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.

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.

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.