Our Small Business – How it Works

Originally posted 11/30/2014

It's Small Business Saturday so I thought this a good day to share a little about how the website works and why. After all, we are a small local Utah business, which still sounds weird when I say it.

Many of you have been following the site for years and know the background of how this unintentional business started, you can read more about the journey here. I don't aspire to take the deal blogging world by the tail. We're quite content sharing deals for our local community.

I don't have a degree in business, started with zero dollars and marketing connections, don't consider myself a good speaker, am a bit camera shy and don't care much for the limelight. I'm just an ordinary mom, grandma, daughter and wife that wanted to help others. There really is nothing extraordinary.

What started as a fun little crafty cyber hobby, 5 years later is a full fledged small business, that not only helps support my family, but the families of the contributors that work so hard to keep you informed. There are many costs involved, such as hosting, tech support, graphic design and business and legal fees.

HOW WE PAY FOR IT – THANKS TO YOU

I'm going to lay it out on the line here, after all, you know how most of the businesses you patronize make money and I think it only fair you know the same with us. Choosing to shop local can sometimes be costly to the consumer and believe it or not, it's no different with our little local website. Here's how it works and how your support keeps us up and running.

Local Sponsors – On occasion your favorite local shops and businesses will pay for advertising space on the site.

• You help us by giving them a high five: When you visit a business or attend an event that you would not have otherwise, let the business know you're there because of us. They love knowing their small budget didn't go to waste.

Banner Ads – You know, those annoying ads found on every blog and news website on the planet? Yep, we get it, the ads may seem tacky and ugly, but they are something we can put on the site to earn revenue and it doesn't cost you a dime. You don't have to click on them (in fact we ask that you don't, unless you're really interested). You don't even have to read them. Just having them there helps support the website.

• You help us by viewing full posts: For your convenience, we try to list most of the information and links in the excerpt of our posts. When we designed the site this way we realized we were “shooting ourselves in the foot” for page views but, we are trying to make the site as easy to use as possible. Every time you click on the blue “Read More” button, we get what's known as a page view. Page views help keep our site healthy. Plus, don't forget we donate money to our local charities  for every page view we get. So, if you have the time, please take a minute to read our full posts. 

Coupons – when you print coupons found within our posts or under the grocery coupon tab we make a couple of cents for each one you print.

• You help us by printing coupons: If you see a post for an item that you can use, hit print (twice :0)). 

Affiliate Marketing –  These are commission based revenue we receive when you make a purchase by clicking through the links on the website.

• You help us by using the links: We know you love those cash back websites and are tempted to take the information we give you and buy it through one. When you leave the website to search for an online coupon code (trust us, we'll publish it if there is one) or go through a cash back website it REALLY hurts the site and we simply can't compete with them to offer you the same. If you saw the deal here and use the link to buy it here, you're supporting a local based company and we thank you for “shopping local”. Hum… shopping local at Walmart, now that's a new spin.

Thanks so much for your support. Every day I feel so lucky to have the BEST job ever. I get to get up every morning and help folks save money. I get to help families save money on the things they need to improve their lives. It just doesn't get better than that. I appreciate each and every one of you for taking the time to visit Coupons4Utah daily.

Keep your frugal on my friends,
Joani