Does Financial Success or An Online Home Based Business Require an MBA?Several months ago I started my online home based business. I was brought up at a time and in a family where education was a given. My father was a successful lawyer so my mother never had to work. It was a given that when I completed my private school education which my father worked hard to provide for me, that I would attend college.In my world at that time there was no other conceivable possibility. You graduated high school and then you went to college – Period. So I did. The first year was a miserable failure and I left after it and began my working career. I would ultimately go back to college and finally get a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, while I worked.So here I am, over thirty years after high school, having worked all those years. The most money I ever made on a job was a salary of $52,000 per year. The last company I worked for, I rose from Controller to the underpaid President and the company shut down. Now I am one of the millions of unemployed Americans.I, like many millions of people, looked for an opportunity to create an online home based business. I have been at it for a few months. My success is growing. I picked internet marketing and network marketing because I enjoyed blogging in my last job. I also had been spending time studying internet marketing on my own. Today I belong to a couple of network marketing organizations and have my own blog, which I post to almost every day.I have become an entrepreneur, and like many online home based business entrepreneurs, I am driven and committed to success. But success does not come easy in the online home based business arena. My primary products are the network marketing programs to which I belong. They provide the opportunity to achieve financial success by following a specific program of internet marketing and entrepreneurial education, and marketing the programs to others looking for a business opportunity.Network marketing has been around for a long time and despite its negative reputation, it is a viable business model that can lead to tremendous financial rewards. I have seen, and personally know a number of people that have achieved amazing success in an online home based business of network marketing. Many did achieve this incredible level of success through hard work, but without a college degree.There are many things you need to learn to become successful at internet marketing or network marketing as an online home based business. But you don’t have to go to an Ivy League college and spend five or six years and $200,000 to learn what you need to know. You don’t need an MBA or even a bachelor’s degree to be a success in network marketing.You can learn how to make an amazing living by joining these network marketing companies at a fraction of the cost of a college education. Now there are millions of people looking right now for a business opportunity like an online home based business. To achieve success in network marketing, like any other business, requires an investment.Just like college is an investment in yourself that you or your parents pay for, joining a network marketing program is an investment in yourself for which you must pay. There are no free lunches. Starting an online home based business requires and investment of time and money. It is that simple.But when you compare the value of the investment you make in a network marketing company that provides you with the system, tools and education that allows you to create unlimited success and wealth, with the value of a college education, you might be surprised.If you are an entrepreneur or want to be an entrepreneur with your own online home based business, you need to have the skill set and mind set of an entrepreneur. I suppose you can get most of it going through college and graduate school, spending years and tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Or you can cut to the chase, so to speak, and get the education, skill set, and mind set much quicker and for a lot less money. And while you are learning and developing you are making money.This is the reality of our world today. This is the reality of the knowledge based worker era. You get to choose your path in life and you have to live with the results. No way around it, success requires work. But the path you choose is up to you. One way or another if you want to achieve financial success today, you need to invest in yourself. If you don’t you limit your opportunities in life.You can invest in a college degree and hope that you are able to find a job. You can work for somebody else your whole life and watch all the benefits go to the owner. Or you can invest in yourself and join a network marketing program with unlimited earning potential and the satisfaction of owning your own online home based business.
7 Simple Steps to Choosing The Home Based Business That is Right For You
In these difficult financial times that we find ourselves, many people are looking for ways to create additional income for themselves. Yet they don’t know where to go to find the necessary information. These simple 7 steps will hopefully help you decide which type of home business is right for you at this stage of your life and career and where to begin to turn your dream business into reality.
A HOME BUSINESS is simply a small business that operates from the business owner’s home office, lounge or kitchen. It is usually operated in one’s spare time and is often based around the interests of the business owner.
Here are 7 simple steps to help you choose the Home Business that is right for you.
Step 1: What is your Passion?
Some of the most successful home businesses have been built around the owner’s passion for something. Catering businesses are built around a passion for cooking and seeing people enjoy your food. Network Marketing businesses are often built around a passion for talking to people, one’s love for the products and helping people develop their own home businesses as part of the team.
So the first thing you need to do is look for something that you are passionate about, that you love doing in your spare time, and see if there is a business opportunity there. One of the fastest growing hobbies worldwide is Scrapbooking and many small business opportunities are being born out of this recent trend to turn a photo album into a vivid and colorful experience.
So whether it is woodworking or baking or writing short stories or whatever, your degree of success is likely to be higher if the home business is based on something that you love doing.
Have you heard the statement “Follow your Bliss”? Well, what is your Bliss? Because if you can link your home business to your Bliss, or Passion, you will be ahead of the game already.
Step 2: How much Free Time can you dedicate to your home business?
