Do you wake up every morning and check your inbox to see what the latest online deals are? If so, you’re like me – and I’m starting to think I have a problem.

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, then you haven’t yet been exposed to the wonder of the Group Discount Site, such as Groupon, TeamBuy, and LivingSocial just to name a few.

These websites work by offering a city-specific, limited-time deal (typically one a day) which must be purchased by a minimum number of people to make it happen. The deals are delivered by email each day and usually offer more than 50% off a product or service, so they almost always sell enough to push the deal through.

What does this mean for your small business? To put it bluntly – a HUGE influx of customers.

Consider this – your business offer gets delivered directly to the inboxes of thousands of people who are looking for great deals. Not only that, but these deal sites encourage their subscribers to refer their friends and reward them for referrals that purchase deals. You get to capitalize on the social nature of the site to expand your reach even further.

The diversity of the types of businesses using this type of promotion is impressive. Through these sites, I’ve bought everything from diving lessons, to house cleaning, to wine making to dining out.

Bottom line – if you’re looking to grab new customers, a group discount site might be a great option for you. Just make sure that you decide how much business you can handle and set a limit on the number of deals you’ll put up for grabs. Some of these businesses are now backed up for months!

Have you promoted your business on a group discount site? Or, have you signed up for one? What kind of deals appeal to you?

Introducing the Mompreneur Series! Every month we’ll be profiling CityMax.com entrepreneurs that manage that perfect balance of running a small business and being a full-time mother.

Mompreneur: Sarah Kaplan - EvyMama.com

Sarah is the owner of EvyMama.com – “Toronto’s only Breastfeeding Boutique.” Her business specializes in fashionable maternity wear that makes new and soon-to-be moms look great. Founded in 2007, her store won an award last year for “Best Lingerie Store” in town.

I caught up with Sarah to find out her story:

“When I started nursing my daughter, it was very hard to find clothing for nursing moms. Toronto has a very high breastfeeding rate, but no one was serving mothers. Baby shops sell plenty of baby gear but nothing more than nursing bras - nothing cute at all - and nothing for the postpartum mother.

I had the idea with my first child and it took me a couple years to organize. Then I started when my second child was 5 months old. My husband and I carefully chose our neighborhood (one with the highest birth rate in the country) and bought a broken down convenience store, renovated it, and moved in upstairs.

The store has a nursing lounge in the back, and lots of women in the neighborhood will stop by to change their baby’s diaper. They relax on our back patio garden and we serve tea. Plenty of moms will come to take a break and leave with a purchase.

We usually have three people working at all times – my staff are all mothers, who will either bring their children to work in a sling, or they work short shifts to accommodate their parenting.

I was drawn to CityMax.com to build our website because it’s very affordable and user-friendly – the ability to add and remove products easily was crucial. Also being web-based my employees can work on the site from anywhere.

For the future, we will be opening another store in the East End (another baby boom area) this year. I’m going to keep growing the business until it won’t grow - maybe another store every 2 years?”

How I drive traffic to my website:

• Organic Search
• Our blog
• Twitter/Facebook
• Links from our suppliers
• Trade shows

Tips:

Hiring
“Don’t be afraid to hire people, especially when your business is based on customer service. Being short staffed can cost you sales. Also don’t be afraid of hiring people who are smarter than you!”

Customer Service
“We pay attention to the details, like holding the door for our customers and serving tea. The store has a cooler with hot and cold drinks, and our staff really knows the product. These little things make the difference, and it’s how a boutique can beat the big box stores.

For online orders, we send our customers a few extra identical products close to their order size, to make sure they find the right size and solve fitting issues. We bill them for the extras and refund the product they return.”

Sarah has built EvyMama.com into quite a community and her business has hit some major milestones. Congratulations on all of your success Sarah, we’re proud to call you a CityMaxer!!
–

If you’d like to be featured in the Mompreneur Series, send a short description of yourself and your business to Patrick (at) citymax (dot) com.

Ever feel like your brain is stuck in a rut? Looking for some business or personal inspiration?

It happens to the best of us, so chin up! Try out some of these tips to get back in the game:

James Smejlis explains a very interesting method of finding solutions that was created by mathematicians and astronomers, which should help you find your creativity in a hurry.

Mike Michalowicz (aka the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur) recently asked 91 entrepreneurs for their top tips on thinking out-of-the-box and finding inspiration.

Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media gets specific and explores what happens when your blog/web content gets stale and how you can revitalize your audience.

