Many mothers look for home based businesses for women. There are plenty of things that you can do from childcare to telemarketing. Many women overlook the great opportunities that they could have in internet marketing. Women know about a lot of different products. It is an ideal home based business for women because they make purchases for themselves and their children all the time. They know what to recommend to other people. Their kids let them know what is selling in the toy arena. Internet marketing is a convenient and affordable home based business for women. You can get started with very little money.Maybe you are looking for a home based business and you don’t have kids. There are still lots of opportunities. Internet marketing as a home based business for women doesn’t just revolve around kids products. They can give you an advantage in children’s niches, but there are plenty of things that are selling online.A great place to get started right now is in the seasonal marketing. If you set up a website for Halloween costumes and start creating backlinks for it, by the time the season rolls around, you will easily cash out with a nice sum of money. The trick is to learn a couple basic internet marketing techniques. You should do this by joining a forum or purchasing some training. Be careful, some of the products online are a little out of date already. If it is more than a couple years old, then the information is not current enough to be competitive on the internet.First you will want to create a website or a lens on Squidoo. You need a platform to group your products. You will want to optimize your page by looking for a high search volume/low competition keyword. Then, you will get search engine traffic. You can start your home based business for women today! It is free to sign up for Hubpages or Squidoo.Internet marketing is a great home based business for women for a variety of reasons. It is flexible enough to do at any time. Your kids can take priority and you can feel good about it because you are helping someone find something that they need or want.

Perhaps you are a small business person, and you are like me; when you hear a politician tell us they are for us little guys, you just cringe. It appears to me after decades of watching their lips move that they could care less about us, and would rather continue to get their campaign war chests filled by their large corporate lobbyist piggy banks. Okay, let’s talk.You see, there was an interesting article in Reuters on February 1, 2016 titled; “U.S. small business borrowing sank in 2015: PayNet,” by Ann Saphir. The article stated:”What started as a full gallop in 2015 is barely trotting along now, said Bill Phelan, President of PayNet; “We are barely replacing worn-out assets here.” Small Company borrowing is a key barometer of growth because it is the little firms that tend to do much of the hiring that fuels economic growth. Lending slowed sharply to small businesses in mining and agriculture, as well as in wholesale trade, transportation and construction, the figures showed. Texas was particularly hard hit.”So, what’s the Obama Administration’s answer to this vexing problem, oh something typical of the way they run things and adjust their economic data (like employment figures) just change the definition of “Small Business” for instance there was an article in Government Executive online news on January 29, 2016 titled; “SBA Finalizes New Business Size Standards,” written by Charles S. Clark which stated:”The new size standards will enable nearly 1,650 more businesses in those industries to obtain or retain small company status; will give federal agencies a larger pool of smaller companies from which to choose for their procurement programs; and will make more small businesses eligible for SBA’s loan programs,” SBA said in a release.”Okay but, smaller companies do not want to borrow money, why? They don’t trust the system, the future, the economy, this administration, or future regulations due to a socialist population base mindset and evil-one percent hatred motif, nor would I as a former franchisor. This new size standard change would include businesses over 150 employees and the “SBA estimates that more than 8,400 additional businesses will gain small business status under the adjusted size standards and become eligible for SBA’s financial and federal government procurement programs,” the agency said. “These changes can possibly lead to $150 million to $200 million in additional federal contracts and 80 additional loans, totaling about $30 million, to small businesses.”Great news right, well not so fast. You see, these larger firms will get Federal Contracts that small businesses, real ones cannot get, meaning fewer mom and pop businesses getting money from the Federal Government in our ever increasing government-run economy, not free-market run economy. This is no solution, this is just stupidity worsening the real problem is search of political expediency. Please consider all this and think on it.

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.