It shouldn’t come as a surprise that wealthy people have frugal habits. After all, achieving wealth has two sides. On one side, you earn money. On the other side, you spend money. Spending less money than you make is how you begin the journey of building wealth.
Frugal habits die hard. Studies show that households with average incomes of $100,000 or more use more coupons than those that bring in under $35,000.
Why Saving is Better than Earning
When it comes to money, it’s always better to save a dollar than to earn a dollar. Why? Because when you earn a dollar, you have to pay taxes on it. So when you earn a dollar, you’re not getting your full 100 cents worth. Instead you’re getting less depending upon your tax bracket.
You don’t have to pay taxes on money you SAVE. That’s why it’s always better to save a dollar than to earn a dollar.
Maybe that’s why , according to an article in Barrons, How the Rich Spend their Money “71 percent of the affluent use paper coupons every month, with 54 percent using online coupons every month.”
Using Coupons for your Frugal Business
So when it comes to your frugal business, are you using coupons to save money for your business? Most small business owners are strapped for time. As a result, searching for coupons may be a habit that is hard to develop. It may not be worth 45 minutes of your time to find a coupon to save you $3 off your purchase.
What you need is a fast, easy way to access online coupons for your business. Frugal business thinking means weighing the time savings with the financial cost savings. Fortunately, Ebates is a digital coupon service that can save you both time and money. (That link is an affiliate link. If you use it to sign up for the program, you’ll get $10 to use towards your first purchase. I’ll get a commission when you make your first purchase, so it’s a win-win for both of us.)
When you shop online using Ebates, you’ll earn cash back on purchases made through participating websites. You’ll also get access to online coupons, so you’ll not only get cash back, but you may save money on the purchase.
Ebates make it easy to tell when a merchant is part of their program when you install their browser extension. Once you’ve installed the extension, it will alert you when you visit a site that offers cash back. Not only does it alert you to participating merchants, I’ve also seen it “search” for additional coupons and savings before I’ve placed my order.
Using Coupons to PROMOTE your Frugal Business
While it is better to save a dollar than to earn a dollar, you have to earn the dollar first before you can save it.
Coupons and discounts are a great way to promote your frugal business. However, like almost everything else marketing related, the results you’ll see from coupons is directly related to the QUALITY of the offer you make.
For example, creating a coupon that offers 10% off of a $10 purchase isn’t going to get anyone excited. After all, how excited are you going to be to save $1.00? Would a $1.00 coupon be enough to get you to drive an extra 5 miles to visit another store? Probably not.
Unfortunately, many business owners share Mort’s point of view when it comes to creating exciting coupons and discounts.
Discounts and coupons can be a great way to promote your frugal business. After all, look at the merchants who participate in the Ebates coupon promotion program. I know that I’ve made several changes to my online shopping habits since joining Ebates. After all, why would I spend $100 on office supplies at a non-participating store when I can earn cash back AND save up to $20 on my purchase with a participating merchant?
You don’t HAVE to join Ebates as a partner to put the power of coupons and discounts to work for your frugal business. You also don’t HAVE to pay $500 or more to run a coupon in a local mailer. Instead, there’s an easy, cost effective way to put discounts and coupons to work for your business.
Contact us to find out how to put discounts and coupons to work for your business.