To be successful in a home based business, you will need to:1- Select the right opportunity for you, depending on your idea of a home based business and also of what you will like to do, so that you will enjoy and put your heart and energies on it.2- You need to be very precise and differentiate from a job and a business from home. The business will required dedication, time, energy and investments.3- Once you have your mind set of what you want and you have decided that you want to build a home based business then you need to diferenciate your work area and time from the regular hours and space for and with your family.4- A Home Based Business is not different from any other business, means you will required a permanent phone line that only you will anwers and a computer with a high speed internet connection just for work.A Home Based Business:1. Accounting
2. Auctions: Sell on eBay and other Online Auctions
3. Answering services
4. Consulting services
5. Cleaning services
6. Dance Instructor
7. Freelance photographer, journalist.
8. Medical Transcriptionist
9. Translator
10. Recruiter
11. Write and sell ebooks
12. Day Care Service
13. Network Marketing
14. Direct sales on the internet
15. Internet search services
16. Selling Arts and Crafts
17. Virtual assistance
18. Resume writing servicesIn any of the cases or opportunity that will select you will need a training on the best way to promote your business and all the knowledge required to be successful in your business. Marketing your business is the key of your success and marketing on the internet will allow you put your ideas and products in from of the whole world in just a click. To gain this position will decide your success.
Be Successful in a Home Based Business
How To Start a Home Based Business Using a Foolish Idea
Unemployment rates are still high and many people have been unable to find a job. With so many people out of work, there are far more applicants than job openings. It is staggering to see there are thousands of people struggling everyday trying to make ends meet. On any given day, you hear a story about families living in their car, or forced into a homeless shelter because they simply ran out of money and have nowhere else to go.I thought this was America, the greatest country in the world. How did we get here? It seems that somewhere along the line we lost our vision, our dream. Take a look around. If we are not careful, there will be nothing left for our children and grandchildren. So, what can you do to survive? Be creative. Use experience from jobs previously held to start your own home-based business. Most people have transferable skills that can be applied to another job or business.There are numerous free ad websites such as craigslist, community newspapers, or classified ads, that you can use to get an idea of services people are looking for. But you must use caution and beware of scam artists who might be waiting to exploit you and steal your identity. NEVER pay anyone who advertises, “if you send them money”, they can find you a job. They know you are unemployed and more likely than not, will victimize you in some way. A little bit of common sense goes a long way. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.Ideas to Start A Home Based Business
Lawn and garden. Everyone needs their lawn cut. Many older Americans are no longer able to keep up their yard. Equipment needed: lawn mower, edger. Start advertising by getting some business cards and flyers made and distributing them.
Car or Van service. Start a carpool and charge by the week. With high gas prices, people are looking for alternative ways to save commuting time.
Cooking. Make up a menu and take them to barbershops, hair salons, or other professional businesses, and offer to take orders and deliver meals. Many of these professionals do not have time to prepare a healthy meal and would welcome a home cooked meal.
Kiddie Cab. Children have doctor and dental appointments. Sometimes it’s difficult for parents to get time off from work.
Avon. $10 to start. You can leave books in your neighborhood, church, doctor’s office, etc.
Translation services. If you are bilingual this could be an excellent opportunity.
Cleaning services. There are many foreclosed properties sitting on the market. Visit or call real estate companies and negotiate a flat fee to clean the properties. Good way to also offer lawn care services.
Piano lessons. Offer in home lessons.
Event planner. Everyday someone is planning an event, whether it be a wedding, church function, family reunion or party.
Alterations services. Check out what stores charge for alterations and beat their price.
Hair braiding. Very lucrative (check for licensing requirements)
Elder care services. High cost of insurance prevents families from providing quality care for their elderly parents or relatives. If you have a background in the health industry, you could offer to do in-home care.
Relocation and Moving. Providing information to people relocating to new city.
Car detailing
Window tinting
The possibilities of starting a home business are endless. Think about what you really enjoy doing. Many of the suggestions listed above do not require spending large amounts of money. Search online for grants that may be available. Start off small and put back any money you make back into the business for equipment or advertising. Whatever your case may be, you have numerous ways to select the right home-based business.
