The Small Business Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed in Your Small Business, 3rd Edition

Chapter 49

Groupon and Other Deal-of-the-Day Websites

Businesses use Groupon because we deliver a ton of new customers to their door.

—Andrew Mason, Groupon founder

Which one of these quotes is real?

“The response was fantastic. Our phone has been ringing nonstop and we've gotten new customers who heard about us through Groupon but missed the deal.”

or

“I take full responsibility for my decision. Please do not attempt to interpret this post as me blaming Groupon or our customers for anything. I am merely sharing the experience. The decision to run a Groupon campaign was my own decision, and one I regret. [In fact] it has been the single worst decision I have ever made as a business owner thus far.. . .”

Would you be surprised to learn that both quotes are real, from real business owners who decided to sign up for the burgeoning phenomenon that is Groupon? The first quote, the happy one, if from Greg Major of Bulldog Bootcamp & CrossFit. His business ran an incredibly successful Groupon campaign for his 6,000-square-foot fitness center.

The second quote comes from Jessie, the owner of Posies Bakery and Café in Portland, Oregon. Although the Posies Groupon campaign did in fact expose the business to a ton of new people, the structure of the deal (as explained later in this chapter) made it such that, among other things, Jessie was unable to meet payroll at one point due to the burden of the Groupon deals she was obliged to honor and as such she had to pull $8,000 out of her own ...