Raising capital for a home based business is a difficult process. This is primarily due to the fact that most home based businesses are not qualified for small business administration loans. The SBA wants to see that jobs are being created with the capital that they are providing to small businesses. As such, if you are seeking debt capital for your home based business then you are generally going to need a conventional business loan, a personal loan, or a working capital line of credit. Most importantly, if you decide to go down this funding road then you are going to need to make sure that you have the appropriate collateral and credit score in place so that you are able to effectively receive the capital that you need to launch operations. As it pertains to collateral, you can expect that a bank is going to want to see that you have a substantial amount of equity in your home, retirement accounts, and vehicles. In a way, you can consider any debt obligation that you undertake to be a personal loan.One of the other ways that you can raise capital for your home based business is to use a working capital line of credit that is secured by any inventory that you are purchasing. This will ensure that you are able to acquire the goods that you need while also being able to focus your remaining financing on marketing efforts. This is especially true if you are launching an online based business that is based out of your home. An alternative to this is that if you accept credit cards via a merchant terminal then you can receive a lump sum loan based on your monthly receivables. However, this is an extremely expensive method of financing a new business. As such, you should focus on using your own savings or obtaining a standard line of credit rather than going down this road.Finally, you can always work with friends and family as it relates to obtaining the capital that you need. However, working with friends and family in order to start a home based business comes with a number of complications. Mainly, if the business does not do well or fails then these individuals will either lose their investment or you will be required to pay them back with a business that is not producing any income.In closing, you should decide which methodology is best for your in regards to raising capital for your home based business. Each type of financing scenario has its pluses and cons.
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.
Free Home Based Business Leads – Are You Getting Them?
Free home based business leads. Every online marketer knows you gotta have them, particularly when you’re just getting started and especially if you don’t have an endless supply of money for marketing your home based business. But what’s the best way to find them? Ah…that’s the question every online affiliate or mlm business owner desires the answer to. Do you have the answer to that question? If not, or you just want to pick up some extra tips, than this article is for you.
In reality, there are quite a few effective methods for generating free home based business leads at the time of this writing, so I’m going to share a few with you here. But keep in mind, when it comes to attracting home based business leads on the internet, the rules of the mlm lead generation game are always changing, and sometimes they change fast. That’s just the nature of the internet…constantly new and better methods being developed all the time.
That leads me to your mlm lead generation system that you are currently using. You are using one, right? Your best bet for being able to stay in the game until you create that incredible mlm income is to use a system that instructs you on how to consistently generate free home based business leads that come to you, how to turn those targeted leads into prospects, how to monetize those prospects with your system’s funded proposals, and then lastly, how to get a percentage of those prospects to ask you about your online mlm business.
As I previously mentioned, things change quickly on the internet, so mlm lead generation strategies that work really well today may not be as effective a few months from now because so many people are using them. That’s why it’s so very critical that the mlm lead generation system you use constantly provides you with training on the newest cutting edge strategies to keep your free home based business leads coming in on an ever increasing basis.
Keeping that in mind, here are some of those strategies to begin generating home based business leads right away. You’re most likely familiar with some, if not all of these techniques, because a lot of folks are successfully using them. However, there are “tricks” and techniques you can use that will provide you with an advantage, but I’m afraid that would involve a lot more room than we have here right now. So here are the basics of a few of those strategies.
Blogging. Blogging has been around for quite a while now, but done right, it is a great way to develop your reputation as an authority on your niche so that people will be drawn to you. The system you use should provide you with step by step instructions on how to get started with your own blog, how to incorporate your system’s funded proposals into it, and how to effectively promote it. This is not the fastest way to start generating free home based business leads, but using it with and promoting it with additional lead generating techniques is a great way to brand yourself as a leader (which people are attracted to) and is great for the long haul too. Google loves good content blogs! Just make sure you are providing lots of valuable niche specific, keyword optimized info on your blog and not creating a huge blatant sales page.
Article Marketing. Article marketing is a terrific way to generate lots of free highly targeted leads. The more keyword optimized articles you write on your best niche topics, the more exposure you will enjoy. If you create articles that provide valuable content for your readers and use the author bio to point them back to your content-rich blog, you can generate lots of free home based business leads for years to come.
Social Media Sites. Social media sites like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook provide a fabulous way to connect with millions of people online. However, there is a correct way and an incorrect way to use them. The mlm lead generation system you use should provide training on how to effectively use these sites to build relationships and network with other like minded people. This is an excellent free resource for generating home based business leads that everyone should be using.
Video Marketing. Video marketing is an extremely valuable asset to add to your mlm lead generation arsenal. It’s simple and yet highly effective, and is a method that can generate free home based business leads very rapidly. Your system should provide training on the most effective ways to use video marketing to promote your blog, your articles, and well, simply put, You. If you’re not making use of video in your marketing, you may be losing out on the 6 out of every 10 people online that are watching video!
Pay-Per Click Advertising. PPC is probably one of the most effective mlm lead generation strategies on the entire internet at present, but I left it for last because you must have a marketing budget that will last several months to truly use this effectively. Most people starting out in internet marketing don’t have the money for this. However, once your funded proposals start generating some consistent income, I would highly endorse utilizing this method. Your system should provide training on how to use PPC the right way, and when you do, it can literally begin generating free home based business leads in a matter of hours of writing your ads!
Now this is in no way a comprehensive list for generating home based business leads, but it offers an excellent place to start. Forum posting, niche-related blog posting, etc. are a couple more ways you can get backlinks to your blog and increase your search engine ranking. The list goes on…
Bottom line, there are several effective mlm lead generation strategies you can make use of to attract targeted free home based business leads to your site or lead capture page and put you on the fast track to the mlm income you’re dreaming of. Of course, how you process your leads after you get them is a whole different story that we’ll have to save for another time. Until then, keep it real, and keep taking action!