Posie's Cafe - Groupon Was "The Single Worst Decision I Have Ever Made As A Business Owner"

[dittodutch]

I believe it is called a tripod and a lavalier mic.

All I heard was the she wasn't sure if it was because of Groupon or the Library, she is way not accurate on dates. A lot of her issues seem to be happening on her end by the way, accepting multiple groupons off of one client.. that is HER fault.. She clearly doesn't do her research or seem to have thought it through. Why accept a 13 dollar groupon if the average spent in your shop is 5 dollars.. I am amazed she is still in business.

[marniespeaks]

here's an opportunity for someone to develop software that fixes this HORRIBLE audio!

my first impressions of groupon was - who would be dumb enough to buy into this? Unless your mark up is outrageous this is basic math.

That said live & learn.

HOWEVER - as much of a loss/learning experience this was for her I am rather appalled that she hasn't taken the time to brush up on the morality of the situation she is promoting Facebook which is going to be the next big consumer IPO ripoff

[marniespeaks]

so if she or anyone else is shocked by the greed of humanity - for a coupon - it's time to check in with what you're promoting before you start to feel all warm and fuzzy about how you would never take advantage of someone like they took advantage of you.

the paradigm has to shift and it's not going to be accomplished under the current economic system of duck and cover.

[kromen10]

She fell for the hard sell,and has no one to blame but herself.

[olsond76]

This looks video looks much worse for Posie's Cafe then it does for Groupon. I love her simple minded business model but she can't really blame Groupon for her lack of infrastructure.

[vicosal1]

Good gosh what a simple woman. Right across the street from her was all the answers to all the questions she needed. TO DATE: she still hasnt had a conversation with someone who was successful running an ad.

[Madesobe]

This lady is oblivious. Groupon is marketing and marketing doesn't work all on it's own, you have to manage it effectively to ensure it works for your business. This lady put NO effort in making the experience work for her. Few inquiries, no advertising, and no tracking; it sure seems like she didn't do much.

Her lack of business acumen is embarrassing. ASSESS your business before investing in something like this. Did she ever talk to the ppl at the pizza shop?

p.s. Don't cover mouth next time.

[MrScamboogery]

This is one the reasons why so many businesses fail within the first five years. Don't assume, ask questions, negotiate, get some feedback from the pizza place across the street!

She seems like a really nice person but unfortunately just being a nice person doesn’t cut it in the small business world.

[longlivingdude]

WORST PLACE TO CONDUCT AN INTERVIEW!

[theliberalthug]

I feel for her, but sorry, she sounds like she was woefully under prepared - she didn't even have the Groupon list printed alphabetically? Come on, school boy errror surely?

[TheSeaMyst]

everyone cannot run a little coffee house we need labor and in a big way

'THREW GROUND ROADS'

[HalucinaDjinn]

I feel sorry for the employees who rely on such poor business owner for their livelihood. Here's a free piece of advice. Don't make any decisions that can affect your business without doing some research first. I mean if you can't be bothered to walk across the street and talk to your fellow small business owner you have problems. The title of this should be "Naive business owner makes poor business decision based on no research"

[DonRobichaud]

Talk about a missed marketing opportunity.....bad, bad, sound!!!

[RayKinStL]

Next time you interview somebody, either find a quieter location or mic up the interviewee, not the interviewer. It was so hard to hear most of the video.

[gelaserguy]

Its pathetic to post a video and have to defend the audio. The audio MORE THAN SUCKS. Nice, ahem, journalism.

[alsqr]

she's horny.

[khunopie]

Lets' all Poop On Groupon

[RaminHAL9001]

She lost $8000 with Groupon because she had to sell products at a loss and didn't have the right accounting technology to track Groupons.

Lesson learned: (1) Groupon is not for all businesses, (2) make sure you have computerized coupon tracking and extra staff, (3) if you can't affording losing 75% per item, don't do it, because they force you to give a 50% discount, then take 50% of your point-of-sale profits.

If Groupon is smart, they will learn from this fiasco, and numerous others like it.

[richtaur]

You're probably tired of reading about this, but your audio sucks. The content is interesting but the background noise makes it unwatchable. You can fix this with some audio engineering magic, please do so.

[knotryder]

Why on earth does she keep laughing?

[johnrussyt]

$39 buys the whole shop and this chick thinks customers are going to spend $5 over their $13 groupon? AND, can you believe some people didn't TIP their coffee schleps!? Well, I never.