Looking to Start Your Own Home Based Business?
During these difficult financial times job losses are on the rise and having any security with your nine to five job is crumbling. Because of this fact a lot of people have decided to experiment with starting a home based business.Another good reason as to why people are starting to create their own home based business is the personal freedom of being their own boss.But there are a few things that you must know before taking off on the adventure in starting your own home based business in order to be successful.You should always develop a plan. Make sure that your manage your time very carefully so that you can decide when you start and when you finish. Being your own boss means that you absolutely must have a routine to go by, including your break times, because you are running a business even if it is at home.Also, writing up a ” to do” list is very helpful for people when they start their own home based business. This list will guide you as to what you need to do while working from your home.Thirdly, because you are working from home, you will have to eliminate any distractions that might get in the way of your work. Many times family members and spouses may feel that you are too readily available to them when you are at home, so you have to learn how to tell them nicely that you cannot afford to be distracted while you are working in your home office.Lastly, creating an environment that is conducive to working is vital to running a successful home based business. Having a comfortable work station with a good chair, phone, computer, fax machine, printer and other tools will greatly assist you in working more efficiently in your home. You may also want to keep your files organized in a file cabinet, or set up a filing system that works well for your business needs.Too many times its easy to become too laid back on this when you are working in your own home, but remember that being your own boss means that you are in charge of your work station and how much you are going to work on a daily basis.Having a home based business is a very good alternative to working from nine to five, and you can be successful at it if you follow these methods on a consistent basis.And remember that being your own boss and having a home based business is something that thousands of people dream about but are rarely able to implement into their working lives. Therefore, remember that the key to success if having the environment, self discipline, and organization are vital to your success.
The Benefits of Starting a Personal Home-Based Business
85% of Americans would love to earn money from home. Many people hear about home-based businesses constantly, but don’t understand the concept enough to follow through with their curiosity. The benefits of starting a personal home-based business are numerous, personally appealing, and cater to a lifestyle that many people never get to experience.There are four top reasons that most people don’t create their own home-based business. Four reasons that are rarely true and can all be avoided with the proper instruction and teaching.
High investment financially.
Too much time required.
High risk with no payout.
Complete lack of knowledge in the area.
These reasons are understandable, can happen, and have happened to many people. It’s sad to say, but there are likely more scams on the internet than actual income generating opportunities. That’s just how the internet works, and we’ve learned to deal with it. All four of these reasons can be false however, and easily corrected. You simply need the right opportunity, one that’s not focused on taking your money from you.There are countless ways to make money on the internet. You can create your own product and market it, perform tasks online, offer writing services, the list goes on and on. The most lucrative and appealing form of internet income is network marketing, or multi-level marketing. This is not a pyramid scheme, cold-calling, or door-to-door work. It is legitimate cooperation with a business or company to represent their company/products/services to others. You create sales, and in turn get commission from those sales. Network marketing is nothing new, and has been around a very long time. The benefits of starting a home-based business utilize the internet along with network marketing and create an unlimited funnel of personal wealth. This could be MLM, affiliate marketing, a personal business, etc. The benefits discussed below apply to all.The benefits of starting a personal home-based business:
No boss (plan your own workday, monitor yourself, set priorities)
No income ceiling (unlimited income potential)
Self-satisfaction (you create the business, you get the credit)
Work with people you like (no difficult coworkers, no office politics)
Flexibility (work whenever you want)
No commuting (save time and money)
No office expense (quicker profit)
Security (no layoffs, no downsizing)
Tax deductions (home office, car expense, medical insurance, phone, entertainment, travel, education, etc)
Better retirement plan (SEP IRA’s and Keoghs let you deduct a higher percent of business profit from your 401k)
Now the list could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea. You are the owner, the employee, and the CEO. You decide what to do, when you want, and how to do it. Do you want a website? Do you want to promote offline as well? It’s all up to you. Network marketing, or MLM, has some additional benefits that are worthy of mentioning as well.Additional benefits to an MLM opportunity:
Low start up cost: Start programs free, invest a little, or invest a lot. You determine what you’re paying. Most businesses take thousands of dollars in capital to begin.