What’s your best way of digging your way out of a personal / business rut?

When you’re trying to optimize your small business website for keywords, you sometimes end up with phrases that just don’t fit in to the flow of the page.

Strange word combinations, odd plurality and missing articles can make writing for exact keyword phrases a pretty difficult task, but it doesn’t have to be impossible - you just need to start thinking of it like a puzzle.

Here are a few suggestions for fitting in those challenging keywords:

1.    Break them up
Although punctuation means a lot to me and you, search engines aren’t that fussy about it. If you’re having trouble fitting the words of a keyword phrase in one sentence, break it up into two separate sentences.

Keyword phrase: San Francisco Real Estate

Looking for a new home in San Francisco? Real Estate can be hard to come by without enlisting the help of an expert.

2.    Use bulleted lists
Not only can bulleted lists be used to simplify information for your visitor, but they can also help you use keywords less awkwardly.

Keyword Phrase: Dog Training Articles

Looking for more information? See the following:

• “Max’s Guide to Dog Training” Articles about teaching your dog the basics.
• “Penelope’s Puppies: All about dog training” Articles for owners of puppies under the age of 6 months.
• “Jane and her Litter” Everything you need to know about dog training.

Articles can help you get a lot of the information you need as a new dog owner.

3.    Quotes
Some keywords just can’t sound natural when written from the third person perspective. In that case, try including them in a quote.

Keyword Phrase: Make my own wine

See what our customers have to say about our services!

“I wanted to make my own wine, but didn’t want to spend a fortune. Grapestompers was affordable AND my wine is fantastic!”

Fitting keywords into your small business website is often a challenge, and these are just a few ways you can do it. Try to be creative and flexible without sacrificing readability – it’s important to remember that your visitor is just as important as the search engines, so be careful not to ruin their experience for the sake of fitting in your keywords.

[image by liza31337]

Let’s face it, not everyone can love you. I am one of those personality types that tries to please everyone, so it usually bothers me if someone has a bone to pick with me or my ideas. However, I’ve gradually learned that detractors can be as valuable as fans.

If you are doing something truly great, unique, or exciting in your small business – there are bound to be people who will have a problem with it. When someone takes a shot at you or your brand in a public/online space, you quickly learn who your evangelists are as they jump to your defense.

Consider this: whether they love you or hate you, they’re talking about you. So why play it safe and shoot for the middle?

There’s nothing that convinces the undecided like passionate supporters, and these fans are key to spreading your message.

I recently heard a story about the owner of a small pizza parlor long ago. This owner, let’s call him Hank, had a very small budget compared with the large Pizza Huts and Dominos of his neighbourhood.

This happened years ago, when businesses still advertised in phone books. The big chains, of course, could afford huge, full page ads which Hank could not compete with. He decided instead to run a small promotion of his own: for every competitors’ ad that customers ripped out of the phone book and brought to his store, Hank would give away an order of wings.

The customers came swarming, and Hank quickly saw that the cost of the wing giveaway was more than absorbed by the increased spike in business. His competitors understandably hated what he was doing: complaining, cajoling and even leaving him threats. However, his customers understood a great offer when they saw one, spread the word, and Hank’s business boomed because of his somewhat controversial move.

So the takeaway is this: don’t be afraid to polarize people. Ask yourself how you can stick your thumb in your competitors’ eye. Chances are, it will make your customers love you even more.

What moves could you make in your business that might tick off a few competitors?

For more, one of Apple’s original marketers, Guy Kawasaki wrote an excellent post on innovation.

This week, Brian Chesky, the founder of Airbnb, is giving up his home to prove a point about his small business: the product works.

Airbnb is a website that helps homeowners rent out space in their homes to make extra cash. Until the end of the year, Chesky will use his company’s service to find accommodation in San Francisco, where his company is based.

While undoubtedly a great PR idea, Chesky’s move also makes a very strong statement about the effectiveness of his business. If the CEO of the company is willing to stake the roof over his head, it must work.

Now, I’m not saying that you need to become homeless or do anything quite so drastic, but consider whether there might be some way that you could make a bold statement about your product or service through your own actions.

Do you have a creative way to stand behind your product/service? Tell us how!

If you’ve ever done keyword research for your online business, you know it can be a bit tedious.

It’s not always easy brainstorming different phrases that your customers might use to search for your business. That said, Inc. Magazine Online recently published a great keyword selection article that drew attention to one of Google’s less talked about features – the Wonder Wheel.

