There are many reasons why the home based industry is a good investment and business option for people today. In the light of the recent financial crisis, many large organizations and land based businesses are collapsing while the home based business industry is thriving. This is because the online market remained unaffected by the recent recession and has only benefited from the many new online home businesses starting up.A home based business is great idea if you are unemployed, need a second income or if you are a stay at home parent. Even if you are a homemaker with valuable degrees to boast of, or a college student with a lot of free time, an online business is a very lucrative and simple way of making money. Even if you are someone with a steady job, it is always good to have a backup plan just in case. Get ready to get into the home based business industry and you will soon find yourself well on the way to achieving financial security and a great future. Also, once you get the business up and running, you can step back and let it run itself.One of the first steps to starting an online business is doing some groundwork to find the right home based business that suits your qualifications and interest. There are several home based business opportunities for you to choose from and you make a good choice with a bit of effort and concentrated research.Remember never to rush into a home business just because you have a great money making idea. Understand the risks and know that even with all the planning that you put into your business there is a chance of success, only if you are able to market yourself properly.Starting an online home business is a relatively simple option if you have an internet connection, a personal computer and a good business idea. Even marketing knowledge is not required as you can hire someone to market your online business for you. An online business will allow you to work flexible hours and if you are a parent, you will not feel guilty that you are not at home for your children.Building the right home business will reap huge benefits for you. However, do not be greedy and expect results right away. Instead, have patience, put in hard work diligently and eventually the money will come in.
The Role of Marketing and Advertising Agencies in Business
An advertising or marketing agency is the third-party offering advertising and marketing services to organizations and businesses. They are the best source to acquire complete information about the market. With the help of various methods like culture knowledge, market research and modernized sales techniques, advertising agencies provide detail information about the current market scenario.
What services do advertising agencies offer?
The services of an advertising agency include creating gorgeous color schemes and logos that can drive consumers towards their client’s ads. Amongst the services, they also prepare brochures and slogans and create descriptive copies for the sales materials. Most advertising agencies use various media platforms for promoting their client’s organization and business. Magazine advertisements, TV commercials, websites, radio commercials, newspaper ads and infomercials are few of the media used for marketing.
Before marketing, the agencies must know about the services and products of their clients. This helps them to decide the demographic to promote the products and services to consumers. Together with outsourcing of product promotion services, businesses have now started outsourcing the marketing functions.
Marketing Agencies and Their Functionality
Often businesses are unable to decide how to market their services and products or what type of marketing will be effective for them. This is where the marketing agencies come to help. They work coherently with their client companies and offer them professional assistance to plan their marketing strategies. The primary aim of these agencies is to boost up the sales of their client company. They offer marketing strategies which would reach out to the largest number of prospective audiences.
Marketing agencies also do a lot of market research. They study about the sale points and demographics for supplementing their services across the market. Marketing agencies work together with the advertising agencies delivering them strategic inputs about the marketing ways, geographies, target audience and the market study. Hence, they both can promote a company in the true sense.
A company can drive its target audience and consumers with the help of these two agencies. These agencies make certain things like brand recalling and control over the market more effective for a business organization. The strategies of these agencies are highly efficient in establishing a company among its competitors. Companies can sway their consumers in a remarkable way. Now, it might be a costly affair to engage these agencies for a company but it is worth the investment it makes.
Both marketing and advertising agencies survey the market thoroughly which is not at possible for any business to do. They study the market and use varied tools to make a company and its business poplar in the market.
Auction Listings Are Vital to the Success of Fundraising Auctions
Fundraising Auction Tip: You should always provide potential bidders with a printed Auction Listing of both your Live and Silent Auction items at any Fundraising Auction. A printed Auction Listing is vital for several reasons:
An Auction Listing informs bidders of the order of sale, and what is coming up next. If you keep your bidders guessing, they will simply not bid.
If bidders are not 100% certain of what they are bidding on, they will not bid. A printed Auction Listing should answer any and all questions about what is being sold in order to encourage bidders to bid as much as possible.
Bidders often need time to plan their bidding strategies, especially on multiple and/or larger value items. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.
Couples often need time to consult with each other about what they are willing to spend on something. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.
Potential bidders need to know the specifics, the benefits, and the restrictions on any item they are going to bid on, especially on travel and/or other higher value items. A printed Auction Listing should answer all of their questions, in writing.
