Good writeup over at CNN that takes cost of living into account, and makes some good points. Good for any business owner to read.

The White House says you’re wealthy if you make $250k a year. But what about cost of living? You would need $545k in New York to maintain the same lifestyle that $250k affords in Missoula, Mont. How much do you need in your city?

Source: CNN

Just saw an article about Americans Raising Roofs, Getting Their Coupon on FastCompany.com in relation to how many more people are using coupons this year as opposed to the years in the past. According to their article, and I quote, “Debt. It really sucks”. I agree! However one of the statistics that they’ve provided is that 3.3 coupons were redeemed last year, and not only that – but coupon use is up 27% since 2008. So what this means for you my entrepreneurs, is that you should be using coupons. Sometimes the easiest promotions get you the best exposure and results. It used to be that you would only put coupons in the penny saver, or other sites such as that. Now you can contact the coupon websites that will drive sales to you 24 hours a day. One of the examples I have for this is a smaller website I noticed on Twitter called “TusconOnTheCheap.com” which is republishing coupons straight off to Tuscon consumers. Do you think that the exposure from an article like this would help your business? I bet it would.

A good start would be to check out the top coupon sites and contact them regarding putting some coupons on there. More often than not when someone’s going to order an item they find a few places, and then do research on the company for a coupon. If it’s just free shipping, or 10% of the product this difference often will sway a purchase. It reminds me a lot of the stores that raise prices 50%, just to say 75% off and still make decent amounts of profit off of the same sales, plus generating a higher end LROI (Lifetime Return on Investment) off of each consumer, as your name is now in their head as “great deals”. The bottom line is: are you willing to take a little less profit per sale in order to generate more long term sales and return on investment?

A good example of one of the sites that allows you to put coupons on is Offers.com – which is actually a prime example of not only a great place for exposure but also a great group of guys as well. Make sure you check them out and see if you all can help each other out on the ROI front.