I believe that it’s easier to succeed with small businesses than ever before. There are more opportunities for entrepreneurs to start small businesses today than at any previous time.Here are some good reasons for why I believe this is true.A) With the increase in population comes an increase in opportunities for small businesses.Generally, a sparse population requires a small business owner to provide a wide variety of goods or services to survive. With a denser population, the small businesses can still survive by providing a very narrow range of products or services.For example, in a smaller population a small business which provides gardening services would probably need to offer many things. Services could include general garden maintenance, planning, tree felling, lawn cutting, vermin control, pond planning and maintenance, hard landscaping etc.With a bigger population a small business could thrive perfectly well by providing just one of these services, as there are more people who will need it.B) The costs involved in starting and running small businesses has never been so low in proportion to income.Technology has replaced many of the things which people used to do, and technology does the job a lot more cheaply.Today it’s possible to reach literally millions of potential customers around the world very cheaply.For example, only a few decades ago the cost of mailing to thousands of households was prohibitively high. Unless you had a very good product or service which sold well, a small business just wouldn’t risk it.Another example, business premises security used to involve security guards walking around checking that all was well. Now a good security system can be bought for less than 1 week’s pay for that security guard, and it will work 24 hrs per day for years, for no pay.C) Because modern life is so complex today, small businesses and individuals are open to new ideas, products and services like never before.This creates a huge market for training courses, information provision services, educational aids, specialised products and services, novelties, etc.With this great diversity come great opportunities to combine different products and technologies, thus making whole new areas of business possible.For example, you can combine a low-light camera with wireless communications and a bird box. This means a nest may be watched remotely on a television or personal computer screen.Another example would be to combine voice-chip technology with passive infrared technology to make it sound as though you have a huge dog indoors whenever anyone approaches your house.In our recent history, these opportunities just didn’t exist.D) It may not feel like it, but many people today have a lot more leisure time and a higher disposable income than in any previous age.This spare income (and with the current attitudes to loans, a little more besides) tends to get spent on sports, games, hobbies, crafts, amusements, entertainments, holidays and weekend breaks etc.This creates many opportunities for the entrepreneur to start up small businesses to satisfy all this extra demand.E) To thrive in a modern society you need to have a lot of different skills.Nowadays people cope with a variety of complex tasks. They buy and use a wide range of consumer equipment, fill out many forms, and communicate with all kinds of people from all walks of life (often from different countries and cultures). They also do difficult transactions like house purchasing, and so on.All this is a long way from the average people who were around just a few hundred years ago. Many were farm labourers who could barely read or write and never travelled more than a few miles from home.So now, the pool of potential business people is far greater than ever before. If a person can live well in a modern society, they already have the abilities they need to start up a small business enterprise and succeed.The good news also is that if you lack a certain skill which your small business needs, then you can probably employ someone with that skill far more easily than ever before.F) More people have access to money than ever before.Until the late 1960s, most people were paid weekly and spent money as they earned it.It was normal among manual workers to run right out of money around the time of their next pay packet, which often contained notes and coins!Today most people have many bank accounts (with overdrafts) and access to credit cards, which alone have spending limits equal to a half or full year’s income.Savings and share holdings are greater than ever before. A large proportion of the population can raise money on their house and if they don’t mind paying a high interest percentage, they can borrow with no security at all.A great variety of people and institutions are now willing to lend money for good small businesses proposals.With access to credit, you can buy the product, ship it to the customer and get paid before you have to pay for the goods which you sold. This just wasn’t possible until very recently.G) Advice, courses and books about starting small businesses are within easy reach of everyone.Researching your chosen business area has never been easier with the Internet so readily available.Not so long ago, you would have needed to buy many books and read them all to get the specific information you required. Now you can ask a search engine very specific questions and get very specific answers, almost immediately.This frees up small businesses and enables them to be far more productive and enterprising.H) If you start a small business today you have an immense amount of technology available to you.Computers, printers, copiers, audio and video recording and playback equipment, telephony and the internet are all easily available to any entrepreneur wanting to get started in a new small business enterprise.Not long ago, the average multi-national company lacked the computing, communicating and printing power available to the ordinary person today.You can probably think of at least 6 different ways to get a simple message to someone on the other side of the world. 5 of those messages would typically arrive less than 1 minute after you sent them.Just 100 years ago, (and remember mankind has been around for about 3 million years) this same message would have involved horses and steam ships and would have taken months.This massive improvement in technology (especially in communications and information) has really opened up the field to the individual who wants to go ahead with a new small business venture.I) Small businesses starting up today have far more choices available to them.In previous times, it was quite common for there to be only a few companies that they could go to, to buy business supplies. Whatever business you care to name, you would not find many suppliers of the materials needed to conduct that business.Unless your business is in a very specialist area, you will now find you can source your supplies from a great many firms. This in turn drives your costs down, as you can shop around for the best deals.For example, there used to be very few ways to get your goods delivered to your customers. Nowadays you could chose from literally hundreds of different carriers.New companies can chose anywhere in the world to set up their small businesses, or indeed where to place any part of their business.I know of a successful paintball company, which operates in the UK in summer. But when the business falls off due to the cold winter, they find new customers by simply moving the company to Brazil, and then return the following spring.They also take advantage of the cheaper labour in Brazil to manufacture the paint balling equipment, and when back in the UK use the greater expertise in the UK to program their systems.Not so long ago this flexibility of operating a small business would have been totally impractical.Conclusion.There are far more opportunities to start small businesses than ever before and entrepreneurs who do start new small businesses at home are more likely to succeed.There are more potential customers, it costs less to start up and you have more choice over the kind of business to go into. Other benefits are a more skilled and educated workforce, and easy access to financial support.If you do want your own enterprise, you can also use the power of the Internet to carry out good and fast research, and to support your business in many ways. I believe there has never been a better time to start up new small businesses.

