after start-up.
Simplify tax legislation.
Tax small business only on “cash generated by operations”, up to a certain threshold.
Profit less working capital (debtors and inventory on hand) plus depreciation equals cash generated by operations, which in turn becomes taxable income.
Exempt small business from employee; value added or general sales tax up to certain thresholds. (Already in place in some countries).
Taxable income thresholds could be, 0 to $200 000; $201 000 to $500 000(for small business), depending on the definition of a small business in the respective country.
As soon as the taxable income exceeds $ 500 000, a higher progressive rate applies.
Taxes on “cash” income could also fall away at this level.
My suggestions are in no way exhaustive. More substantive research is needed. If we accept that we live in a global village, taxes will also have to be harmonized and standardized, between the different countries. What International Accounting Standards have done for accounting; can be suggested for taxation also.
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.