If you are the owner of an Internet home based business, it is quite a possibility for you to cultivate some negative feelings in your venture. Sometimes these negative feelings engulf you and you don’t even know about it. You are not likely to achieve your goals with pessimism around you.Take charge:At times your home office from where you operate your home business may be full of pessimism. It does not really matter where these pessimistic vibrations are coming from. It is you who can help cleanse the surroundings of these distrustful feelings.You can give your place of work a more optimistic, creative and encouraging look. I agree that as the proprietor of your home venture it may not be directly in your hands to be in charge of the circumstances that cause lack of enthusiasm.How you deal with pessimism depends on how you manage it and how it happened in the first place. The appropriateness of your involvement also has a bearing on the pessimistic mindset at your home business office.What can you do?Let us understand how to stop pessimism from taking place in the first place. In this article, I’ll explain how you can tackle pessimism when it is already there in your home business. Dealing with pessimism averts office aggression, encourages the success of your business, and generates optimistic self-esteem.You can indeed manage the pessimism:As a business head, you may receive reactions regarding off-putting buzz around you and you know that the fundamental reason of this lack of enthusiasm is based on the flawed facts, wrong statements, or intentional half truths.Sometimes, you may get comments that a new plan or process has not been understood properly. People may get the wrong idea about the instructions issued by you.For example, you may have dismissed an employee who may be spreading wrong information about your internet home business. In each of these situations, you may have some role to play. It is precisely for this reason that you should get to the bottom of the problem and communicate well in order to conquer the pessimism.Use your wisdom:While salvaging the situation, use a methodical problem-solving procedure to perk up the recognized quarters of pessimism. Do this as fast as you find out that pessimism is present.Involve team members who are aware of the pessimistic state of affairs in the problem-solving procedure. Carry out an in-depth examination so that all likely grounds of the negativity are found. In order to take some remedial steps, you will need to recognize precisely what the basis of the low self-esteem is.Team up:Challenge your team members and employees to identify the negative influences. Apply the selected remedies as soon as possible. After that, you will need to review from time to time if that arrangement is working well.At every stage of the problem-solving procedure, disseminate as much information as you can about the pessimism and the ways out.When the clarifications chosen in the achievement plan are made known, the people involved in your internet home based business will not be taken aback. This is because they are involved in the problem-solving process to overcome the pessimism.
Why Start a Low Cost Home Based Business?
As the days go on and on more and more people are looking to start a low cost home based business, which is very feasible in today’s digital age. There are many ways that they can start this home based business ranging from selling products, services or even information to writing blogs that makes you commissions on affiliate links or articles. While this may sound great and very whimsical it does take a very unique person that believes that they have much more to provide to the world than they currently are able to at a “job”.Ways to Save MoneyIf you think of all the things that you have got to invest your hard earned dollars in while you have your “job” or “career” it can be quite depressing. Many individuals that have careers are the same individuals that have suits that need dry cleaned every week, they need to have high end designer suits to look the part and a high end car. Then take into consideration all the meetings, meals, and fuel used to drive back and forth to work, I know that I used to spend hundreds of dollars a month just in fuel and eating out during lunch. Many parents also find that the cost of the babysitter can be a huge determining factor of starting a low cost home based business. I know of families that spend hundreds of dollars a week on babysitting and they wonder why they continue to work just to pay the babysitter and have less time with their kids.Spending Time with the KidsSo many parents feel that they are not in touch with what is going on in their child’s life and wonder what can be done, if anything. They work all day, get home and have to cook dinner, they are tired, spend a couple hours with the kids ( if they don’t work in retail) and then head to bed just to do it all over again the next day. We all sit and look at our children and think “they grow up so fast”; wishing we could have had more time with them. The answer is that while they may grow up fast, we also spent half or more of our time working for someone else, robbing us of our time with our children. Many people look at time and think of time management, it is not the case, and you can only manage you in the time you are given.Talking About TimeYour time is valuable and we are all given the same 24 hours in a day, you make the decision what to do with your time, whether it is to spend time doing laundry, mowing the lawn, taking your kids to the pool or watching television. When you have a home based business you are given more time than you may have been used to in the past, use this time wisely, many people have a home based business and never miss any event or time with their children. I know many people that work on their business while their children are at school or sleeping, this allows them quite time to focus on their money producing activities on a daily basis.
