Deals were made at the ICSC Texas Conference in November, held at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine Texas. Ron Rainey, Executive Director of the Economic Development Corporation of Benbrook, signed his community to join the Skeds online program. Read the rest of this entry »
What do Ray Charles, Jim Fowler, Paula Dean and Skeds have in common?
Would you believe Albany, Georgia!
This historic Georgia city has joined the Skeds shop local family of communities. Albany will start the 2011 as the first city in the great state of Georgia to become a part of the growing Skeds member cities. Read the rest of this entry »
Denver, Colorado – Stephen Chambers, Abigail Azima, and Katy Spates from Skeds joined thousands of fellow leaders from across the country for the 2010 National League of Cities’ (NLC) annual Congress of Cities and Exposition in Denver, Colo. The conference offered sessions and workshops to learn and share innovative ideas and solutions for their city’s economic development, infrastructure, sustainability and public safety needs. Read the rest of this entry »
Long holiday weekends are rarely relaxing in the U.S. The Friday after Thanksgiving is probably the ultimate example. Hugely touted as the busiest shopping day of the Christmas season, this day of frenzy feeding by shopping sharks, is the official un-official start of holiday shopping. Factor in the new Cyber Monday, and the up coming days will see lots and lots of money being spent. Read the rest of this entry »
With so many mobile apps offered in the iTunes store, it can be hard to know which to choose. Now, Skeds makes it easy. Since September, Skeds has offered the free Skeds for iPhone® personal appointment scheduling iPhone® application. This week, our team of dedicated coders released a new version of the Skeds for iPhone® application which provides small business owners and busy people the easiest way to keep track of personal appointments. The new version is much better at multitasking and has been upgraded to take advantage of the iPhone® 4 OS. Easily schedule, approve or deny appointments from anyone and anywhere in the world.
In early December Skeds will roll out its Custom Mobile iPhone® app. Going beyond free websites, specialized coupons, appointment scheduling and calendars, your Community Skeds Shop Local program will provide another cool tool for business. Skeds is going beyond providing a web page for businesses. Now, there is an offering for businesses and communities to gain a new online presence. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you taken the time to see how the latest Business rage is working for you – or not working ? There are a plethora of daily deal offers available for business participation. For local businesses this can be a boon or bust.
The popularity of “daily-deal” sites, whether Goupon, Livingsocial, Eversave, Woot, Buywith or TIPPR is undeniable. The number of unique visitors to all the sites in August of this year was staggering. The sites attracted over 20 Million unique visitors in August 2010, up from 2009 numbers in the 6 million range. The growth appears to be exponential. Or is it just phenomenal?
There is no denying that there are plenty of deal and bargain shoppers checking the online marketplaces. Businesses need to understand that an online presence is, oh so, necessary Equally important, is how an online presence works for an individual business; especially the smaller local businesses. Read the rest of this entry »
Skeds Pres. Stephen Chambers recently addressed the Board of Directors Meeting of WorkForce Solutions North Central Texas. WorkForce Solutions is one of several committees in the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG)
This council’s focus is directed toward the region’s workforce. Stephen Chambers was there to explain and detail Shop Local programs and how these programs assist, not only, local business but an entire community. Programs that improve local business bottom lines effect an entire town. Businesses grow and so do jobs. Growing and improving local business stabilizes existing employment while providing opportunities for more jobs.
Chambers presentation broke down the specific how-tos and advantages of Shop Local programs. He explained how City governments, EDCs, Chambers of Commerce and other civic groups can join the Skeds program, and how to make it work. (see Skeds Blog post What Makes a Successful Shop Local Program)
Skeds continues to present the Shop YourCity programs across the region. The more cities that join, the more businesses that are showcased all create more interest and activity to Shopping locally. It becomes the best of many worlds and win, win for cities, businesses and consumers.
You can see Skeds Shop Local presentations October 6-8 in Houston at the TEDC Annual Conference (Texas Economic Development Council), the NE Tarrant Chamber of Commerce Showcase October 15, in N Richland Hills at the Career Technology Center 7020 Mid Cities Blvd., The TML (Texas Municipal League) 98th Annual Conference & Exhibition October 26-29 in Corpus Christi,and the ICSC Southeast Conference (International Council of Shopping Centers) Nov. 8-10 in Atlanta, Ga.
If you do business in Pflugerville, TX, or Justin, TX; your city supports you.
Pflugerville and Justin are two Texas locations who have first rate online shop local programs that provides their local merchants with a powerful,
free online marketing tool. At no cost to the business, they can post coupons, limited edition specials, new products, daily deals, etc., in a single website promoted heavily by local community groups. Residents of these areas can sign up for notices of new offers and sales from businesses they like . Justin and Pflugerville continue to promote their shop local programs with aggressive campaigns and incentives, which help their businesses attract new customers.
Groupons – Coupons – Come On
Don’t get Left in the Dust
It may not have happened overnight, though it feels that way. One day there is talk about something
called Groupon, and another day something about LivingSocial. Then last week, Groupon’s offered a one-day deal for a $50.00 gift card from the GAP
for $25.00. ONE HALF MILLION (million with an M) “Buy” clicks later the trading bell rang the close of day. The Groupon website was brought to its knees by the overwhelming demand. Both Groupon and Gap were amazed, flabbergasted, thunder struck, and numb. No one expected the response tobe beyond HUGE. Now, it seems, according to a report in NPR, Aug. 24, every national retailer in this country and beyond, wants a piece of this action. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s a Business to Do?
This week’s post matter was a serendipitous result of flitting around the internet investigating what’s good in business and what’s not.
I flitted from one subject to another much like a butterfly in a field of flowers. The Internet is perhaps the most incredible field of flowers.lost my way, among the plethora of business nectars available. Whereas a butterfly accomplishes something or things, gathering nectar to stay alive and pollinating the field, humans seem either to get nowhere, little-where or else-where, not some-where productive. My desk became littered with print outs of good, interesting, maybe, and could be subjects and ideas, yet no clear connections or direction emerged to warrant all the energy, ink and paper I’d generated.
However, I did find three things I though were definitely worth sharing Read the rest of this entry »