The teachings of the Bible put it that helping and serving others is a kind effort. It teaches everyone to trust your abilities, stay positive, and believe that God should be above everything else. Everything that you do must be dedicated to Him. Thus, extending your arms for the benefit of other people is truly what God wants. A Christian home based business is one of the opportunities that allow you to enrich yourself spiritually and financially. With this, a single mother can find a way to be able to supplement the family’s income, retirees can earn money during their free time, and also a way to spread the word of God.The good thing is that Christians often tie up their business with their relationship with God. It is their way of spiritually developing themselves as well as helping others in their spiritual growth. Therefore, this business is set to strengthen the faith all the more. God is your guide and therefore your journey will be more of a means to understand yourself and your role in this world.If at first you fail to accomplish your goals, it is not enough reason to give up. You should always try hard to make things work. And when building your business, it matters that you do research, contact people, and surf the Internet. Definitely, you will be able to find everything that you need quite simply.What Christian home based business ideas will be good for you? Here are a couple of ideas.Put up a Christian bookstore. One great business is an online Christian bookstore which will be the best avenue on how you can spread the word of God. Your market can thus be worldwide. Management skills, financial capital, and marketing skills are all you need to get it up and set things up. A basic skill that you need to work on is that of search engine optimization.Engage in a marketing business. Marketing Christian products and services as part of your home based business will allow you to connect with the other Christians from all parts of the globe. You can even ask for the help of other Christian affiliates. Extending help to others who are part of your Church will be very much possible. You can be engaged in selling Christian items to be able to raise funds.Do affiliate programs. It will only be difficult if you don’t have the time to spare for it. The best way to tackle an affiliate program is to search for websites and blogs wherein you can write some reviews about the Christian products and services. In turn, you can link them to the websites that offer those affiliate programs. Writing well and more can improve your ranking.Christian home based business is indeed a wonderful way of gaining financial independence while keeping in mind the strengthening of one’s faith. But then again, you must be careful in dealing with companies as there are also a couple of scams around.Want to get into a Christian home based business for spiritual and financial growth?

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.