We have a mantra at BizUnite: Whatever It Takes to Help Small Business Thrive.

It's posted everywhere - in every office and in every cube. Our mantra a daily reminder of why we do what we do, but it's even better when our customer call us to share just how much we're helping their businesses.

They say things like:

"BizUnite has allowed us to communicate and interact with our members quicker and more effectively than ever." - Carl Michelakos, Operations Manager, The Bike Cooperative

“The independent entrepreneurs that are members of our cooperative now have a website that provides them with the web based tools and services they need to compete with the big box stores and major supermarket chains.” - Michael Bourgoine - President & CEO, Associated Grocers of New England (AGNE)

"WOW – This (BizUnite Employee Perks) is great! I would expect this to be a nice benefit for our members employees – and for us." - Rich Wise, Valley Bakers

"Employees using it Employee Perks [powered by BizUnite] have found value. Tammy purchased $25 gift cards for Tortilla Flats in Oshkosh for $5 each." - Laura Rockel, Valley Bakers

Are you doing all you can to turn potential customers into buyers? Here are three simple strategies that will go a long way toward making sure that your shoppers’ dollars are flowing into your registers:

1. Downsize packaging to fight sticker shock. After determining that buyers now balk at paying more than $20 for individual food items, Connecticut-based Stew Leonard’s food stores are repackaging meat and other products to bring the package prices under that price point. Are your price tags triggering resistance? Find ways to whittle down your per-item prices. If your stumped for ideas, try contacting us for suggestions.
   
   
2. Boost sales by supporting commercial customers. Help them do more business and you'll build your business too. It's the reason why Home Depot just reduced prices on selected contractors’ products. If you want to sell more, try cutting prices and offering unbeatable (and guaranteed!) credit lines to commercial buyers. If you're in the building industry BizUnite has been able to secure the most generous credit lines available through BlueTarp Financial. Contact us for detailed savings information.
   
   
3. Make it easier for people to pay you. Do you make it easy and convenient for customers who like to place orders over the Internet? Do you accommodate PayPal and online bill payments? Are you offering store gift cards year round? When customers have more payment options, they spend more. BizUnite's exclusive agreement with Chase Paymentech offers independents a variety of payment processing options that, for the most part, are only available to large corporations. Contact us for detailed savings information.

This is just a small sample of strategies that can work for you. To learn more or obtain detailed savings information, contact BizUnite at hello@bizunite.com or (866) 623-5784. Working together, we can maximize your profits by providing services that reduce costs while increasing revenue.

Jason Belmonte is an Australian bowler who has singlehandedly reinvented his sport by making one simple change: He rolls the ball with two hands instead of one.

If you haven’t seen Belmonte bowl, check out his videos on YouTube and elsewhere on the Internet. The ball explodes from his hands with incredible speed. He puts so much spin on the ball that it seems to make a sudden 90-degree turn before smashing into the pins.

People have been bowling for hundreds of years, but Belmonte seems to be the first professional bowler to perfect the technique of releasing the ball with two hands. It’s a change that is simple and revolutionary at the same time.

We can all learn some important business lessons from him. Let’s take a closer look.

Lesson One: Find New Ways to Use the Resources You Already Have

Belmonte didn’t put microchips into a bowling ball, invent a laser tracking system, or design new bowling shoes. He simply found an entirely new – and pretty obvious – way to maximize his use of the same resources that everyone else had.

Some very successful companies have that too. Amazon.com, for example, didn’t invent customer follow-up. But they did take it to a new level by recommending new products to customers, based on their previous purchases. QVC didn’t invent television advertising, but the company did find a powerful new way to use it, by moving it to center stage.

So find new ways to wring a more value from the obvious resources you already have. Brilliant new ideas could be right in front of you – as obvious as Belmonte’s two hands.

Lesson Two: Don’t Be a Quitter

Belmonte didn’t try his new two-handed technique for just a few hours. He invested years to discover its astonishing potential.

In this sense, Belmonte is a lot like eBay – a business that defied the rules of traditional business because it had nothing to sell beyond a connection point for sellers and buyers. In its early years, eBay was declared dead a number of times by business experts. But the founder Jeff Bezos proved them wrong. Instead of giving up, he refined his business model until he worked out the snags and really got things moving.

So remember that great ideas usually require hard work and development. If you believe in an idea, have the resolve to follow it through.

Lesson Three: Don’t Let “Experts” Kill Your Ideas

According to an article on ESPN, some highly respected coaches tried to discourage Belmonte from pursuing his two-handed style of bowling. They wrote off his idea as a dead-end that would cut his career short. But who is laughing at him now? He has proved them wrong by winning a number of international championships.

In that sense, Belmonte can be compared to BizUnite. One business at a time, we are convincing our members that there is a new, better way of doing business. Our members are sometimes a little skeptical at first – until the day when the bottom-line numbers convince them that cooperation is today’s key to profitability.

When the current crisis ends, will your customers spend as much money as they did before it began? Will they buy the same products, or have their tastes changed?

Some answers to those questions can be found in “New US Shopper to Emerge from Crisis,” an article by Jonathan Birchall in Financial Times. Let’s take a closer look at Birchall’s findings:

• More upscale customers have gotten hooked on coupons. Consumers who earn $100,000+ have gotten into the habit of using coupons – and they will continue to do so when the hard times end, according to a TNS survey.
• People will spend about 14% less on discretionary items. Customers will only spend about 86% of what they spent before the recession, according to a survey conducted by Alix Partners.
• The use of credit cards and credit lines will diminish. Birchall notes that cash and cash cards have become preferred payment vehicles – and he predicts that they will remain so. Also: Store brands, which have built a larger market share in their categories, will continue to attract more consumers.
• We are entering the age of thriftiness. Even affluent consumers will continue to be more oriented toward value – and less inclined to buy “aspirationally.”

Those findings support an opinion that I have written about before. It is my view that the companies that succeed after the recession will be those that viewed it as an opportunity to improve their marketing, selling and systems.

I guess any great company needs a "kick-butt" convention booth. Ours is no exception. Here's a pic of our booth from our it's unveiling at the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference in Las Vegas. We'll keep you updated to where and when this cost savings circus comes to your town. 

Are your sales really slumping – or are you in a slump as a marketer?

That can be a hard question to ask. But as some recent news stories show, savvy marketers are coming with some very innovative strategies to boost sales. Here are some you might not be exploiting...

• See who is in your store and sell to them. In the current recession, more upscale shoppers (or shoppers who were formerly upscale) are cruising WalMart aisles. So the retailing giant is expanding its offerings to be sure that those new shoppers will find the high-quality products that appeal to them.
• Save your customers money without bruising their self-esteem. Reuters reports that Saks plans to offer loss-leader items from Prada and Christian Dior at discounts of up to 75%. Buying an entry-level handbag for $900 is not exactly bargain-bin shopping, but it speaks to Saks shoppers who might not mind saving a little money on luxury items today.
• Offer more than merchandise to make customers feel at home. Several menswear stores are offering alcoholic drinks to customers, the Wall Street Journal Reports. It might be a bit extreme, but men feel more comfortable, and buy more, when the store offers them a complimentary beer or glass of single-malt scotch.
• Give bargain items center stage. Toys R Us, for example, is highlighting ultra low-cost toys. According to the Los Angeles Times, the toy-selling giant hopes to capture lots of dollars by creating prominent displays of toys that cost $3 or less.

So how innovative are you willing to be, in the interest of boosting profits? How many of your fundamental assumptions are you willing to question? It's time for you to move your success to the next level.