No expensive training: You can find all of the information and training to have a home-based business online. Just like any area of study, you will have to learn new things and be eager to better yourself in the area of home-based business.
No administration hassles: You’re self employed, but you’re a rep for an established company which handles all the product selection research and development, shipping, warehouse, etc. Basically, they did all of the typical business hassles so that you don’t have to. This is an awesome thing.
Keep your regular job: No one has to know that you’re working at home. If you’re not seeing income right away, nothing is making you quit your regular job. Until your “part time” income is high enough to replace it, you can manage both at once.
No expensive tools necessary: A computer is all that you need. Your most critical tool is people skills, and you’ll learn those more in-depth along the way.
Residual Income: You profit from the product purchases and sales of everyone in your group. Nothing is more important to your financial future than the residual income concept. It’s an aspect that makes MLM so unique and appealing.
Keep in mind that you can do anything your heart desires to make money online. I am simply highlighting the benefits of starting a personal home-based business for you to see the potential that it has for anyone, experienced or not. If you’re a complete beginner in online sales, a program called Internet Income University will teach you everything you need to know along the way, while helping you to earn money simultaneously. And it’s completely free. Even professional marketers have signed with this program because of the lucrative F.A.S.T. Income Plan they get you on.If you like talking to people face to face, you like the idea of traditional network marketing. You enjoy that personal touch that you can add by conducting an in-person meeting with someone. Don’t get me wrong, you can still profit by marketing online at the same time, that’s the beauty of MLM, you can promote however you want! A top-notch fitness company, Team BeachBody, encourages both offline and online promotion. Discuss it over dinner, refer people to your personal web page for it, or promote it through your Facebook page, it’s all up to you.The benefits of starting a personal home-based business are almost too many to discuss. It is a world that is literally at your fingertips, and ready to be used in a unique and personal way to generate even more income. You’re the boss. Now start your home-based business today.
Are Economic Factors Changing The Concept of Quality in Small Business Environment?
What exactly does “Quality” mean for small businesses? Has the economic downturn over the past 6 years changed the definition of quality relative to small business’s delivery of products and services? Is quality, the major driver in delivering and selling to businesses? Are consumers now willing to compromise on quality, to save money? How much will small businesses and individuals tolerate in diminished services or product quality and decide less quality is more important if they can save money?I recently met with an acquaintance that operates a small commercial oriented service business. He was lamenting that 10 years ago he launched into a program whereby he structured his company to deliver the highest quality service to his industrial customers. His quality goals were defined based upon what the customers told him were their highest priorities for good product and service qualities. Those attributes were (in order of preferences): timely responses to their requests, error free production/finished product, on-time delivery of the product/service, and fair pricing for their quality demands. It is important to note that fair pricing was not defined as being the cheapest.Today, he is finding those customers that said, ” we buy only quality products and services” are now doing business with vendors offering rock bottom pricing. To get rock bottom pricing quality has suffered; flaws are tolerated. Some small companies are now working with vendors that are moonlighting to pick up a little extra cash and may lack experience working with the latest software technology, equipment, and materials. So, what has happened in the small business sector, relative to the pride a vendor once took in high quality personalized service with a commensurate return? They seem to have vanished; at least for the time being.Conversely, some large manufacturers found a component of quality to mean, components delivered on-time/just-in-time saves them money and equates into sales. Does this example also apply to small businesses across the board, well, maybe not? But there are disconnects; just look at the GM issue of late, where quality was not worth the expense (at the time). This aside, it does seem quality is no longer the coin of the realm with small commercial service businesses. They may look at quality as a product component that is hard to justify on a revenue basis. Some managers might think they can fine tune the service or product quality in house and not pay the vendor for a high level of quality.Businesses catering to the end user of products and services still demand quality. But, most of them offer product and services that are focused on high touch and personal attention to details industries. This quality is not inexpensive to deliver.Could all the changes in