How To Discover Your PERFECT Home Based Business – The Second Of Seven Keys – It Is Easy
What makes an opportunity PERFECT? In the first article we learned that the “P” in PERFECT stands for “Profitable.”Key Number Two
The first “E” in PERFECT stands for “Easy.” No, “easy” doesn’t mean you won’t have to work at all. There is no free lunch. Don’t believe it if someone says they have done all the work for you and all you have to do is buy their system, sit back, and watch the money roll in. It does take work to start and build any successful business. But, the PERFECT home based business should be relatively easy and can even be a lot of fun.”Easy” Means:
•Something that you are passionate about or love doing.If you really love doing something, and that is the core of your home business, you will be a lot happier and the work required will seem easier to you. You will also be much more likely to stick with your business when you run into obstacles that will certainly come along.If you not only love something, but also know a lot about it, you will have a much better chance of success in a market related to your passion. You will “speak the language” of your customers. That will help you develop better relationships with them resulting in more sales now and in the future. Starting and building your home business around something you love will make it easier for you and it will be fun too.•A business process that can be automated or systematized.If everything you do in your business has to be done over and over again by you and you alone, you will not succeed for long, or your business will stay small. A PERFECT home based business will enable you to automate many of the business tasks after you do the initial work to set up the necessary processes.•Your product is easy to pack and ship at low cost, or fulfillment of the order is done digitally.The easiest home business lets you “ship” your product to the customer digitally in the form of a digital file over the internet or by e-mail. This also results in the highest profit because the cost to create and deliver a digital product is peanuts.•Requires less than 20 hours per week after the initial set up period. You may work 20 to 60 hours each week to start and set up your business for the first month or three. But, a PERFECT home based business will only require 20 hours or less of your time each week after the initial set up period.•Totally doable by anyone. If you have to be a genius or marketing wizard to succeed, it isn’t a PERFECT home based business. Thousands of “regular Joe’s” are making big money in a PERFECT home business and you can too. Find a business that you are comfortable doing, or find a mentor who will teach you everything you need to know about starting and succeeding in the home based business you choose.So, a PERFECT Home Based Business must be EASY. And, it must be PROFITABLE too. More to come in the rest of this article series.Read the other articles in this series, or Click Here For Your Free Report: Discover The PERFECT Home Business.
Home Based Business Leads: How to Find New Customers?
Finding new home based business leads is sometimes ignored by some entrepreneurs. The reason for this is that they are too busy engaging in their day-to-day activities. As a result they no longer have time to build new customers. Just like any type of business, it will not survive if you do not look for new customers to patronize your products or services. Therefore, if you are looking for new clients and customers, you should spend significant amount of time marketing your business.Ways to find new customers and clients•Know your market. Do not just find home based business leads in any place. The product that you are offering may not be for everyone. Therefore, you should find a target market that allows you to gather new customers and clients to try your products and services.•Come up with a plan. Marketing needs strategy to become successful. Do not approach it without proper planning and carrying proper tools. Remember that new clients do not come to you if you do not disseminate information about what you are trying to offer. If you have an online business, you can look for new market by joining in a forum, commenting on a blog, and so on.•Create online presence. Even if your business does not offer products and services online, it is still recommended to have an online presence in order to gather new home based business leads. In this way, your business will be known, not just in your locality, but also to the whole world.•Ask your friends. Your family, friends and colleagues can also help you gather new clients and customers. They can refer other people to try out your services and products. To further encourage them to talk about your business to other people, you may offer them incentives like a trip to a spa or a discount when they choose to buy your product.•Analyze results. To find out if you have gathered significant number of home based business leads, you should have time to track results. This is to evaluate whether or not your marketing strategy is working. You should know which strategy allows you to obtain many clients. You should only use the one that offers the most efficient way to attract more customers.•Join a networking group. This allows you to meet new people and discuss your products and services. Networking is a great way to get home based business leads without having to spend a lot.Getting home based business leads is essential if you want your business to compete effectively.
Facts About Small Business
Everyone agrees on a broad level that small businesses are vital to the American economy. However, most people would be surprised to know just how important. The United States Small Business Administration keeps records and statistics on small business in the United States and some of their findings are surprising.First, the typical perception of a small business as a mom and pop operation with just a few, if any, employees is not the entire picture. The Small Business Administration defines a small business as an independently business with less than 500 employees. There are an estimated 23 million businesses in the United States that meet that classification. In some smaller towns in the United States, these businesses represent a major source of employment.In fact, small businesses as defined by the Small Business Administration represent 99.7 percent of all the employers in the country and employ half of all private sector employees. More than 45% of the private sector payroll is generated by small business. Over the last decade small businesses have accounted for 60 to 80% of all new jobs created on an annual basis.Although a large percentage of small businesses are in the retail and service sectors, small businesses are rapidly making gains in the technology sector. 41% of high tech workers like engineers, scientists and computer programmers are employed by small businesses. Employees at small businesses produce 13 to 14 times more patents than those employed by larger companies.The Small Business Administration also offers some interesting observations on small business survival. Two-thirds of small businesses survive for at least two years declining to 44% after four years. Most of the factors that support a small business surviving are well known, such as access to capital and owner’s education level. However, a lesser known factor in small business survival is that the business is large enough to have employees.Similarly, barriers to starting a small business include lack of access to start-up capital and lack of education. However, the number one barrier to small business start up and a primary concern of existing small business owners is access to private health insurance. Individual health insurance for sole proprietors is much more expensive than receiving coverage through an employer. If a small business owner is able to offer health insurance to its employees, the administrative and premium costs are often much higher than those for larger businesses.
Home Based Business Franchises On The Rise
For decades, franchises have been a staple of the American economy, but the barrier to entry has typically been several hundred thousand dollars (if not millions). Franchises offer the stability and success rate of a well known (and well proven) brand and business strategy, while still requiring and employing many of the entrepreneurial skills required to run a startup. A growing trend in the last few years, however, has been the advent of inexpensive, and highly lucrative, home based business franchises.
