Home based businesses provide assistance for you to seek an alternate route to earn a residual income from the comfort of your home. With the inception and expansion of the internet, it has become very easy to transact business from your home using a PC connected to the internet. I am very sure that at some point in your life you must have done a look up on Google to get the best home based business idea available. While it is a very good move to find out ways to make money online it is also important for you to do your due diligence before investing your time and money in any home based business. Thousands of people have fallen prey to unsuspecting scammers on the internet in a bid to make money online; it’s very easy to build a website these days so anyone can design a catchy website just to get your interest and to rip you off your money.Before you supply your credit card numbers to any website, it is pertinent to find out in details what the supposed home based business is all about. There are certain ways you can get information about any make money online from home business. I will be discussing them below:1. Do a Google Lookup: Google can give you just about any piece of information you need just at the click of a button. If for example you find business xyz that claims to be a legitimate home based business, you can do a Google lookup by typing “xyz scam,” Google will automatically bring out any scam report about this online home business. Anyone who has been a victim of the scam would definitely want to share his bad experience with the business.2. Visit Home Based Business Forums: Home based business forums provide a great way for you to interact with forum members to find out the best ways to make money online. You can get all the information you need by connecting with knowledgeable and well experience people in the field of information marketing, website flipping, affiliate marketing etc. depending on the type of forum. You will be amazed at the responses you get when you type in a question.3. Send A Mail To Their Support: It is also useful to send an email to the support of the home based business you intend investing your money and your time into; genuine businesses always take less time to respond depends on the volume of mails they are receiving and most of them have a chat support that can answer your questions almost immediately. Others organize online conferences where you can ask questions and get instant clarifications.4. Start Little: Don’t be tempted to throw in all your cash at any online business; you should have a reserve just in case. Start little and as time goes on you can add more funds to it. I am just suggesting this to you; speaking from experience.I have been burnt and ripped off a couple of times while trying to make money on the internet, I have done several work at home businesses that did not pay off at the end; turned out to be a waste of my time and resource. One honest advice I can give you about a work from home business is to find a legitimate home based business, work with it and stick to it. At the moment, I am promoting one business and making a good chunk of money out of it. It is a very simple and realistic program run by a renowned internet business expert Frederick Mann. I hope to make more money from this business; it’s a definitely sustainable business and anyone who wants to make money online should leverage on it; it’s a simple and understandable process with life supports in the form of online conference calls, you can ask the experts questions and get immediate response.I wish you the best.
Starting a Home Based Business – Choosing The Right Online Business
What Stops You From Starting Your Own Home Based Business?
Home based businesses are popular because they offer the business owner freedom to work when, where, and how you want. You get to control your own life and to manage your business simultaneously. If successful, you will also find financial freedom from the low pay of your previous job.
Due to the poor economy, people all over the world are seeking ways to improve their life styles. They want more money and more time to enjoy it. However, a large majority will never get past the dreaming stage due to some real or perceived fear of owning their own home based business.
With the huge potential to eliminate your financial problems and to improve your lifestyle, why then are you afraid to start a home business? What stops you? After all, it’s an excellent way to generate good income and live a peaceful life without the normal job stress created when you have an 8-5 hour job and a boss watching your every move.
Major Reasons
Here are a few reasons why you and thousands of other people hesitate to start up a home business:
o Fear of Loss of Money. One of the major reasons could be the fear of losing money that you would have to invest. Money plays an important role in starting a business. The fear of losing your hard earned money is so high that you may be afraid to even try because of all the horror stories that you have heard about business failures. However, keep in mind that the start up cost for a home based internet business does not cost anywhere near what it would cost you to start a brick and mortar business and you can make a lot more income in the process.
o Fear of Responsibility. As a business owner you will have a lot of responsibilities. If you suddenly make the leap from employee to boss, you may find that you are ill prepared to accept the new responsibilities. You may have a constant fear that if something goes wrong, it will be your fault. To get past this fear, you will need to focus on why you want to start up a home business. What is your burning dream that keeps you motivated and looking forward to owning your own business? Once your dream is big enough and real enough in your mind, only then will you begin to understand the need for you to accept the responsibility of owning your own home business.
o Lack of Patience. You may want to quit when you don’t see immediate income. It is normal for you to be overly excited when you start your new business and you should be. However, you need to maintain your patience and settle in for the long haul if you want to experience success. There is no such thing as a get rich quick business even though there are thousands of scam artists promoting such business opportunities every where you look now days. Run from these people like they have the plague because they are only after your money and could care less if you succeed or not. Once they have your money, they will disappear.
o Lack of Business Knowledge and Skills. Lack of knowledge about the product or service that you are selling and the lack of the skills required to manage your business is yet another reason why you may be hesitant to start a home business. However, this can be easily overcome by studying your product and/or service to get a full understanding of the benefits that the customer will derive from using them. Regarding skills, you can easily remove this hurdle by taking classes and attending training conferences and other similar learning functions. Not everyone has each and every skill needed to operate their business on day one. If you don’t have time to get yourself up to par on day one of your business grand opening, then you may want to consider hiring someone with the skills and knowledge that you are lacking to fill in the void until such time that you to feel comfortable in doing it yourself.
