The secret to gaining business leads is to adopt the enticing strategy that allows an entrepreneur to catch the attention of potential customers.What you should know to generate home based business leads:Potential customers are always on the lookout for products or services that cater to their specific needs. An entrepreneur should know as to what makes a customer go in for specific products, or how a customer is attracted to a product or service in the first place, to generate leads. Potential customers go over a product with a fine-toothed comb to know how a specific product can help them, to know the sort of benefits offered by a product, and to know how a specific product scores over the competitor products belonging to the same niche. This is a point to ponder, when an entrepreneur is eager to generate home based business leads, for this helps the business owner to get closer to the target audience, and to project the uniqueness of his product in a better way.The different ways to generate home based business leads:When an entrepreneur has unlocked the secret to present the unique potential of his product to the target audience, he should adopt effective strategies to find the target audience and to get leads in the process. There’s no shortage of ways to generate home based business leads, where an entrepreneur should make use of effective ways that can prove useful for his business to achieve the desired results.Developing top notch content to attract the attention of the target audience is one of the robust methods to generate online business leads. Making use of SEO-optimized website is an effective way to bring in leads. With the well designed squeeze page or capture page offering a wealth of information about the product, and most importantly arousing interest in potential customers, an entrepreneur can generate home based business leads.The trend that has taken the marketing world by storm, social media, offers splendid opportunities for entrepreneurs to generate home based business leads. An entrepreneur should know how to build a strategy that assures good mileage out of this online marketing tool, which then paves the way for good results in the form of gaining prospective customers. There are other ways, as that of free training, free reports, free e-book, which turn out to be the vehicles that carry powerful messages about products or services to grab the attention of the target audience and to bring business leads in the bargain.Before venturing to adopt best strategies to generate home based business leads, an entrepreneur should find an effective way to convey the uniqueness of his product, which is sure to attract the attention of potential customers.
Best Strategies to Get Home Based Business Leads
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.
How To Advertise Your Home Business The Smart Way
When you start a new home business, it seems like you are the only one out there that is lost inside millions of other home business owners. You seem to not know what to do to get out of that pile so you can be seen. Well, many people advertise their home business to get out of that pile. In that pile without advertising, there is one percent chance to be seen. Some people like to advertise now and some like to advertise later due to budget problems. But advertising do take time and money.
Advertising may cost a lot. It depends where you advertise your business. Some is expensive and some options are cheap. Even though you have the money to advertise, you have to do some research before you do so. Do not advertise anywhere and spend a lot of money, you might not get the result you want. Learn these information I am about to give you, you will learn how to advertise with or without a budget.
The first way to advertise is with the newspaper. When you advertise in the newspaper, remember to find newspapers with the amount of twenty thousand plus circulations and what kind of people lives in that city. Do not aim for the highest circulations that there is because the higher the circulations the higher the expense. Aim for the mid circulation newspapers and you will find cheep ads placements. Aim for many different states, different states have different prices. Call up to a few newspapers companies and ask them for the price to place ads for the amount of lines you need and which section of the newspaper you want your advertisement in.
Most of the time you’ll use a 3 line ad, some may limit you to how many words per line or all three lines totaled up. If you go over, you will be charged more. If the newspaper staff is pretty helpful, ask them for their main line so you can get back to them right away. If the staff wants to control you and gives you a hard time, call up again and find a new staff to work with you. If it is the same old staff on the phone, no need to work with that company.
When you find out all the prices of the newspaper company that you are aiming for, you call them back and place the advertisement. Place the ads for about three weeks straight if it is cheap or once a week for three weeks. Here are the days that are best to place ads, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday. Those days’ works for me but you can choose your own days.
You want some way to keep track of the newspapers to see which one is rolling in customers and which one is not. If you have a website, get a few different URLS, one for each different newspaper. Now you can see which newspaper is helping you and which is not. For the not one, pick out another newspaper company and discard the old one. It takes time to find one that works perfect for you. Give it a little time and you will be successful in newspaper advertising for your home business.
The second way to advertise is with business cards. Why business cards? They are easy to carry and pick up. When you make a business card, you will fill it up with your home business information on the front of the card. Remember to make a unique title that attracts people. Now on the back of the card, if you have any important information that you think is valuable, put it there. Other people that receive your card might think the information is also useful. They will be referring back to the card and that means they will see your information each and every time. Your message will get to them sooner or later as long as they still have that card.
The third way of advertising is flyers. Flyers are cheap and effective. On the flyer, put a unique title and information that will attract your prospects. Next, remember to put your website and your business or eight hundreds number on that flyer. The best way to put flyers is on cars or put them in mail boxes. I love using white papers and black words. Be sure not to put your advertisement on papers or ink that is hard to read. Many people do not want something hard to read. Make your flyer easy to read for people. This will help you convert more prospects.
Remember that there is one percent of the people you pass flyers to will not like what you gave them. They might call you and leave you a nasty message or send a nasty email. If you get those, just delete them. Do not deal with them or try to call them back. Just let it be and ignore them. By doing this you will be successful in your business, do not let negativity get to you.
Fourth way of advertising is pay per click. Pay per click is expensive depending on what keyword you want to advertise in. The best way to learn pay per click is to buy an e-book. You do not want to go through learning it yourself. Someone has already been through that road. Let that person show you the way of success in pay per click advertising. Time is money! Learn it the easy way to save you time and money. If you want to learn it yourself, it is expensive. It is more expensive than buying that e-book.
The last way of advertising is free advertising. Where? Free advertising is everywhere on the Internet. There are many websites out there that let you put your ads on their sites. Like forums, some classified websites, and craigslist have free advertising. When you find one, put your advertisement on their website to get more traffic to your home business website. Well, free advertising is better than no advertising at all. Free advertising is a good way to start if you have a budget.
There are many advertising methods out there, even methods that you have not heard of before. Just play around with it a little longer, other methods will come to you sooner or later.