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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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What’s the Best Low Cost Home Based Business?

Having a business from the comfort of your own home could be extremely convenient, but it can be even more convenient if you had a low cost home based business, right? Well, having a low cost home based business is nice because you can keep yourself away from paying really high overhead fees, and potentially save yourself from investing too much money on a business that wouldn’t even be successful. With a business that doesn’t cost too much to have, you can save the money and use it for a much bigger business idea that you may have. So, having a low cost home based business could really be worth the time and the small amount of money.

Start a freelance writer business

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Start selling your old items on eBay

eBay is known for being the number one place online to make an income. With eBay, you can sell literally anything that you may have. You can even sell your old electronics or classic board games. The truth is that people are willing to pay anything for something that they want, and if they want your old item, they’ll keep bidding until it’s theirs.

Start a tutoring business at home

Do you happen to be extremely smart in subjects like Math, History or Science? Maybe you have a teenager who is an expert in those subjects? If there is someone in your home who has gift for these subjects, you should really consider starting a tutoring business from home. What’s nice about a tutoring business is that you can keep getting kids to come to your home and you are still able to make money. The coolest part is that it requires literally no start up cost, except a bit of space in your home for the tutoring to take place.

The three business ideas above are some of the best low cost home based business ideas. Anybody can do them and all it takes is a bit of patience and hard work. Of course, it’s hard to see yourself succeed right away, but it does take time to really become financially free. Even if you don’t want to do the businesses above long term, who says that you have to? Simply make the money that you need and invest that into a bigger business that you may want. So, choose and start making some money. The more you educate yourself on each business, the bigger the chances you have at making more money and succeeding.

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How to Start a Home Base Business?

Millions of people, all over the country, dream of starting their own business from home, but this process is a long and trying one, and there is no guarantee that it will work out at the end of the day. So, where to begin learning about how to start a home base business? You begin by determining what kind of skills you have that would enable you to make profits from them. Do you have special qualifications such as accounting certifications, or do you simply want to sell products online? Do you want to become a freelance writer, or would you like to make a living visiting patients as a physiotherapist? Once you have determined what it is you are going to do, you can then move on to the finer points of starting a home based business.Researching your New BusinessBefore you can quit your job and begin working from home, you will need to make sure that you know exactly what type of business you will be running and what you will need to do to run it properly. You can start out with the location of the business; is it a viable option to run the business from home? Do you have enough space to set up an office and will you need to accommodate clients in your home office? If there is not enough space within your home, you might want to consider hiring a separate office that will meet all of your business-related needs.The next factor that you will need to consider is what you are going to be selling. Selling services, instead of products, means that you will not need storage space, and you might not need to invest a lot of capital into the startup.Saving the Capital to start your own BusinessStarting your own business from home can be a very exciting prospect, but you should not convince yourself that you will be making tons of money within the first few days; in fact, it might take up to six months to be able to support yourself on the profits of a new business, and you will need to make sure that you have enough capital to get through the leaner months. During the first six months, you will not only need to have enough capital to pay your personal bills; you will also need enough capital to run your business during this time, and this will take some planning.Advertising and Expanding your BusinessIt is important not to get over excited once your business starts bringing in profits, especially when you begin thinking about advertising and expanding your business. Many startup businesses fail because they spend too much, too quickly on expanding and advertising their business. Although these are integral aspects to consider, especially if you want to grow your business and increase your profits, but you need to make sure that you take a sufficient amount of time to determine whether it is the right time to widen the marketing budget and expand only when your company is ready to take on the extra expense of this process.Learning how to start a home base business is not difficult; you simply need to be prepared for the task ahead, and this comes with a lot of research, sufficient capital and the dedication to work long and hard to make your dreams come true.

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