IMPACT Award Finalist: Couponsense.com

Clip Artist

Small Savings Add Up to Big Business

Big ideas often have humble beginnings. Couponsense.com is no different.

“I just liked finding a deal,” admits Laurie Meyers. The Chandler wife and mother drew inspiration from a co-worker who meticulously clipped and catalogued coupons. Downsized from her job in 1998, Meyers took on a paper route that meant very early mornings, but also early access to the weekly store circular ads. She’d pore over them, sharing info with neighbors who encouraged her to make the hobby her business.

“Just thinking about gathering and processing all that information every week was exhausting,” Meyers remembers. But she did it, snail-mailing weekly reports to a small base of savings-hopeful subscribers. As the cost of postage went up but the cost of technology came down, Meyers emailed the reports.

Thirteen years later, Couponsense.com's eight employees and an army of data entry contractors – many of them stay-at-home moms - track thousands of coupons online and match them with local grocery and drug store ads. For a monthly fee, more than 9,000 members use the company's robust website to create a customized list of bargains that can save them 50 to 80 percent on groceries.

Thanks to word of mouth and some television exposure, Couponsense.com has seen 56 percent growth in just the last three years and has expanded from Arizona to Florida and states in-between. And Laurie Meyers has turned a “hobby out of control” into a company that generates more than $1 million annually while helping others realize their dreams.

“This empowers women,” Meyers says. “It impacts their self-esteem, improves their lives and lets them know they’re important and valued.

“I saw the potential of this information, but I didn’t envision that it would be this big,” she reflects. “We’re getting noticed now, so, wow, we’re doing something right.”

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Coupon $ense, Inc.
www.couponsense.com

The 2011 IMPACT Awards will be presented at a luncheon on Thursday, May 19 at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa. Will you be there? Click here to reserve your seat for the event.