After bidders see that they have lost an item to another bidder, a printed Auction Listing makes it easier for them to re-strategize on what else they can bid on.
Printed Auction Listings generally come in 3 forms:
Printed in the Event Program or Auction Catalog.
Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-inserted into the Event Program or Auction Catalog.
Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-delivered to all attendees, or left on each dinner table in the room.
Auction Listings cost practically nothing to produce and they can make the difference between the success and failure of a Live and Silent Auction. You should never conduct a Fundraising Auction without one.
A Case Study
Let me share a real-life experience with you. Once I was hired to conduct a Fundraising Auction for a nationally renowned organization. The event was held in a major hotel, in one of the country’s largest cities, with several hundred “black tie” participants attending. It was an extremely professional event, with the music, singing, lighting, speeches, and awards all perfectly timed and choreographed. Everything was done to perfection… exception the Fundraising Auction.
Although I had signed an agreement to serve as their Auctioneer nearly one year in advance of the event, no one bothered to contact me for any advice or help. Approximately one week prior to the Auction date, I contacted the group to see if they had replaced me with another Auctioneer. But they said that I was still their man.
Upon arriving at the event I asked for a copy of the Auction Listing. I was told that there were none. I’m not sure whether they felt that the Auction Listing wasn’t necessary, or whether someone forgot to have them printed. This was never made clear. When I asked what I was to use at the podium, I was told to copy the list of Live Auction items from a committee member’s computer. It took me about 30 minutes to copy three pages of hand-written notes in order to prepare for my role as their Auctioneer.
I knew that they had created a PowerPoint program showing the various Live Auction items. When I asked whether the PowerPoint slide order corresponded to the order of sale I had copied from the committee member’s computer, I was met with a blank stare. The committee member left to check the slide order, and returned to let me know that the slide order did not correspond my notes, and he provided me with the correct slide order… hand-written on a paper napkin. This forced me to re-arrange my three pages of hand-written notes before taking the podium.
There was a Live Auction Table with descriptions of the Live Auction items that were to be sold, but the table was not clearly marked, and it received significantly less attention than the Silent Auction Tables, which were clearly identified. Since the Live Auction Table was located adjacent to the “Raffle Table”, it appeared that most people thought it was part of the raffle and therefore paid very little attention to it.
According to the event program (which did not include an Auction Listing), I knew approximately when I was to begin the Live Auction. At the designated time the Master of Ceremonies announced the start of the Live Auction to the several hundred people in attendance, and introduced me as Auctioneer. As I approached the podium I realized that photographs of award winners were still being taken… directly in front of the podium where I was to stand… which required me to stand aside for several minutes until the photographers were done. Can we say “awkward moment”?
As the photographers cleared, I approached the podium and began my Live Auction introduction. Approximately one minute into my introduction, the “Raffle Committee” approached the podium and stopped my Live Auction Introduction in order to pull the 8 or 9 Raffle Winners. These drawings lasted about 5 minutes. Upon it’s conclusion I was allowed to resume the start of the Live Auction.
When standing at the podium two intense and extremely bright spotlights were pointed directly at the podium. The lights were so bright that I literally could not see the center 1/3 of the room. I could see the tables on the right, and on the left, but was totally blinded when looking straight ahead. It took perhaps five minutes before the spotlights were turned off.
While at the podium and describing Lot #1, I had to ask someone to start the Lot #1 PowerPoint Slide… because apparently no one was assigned that job.
So with only the Auctioneer’s verbal description, and a PowerPoint slide, it appeared that few people in the room had any idea about what we were selling… or when we were selling it… until it was announced by the Auctioneer. As a result, bidding was extremely light and the final results fell several thousands of dollars short of where they should have been
The learning experience is this:
The Live Auction is where you place your better items, and where the real money should be made at any Fundraising Auction. Let bidders know as far in advance as possible what you will be selling, and the order of sale, so they can get excited about the Auction, and plan their bidding strategy accordingly.
Auction Listings are absolutely vital to the success of both Live & Silent Auctions. In my opinion, revenues at this Auction fell thousands of dollars short of where they should have been, because no Auction Listing was provided to the guests.
If bidders are not perfectly clear on what is being sold, including both the item’s specifics, benefits, and restrictions, they will not bid.
When you have a committee of volunteers, especially volunteers having full time jobs and/or very busy schedules, the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer can help to keep the committee on track.
And once you retain the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer… use the services that you are paying for.