o Fear of Get Rich Schemes. Get rich quick schemes are everywhere you look now days and have caused most people to have a negative attitude about home businesses. If you do not take the time to thoroughly research your product and/or services for your specific business prior to investing in it you may find out to late that it is nothing more than a scam and the only person getting rich is the promoter. However, with a little serious due diligence on your part, you will soon be able to separate the scammers from the serious professionals. Keep in mind that there is risk in any business that you may want to start up. Every day people make wrong investments in wrong places and later repent their errors. No business is risk free.
o Lack of Motivation. Lack of motivation also keeps millions of people from starting their own business. To keep yourself motivated you have to have a dream and a gut wrenching desire to make it become a reality. It has to be a burning desire so strong that you concentrate on making it happen with your every thought every day. By developing that mindset, you will always be motivated to do whatever it takes legally to make your home business a success.
Finally, you will need to cultivate a positive attitude towards your business and your customers. You will need to adhere to a strict policy of fairness and to always give more value than you receive back. A positive attitude and a strong customer service policy will help you to achieve your goal of having a successful home based business.
Five Tips for Selling at Live Auctions
Ah, the old-fashioned country auction! The idea of a country auction conjures up certain images for people. The image of a fast-talking auctioneer offering up an antique table or chair is a popular example.
People who are buying household goods or collectibles are looking to get their items at the lowest price possible. However, the people who are selling their items at auction are hoping for the highest price!
Unless a person is in the business of buying and selling antiques or other items, not a lot of thought goes into how goods are prepared for sale via the auction process. However, if you are one of the growing number of people using auction venues to sell your collectibles or other inventory, there are a few things to learn first about how to sell at auction before you bring a truckload of stuff over to the next event.
Tip 1: Make sure the things you want to sell are a good “fit” for the auction house you’ll be using.
Never bring a load to an auction house without actually having been to one of the previous auctions. It’s important to get a feel for the type of goods that the house sells. For example, at one very rural country auction it was common for the owners to sell live chickens, pots and pans, car parts, and farm equipment.
After close investigation, this would not be the right venue for selling your daughter’s “Hello Kitty” collection. On the other hand, the spare John Deere parts that you bought at last week’s yard sale might be just the right thing for the buying crowd at this auction.
Tip 2: Be sure you clearly understand the terms and policies of the auction house.
Visit with the auctioneer ahead of time. Call to find out what the best days and times are to visit. One of the worst possible times to drop in for an informational visit with an auctioneer is the day of the auction. Call ahead and ask. While you’re at it, find out what are the best days and times to drop your stuff off.
Once you have a little time with the auctioneer, you’ll be able to find out what type of commission he or she takes from consigners (which is you), and what type of paperwork might be needed. Some auction houses send out Form 1099 tax forms at the end of the year. An auctioneer may need to see your identification and have you fill out a W-9. Be prepared.
Find out what happens to your items if they don’t sell. For example, some auctioneers may have a minimum starting bid. If, for some reason, one of your items does not sell, it may be grouped with another one of your pieces. Know the auctioneer’s strategy beforehand so that you aren’t surprised on pay day.
Tip 3: Make sure the auctioneer knows what you’re selling.
It might be perfectly obvious to you that the signed print you are consigning is a rare and valuable piece of art. However, the auctioneer may not know this particular artist. Make a note of anything particularly special about your items, and leave the note with the piece. Be sure to tell the auctioneer about it as well. He or she might determine that this is something to highlight on the company website or in the newspaper listing.
Tip 4: Present your items neatly.
No one likes to have to dig through a box full of grimy and greasy car parts to see what treasures might be in there. Separate the parts and lay them out on a flat, or use more than one box to de-clutter the lot.
There is no need to buy fancy display boxes. It’s easy enough to go to the local convenience store or supermarket and ask if you can have the emptied boxes or flats that they are discarding.
While it’s good to present clean items, take care not to ruin the value of anything by over cleaning. For example, if you find some old cast iron cookware, clean the obvious dirt and grime, but don’t scrub it to its original finish. For many people, this ruins the value of the item. So, clean and tidy and organized is the key here.
Tip 5: Don’t complain to the auctioneer if your stuff doesn’t sell for as much as you’d like.
The phrase to remember here is, “You win some; you lose some.” That’s just the way it is. There are some days where an auction house is loaded with people who all seem to want what you’re selling. There will be other days where the crowd is sparse, and the bidding is simply not competitive.
Remember that it’s in the auctioneer’s best interest to sell your things for the highest possible hammer price. But sometimes, it’s just not going to be a stellar sale. The auctioneer is only human, and is also disappointed if a sale doesn’t go as well as planned.
If you notice that every time you bring a bunch of goods to sell that you’re not realizing as much as you think you honestly should, try another auction venue and compare apples to apples. That is, bring the same types of items to the new auctioneer and compare the results.
Unless the auctioneer is particularly disagreeable or inconsiderate to you or buyers, there is no reason to confront him or her about a sale. If you find you just don’t care for an auctioneer’s style or methods, find another one. Believe me, there are plenty of them out there!
The primary thing to remember as you learn how to sell at auction is that the business is unpredictable at best. You will have good days, some not-so-good days, some great days. The more you sell, the more experience you will gain, and the more enjoyable the business will be.