[lawnmowingonline]

We were approached by UrbanDealight, a groupon clone.  They wanted us to run an ad for lawn mowing for $17.50, but by the time UrbanDealight took out their fees we would have only received $10 a lawn. We only charge $19 for lawn mowing and $17 goes to the contractor (~$1 goes to Paypal), so we would have lost $7 per coupon. UrbanDealight knew this and still continued to pressure us to run a coupon, kept saying the new customers would make up for the loss.

It's hard being a small business.

[soularo]

Posies Cafe is cool in my books! That was Fela 'Water No Get Enemy' playing in the background!!!

[brashmadcap]

I watched the whole thing. She never once said, "The Single Worst Decision I Have Ever Made As A Business Owner." This is bull.

[crazyfoool]

I don't get it. She says she doesn't remember a lot of things like her first day or weekend. She said it could have been attributed to the groupon or the library but library people wouldn't have a piece of paper from "libraryon". Groupon people would have the print out though.

I'm a huge critic of groupon so please don't think i'm picking on her. I agree that groupon should provide a way to scan or keep track of deals so that they aren't being used twice at small businesses like this.

[MrPunkthug]

Maybe her single worst decision was BEING a business owner.

1. So J.B. is a business person making a business decision based on word of mouth and yet she never utilizes the information of the pizza joint's experience across the street; she deserves to lose every penny she touches.

2. She vacantly ignores her "shady" intuitive assessment and still pursues the deal.

3. Did this guy perform an unscheduled interview? She offers no solid information, she is totally unprepared for this interview.

[ctfangirl]

I thought the point of this video was to tell us about how crappy Groupon can be. Not to give us the 'coffee shop' experience. As such, doing it when the shop was open and noisy, not putting a mic on the woman etc is just a total fail.

[emailadolfo]

Buy this "blogger" a mic oh and can you sit closer to a noisier machine next time? Good interview/information though.

[Whatthetrash]

Few things:

1. She needs a mic directly on her. (can't really hear her)

2. Who runs a business without a computerized inventory system? (she wants us to feel bad for her but all I'm thinking is, 'That's your fault.')

3. She needs to reinforce the rules. Hang a big sign that says 'Groupon Rules' that are non-negotiable. One groupon per person per day, etc. You can't let people take advantage of you.

[factofile]

the guy in the background tried his best to distract all us viewers here who were straining to hear what she was saying......he's good.

[venotar]

How about a transcript?

[jorgemt62]

From aluminum siding in the (19)50s to groupons in the (20)10s nothing has changed. Second hand cars, Windows Vista, time-shared condos, insurance or the Cloud, credit cards, what is important is to sell. That's where the money is. Doesn't matter if the client doesn't need or can't afford it or will break him in the long run. That's his problem; if he doesn't know what's best for him, it's not a problem of the seller. Nobody put a gun to their head. The seller was doing his job. Con-men.

[bostjanzoot]

What the **** is she saying? Get a mike from a garage sale next time. Couldn't you at least filter the audio in post-prod?

[marshallh80]

It's a shame that people took advantage of the Groupon deal and yes she was badly advised by Groupon, but lets be honest - they are sales people and we should be savvy enough to sniff a bad deal when it comes our way. I think this has been a valuable learning experience for her - and all small business owners who are considering running a Groupon offer - but I think she is whining about some quite basic oversights that could have easily been avoided. Groupon aren't entirely to blame here.

[xgamer]

buy a microphone !

[thatdecade]

Great interview, could add some speech bubbles to get around the audio issues

[bronxgodzilla]

Can barely hear her -- what a waste

[karmagoddesscarmen]

Thanks for sharing your interview! Much appreciated. And I think KeithDobie offers some helpful tech advice. .

[rao76]

The interviewer doesnt realise the mic is near him. You can hear the questions but not the answers.

[KimbleyComputer]

It would be good if you gave the person you are interviewing a MICROPHONE! Interviews nearly always turn out better that way.

[bjsbristoluk]

@KimbleyComputer Thats what I thought. I might have found the interview interesting but constantly straining to hear is too distracting, so I gave up after a couple of minutes.

It could also do with being A LOT shorter. Like 2 parts max.

[steveatrayve]

@KimbleyComputer that would help but it's not the microphone as much as it's the setting. interviews are usually done better in a quieter environment like maybe their back office.

[philly1537]

wonder how much you paid her for this?

[rakeshlobster]

@philly1537 I bought an Italian soda from the cafe for $2.25.

[KeithDobie]

This is probably not news to you, but your videos will improve a lot through the use of external microphones. This is terrific content —but frustrating to make out what she is saying. The picture is fine, but you need either a lavalier (lapel) mic on her, or an ext microphone that sits on a mic stand in front of her. You can also run two mics (one on you, one on subject) thru a audio mixer and a single cable into your camera — if it's a consumer camera. And monitor with headphones. Good luck!