The businesses range from lawn care and home maintenance franchises like CleanPro USA (an entirely innovative spin on carpet cleaning), to entirely web-based franchises like L&L Opportunity (a home based business that delivers groceries directly to the customer’s home) and this home based segment of the franchise market has taken off over the past few year, quite unexpectedly. While a home based business is attractive to many people simply because of the fact that you get to work from home, the recent recession and the rise in technological advances over the last several years has made the prospect of starting your own home based franchise more attractive than ever.
A struggling economy is bad for just about everyone, and just about every industry, but one thing that seems to thrive when the economy doesn’t is home based businesses. This is not to say that home based businesses only succeed in poor economic times, but rather; starting a home based business entails investing in yourself, and that is one of the best investments you can make in an unstable economy.
The economy, however, is not the only reason that home based businesses have seen a bump in popularity lately; technology in general (and the internet specifically) is allowing sophisticated businesses, that typically would have taken an entire staff to operate, to be run out of a home office, sometimes by a single person. Having the ability to advertise, take orders, ship product and schedule services all from a website makes the entire process for many home based businesses much easier (and much cheaper) than ever before.
Franchisors have capitalized on this new market as well, enabling budding entrepreneurs to start and run their own home business without any formal training, and without even having a “million dollar idea” of their own. While many people unfamiliar with the category might associate the word franchise with fast food restaurants and chain-stores in the mall, there’s a vast number of franchises available today that can be operated with as little as one employee and can be started sometimes from anywhere from a few hundred dollars up to tens of thousands, depending on the particular type of franchise.
An important thing to note when digging further into the world of home business is to know the difference between legitimate home businesses and work from home scams. Drive through any metropolitan area (or browse the web for 20 min for the matter) and you’ll no doubt come across someone claiming that you can make upwards of ten thousand dollars per months working from home without any real effort or skills needed. Make no mistake, there’s still no such thing as a free lunch, but modern technologies have enabled legitimate home business opportunities, just know what to look for. You can find legitimate franchises through a reputable franchise broker; unless the franchise you’re looking at has been recommended by someone you personally know and trust, or by a reputable franchise broker that has vetted the franchise and made sure that it’s legitimate, don’t take the risk. A sure fire way to spot a scam is when you’re promised a lot for very little. A real home business will require a lot of hard work to get started, and will require hard work to maintain it.
Eric Stein has always had an entrepreneurial mind, and when the economic downturn hit he turned to the internet to seek an additional means of income. It was the lack of information available in one source that lead Eric to create with his business partner Home Business Bug.
Why Fashion Advertisers Love Large Format Outdoor Posters
From the onset the fashion industry was one of the first to embrace the medium of outdoor poster advertising. Over a hundred years later, nothing has changed. Fashion advertising still accounts for a high proportion of the large format OOH advertisements we see today, displayed on posters and billboards everywhere.
Indeed, the latest trendy clothing brands are following the example of more established fashion companies and dedicating an ever-increasing portion of their advertising spend to OOH advertising.
Memorable Fashion Poster Advertising Campaigns
Who could forget Wonderbra’s Hello Boys campaign back in the 1994? The poster campaign saw model Eva Herzigova pose simply in her underwear, with the image spread across 96-sheet billboards across the country.
Another big hit was David Beckham’s iconic 2009 Armani underwear ad. From 6 sheets on the London Underground to a 6-storey giant poster on Selfridge’s in London’s Oxford Street, this campaign was a hot topic of discussion worldwide, resulting in extensive media coverage for both Golden Balls himself and the Armani brand.
As the official department store provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, John Lewis made a grand patriotic gesture by enveloping their flagship Oxford St stores in a huge building wrap featuring the union flag to show their support for British athletes. The exterior of the Stratford City store overlooking the Olympic park was decked with giant vinyl stickers featuring fashion accessories. The OOH display continued the gold medal theme of John Lewis’s print advertising campaign and generated considerable media coverage.
More recently, Myleene Klass’ Littlewoods campaign received much attention at the beginning of the year when it was erected on a 472m sq giant poster at Union Street in Glasgow. The super-size Littlewoods poster advertising campaign with the image of her dressed simply in a bikini was most certainly attention grabbing and was seen by nearly 750,000 shoppers and passers-by in Glasgow city centre.
Change of Emphasis
Why are more and more fashion advertisers turning away from standard advertising in print and broadcast media? Newspaper readership is rapidly declining and over-saturation of traditionally placed advertisements lacking true originality has rendering most TV advertising ineffective. The target audience automatically filters out adverts and even takes advantage of new technology to skip them on recordings of TV programmes.
Jaded consumers who are being continually bombarded with advertising messages crave novelty. The understanding is clear for fashion brands: they must cater to their audience’s desire for innovation by seeking alternative formats for distributing their brand message.
Fashion brands are willing to pay a premium for innovative forms of advertising that build genuine emotional connections with individual consumers. That is why they are so keen to take advantage of the latest developments in OOH advertising. Nothing beats well designed eye -catching fashion advertising posters for getting up close and personal with local communities.
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.