Are you tired of the daily eight to twelve hours work shift? Is the every day rush in the morning, a hectic day in the office, pricking comments of the boss or dirty politics of colleagues pushing you in the sea of stress? Home based business opportunities will show you the light of a new earning scope apart from the dreary world. It is also suitable for the homemakers or women who have to stay back home for children. You can manage the home based business the way you want, invest time and resource as per your need. Therefore, you have freedom and control over your life that you do not get in normal official jobs.However, before starting any business you have to do a lot of research about your preference, scope, resources, time and capability. You have to be very clear of what you want to do. There are various types of employees in various home based businesses; you may opt to be a freelancer, take contract independently; work as telephone operator, a virtual assistant or even a consultant.Prepare your CV perfectly, emphasize your skills and experience, and select the most suitable time frame for you. Especially the time frame is very important as you have to be available to the clients on time and also attend your family responsibilities. As you are working from home so you must have plenty of time. Again, staying home is a drawback if the household chores take over your working hour.Investigate about what resources you have. A computer machine, a telephone, any software and even your special skill will be beneficial. There are various types of home based business and you are the mastermind to select the right one, design and develop your business. There are many alluring advertisements broadcasting lump some money, but be careful because a hefty income from business is not possible overnight. The advertisers invested years behind the business to make money.Some common home based business solutions are-

Website-based business: if you can design websites then this is for you. If you are not that skilled you can buy website or hire experts and run the business.
Freelance writer: if you do not have any special skill but knowledge of the basics of computer use, then you can write articles, do data entry work online.
Manage to buy and sell products online: become familiar with the auction sites, use your intelligence and sell the products online.
Virtual assistant: you can work as administrative assistant or office assistant without going office.
Other online jobs: these include online coaching, web-content management, consulting, transcription works etc.
All these were based on internet. However, you can do business without a computer also. If you have any hobby like painting, craftwork, music, knitting, cooking etc then you can sell your handwork or give training on them from home.As with all other jobs, home based business also have some shortcomings. You do not get any health or life insurance on the basis of home based work. Your income may not be steady and stable every month and affording all expense of the family may be impossible at times. As you are staying home, you have to be present in all family matters, distracting you from the job. Home based business is no less than regular jobs and it is very challenging. After all, you have to be confident enough that at the end you will succeed.

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.

