Is always getting a deal the future of retail? There is an old joke that goes: If there was one mattress left it the world, it would be on sale. Does the consumer only respond to sales now?
The business world was shocked last week when Chicago based Groupon was valued at $1B. These types of local "Deal a Day" Web site offerings are becoming very popular. Groupon is even sponsoring a contest and awarding $100,000 to those who want to try to live only on Groupon offers for one year!
There are several other Deal A Day companies in Chicago. They all operate under the same principal where they offer a discount deal at 20% to 50% off the retail price only for that day. You purchase the offer and get a coupon that expires in 3 to 6 months.
The business pays nothing up front but splits the fee with the Deal A Day company.
Maureen Erickson, President and Founder of YouveGottaGetIt has a different approach. She not only offers deals to the consumers, but helps the companies handle the influx of business from the deals and turn them into repeat customers. Maureen believes that for companies, these deals should be an inexpensive way to get new customers and keep them.
1. It's not really a conference or even a festival as the organizers say it is. It's a happening. At 30,000 people, it is so large and complex, you don't really attend SXSW, it just happens to you.
As you know by now, I am a huge movie fan. So Oscar night is big in my house. I especially like listening to the acceptance speeches.
As a small business owner, my favorite speech of the night was from Geoffrey Fletcher who won for best adapted screenplay from Precious- "This is for everybody who works on a dream everyday"
The big news out of the Post Office today was that they have a $7B loss and the only way to cure these ills is to not deliver on Saturday. Under the new plan, mail would only be delivered Monday to Friday.
Let's not use this blog to talk about what is wrong with the Post Office ($5B pension, health insurance, shrinking volume, too large and overpaid labor force) or whether we should privatize mail delivery.
What would happen to your business if there was only mail 5 days a week? It would give a whole new meaning for the phrase "the check's in the mail."
One of the biggest competitions in the Olympics happens outside the arenas. The competition for advertising brands and endorsements are as much a part of the Olympics as the rings and the torch.
So, it should come as no surprise that even the U.S. Curling team is getting into the act of selling something "big" at the 2010 Olympic Games.
It was a good game this year. I rooted for the underdog Saint's and they won. In what some spectators think is the more important competition of the night, the commercials, Miller High Life clearly won.
This year because of the Great Recession, Miller sponsored 30 seconds of commercial time to highlight the "Little Guys of The Big Game". Check out which small businesses from Chicago won!
Okay, so I voted for Scott Lee Cohen not knowing that much about him. I had seen his ads on TV and they were focused on getting people jobs. The economy won't be back in full swing until people get back to work and have money to spend. Cohen successfully identified this issue even before President Obama did in his State of the Union Address.
But after Cohen was nominated this week as the Lt. Governor for the Democrats, the press focused on his past because of our idiotic law that the Governor and Lt. Governor candidates get paired in the general election even though they ran separately in the primary.
Although he admitted many of these mistakes before, there is pressure for him to quit the ticket. However, I think there are many things business people can learn from a pawnbroker such as Scott Lee Cohen.
I have been a Toyota (Lexus) car owner for 20 years of their 50 years in America. I think they make great cars. Apparently a lot of other Americans do too since they have had the number one selling car for years. This week, they had "a little problem with their accelerator pedals" getting stuck. In other words, the car might drive my itself. Big Problem!
How Toyota has responded to the crisis is something every business owner can learn from.
I love the President Obama's populist style. He said last night in his State of the Union that "the worst of the storm has passed" and that we need to put "Americans back to work today to build the infrastructure of tommorrow."
But what I listen for are specific things President Obama will do for small business since it is the backbone of our economy. There was plenty of promises again, but can he deliver?
I got to hand it to Steve Jobs and Apple. They gave their new tablet a clever name- the iPad (too bad that www.ipad.com is owned by the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center). It is a cool looking device, (iPad gallery) but is it really something you would buy for your business?
Chicago finally starred in American Idol this week.The episode filmed here last summer aired locally Tuesday night. After watching the segment, I couldn't help realize how much fiction the auditions really are more than fact.
Leave it to a business that teaches Yoga to lead an experiment. At Yogaview on Division Street, there is no fixed fee for taking a class. During these tough times, the yoga studio only asks you to pay what you can. Their hope is that those who can pay more will support those who pay less.
Flat sales is the new up they say in this economy. But luckily, this is not true for everyone. Some businesses are having great years and are thriving. Who is thriving and why? (disclosure: all current or past clients of mine- not a cause and effect relationship at all!)
Next month, will mark the end of the first decade of this millennium (End of the decade we did not know what to call...I vote for "the naughts"). Some will say that this decade was a bad hangover with Y2K, the Dot Com Crash, 9/11 and the Great Recession. But, there have been some very significant advances and developments that helped small business in this past decade. Here are the most significant trends:
