Inaugural Deal on bizy™, New B2B Deal Site Just for Small Business, Features Ford Small-Business Cargo Van

CHICAGO, March 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Launching today, bizy™, one of the first business-to-business deal sites in the U.S., will feature as its inaugural deal Ford's Transit Connect, one of the hottest selling, most fuel-efficient small business cargo vans in the marketplace today.

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bizy is seeding two 2011 XLT Transit Connects as part of this launch deal, said co-founder Gary Slack, whose b2b marketing agency, Slack and Company, is incubating bizy and several years ago helped launch eBay Business, eBay's small-business portal.

"Two enterprising and quick-acting small business owners are going to get a Transit Connect for $11,700 a piece, a 50% discount off the list price of $23,400," said Slack, adding that bizy is using its marketing dollars to subsidize several head-turning early deals instead of investing heavily in more traditional advertising channels.

While bizy has programmed this initial deal to have a deal period of two full weeks, a step that takes into account longer consideration periods for bizy users than, say, for Groupon users, Slack expects the two vans to sell very quickly, due to the unusual deal.

"With gas prices rising, Ford's Transit Connect is a perfect solution for small business owners whose firms rely on delivery vehicles," Slack said. "Ford says the Transit Connect gets 21 and 26 miles per gallon in the city and on the highway, respectively, and will operate for about 400 miles without a refill of its 15.4-gallon tank."

Ford brought this European-designed van to the U.S. several years ago, Slack said, and Edmunds.com has said the Transit Connect "offers business owners an attractive alternative to larger, thirstier and more expensive cargo vans." It has a 135-cubic-foot cargo area, and it fits items up to six feet long, four feet wide and almost five feet tall.

More information on this inaugural bizy deal can be found at http://www.bizydeal.com

Slack said bizy will use social media channels and word-of-mouth marketing tools, along with traditional PR and highly targeted online advertising, to spread the word about this initial deal, later deals and bizy itself to small business owners across the U.S.

Upcoming and future seller-sponsored bizy deals will include 50% discount offers for a wide array of small-business-oriented products and services, including the following:

• Trade show display devices
• Online payroll management
• Janitorial services and products
• Office furniture and fixtures
• Hotel room stays and facilities (for company events)
• Restaurant rooms (for company events)
• Premium logoed items
• Event management software
• Message services
• Virtual assistant support
• Ink cartridges
• Interior design services

bizy's founding was announced March 10, 2011, and has been reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, Business News Daily, Crain's Chicago Business, Daily Deal Media, Marketing News, BizJournals.com, NFIB SmartBrief and a number of other small-business publications, websites and blogs and via Twitter.

bizy's management team includes Slack, chairman and founder of Slack and Company and national chairman of the Business Marketing Association; Lou Friedman, a longtime direct marketer and former EVP of marketing with optionsXpress; and Drew Clausen, former senior manager, sales and channel marketing, at USG Corporation.

Other key bizy partners include Rieva Lesonsky, CEO of GrowBizMedia, former editor of Entrepreneur magazine and a well-known advisor to small business.

About bizy™

bizy, found online at www.bizydeal.com, is one of the nation's first business-to-business deal platform sites and one of the very few dedicated exclusively to small business. bizy enables sellers of products and services craved by small business owners to be introduced to ever-growing volumes of aggregated small-business buyers. While buyer-aggregator sites like Groupon have enabled small businesses to build their local customer base, bizy will enable small businesses to enjoy savings on equipment and supplies they need to run their businesses. For many small businesses, what they save is what they earn.

Contact: Gene Cyranski
312-970-5885 (office)
312-952-0181 (mobile)
[email protected]
http://www.bizydeal.com

SOURCE bizy