Hi, my name is Walt. I’m an auctioneer with 25 years of experience in the auction business and licensed in the state of MA. I own Quick Auction Service, a company that specializes in building and running custom auctions, I’m also the webmaster of my own site and have been on eBay for 8 years. Besides eBay, the types of auctions I run most frequently are antiques and on-site estate auctions, although I’ve run everything from business overstock auctions to charity & special event auctions.

I enjoy sharing my knowledge and stories of the auction business. My goal for article is to help folks get the absolute most out of their auction experience.

Whether your fresh out of the package or a seasoned dealer I think I can offer something in this article to help you with your auciton adventures.

There may be as many reasons to attend auctions as there are types of auctions to attend. Maybe you want to attend an auction to buy items for re-sale on eBay, or some other market. Maybe you want to furnish your home with wonderful antiques, or you want to furnish your home as inexpensively without sacrificing quality.Some folks are just looking for a fun night out. With a little perseverance all these things are possible.

There are antiques and estate auctions, auto auctions, overstock auctions, absolute and no reserve auctions, real estate auctions, specialty auctions where only one genre of items are sold, tailgate auctions, live auctions, online auctions, sealed bid auctions, silent auctions, charity and fund raising auctions and many more.

Can you really buy for pennies on the dollar at an auction? You bet! Many times I’ve seen folks buy and re-sell at the same auction on the same night for a good profit, although be advised, this should only be done after the auction is over.

There are a lot of ways to find an auction, but here are some tips on how to find and attend the best ones.

Visit the genre of shops in the area that apply to the type of auction you want to attend. IE: If your looking for a good antique auction to attend, stop in the local antiques shops and ask for what there are for good auctions in the area. Sounds obvious right? But listen to what they don’t say as well as what they do say. Oftentimes when a dealer speaks poorly about an auction he or she attends, it may be likely that they are trying to keep a good thing secret. Think for a moment, why would a dealer keep attending a lousy auction?

Newspaper ads: I personally like to find ads in the classified ad section rather than flashy display ads. Flashy ads are usually indicative of an auction that will be high priced, may have reserves, (a set price on an item), and usually an enormous crowd. While any auction can be profitable to attend, it is usually best to steer clear of the glitzy ones, at least for the beginner.

