Is a Home Based Business Opportunity Credible?

How can you become financially independent?

You worked hard and you squeezed almost everything you have just to pay all your expenses, however, at the end of the day you realized that what you earn is not enough. Well, can you imagine a lifestyle wherein you only have to work 4 hours a day and yet you still earn twice or even thrice as much as what you earn right now? You know what? That can happen through a home based business opportunity. Throughout this article, you will discover important principles before getting into a home opportunity, and hopefully will make you say: Yes! I can be financially independent.

What is a home based business opportunity?

A home based business is simply an investment or any kind of business that you can work at the comforts of your home. This is the dream of many people. And I bet you also want the same thing. So, what are the things you should know?

How credible is the opportunity?

There are lots of websites out there claiming that they have the best home based business opportunity, but many of them are actually gimmicks. So, what is the number one rule? Make sure that you are looking for a 100% legitimate home based business opportunity. You need to look at the credibility of the business. That is the number one principle you have to consider before going into any home based business opportunity. I know, it is not easy to see that right away, that is why we need to make some thorough investigation and research. How can you do that?

Well, you got a lot of resources that you can actually use or avail of. Number one is through the internet which is very accessible. Do a little surfing through the net or spend considerable time reading testimonials about this type of business. Surely, you will know and learn more about it and find out the type of business which can actually work for you. You can also find more about it in magazines, journals and e-books that talk about home based business opportunity. Reading them can increase your knowledge and enhance your skills for brighter and promising business opportunities.

Are those enough? No, because you have to be confident with yourself in dealing with the kind of business that you decided to get into and leave no room for doubts. You will try to be clear of everything and resolve issues that you may have about the home based business opportunity that is of interest to you. You can even call or send inquiries via email from those offering such information through websites. And if certain answers are a bit doubtful or suspicious, you can consider looking for another search. Now, have I got your minds tweaked about a home based business opportunity, what should you know next?

Is there a home based business opportunity that would interest you?

Just like you, when I first heard about this, I was very skeptical. But now, I want you to think differently-to have a positive doubt about it. It is okay to be cynical at first, but I assure you that a home based business opportunity is the key to your financial independence. How cool is that?

With a home based business opportunity, you get thousands of options, products, and services that you can use to run a business. You can work on stuffs that interest you the most and thus, provide you maximum commitment and motivation every day. If you are musically inclined, you can set up your own online music store. Or if you love sports, you can sell athletic goods as well. This is how a home based business opportunity becomes flexible for you. You can get out of your shell, and do what you love. What do you think? Do you enjoy your work at the office?

At the start of this article, I asked you how you can become financially independent. I do not know what your answer is but what I do understand is that you are creative and you have goals to become rich. Today, you realized that a home based business opportunity is what you need to make it happen. Now, if you want to find out more about it and understand how I became very successful with my own home based business, please visit my website.

Why Is Marketing and Advertising Essential for Every Business?

To survive in today’s competition, every business – large, medium, or small – needs to promote itself. It should make people aware of the products and services it offers. The availability of a variety of media sources like television, radio, print, outdoor media, the Internet, etc., offers businesses numerous opportunities to promote themselves with a little effort. Many businesses have already understood the importance of marketing and advertising. Businesses in US spent around $144 billion on marketing and advertising in 2011. Globally, it was $ 498 billion.

Marketing and advertising are not the same
Marketing and advertising are two unique concepts which are important for every business to succeed. Many people wrongly assume that they are the same. But, they are not. Marketing involves various activities like identifying the target markets, their needs and requirements; new product development, promotion, building brand image, etc. Advertising, on the other hand, is one of the marketing activities. It is a kind of promotion to make consumers aware of the products/services available under a brand.

In this article, we will discuss on how marketing and advertising help businesses.

• Marketing defines target markets: Target markets or target customers is a group of people who are more likely to buy products/services offered by your business. Unless a business identifies its target market, it cannot design its advertising strategy that is customized to serve potential consumers. Marketing helps the businesses effectively identify their target markets. Marketing involves research to identify people who you want to sell your products and people who need your products.

• Identifies customers’ needs: It is important to continuously monitor and produce products that suit the requirements of your target group. Marketing does this exactly. It identifies customers’ requirements by conducting various polls, campaigns and research, which enable the businesses to produce products that match the needs and wants of the consumers.

• Builds brand image: Good reputation makes a company stand-out from the rest. As marketing enables a company to produce products as per the customers’ demand, and helps it conduct various programs to promote the brand and its products, a kind of brand image will be established among the public.

• Advertising helps publicize company’s products and services: While marketing involves all the back-end operations like research, collecting opinions, identifying needs and requirements and so on, advertising is associated with publicizing the brand to the consumers. It creates an awareness of the brand as well as the products/services offered by it among people and thus makes the brand well known among the target markets.

Besides creating brand awareness, an effective advertisement does have the power to persuade the public to buy the products. The diverse means of advertising include non-electronic media like newspapers, brochures, journals, magazines, banners, posters, etc., and electronic media such as television, radio, the Internet, etc.

• Differentiates company’s products from others’ products: Another advantage of advertising is that it gives a company an opportunity to differentiate its products from its competitors’ products. Many of us might have seen advertisements which compare the effectiveness of their products with that of their competitors. A popular example is consumer product advertisements, which show comparison of the products. This kind of promotion helps people understand the specialty of your brand/product.