small business methods, with pressure on costs, be forcing a new definition of how small business develops their pricing for various levels of quality? I guess if the service or product isn’t life threatening it could slip on the” need for quality” scale. Offer quality but at a premium; let the customer decide what price quality is worth.I think discussions about quality from a small business perspective need to be targeted; defining exactly what elements of quality are worthwhile? As standalone considerations, such things as-glitz, glamour, individualized services, and attention to detail may not add anything to perceived quality. For example, the precision delivered in a service product maybe isn’t appreciated or needed. Therefore, maybe this is just one example where companies are trading with vendors based on cost and less on quality. Some companies are picking apart the elements of quality being offered to them and settling for a lot less of quality.It is hard to really understand all the issues involved in small businesses purchasing services and products with the primary consideration being quality. Now the question is: Why does there seem to be a shift in small businesses buying services that are primarily price driven? Quantitative data seems to indicate there is a shift from the holy grail of quality. And, we do recognize, there are still a plethora of companies offering services and product purely based on quality. For example, there are some hotels and car companies having a nice customer niche based on quality; those markets being consumer and extremely large. Everyone could probably agree that any service and product could have such quality if their market would be broad enough to support such quality.Gucci had a corporate mantra that said: Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten. Of course that was their market and it is still large. Maybe the 1% is enough to support that kind of quality.For small businesses today, owners must balance costs, revenue demands, marketplace, competition and sophistication of the marketplace. If adding elements of quality to the product line do not generate enough revenue to cover incremental cost, then redefine quality. Quality is in the eye of the beholder. I would imagine a farrier (installer of horseshoes) isn’t concerned about the packaging, website, product guarantees, or hand polished horseshoes. He just wants horseshoes at a competitive (lowest) price and from a supplier that keeps them on hand.Some thoughts on quality:
Quality has a myriad of definitions and quality definitions are industry specific and customer dependent. Maybe quality in an industry is simply having a human answer the phone… thinking of the DMV.
The customer will always dictate quality levels.
Don’t expect the quality to be free; there are no free lunches. Quality does impact margins.
I can remember in the early dot com boom, as a vendor and customer, quality was measured by such things as how expensive were the give-a-ways, how costly were entertainment bills, running online ads no matter the end results and justifying expensive tracking programs and site designs for no substantiate reason. So glitz, glamour, service, and value of the end results were components of what we thought was quality. Is that your definition of quality today? Quality in today’s business environment is being re-evaluated relative to costs and revenue impact.
How to Correct Your Dog’s Stay on the Agility Starting Line
Does your Agility Dog Stay everywhere but on the starting line? My “over the edge Border Collie”, started breaking her start line stays after about one year of trialing. I had to go back and examine the cause and what lead to the deterioration of her start line stay.
As I pull pieces of the past, I realize that at first I asked my dog, Rip, to Sit-stay at the start line. But she began to lean and scoot, so I changed to a Down-stay. She did this for a while until she began to crawl and creep. Then I would walk away for a lead out, but I would continue to face her, by being face to face, that would help her to hold her position, well it did for a while. Then I started getting breakaways, she would no longer wait at the starting line, as soon as I started to step away from her side, and she would be off. That’s when I pulled her from trialing.
Why did her behavior get worse at the start line? Because I started to negotiate with my dog, way back when she moved from the Sit-stay, I should have made it clear that the Sit -stay was the only behavior that would bring the reward of running agility. What I mistook as, “Oh, I’m asking too much for my edgy dog to Sit-Stay on the line.” She took as, “Mom, doesn’t really mean what she says when we’re in this fenced ring with lots of people around.” So, she began to test every behavior I asked for on the line. Dogs will do what we allow.
If your dog begins to break its start-line stay, whether that is a stand, sit, or down, STOP immediately. Don’t run your run. I know you’ve paid your entry fees, but you’ll be spending a lot more time and money fixing the problem when it gets worse. For some dogs, taking them off the course is deterrent enough to get back on track. For other dogs you may have to “train” your stay in the ring, of course you also, may be called for training and excused from the ring, but it’s most important that your dog know that the fun can not and will not start until the Stay stays.
