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.

So, you want to start a home based business. Well, you are certainly not alone. Millions of individuals scour the internet every month searching for legitimate home based businesses with the dream of making it big and leaving their jobs. Every day, someone is thinking, “There must be a better way,” or “Please help me quit my job,” or “I want to work from home.”

Today, many people are afraid. They are fearful of their economic futures, and the term, “This Economy” is spoken everywhere, and not in a positive light. What this means is that there are a lot of people struggling to make ends meet. Many are hoping for an economic miracle. Others have decided to start a home based business to help improve their situation.

Before you act on the impulse to start a home based business, there are a few things to consider. Let’s examine two major “red flags” indicating that you are NOT ready to venture into the world of the home based business entrepreneur – and what you can do to change the situation.

Red Flag #1: You feel desperate. You don’t make enough money. Perhaps you hate your job, and you’ll do anything to leave your current job situation. Or, you may be afraid you are about to lose your job.

Why this indicates that you are not ready: If you are feeling desperate and miserable, this is not a good time to start a home based business because you will carry that feeling of desperation into your search for a legitimate home based business opportunity. And instead of calmly weighing the pros and cons of various serious and profitable opportunities, You will be more likely to act out of desperation, falling for “get rich quick” scams – probably more than one – and spending your already hard-earned money on something that you feel will be a quick fix to your situation – that “magic bullet” that, frankly, does not exist.

How to change the situation: The first thing to do is calm yourself, and look at where the feelings of desperation come from. What can you change in your own attitude to make your job more bearable while you search for a profitable home based business? Instead of feeling angry and desperate, can you teach yourself to see the positive in your situation?

For example, if you already have a job – even if it’s not a great job – you could be thankful that you have a source of income that can help you save up for the right opportunity. You could sit yourself down and take full responsibility for where you are – after all, you made the decisions that led you to where you are now, and you can now make decisions to take another direction, if you choose. Just do it rationally, and without emotion. Release your feelings of desperation and hate – those feelings are not who you are. You are a lot bigger than that! There are plenty of places online to learn the techniques that can help you change your own outlook. Use search terms like “self development resources” or “self development techniques,” etc.

Red Flag #2: You are broke. You have debts you cannot pay, and you think that if only you could start a home based business, that this will cure everything.

Why this indicates that you are not ready: I don’t care whether you think you’ve found the Holy Grail of home based businesses. If you are already in deep debt, you will go further into debt. Why? Because being in business for yourself costs money. Even if you have a paying job, and just want to start something on the side to help pay your debts, if you are unable to stay current with your payments, you will not be able to get the credit or financing that you might need to get your home based business off the ground.

Running a business costs far more than the “5 to 10 hours per week” that so many business opportunities tout as being all that’s necessary to succeed. Scheduling your time commitment is only one part of the equation. You need to schedule your money commitment (aka “budget”) too.

How to change the situation: First of all, understand at the get-go that if you intend to start a home based business, you WILL need to spend money.

Stop searching for “free home based business opportunities,” or “easy home based business,” and get real.You don’t get anything for nothing. Ever.

So, before you decide to jump into a home based business, decide how much you can save for your start up costs which will undoubtedly include advertising, website hosting fees, months of carrying your business before the search engines begin to recognize you, and qualified buyers begin to find and visit your website.

If you are truly passionate about starting a home based business, then you will do what it takes to pay down your debts and begin to formulate a logical plan to undertake a serious home based business venture.

Until that day, you are not ready.

Depending on the type of home based business opportunity you are looking at, you can probably find others who are already active in the opportunity what type of budget is necessary to maintain the effort until you begin to earn profits.

Finally, you may be saying, “But, I really AM passionate about starting a home based business! Where can I get the money?”

This oft-asked question has a relatively simple answer – but unless you have the strength, determination, and self-discipline to do this, you won’t do it.

And this is where the rubber meets the road.

Here is the answer (drum roll please): Sell your stuff. Get rid of it. Sell on eBay. Sell on CraigsList. Have a yard sale – have more than one yard sale. Just sell your stuff.

Most people have far more stuff than they need. Do you REALLY need 10 pairs of shoes? How about that (Heaven forbid), that “Wii” you just had to have? How about your collection of collectible bears, NASCAR, purses, Goth skulls, or electronic do-dads?

How badly do you want to start a home based business? How badly do you want success? Sell the TV – or at least one of them (it’s a huge time waster anyway).

Sell the 4×4 SUV that you really don’t need to begin with. If you have kids, get them on board with you – kids are great dreamers and the thought of better stuff might nudge them in the right direction.

What else can you do? Stop spending needlessly. Buy your clothes from thrift stores instead of the department store for a while. One person we know plans “treasure hunting” trips to thrift stores with her kids – it has become a fun game, not a deprivation. Do you really need that new handbag? Do you really need that piece of jewelry? Brand name versus generic? And on, and on…

If the last few paragraphs offend you, and you cannot bear to 1) part with your stuff and/or 2) stop buying more stuff in order to realize a dream, then you are not passionate about starting a serious home based business opportunity. That’s just the way it is.

But… If you felt your heart begin to pound just a little when you thought about possibilities instead of limitations, if you felt hope instead of desperation, faith instead of fear – then, my friend, you WILL find a way – not only to START a home based business, but SUCCEED.

Copyright (c) 2009 Kathleen Tremblay

Kathy Tremblay’s passion for internet marketing stems from years of non-traditional living: from working at a Colorado guest ranch, to cycling in New Zealand, and working in Antarctica. Life in a cubicle is just not for her.

A terrific collection of tools to help you achieve your dreams is available at www.StrategiesForSuccessInLife.com [http://www.StrategiesForSuccessInLife.com] which is THE resource for the renowned Charles Haanel’s Master Key System – the very system Kathy has used to plan and meet her own goals.

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.