Here’s the minimum you want to find out before you go. If there is a phone number in the ad, call and ask for the terms of the sale. What forms of payment do they accept? Is it an absolute auction? An absolute auction is one that has no minimum or reserve bids on items. These are the best auctions to attend! Is there a buyers premium? A buyers premium is like a tax that everyone who makes purchases at that auction must pay above the winning bid price. Most auctions these days do charge a buyers premium, 10% is not unreasonable but I feel much more than that is greedy, and the auctioneer that charges over 10% is counting on most bidders not doing the extra math as the bids quicken in pace.

A fair auction will have ample time to inspect the merchandise, usually at least 2 or 3 hours. Find out when inspection starts and make sure to attend! Never attend an auction if you can’t make the inspection, not unless your prepared to gamble. Most auctioneers sell at a rate of about 100 items per hour, which is why they sell “as is”. They simply don’t have the time to give a detailed description of all the items. Since almost all items at auction are sold AS IS, there are sure to be some damaged, refinished, fake and incomplete items at any given auction. Beware of any auctions that offer very little or no inspection time.

Good auctions will usually have 150 to 400 lots. A lot may be one item or a group of items. The exception to this are specialty auctions, auto auctions, real estate auctions etc.

When you attend your first sale, take note of the 1/2 dozen or so dealers that buy the most often. See if you can find out about other area auctions they attend.

When you do find an excellent auction, attend it as often as possible. By frequenting good sales, you help increase the bottom line of that business. It’s difficult for many auctioneers to keep the quality of merchandise consistent, so good attendance certainly helps. And when an auctioneer gets to know you as a buyer, he/she will go out of the way to accommodate you, to keep you coming back.

I know, I know. You may think the title has typo errors being “Why Advertise on Facebook: The Pros and Pros”. But, it is correct and intentionally written that way, because there aren’t really “cons” when it comes to advertising on social networking giant Facebook. Well, there may be, but the “cons” are far too small to be consequential.

Why advertise on Facebook?

This is the most common question of among advertisers and even by some of those successful marketing companies who use traditional Search Engines, Google or direct mail and those small business enterprise owners. The list below will help you think about why advertising on Facebook is different and more profitable compared to the traditional ways of advertising.

1. It has a great advantage especially to small businesses because they can make their business visible to the public even without spending a lot of money just like what successful companies do.

2. With Facebook, the entire globe is your market.

3. It has the New Facebook Insights where you can view who are those people and how many of them like your Facebook fan page.

4. It is very easy to access your customers socially and professionally while talking about what your product is all about.

5 You are paying less to make a big promotion for your brand or company.

6. Customers can immediately get their answers out of their queries directly from the advertisers or the owner of the company.

7. Advertisers who have spent a lot of money for advertisements can maximize and optimize their budget by advertising their own brand in Facebook.

8. Social networks like Facebook are less costly in advertising compared to the traditional advertising.

9. Facebook will give you the privilege to make your creative and innovative marketing plan or advertisement campaigns.

10. Facebook is a place of mix. It allows everyone to connect or reconnect, socialize, chat, and share everything people are interested about. The word of mouth is powerful and Facebook is the new “word of mouth”.

These are still a lot more other benefits, just to answer as to why advertise on Facebook. It’s a big world for opportunities and activities. In fact, Facebook connects more than just from people to people, it also connects:

• People to social group of individuals
• People to organizations
• People to educations
• People to schools
• People to causes
• People to brands
• People to interest and hobbies
• People to events
• People to business companies, etc.

In Facebook, you can make yourself grow and become popular together with your business enterprises. There is no need to spend a lot of money to advertise on expensive advertising company online. In fact, there are companies who have a great fame in the field of advertising but the reviews and comments are not trustworthy.

All you have to do is have an enticing, informative and well updated advertisement on Facebook and be sure to take a look at the important matters to be attended especially when it comes to customers queries. Keep visible and trustworthy; however effective your products and services are, you will be put in trash if you cannot build a strong and trust worthy relationship with your clients. Remember your reason why advertise on Facebook; that’s to generate sales by attracting more customers, and because it’s where your customers at.