The Point of Budgeting In Small Business
Too many small businesses operate without budgets. And many small businesses that do have budgets aren’t getting as much out of them as they could. We’ve seen it time and again.
It isn’t because the mechanics are difficult to manage. Everyone knows the basics of how budgets work: you track money coming in, you track money going out, and you do your best to plan for the future. In fact, the very simplicity of that formula is what leads some small-business owners to consider budgets not worth the trouble.
Therefore, what we’ll discuss here isn’t what budgeting entails, because if you don’t already know that, you can find it out with ease. We’re more interested in why you should budget in the first place. Our suggestion, to put it plainly, is that budgeting is a way to amplify the very creativity and adaptability that allow small businesses to thrive.
Budgets’ Reputation
You don’t become an entrepreneur because you have a burning love of spreadsheets. At least, not usually. Being an entrepreneur isn’t supposed to be about budgeting. It isn’t supposed to be about paging through endless columns of variable costs or putting caps on spending. It’s supposed to be about having the freedom to blend innovation and risk-taking with passion and expertise. It’s supposed to be about removing barriers, not building them.
That being the case, small-business owners often see budgets as antithetical to the very spirit of entrepreneurship. According to this perspective, budgets impose stifling limitations. They’re artifacts of mega-corporate culture devised by clammy-handed people in windowless rooms with poor lighting. They may be necessary evils for sprawling, inhuman conglomerates, but when it comes to organizations that rely on individual personalities and individual decision-making, budgets are more burdensome than helpful.
You might say the constraints imposed by budgeting make small businesses less nimble. Since nimbleness is one of their main advantages over larger rivals, budgets actually decrease small businesses’ ability to compete.
Or so the story goes.
Some of it is accurate. For instance, it’s true that passion and innovation go hand in hand with entrepreneurship. It’s true that small businesses should strive to leverage their size into a competitive advantage. And it’s true that budgeting for small businesses is much different from budgeting for colossal corporations.
What’s not true is that budgets impose constraints. Budgets don’t actually impose anything. They merely describe constraints that are already present. Perhaps more importantly, they describe a business’s ability to cope with and even manipulate constraints placed on it by forces internal and external.
Constraints and Entrepreneurial Creativity
If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re aware that your business doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It’s part of a staggeringly complex system. For instance, you have your relatively immediate concerns, such as your employees and your local government. You also have your relatively big-picture concerns, such as national debt and foreign trade policy. No matter what, when you start a small business you’re going to be hemmed in by laws, regulations, and unavoidable economic realities, all of which will have a major impact on how you operate.
In other words, no small business starts out in a position of unfettered freedom. The very conditions that allow small businesses to exist also impose a variety of constraints. Working capital, interest rates, the minimum wage, the minimum competitive salary for professional employees-there are countless factors that limit what you can do and how much money it takes to do it.
You can acknowledge the reality of these factors, but if you don’t have a budget, then you might not know the exact ways they’re affecting you. What particular constraints does a business in your industry have to deal with? Are there some that have a disproportionate impact on you because of the way your business functions? Can you make changes to reduce their impact? Are there constraints that you handle in an especially productive way? Can you turn this productivity into an advantage over your competitors? Do you approach some constraints the way everyone else does, even though you could be doing a better job with them?
These are the sort of questions a budget helps you answer. It doesn’t create limitations that weren’t there before. Rather, it gives you a way to assess the pre-existing limitations that every small business in your industry has to deal with. The more thorough your assessment of those limitations, the greater your ability to work within them, work around them, or in some cases, make them work for you.
Making limitations work for you is where entrepreneurial creativity comes into play. If you have enough details on your business’s limitations, then you’ll be better able to turn those limitations into innovations. A budget will help you marshal your creative energies and find the opportunities for profit embedded in the market’s constraints. It tells you exactly what assets you have to work with, and helps you map out how those assets can be put to the most productive use given the rules of the industry.
After all, most of the market-based constraints you experience will be shared by your competitors, who also have limited amounts of money and freedom. Which of you comes out on top won’t be determined by who has the fewest constraints, but by who does the best job of manipulating common constraints to find the possibilities they hide.
