How To Start A Home Based Business (With Pocket Change) And Make Money Fast

Start A Home Business And Get In The Black The Next Day

This is that wonderful time of year when the frost starts to thaw, flowers begin to bloom and everyone is either doing their taxes, finishing them,or fretting about said taxes. And possibly contemplating a revolution.

It’s no secret that in today’s economy, countless numbers of people are tying t find ways to make more money and quickly. The best way to make money fast is by starting a home based business; therefore it might come as a shock to some when I say it is possible to profit immediately when you start a home based business simply by applying some techniques to shield more of your hard-earned income from taxes instead keep it in your pockets.

However, I was taken aback at how many people who start a home based business don’t take full advantage of the assets that this sort of opportunity presents. In fact, the minute you start a home based business opportunity, you become privy to a number of benefits you didn’t have available before. Even if you’re not making any money in your business, if you apply proper techniques available to a business owner, you will be saving money you otherwise would parted with to Uncle Sam. ( Or whatever uncle is in charge of your respective government. )

But maybe not as many

Now when you elect to start a home based business there are of course some elements you need to examine first:

The type of business: is it something you can succeed in, and believe you can enjoy?
What kinds of new skills will you need to develop for this business, and will you have either someone or a quality system to help you develop those skills necessary to thrive?
What is the leadership like of the home based business opportunity you decide to join? What is their reputation?
Research the history of the company and whether other people are finding success with whatever system or endeavor you decide to explore. There are an incredible number of “programs” on the internet that promise one they can work 15 minutes a day and bank huge amounts for doing nothing. Be careful when you come across these types of opportunities because the majority are affiliate products designed to make money for the person marketing the program, not necessarily for the buyer. Some of them may work, when it comes time for you to start a home based business you just need to do your due diligence.
A quick note for when you’re doing your research about starting a home based business: when you research a business and find the word “scam” frequently appear in the search engines, don’t let this immediately deter you: continue to do your due diligence and explore why exactly someone is saying that opportunity is a “scam”. the reason is many marketers target other businesses, hoping to leach traffic off one opportunity onto their own by catching people’s attention who don’t know better. In the old days, one could trust what they found on the internet; you have to be much more careful now. Measure once, cut twice, that is the carpenter’s rule of thumb and one you should heed when you decide to start a home based business. You want to be able to enter with confidence and excitement.

One caveat before I proceed: everything that follows is simply a suggestion and I highly suggest you stay within your limits and do not exaggerate any of your tax deductions. The IRS is hurting right now just as many citizens are- and would just love for you to finagle with your taxes and invite an audit. ( In fact, there is an entire departments of the IRS that have been mobilized over the last couple of years simply to pore over older tax records in the hope of finding past discrepancies that they can then fine someone for.) So don’t invite the wolf in and you should be fine.

He’ll come and knock on your door…

Start a Home Based Business and Profit Immediately

Some of the items you can profit from once you start a home based business:

Office rent-This is one everyone should know and use but I’m including it because like I mentioned before, a lot of people overlook these benefits. Even if you’re using a spare bedroom, you can take your office space and ( the size of the bedroom or a percentage of your house-don’t go overboard with this and claim like ” All of my house is an office because I work in every part of it!” or anything, this won’t fly with the IRS. There are ways to use tax laws to your advantage but not abuse them. )Typically you can deduct somewhere around $1.75 per square foot, so if you have an office that is only 120 square feet, you can deduct around $210. But that’s every month.

Computer-You are allowed to write off around $25,000 annually for equipment and business assets, so a new computer, printer, fax, modem, etc. all fit into this category.

Health Insurance- medical, dental, and even disability. Smart.

Start-Up Expenses and Marketing- business cards, the expenses of joining, and if you enter into network marketing,( one of the best forms of home based business) you can even deduct the PRODUCT as well.

Meals-you have to eat right? And sometimes have business lunches. A word of caution with this one: don’t overuse it by claiming an inordinate amount of meals eaten were business related. When traveling one can only write off 50 % of meal costs as well.

Telephone- this is only related to a separate business line, not your regular home phone; but you can write that second line off, along with internet too.

Auto -It is important to keep good records with this one, but when you start a home based business you are allowed an monthly auto allowance according to how many miles each month the car is driven. Right now I believe it is allowable to around 50 cents/mile currently for all miles you’ve used that go toward business purposes. It is up to you to determine exactly what those are, -but can include meetings, meals, and…

Travel- one can deduct half their meals, plus lodging and transportation. Foreign travel is a bit different, but basically is three quarters of the trip is spent on business, you are good to go.

Subscriptions-these of course have to be related to your type of business- magazines, business clubs, and even college courses can be deductible if they fit the right description, meaning they can further your business.

Retirement plans-This one could be an article unto itself, so perhaps it is best saved for another time. But basically refers to setting up and contributing to a tax beneficial 401k or IRA.

Other benefits include a cafeteria plan, dependent care, and if you elect to start a corporation ( which you can do for less than 500 bucks and as little as 145) you can also get a lower tax rate for your business and the income you generate through it. )

So the lower tax rate and many of the other benefits one can apply from the moment they start a home business even part time are obviously a huge boon. If your business is more mature, you may want to look into an S or LLC. It’s wise to consult with someone that knows your situation for any final decision, because ultimately you want your corporation to work for you.

Start A Home Business And Never Lose.

Starting a successful home venture consists of 2 aspects, and while you can find plenty more on my site about the various ways to achieve this- they are…

1) Cash flow

2) Leads- which are basically people interested in your business, no matter what your particular business consists of.

To find out more about how to solve the 2 obstacles that ALL home business owners face, simply visit -

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.

The Finer Points of Internet Auctions

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.