Every small business owner shares a common goal – to have a successful, profitable business. However, the biggest hurdle to meeting that goal is getting more customers through the door. You can have the greatest product or service in the world, however if word doesn't spread, the doors won't stay open for long.

Transition Squad, a Canadian leader in online estate auctions for seniors and a new member of the Oshawa Chamber of Commerce, has figured out an inexpensive, creative way for small and mid-size local retail businesses to attract new customers while supporting local causes at the same time.

"Advertising today costs at least 10 to 40 times as much as it did ten years ago to get the same ROI" claims Viraf Baliwalla, President of Transition Squad. "We are all bombarded by advertising at every turn so society has tuned out to advertising, making it that much harder to be noticed and find engaged buyers."

However, Transition Squad doesn't have that problem. A year ago, Transition Squad studied their analytics which demonstrated that their online auction buyers had tremendous engagement. Their members followed them from auction to auction, and in each auction they tended to go through every listing. Baliwalla believed that if Transition Squad promoted products and services of local merchants as the listings, these merchants would also get similar engagement which would lead to new customers.

As a result, they created Vote, Bid & Win, a solution to drive new customers to participating merchant locations while also supporting multiple charities in the community.

How It Works

• Transition Squad pre-selects five charities in a community
• Transition Squad solicits one prize worth at least $150 from several merchants and auctions them off using their online auction platform
• Users vote for their favourite charity from the list, bid on prizes and download additional coupons from the merchant
• The charity with the most votes wins 50% of the proceeds raised, 2nd place gets 20% and the rest get 10% each
• Since the charities are competing, they encourage all their stakeholders to visit the auction page, vote for them and bid on great prizes
• Merchants can also leverage the goodwill from their participation and encourage their patrons to participate through posters and leaflets at point of sale
• The highest bidder wins and picks up their prize at the merchant's location, thus providing opportunities of additional purchases, and repeat and referral business
• Those who downloaded coupons redeem them directly with the merchant.

The first auction for Durham is planned for November and will be free for merchants (except for the prize) with 100% of the proceeds being shared by Humane Society of Durham Region, Durham Region United Way, Girls Inc. of Durham, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of South-West Durham and Durham Children's Aid Foundation. Merchants interested in acquiring new customers, growing their business through Vote, Bid & Win and supporting these local charities can contact Viraf Baliwalla at (416) 401-5474 x303.