For most of us, our home business will be started and operated in our spare time. So now you need to decide how much time you will be able to devote to your new business. And for those of you who say “but I have no spare time for anything new”, I say, “look at how you spend your days and nights and you will see how much time you waste on non-productive stuff”. A good, and useful, exercise is to keep track of what you do over the period of a week, in the 6 basic categories of Work, Family Time, TV, Entertainment Out, Lazing Around and Sleep. All you will need to do is find some 8 to 10 hours a week that you can redirect, and you will have enough time to develop and grow and successful home based business.
Step 3: How Much Money is available to invest in your Home Business?
This is often another obstacle that people find to starting up a home based business. It is important to realize that some $$ will be required to make a go of anything, but some types of home based businesses require a lot more $$ than others. Often where less $$ are needed, more time is needed, but this is not always the case. And for most of us, the reason for starting up a home based business is to generate additional income because there is never enough money left over at the end of the month, or as they say “the money runs out before the month does”.
A Network Marketing business, for example, will often be able to be started for a couple of hundred dollars and a commitment to spend another $50 to $100 a month on training material, conferences and the like. But these sorts of businesses, if you follow the system properly, can start to deliver income within a few months. An Internet based home business may require a larger outlay in the beginning, maybe a few thousand dollars for the training program and software required and can become cashflow positive within 6 to 9 months. Buying into a Franchise on the other hand may require many tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. So look at your cash flow and decide what expenses you can give up temporarily, so as to free up some money to invest into your business. No business can be truly successful, if you are not prepared to invest some money into it from the beginning.
Step 4: What are your Specific Skills – what are you good at?
The next step is for you to decide how you can use your personal skills in your new business venture. What are you good at? This is linked to the first step, identifying your passion – but it is more about what you can do well and are confident about. So, if you are great with people and love to meet new people and can chat easily to strangers, then a Network Marketing business may be right for you. You will be given training on how to approach people, depending on which company you decide to work with, but your people skills will put you in a strong position to succeed.
If you are good with words, are a good writer and can put complex ideas into simple terms, of if you are creative and can think outside the box, or if you are good at getting other people to do things for you (a good delegator) then an internet based business may be perfect for you. In this modern age, more and more people are searching for information on any number of topics and are prepared to pay someone to provide that specific information for them.
If you are more business focused, a numbers person and can look at a balance sheet and see the clear picture, then maybe buying an existing small business and running it “hands off” may be a good option. This is also good for people with less free time, although some time will be required to make sure the business goes in the direction you want it to.
Step 5: Look at the Options that fit your profile
This is where you will start to narrow down the options that fit in with your Passion, your available Time, the Money you can free up to invest and your specific Skill Set. There are many hundreds of websites available that will be able to offer you the introductions to the various businesses available to you. You can go to http://www.google.com and enter one of the four sets of words as a starting point to find out what options are available. The four main categories are Network Marketing Business Opportunities, Internet Based Marketing Opportunities, Franchise Business Opportunities and Small Businesses for Sale. In each of these categories, add the city or area where you live to limit the options presented to those ones that are more suitable for you.
Step 6: Do your more detailed research.
Once you have identified 2 or 3 business options or ideas that look good for you, then you need to do some more detailed research into those options. Is there a market need for your Product? Is the Network Marketing Company growing strongly in your area and does it have good leadership? Is the small business you are looking to buy producing a positive cash flow with a good client base? Talk to friends or find someone who is doing something similar and discuss with them. Speak to a business broker if this is the direction you are going in. Once you have whittled your choice down and are confident you can make a go of it, now you are ready to start your business.
Step 7: Take the First Step and Do It
There is nothing more exciting, when starting to develop a new business, than to get going, so now you are ready to do something to implement your business. Find out where meetings are being held to do with the Network marketing business you have chosen. Go to a seminar on Internet Marketing if that is your chosen direction and take the plunge. Most of these sort of home based businesses offer a cooling off period, or a money back guarantee, so you will have a month or maybe longer to decide if the direction is right for you. But the longer you put off doing something, putting your dream business idea into action, the less likely you are to actually get it up and running.
If you would like to know more about this subject, or have any questions about Home Based Businesses, log onto http://stuartfish.biz You will find a number of articles on internet marketing there.
Hiring An Auction Company
Estimating your assets value:
Typically, one of the first questions a business owner will ask me is, “how much will the assets bring at an auction”. After taking the time to review the assets, the auctioneer should give the client a conservative estimate of the sale based upon his experience and the current market trends. It is important that the company give realistic expectations so the seller can make informed decisions based on their best interest.
Compensation and Expenses:
Is the company you are considering working for you or against you? The agreement you decide may determine this.