In today’s world, who DOESN’T want to make money from home? The 2 primary things at your disposal are that the economy calls for this but also that technology has never made it easier for us! You can literally reach the globe and have things become viral today via Facebook and the power of social networking. It is almost harder to believe that despite these things, the majority of people that get involved STILL fail for some reason. So how do you pick and choose which home based business is proper for you?1.) Your “Why” – You will need to CLEARLY determine what is motivating you to want to work from home. If your “why” isn’t strong enough, typically you won’t succeed. I’m not talking about “I need the money” type of why. I’m talking about a true passion or desire to succeed at something that you feel you can/will make a difference with. Unlike punching a clock and exchanging your time for money (usually piddly money), working from home REQUIRES consistency and drive to the fullest. You will not continually display this on a consistent basis if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing and believe it has a purpose for you and for your customers.When I quit my “job” and started marketing online full time, I was torn between the “Should I or shouldn’t I” phase. I was making enough money online to justify it but my fear of “what if?” set in. I figured out that my “Why” was due to overwhelming medical bills and having NO chance to pay for them until/unless I did something different. My “job” was capped and my income was capped. Home based businesses are notorious for not “capping” you, your potential or your income. Quite attractive when your “Why” is strong.2.) Skill – Let’s face it. There is a certain amount of skill required for a particular business opportunity. This is something that I deal with everyday with my students. They want to get into internet marketing but they “Don’t know how to build websites” and many other excuses. Guess what? Either did I! That’s the beauty of these businesses is that although skill might be required, it CAN be learned and improved upon.I am now building sites, landing pages, sales funnels, blogs, installing plugins, etc. If you would have mentioned these to me years ago, I wouldn’t have even known what they were! So rejoice in the fact that whatever your opportunity is, it WILL require skill that you can improve upon!. The smart “go getter” will pick an opportunity where they are already skilled if possible OR be willing to dive in and learn and not be intimidated by it!3.) Experience – It isn’t likely that you will have experience in whichever opportunity you decide to get involved in and that is normal I think. When I bring experience up, I am referring to being realistic about YOUR personal experience level with this opportunity you are considering. In other words, just because Ralph down the street is achieving success does NOT mean that you will. Draw your OWN conclusions from your OWN experiences, NOT from Ralph’s experience.These opportunities are generally only going to share results from their highest achievers. I believe that means the 1 or 2% that actually achieve tremendous success in this opportunity. They are the ones that do the sales pitches and the infomercials and such because they don’t want to tell you about the other 98% that never made a dime. Be realistic and draw YOUR conclusions. Don’t allow outside influence like this distort your perspective of a particular home based business opportunity. Only YOU can draw this conclusion.4.) Start Up Fees – Many opportunities will ask for and require payment for many different things and reasons. This is normal and shouldn’t scare you away. Businesses require money to start up and require money to build them. However, do NOT blow your budget for any opportunity. If you wish to start or join an opportunity that requires more money than you currently have or can spend, SAVE the money and get involved then. Reason being is this…..you will learn to resent your decision and the opportunity when you don’t see immediate results. It is common for the opportunities to insinuate that if you spend xxxx amount NOW, you can recoup your loss by working the system.Sometimes this is true and I believe it is always possible but it certainly is not probable. If they try to persuade you to move forward when you resist, I would say that is a red flag. Start up fees should be paid and disbursed and forgotten about. Move forward in your decision and give it an honest effort. This leads me to my next helpful tip….5.) Seed Planting – When a farmer goes out and plants seeds, they don’t do this so that they can come back tomorrow and see results. They plant the seeds knowing full well that the results might not happen for quite some time. This is how I always treat home based business also. Many get started, they plant some seeds and get some things accomplished, they don’t see immediate results and the bail out. This is a HUGE problem and one of the leading causes of failure in these home based business opportunities in my opinion.You need to generally give these opportunities adequate time to develop and you need to be smart enough to stick it out for the harvest! You certainly wouldn’t want to be involved in something that yielded immediate results because THAT would most likely be some kind of bogus scam. Instead, moderate results and/or dismal results that continually get better are what you’re looking for. The harvest is waiting and you certainly can’t enjoy it if you bail.In closing, I’d like to simply point out that it is my opinion that ANY home based business CAN generate a good living for the right person. It is usually the person behind the opportunity promoting it that causes the failure. Self sabotage and “re-inventing the wheel” are SO common. Instead of doing what you were taught, you decide to skip this or talk yourself out of doing that…and the next thing you know, you don’t have anything to show for your efforts.However, your efforts weren’t done properly so of course your results weren’t good. Now that I have reached the level of success that I have, I can honestly say that there has never been a better time to get involved in home based business. The decision to do this has changed my life completely in all ways and it has done the same for thousands in this poor economy.I strongly suggest that while evaluating ANY home based business opportunity, you FIRST evaluate yourself because it will most likely be YOU and only YOU that create the failure. We are self sabotaging humans and our loved ones are notorious for not being supportive in these ventures. Surround yourself with others that are successful and ask for help. If you are willing to do the work and go through the motions properly, most that are successful will be more than happy to help you.They should appreciate that you are striving to learn but do NOT expect them to offer advice and then watch you decide to NOT do what they said or to “modify” it and do it YOUR way. Your “Why” simply needs to be strong enough to do any of these things. If it were as easy as it sounds on paper, nobody would work for anyone and we’d all be working from home. If you don’t have determination and drive to be successful, you won’t. It’s not rocket science! I encourage you to go for it. It sure has made ALL the difference in my life!