• Enhances your presence in the market: An advertisement campaign continuously reminds the prospective customers about the brand and its products. In a troubled economy, where so many companies are coming in and going out of business within months, an ongoing advertising strategy helps businesses reach their customers effectively. In the long run, it helps the companies build long term relationship with their target customers.

• Marketing and advertising both help a business increase revenues: The final goal of both marketing and advertising is the same – to improve sales and revenues of the company. While marketing improves sales by producing products that serve the needs and wants of the customers, advertising enhances the revenues by making people aware of the products offered by the company.

Any business can accrue these benefits by considering marketing and advertising as essential elements of business. Implementing effective marketing and advertising strategies customized to a business is, however, essential and works out better when both the strategies are integrated. To make the most out of them, it is better to take help of professional advertising and marketing service providers who offer tailor-made strategies designed to meet your business goals and help you prosper and grow bigger.

How Important Is the Fundraising Auctioneer to the Success of Your Event?

I want you to think about the term “Fundraising Auction”.

A “Fundraising Auction” is an event where items of value are gathered, and then sold in a competitive bidding situation, either in a Silent Auction format, or in a Live Auction format by a Live Auctioneer. And since typically the best items are saved for the Live Auction, arguably it is the Live Auction that should generate a significant portion of the proceeds in any Fundraising Auction.

So why do so many non-profit groups consider the Fundraising Auctioneer to be the least valuable component in a Fundraising Auction?

The Hosting Facility gets paid.
The Printer gets paid.
The Caterer gets paid.
The Liquor Store gets paid.
The DJ gets paid.
The Florist gets paid.
But the Auctioneer … the individual who is expected to raise the lion’s share of the event’s proceeds… is expected to work for Free. And is usually under-appreciated for the professional services he/she provides.

I’m not trying to underscore the value of the invitations & programs, food, booze, music, and decorations. All are important in their own way. But each of these are “Expenses”. It is the Auctioneer who is going to bring “Revenue”… and thus, the “Profits”… into any event. Which is the ultimate objective of any Fundraising Auction.

Here is a real-life example of how under-appreciated the Auctioneer can be. In two comparable events we worked last year, during the dinner portion of the event one non-profit group sat the Auctioneer (me) at a table with the DJ, the Interns, the Volunteer Staff, and other event “Help”. The 2nd non-profit group sat the Auctioneer (me) directly next to the CEO of their organization, where we chatted about how important the pending revenue would be to their organization. Which group do you think valued the services of the Fundraising Auctioneer more?

Don’t ever under-estimate the value that a professional Fundraising Auctioneer can bring to your event. The Auctioneer adds value as a pre-event consultant. And the Auctioneer can change an event from a moderate to a huge success.

A Case Study Once I was scheduled to call an Auction for a major local non-profit group. They represented a very good cause and they had a strong and dedicated following. Their event was sold out, quality Live & Silent Auction items had been solicited, and the Special Pledge Appeal had been choreographed and was ready to go. The facility was first class, the appropriate caterer was booked, and the food was ready to cook.

But quite unexpectedly, some unseasonably inclement weather forced the event’s cancellation. Despite all of the committee’s hard work, cancelling the event was the proper decision considering the circumstances.

So the Event Committee scrambled to re-schedule the event for the following weekend.

They confirmed with the Hosting Facility.
They confirmed with the Caterer.
They confirmed with the Liquor Store.
They confirmed with the DJ.
They confirmed with the Florist.
Since they already had the Mailing List of those scheduled to attend, no new invitations had to be printed as all were contacted by email or telephone. So with everything in place, the group went ahead and re-scheduled the event for the following weekend.

But guess who they failed to confirm? You got it… the Professional Auctioneer. They thought so little of the Auctioneer’s contribution that they “assumed” that the Auctioneer would be available and at their beck and call.

But the Auctioneer already had another Fundraising Auction booked for that date with another non-profit group. It was only hour away from the re-scheduled event, and things could have been easily worked out. All Group #1 had to do was start their event one hour earlier, or one hour later, than the Group #2, and the Auctioneer could have helped both groups on the same day.

But because Group #1 failed to anticipate a possible Auctioneer conflict, because they failed to confirm with the Auctioneer before re-scheduling their event, their preferred Auctioneer had to bow out and they had to scramble to locate substitute “Volunteer” Auctioneer only days before their event.

And it cost them.

Learning Points

The Live Auction is usually where the profits are made at any Fundraising Auction.
A Professional Fundraising Auctioneer can be vital to the success of any Fundraising Auction.
The better Fundraising Auctioneers usually get booked quickly.
You need to recognize the important contributions that a good Auctioneer can make to your event.
Michael Ivankovich is a Bucks County Fundraising Auctioneer based in Doylestown PA, and serves the Great Philadelphia PA area. He has been a professionally licensed and bonded Auctioneer in Pennsylvania for nearly 20 years, has been named Pennsylvania’s Auctioneer of the Year, and has considerable experience in conducting Fundraising Auctions. Michael loves helping groups raise needed funds for good causes and one of his specialties is the “Special Pledge Appeal” or “Fund-A-Cause Appeal” which usually enables clients to double their revenue in a single evening.