My first introduction to Groupon.com was through a Google search for things to do on a vacation trip near the in-laws. It looked like a great deal, and was a great deal, as a customer.

However, from a business perspective it can be scary.

First, starting a “Groupon” at the wrong time can damage business relationships with customers for a long time.

Second, the pre-sale of goods is often a good strategy, but when you net less than 25 percent of normal price… it could turn into a horror story, especially depending the typical markups for your industry.

I recently talked to an acquaintance of mine who is starting up as an importer about the margins on some items he wanted to sell on Groupon to prove his ability to move items and turn a little profit quickly. It turns out, he forgot to factor his shipping in and would have run at a loss.

However, that same friend ran an excellent campaign on Groupon.com for his Chinese restaurant and ended up pulling in a slightly higher profit per purchase per “Groupon customer” due to expanded purchasing. He claims his business base expanded due to the higher quality authentic cuisine.

Be sure to factor in your local market and get the advice of others before making the jump.

I recently picked up a little used copy of “Good to Great” from the local library for only 25 cents.

Boy, how could the library not realize what they were getting rid of. I am finding all sorts of information on what really makes a good company. When I read “Good to Great,” I simply find myself going, ‘Duh… how did I miss that?’ or ‘I didn’t realize this was such a big deal.’

As a book with over 2 million copies sold, “Good to Great” lives up to the title bestseller.

About a month ago I met a salesman trying to get better employment in marketing.  As we talked he introduced me to “Unemployed Marketers”, now branding themselves as “The Collaboratory.”

Soon the conversation came to blogging and Twitter, and he started complaining about how people kept claiming Twitter was a marketing tool.

He, however, didn’t understand Twitter and asked me how to use it for the direct sales of an independent auto dealership.

Now, I might have been wrong, but I basically told him ‘Twitter is more for creating a personal feeling which draws people to the business than it is for direct sales.  It works well for service companies, strengthening or changing branding, authors, bloggers, and other businesses who survive on interaction.’

However, I did share GM’s exemplary use of Twitter with him and suggested he look it up on Youtube.

I also recommend Copyblogger and Chris Brogan as good sources for more on Twitter.

I went to unemployedmarketers.com, where I expected to see this website dedicated to a marketing association. Instead, I found a blog, dedicated almost exclusively as a newsletter to group members, but not to marketing.

The problem with this setup is the lack of ability to build onto the group image. To me, Blogs add strength, credibility and a human touch to businesses/organizations, but they create a poor initial presence.

A presence is created simply by existing. Presence is a name, a logo, a trademark, the act of doing business, a clean uncluttered webpage. Presence is expanded as the company reaches out to others using advertising, word-of-mouth, and social media such as blogging, Facebook, and Twitter.

And as always, quality counts.