Speed, Spontaneity, and Profit
Small businesses, precisely because they’re small, tend to be better than their larger competitors at taking quick, decisive action. It’s one of their vital advantages. By the same token, it’s one of the challenges that all entrepreneurs are bound to face. You’ll be forced to react on a moment’s notice to emerging opportunities or perils in the market-that’s a given.
What’s less certain is the profitability of your reactions. Obviously, acting or adapting fast doesn’t do much good if it yields a loss.
So what information will you use to make your quick decisions? Do you have a detailed, practical breakdown of your business’s strengths and weaknesses? Do you know exactly how many resources you can afford to redeploy at a moment’s notice? Do you know how efficiently different aspects of your business tend to use the resources you devote to them? Are certain aspects of your business already strained? Are certain aspects flush with the potential for expansion?
A budget gives you a diagnostic readout of your organization. It tells you how much stress the business can handle and which areas can handle it. Hence, it helps you decide whether acting conservatively or aggressively in the short term will enhance your performance over the long term. Without a budget, you’ll be relying too much on guesswork, and many of your quick decisions may be needlessly risky.
Supply-chain Relationships
A budget not only helps you assess yourself, but also helps you assess your relationships with other entities, like vendors and subcontractors. This will be especially important when the market is in flux.
As you know, successful entrepreneurship entails evaluating the vast array of forces that constitutes the market and determining where-for someone in your industry, someone with your passion and expertise-the opportunities and roadblocks lie. But no one can predict with any certainty how the market will behave tomorrow. There will be surprises. Sudden chances and sudden setbacks.
We’ve already noted that the way you respond to these inevitable surprises will play a critical role in the profitability-or survival-of your business, and that your ability to make the right call at the right time will be drastically greater if you have a budget in place. This is not only because a budget tells you about your own resources, but also because a budget helps you deal with other organizations that affect you.
Let’s say you experience a sharp increase in demand for your product. It’s good news, but it brings up questions: Do you have enough working capital to provide your product to a large number of new customers/clients? What are the current resources of each division of your business? How many more resources does each division need if it’s going to ramp up its activities? How efficiently does each division tend to use its resources?
These are all internal questions that may well lead to others, such as: What do your vendor accounts look like? How much new inventory can you afford to purchase? What type of sales will you need if you’re going to pay off the new purchases on time? Can you afford to hire subcontractors to help with the push?
And, of equal or greater importance: What’s your plan for a downturn in demand? Will you find yourself in a precarious position with your vendors? Will you be able to keep promises to new customers? Will you be able to pay your subcontractors for the hours they’ve put in?
Indeed, budgeting can provide invaluable support for all your relationships. As noted on Inc.com, “your suppliers are in all likelihood mapping out their expectations for the year and you can help them do so by providing your outlook. As a best practice, you should share your budget and the variety of scenarios you might face to see whether they can handle each level of demand” (Field 2010).
Since your business is one element in a network of other businesses, it’s important for you to be able to communicate both your capacities and your expectations to the people you rely on. A budget serves as a tool for facilitating such communication. It gives you a concrete way of describing not only where you stand, but also where you will stand in a given scenario. Thus, it helps foster strong partnerships and avoid uncomfortable conversations.
This doesn’t mean sharing every detail of your budget, nor does it mean sharing some details with everyone. It simply means that guarding your budget like a state secret takes away some of its efficacy. You can use select portions of your budget to assist you in negotiating with critical partners-i.e., you can be prudent about the information you divulge without being obscure. How much do your current business partners know about your budget? Is it enough for them to understand your capacities and your needs?
The Bank
Speaking of business relationships: you don’t want to mess around with the bank. Plain and simple. This is a relationship that should be as friendly and open as possible. And what do bankers like? Budgets. As the American Bankers Association (ABA) says, “You are flying in the dark financially if you don’t have a budget for all income and expenses.”
Come to them without a budget, and bankers are going to feel like you’re wasting their time. They’re certainly not going to be interested in loaning you money (or more money). “Prepare for your financial review with your banker,” says ABA. “Have current inventories, cash flows and balance sheets ready.”
