I was wondering if any of you do the half price deals, living social, groupon, local half price deals? I am finding out this is good advertisement for a new business.

Good deal for a start up biz. Good deal for the exposure.Bad deal for profit You are already cutting the price by half and then you share half of the half price deal with Groupon etc. bad deal for a company that has a lg customer base Def. has an upside for the newbie

I think it's a great idea for a new business. When I started I only had 2 or 3 jobs a week and would have welcomed the biz and exposure from one of those. If your not as busy as you'd like to be give it a try.

At whatever stage or size your business is, when considering a coupon program, you would want to take into account what you would be generating per hour worked after the costs and discounts involved were factored in. If it is really low - lower than you feel you want to work for - then you might want to consider another form of promotion. Something more imaginative, perhaps, than simply following the masses of small business owners into couponing. Even dressing up in a rented clown suit and walking around downtown passing out your own coupons might be more productive. Check out the Guerilla Marketing books for alternative low-cost/no-cost marketing activities that seem to be do-able in your community. I personally feel you give too much away to justify participating in coupon programs. The typical coupon customer is the price-based customer. He or she will only use your business in the future as long as you continue to offer coupons. Instead, you should aim for the value-based customer. I know they are out there. Many are in my own customer data base.

People who work for large corporations, or who are in the military, move from one location to another so as to continue to move up the success ladder in their chosen field. If you live in an area which you really believe has only lower-middle income (price-based) customers, then if it is possible to do so, you should consider relocating to an area where your demographic research indicates there is more prosperity; more people who are likely to respond to a marketing message based on perceived "green" benefits combined with high-quality personal service. In a state like Tennessee, for instance this might suggest a move from rural "Skunk Hollow" (a made-up name) to Knoxville (large college town) or Nashville.

We live today in an extremely challenging national, and even world economy. There is an undeniably increasing income gap between the top few percent of
the population, and everyone else. Is this good? I don't think so. Can either political party change it anytime soon? I have my doubts. I just came back from visiting my son who, after he finished law school here in Boston a few years ago, immediately moved to New York City (Manhattan) and opened up a real estate brokerage business. He was both tiny, and an out-of-towner when he began. Now he has about 20 brokers working for him. He both chose his location well, and he persisted, with only a tiny marketing budget to start with. By being located where he is, his customers are in large part those people in that top few percent of the population. He is having his best year ever. You don't have to move to NYC to gain this result. I am simply saying something similar could be a good move for the right person.