The wonder wheel is a bit of a hidden gem on the results page. If you look to the navigation on the left side, click “More” and you’ll find it about halfway down.

As opposed to the typical list-style results page, the wonder wheel is a graphical representation of related search terms alongside results for the searched term.

For example, when I typed in “naturopathic clinic”, the following is what I was shown:

The initial keyword is linked to eight others, and it gives you an idea of what other terms knows your searcher is interested in – meaning you get a hint as to what search terms you may want to focus on.

When you click on any of the suggested phrases, it also keeps on linking to more suggested terms, so you can create quite a big list.

Keep in mind that you do need to pare down your list and make sure that the keywords you choose are applicable to your business.

For the complete article that inspired this post, see 5 Secrets to Selecting Highly-Effective SEO Keywords.

Do you have any “magic tricks” for choosing keywords? Share in the comments!

I recently read a great book called Switch, by Dan & Chip Heath (the writers of Made to Stick). The focus of the book is on how to make big changes happen more easily, whether personal or professional.

As someone who doesn’t always love sitting down and reading non-fiction, this book had me hooked with many ideas and examples that hit close to home – and many that will probably be helpful as you run your online business.

There is a lot in this book to cover with a blog post, so I’ll pare it down to one of my favorite takeaways – the idea of “bright spots”. Never heard of it before? Neither had I, but here’s the gist.

A bright spot is an instance of something working perfectly, when it usually doesn’t.

For example, say you’ve run seven promotions over the past year. Two of them did really well, but the other 5 didn’t really do much for your business. The two that did well are your bright spots!

Instead of throwing your hands up and plodding along, hoping that your next promotion will turn out well, take some time to examine those bright spots.

• Did you appeal to a specific group of customers?
• What kinds of products were you promoting?
• What time of year were you running the promotion?

These questions are just the tip of the iceberg – if you can really delve in and figure out what made those particular promotions a hit, you can dramatically improve your chances of future success.

Best of all, you can apply the bright spots theory to just about any situation – from administrative tasks to communicating with your partner.

Do you have any big changes that you’d like to make, either personal or profession? If so, what? Can you apply the bright spots theory?

Every year, Small Business BC hosts The Successful You Awards to support and recognize entrepreneurs from all over British Columbia for their efforts to grow successful small businesses.

They also recognize companies that foster entrepreneurial spirit and this year, we were extremely honored to win Company of the Year!

The event was held at the Birks flagship store in downtown Vancouver, and we met such a great assortment of entrepreneurs – including Chris and Larry, the Clodhoppers Candy Kings! Their inspiring story showed us just how much of a roller coaster (and how rewarding) the entrepreneurial life can be.

Below you’ll find a few shots from the event – enjoy!

Huge congrats go out to our fellow winners, Growing City (Business Start-Up Award), My Tech Guys (Business Growth Award), and SEEDS Development Centre (Small Business Champion Award).

What do you get when you combine a creative business mind, rubber stamps, and cheeky retro humor? The answer is our Website of the Month: BombshellStamps.com!

The brainchild of Shannon Lucier, this San Diego-based small business sells vintage style rubber stamps with attitude. Shannon has been using the CityMax.com website builder since 2007, when she first created her business plan. Shannon told us her story:

“I had another company which seemed like a lot of hard work with little reward – so I did a business plan that emphasized balance: between my creative side, time I would have to invest and the income I expected to make. This took me a month of brainstorming, trying to look for a niche that hadn’t been done before.

In August 2007 I decided to go for it, and the CityMax.com tools were so extensive and clean that it was just perfect for my business. I knew nothing about HTML or how to get a website up – but it was so easy that now I have to streamline my content!”

BombshellStamps.com currently averages over 290 unique visitors daily, and generates thousands of dollars in revenue every month. She has even managed to drum up some pretty impressive publicity for her business. Shannon is currently rolling out an innovative new line of digital products for her business to help support new customer markets, rather than compete with other existing products.

Shannon was kind enough to pass on a few tips for other aspiring entrepreneurs:

“If you’re just starting out, really think through the entire aspect of your business: a business plan is so important. I gave up three different ideas that didn’t work because of money, or time. I’m proud of the fact that I planned for everything from pricing to shipping, which made it easier for myself. Those details will make or break your business.”

These are definitely sound words of advice from a veteran entrepreneur. Thank you Shannon and congratulations to you again on making our Website of the Month!