When your banker asks you how your debt is structured, and whether you have an imbalance between long- and short-term debt, what are you going answer? Trust us: if you show up to that meeting with a budget, you’ll be glad you did.
Flexibility
Just as the market’s unpredictability makes budgets useful, it also makes them fallible. A budget is like any plan: it will contain inaccurate predictions and require ongoing revision. That’s simply a condition of commerce; some academic models are predicated on entrepreneurs having perfect foresight, but we all know that’s not the case. Businesspeople, even the world’s most celebrated financial prognosticators, get it wrong sometimes.
That doesn’t render planning completely useless. Even if your plans don’t entirely match the way reality unfolds, they serve as benchmarks against which you can assess your progress. They record where you wanted to go, where you actually went, and why the two didn’t coincide. In that way, they indicate which areas of your business are performing well, and which need to be modified in order to meet next quarter’s goals.
When it comes to small-business planning, certainty is off the table. Nothing is guaranteed, including budgets. But setting expectations and monitoring progress remain indispensable to long-term survival. They help small-business owners analyze why they’re drifting off course, and also help them formulate corrective measures.
How do you see a budget? As a static report that turns old news into flimsy predictions? Or as a series of living documents that records how you adapt to change?
Personnel
Thorough budgeting calls for a great deal of effort, and many small-business owners can’t spare the necessary time or energy. Frankly, while the minutiae of budgeting are of interest to the entrepreneur, they are not the entrepreneur’s main job. If they were, then a good head for numbers and a background in financial analysis would be prerequisites for entrepreneurship. Yet plenty of small-business owners have succeeded without an affinity for mathematics or statistics. Entrepreneurs don’t all begin as certified public accountants.
That being the case, most small-business owners hire a bookkeeper. A bookkeeper collects and organizes your financial information, which, again, is time-consuming and requires close attention to detail. Too much time and too much attention for small-business owners to sacrifice. But even if you’re not involved with gathering and sorting your financial information, you needn’t remain aloof from it. To get the most benefit from budgeting, you’ll want to be accustomed to reading your financial statements and locating important data in your financial system. When you meet with your bookkeeper, are you talking about his or her methods? Is he or she showing you how your financial information is organized? Are you able to navigate your bookkeeping software on your own, so as to pull up specific pieces of data without your bookkeeper’s assistance?
Proper bookkeeping is important, but it rarely goes far enough in the analysis department. You’ll notice that the bulk of our discussion has revolved around using budgets to orient yourself in the market-i.e., using them to take advantage of opportunities and to minimize risks. That requires more than tabulating numbers; it requires interpreting them. It requires fitting your numbers into a larger picture.
Is there anyone in your organization besides you who (1) monitors your finances on the close-in, detailed level, and (2) relates the details of your finances to your big-picture performance? If not, chances are you’d benefit from a dedicated financial person. Someone whose duties involve painting a comprehensive picture of your financial universe-more comprehensive, that is, than the picture you’re able to paint on your own, simply because you have other things to do.
As with most aspects of running a small business, getting the most out of budgeting requires skillful delegation. If a budget is going to inform your decisions at major turning points, then it’s a good idea to have someone to consult with, someone who’s been looking at the same numbers as you while also looking at the same problems.
Takeaway
The value of a budget doesn’t rest on the accuracy of its predictions or the stringency of its cost-cutting. Instead, the value of a budget rests on how well it articulates your business’s financial strengths and weaknesses. A budget exists to help you balance risk against opportunity, to help you determine whether aggressive or conservative action is the right thing for the moment. It also exists to help you communicate with your business partners-to, in other words, cultivate healthy, mutually beneficial relationships with the organizations you rely on.
Above all, a budget exists to de-mystify, or express in concrete terms, the limitations imposed on your business by the market. Thorough budgeting, especially when undertaken with the right personnel, can enhance your creative initiatives and merge adaptability with profit. In short, budgeting is a way to sharpen, not blunt, a small business’s advantages.
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.