A business owner should carefully consider how the auction company is compensated. The most common commission structures include: straight commission, outright purchase of assets, guaranteed base with a split above to both auctioneer and seller, guaranteed base with anything above going to auctioneer or a flat fee structure.
In a straight commission structure, the company is paid an agreed upon percentage of the total sale.
In an outright purchase agreement, the auctioneer simply becomes your end buyer. The company purchases your assets and relocates them. While this can be an option in some unique situations, keep in mind that they will want to purchase your assets at a very reduced price to make a profit at a later date.
In a minimum base guarantee, the auction company guarantees the seller that the auction will generate a minimum amount of sales. Anything above that amount either goes to the auction company or split with the seller. While a seller might feel more comfortable doing an auction knowing that he is guaranteed a minimum amount for his sale, keep in mind that it is the best interest of the auction company to secure a minimum base price as low as possible in order reduce their financial liability to the seller and secure higher compensation for the sale.
In a flat fee structure, the auctioneer agrees to show up for the sale and call the auction. There is no incentive for the auctioneer to get the best prices for your assets. The auction company is compensated regardless of the outcome of your sale.
What is the best option for business owners? In my experience, an agreed upon straight commission structure. This puts the responsibility on the auction company to offer the best outcome for everyone involved. There is an incentive for the auction company to work hard for both parties, set up and run a professional sale, get the highest bid and sell every item on the inventory. Successful auctions translate to a higher bottom line for both the seller and the auction company.
Auction Expenses:
In most auction agreements the expenses to conduct an auction are passed to the seller. If the auction company pays for the expenses, it is simply absorbed in higher commission rates.
All expenses should be agreed upon in advance in a written contract. Typical expenses will include the costs of advertising, labor, legal fees, travel, equipment rentals, security, postage and printing. A reputable auction company will be able to estimate all expenses based upon their experience in previous auctions. An agreement should be actual costs charged as expenses, not an estimated amount.
Advertising is typically the highest cost in conducting an auction. The auction company needs to set up an advertising campaign that will promote the sale to its best advantage and not overspend to simply advertise the auction company.
Once the auction is complete, the auction company should provide a complete breakdown of all expenses to the seller, including copies of receipts within the auction summary report.
Buyer’s Premium:
What is a buyer’s premium? If you attend auctions regularly, you are very familiar with this term. The auction company charges a fee to the buyer when they buy an item at auction.
The buyer’s premium has been around since the 1980′s and is standard auction practice. It was first used by auction houses to help offset costs of running brick and mortar permanent auction facilities. Since then, it has spread to all aspects of the auction industry. It is prominent in online auctions and allows auction companies to cover added expenses incurred from online sales.
It is the responsibility of the auction company to provide clear disclosure of the buyer’s premium to both the buyers and the sellers. Those not familiar with auctions are often taken back by the buyer’s premium. They looked upon it as an under handed way for the auction company to make more money. Reputable auction companies will provide full disclosure within the auction contract, advertisement and bidder registration.
Typically, an auction company will charge online buyers a higher buyer’s premium percentage than those attending an auction in person. Extra fees are incurred with online bidding and are charged accordingly to online buyers. This provides the seller a level playing field for both online buyers and those attending the auction in person. Without the buyer’s premium, there is no way to do this.
Pre-Sales:
We’ve all been there. We’re looking forward to attending an auction only to find that some items were sold prior to the auction date.
As an auctioneer with over thirty-six years of experience, I can honestly state that pre-sales will hurt an auction. When a company decides to liquidate their assets, it is easy to sell off high-end pieces of equipment through online sources, equipment vendors or to other businesses. The seller receives instant cash and avoids paying a commission to an auction company.
Auctioneer’s find themselves appearing to acting in a self-serving capacity when potential clients say they are planning to sell off parts of their inventory prior to an auction. It’s hard not to consider the auctioneer’s commission when they warn you not to pre-sell anything. Yes, the auctioneer wants to earn a commission on those sales but it is more important that the auctioneer protect the sale from potential negative backlash that comes from pre-selling. The buying public knows when an auction has been “cherry picked” prior to the sale and it reflects in their bidding. It becomes a sale of “leftovers” and that impacts prices.
A buyer who purchases prior to the auction usually does not attend the sale. They already bought equipment at a good price with no competition. If they do attend the auction, they tend to let others know of their great pre-sale purchases which again, impacts prices and the overall excitement of the sale.
It is important to understand that auctions work best with a complete inventory. You want competition on your higher end equipment. The easy to sell items make it possible to gain respectable prices for hard to sell items.
When a business owner decides to liquidate their equipment assets, there is only one opportunity to do it right. Hiring a reputable auction company will assist you with a professional, orderly and timely liquidation.