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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.

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Easy Methods To Generate Home Based Business Leads

Having home based business leads is mandatory should you be looking to explode your business and looking for ways to be a top earner in your business. On the other hand the problem is that we waste too much money on the home based business leads and also we lose all our money before we even have chance to make profit. I will go over some methods that you might use immediately to explode your home venture in a record time. I will discuss the free and paid methods you might use to produce this leads.The 1st free methods that you can use to create home based venture leads are through article writing. There are actually diverse things that you know right now that other people might benefit from. Write about it. Create something interesting. Create about something very educational. Whenever you do this, you’ll create followers. Some of these followers off course will opt to work with you. You can find free websites where you can post your articles or blog posts. You are on one of them now.Another free procedure that you might use to produce Home based business leads is through video marketing. You tube is the second most visited internet site now. Shoot a video. Let people know who you’re. Let them know about your business. Offer them success tips and also value through this video. Again just like write-up marketing, they’ll follow you. As soon as they become far more comfortable with you, most of them will join you in your home venture.Social media is another way that you could use to generate home based enterprise leads. Social media could take a lot more time. But the idea is still precisely the same thing. Do not post on your friend’s Facebook wall as well as start pitching your home venture. You must create relationship with individuals on Facebook or Twitter. Chat with them. Offer value. Be positive on there. Make positive comment to their statuses and profile. Whenever you do these, you’ll create followers.The quicker way to create home based venture leads is through paid traffic. Basically you pay money for web site like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, Twitter plus even You tube to strategically place your ad. As you could guess, in terms of traffic, Google is your best bet. Realize that you could easily lose money with this paid ways of producing home based venture leads. That is why you need proper training for these.There is where an attraction marketing system comes into place. You can get thousands of benefits of having an attraction marketing system. One of it is the trainings that you are going to get. If you are not properly trained, you’ll easily lose thousands of dollars on paid home based venture leads generation.

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Ideas for Home Based Businesses for Women

If you are a woman, and a wife and mother for that matter, have you ever wonder what would happen if you or your husband lost your job? Or if your kids start school or go to college? Have you asked yourself if your day job lets you and your family live comfortably? If you’ve got several questions to this tune, then perhaps it’s time that you try some home based business on the side that’s specifically tailored for women.Women, mothers especially, are always ready to take over when the need arises, especially now that the country is gripped by the recession, moms all over the country are exploring the infinite possibilities that many home based businesses for women are promising.Business ideas can sprout from anywhere and women entrepreneurs are quick on the uptake. Fields such as home and childcare, healthcare and nutrition, fashion, crafts of all sorts are some of the usual business opportunities that the ladies would be more likely to be great at running and managing.To give you a head start, you can choose from among the various suggestions below regarding home based businesses for women like you who are intent on achieving the best for herself and her family:* Utilizing social networks to sell products and servicesA lot of working women have been making use of sites such as Facebook and Twitter to sell various products ranging from health products such as multivitamins and diet pills, to clothes, sports gear, fashion accessories, purses and wallets, and even electronic gadgets and motor vehicles. One can create a page for free in these social networking sites, and for someone starting out, this is definitely a great home based business for women.* Keeping blogs / websitesAnother wonderful home based business for women would be keeping a blog or website. You can choose to blog for the noble and aesthetic reason of documenting your own exploits and adventures and making money out of them by running ads, or you can blog for the sole purpose of doing paid article-writing jobs for search engine optimization (SEO) companies.* Creating and hosting a social network siteStill another home based business trend for women is creating your own social network site. You can start small with a handful of friends and you can eventually increase your site’s membership through email invites or however you want to market it. Examples of these sites are bookieboo*com and socialmediamom*com. Once you get enough members or guests visiting the site, that’s when the profits come in-now you can charge advertisers in your site.* Creating mobile phone apps targeted for women and/or moms as audiencesYour neighbor whose right hand is stuck to her iPhone all the time may well be operating her new home based business for women who love baking cakes and pastry. For all you know, the app that you just purchased to help you with your baking measurements is the same app that she developed while nursing her youngest son. App developers are mostly men, but women are now joining them and coming up with ingenious apps like the “Baby Bump” which is a pregnancy tracker and a baby names database.These are some of the hot home based businesses for women and there are still a lot that no man, or woman, has ever thought of yet. Be the first then and join the hundreds of women who were dedicated to improve their lives with successful online businesses.