AW Daily - Tips & Tactics - Before the Auction: Setting Up Your Auction Office

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Before the Auction: Setting Up Your Auction Office continued ...

Answering Machine/Voice-Mail Account: Sometimes bidders will want to make voice contact with you--help them to do so even when you're away. Buy an inexpensive answering machine (around $25) or set up a voice-mail account with your phone company (at a monthly fee). Your ability to follow up with high bidders will boost their confidence in you.

A Second Phone Line: If you're constantly tying up the phone while online, or if the other home inhabitants consistently beat you to the punch, make everyone happy by having a second line installed. You'll be surprised how often you'll want and need the ability to be logged on while making some phone calls yourself.

Adequate Lighting: Overhead lighting is OK, but a desk lamp is usually best for long stints at a PC--just be sure not to introduce glare on your monitor's screen.

The Comfy Chair: Just a quickie here: Don't forget to invest in a comfortable chair, because you'll be spending many hours making your impression upon it.

By the way, remember that some gear you buy for a home business (such as serious online auctioning) could be tax-deductible. Consult your tax advisor for more details.

Keeping It All in Reach
Don't forget the basic tenets of easy access and efficiency. Whether it's paper for the printer, reference books, sticky notes, pens and pencils, or whatever, if you will use it often, keep it close by. The last thing you want to do is waste time searching for something that always seems to sprout legs and wander away.

Remember to keep information well within reach, too. Build and maintain a good reference library in or very near your auction office to help with fact checking, item identification, and so forth. Keep high-use references within arm's reach and be sure to bookmark useful Web sites to reduce repeated searches. And while you're at it, have a good dictionary nearby (or bookmark Dictionary.com) because spelling still counts.

Starting an Auction Business
Getting Licensed
Packing Merchandise