Was This The Best of Years or the Worst? Or Maybe Somewhere in The Middle...

Well, 2008 is over and it does my heart good to say goodbye to the old and in with the new. It truly has been the most unique and frustrating I have ever witnessed (I wasn’t around for 1929.)

As for MediaNet and BSP Rewards, the year showcased many opportunities and several challenges.

Our stock started the year at around .17 and ended at about .04 with some people selling at the last minute for tax write-offs. The price reduction seems to reflect everything that has happened in the overall market (if indeed a stock of our size really reacts to market conditions.)

This was a year of growth, but maybe more so of development. Yes, we are going to end the year with an increase in revenue over last year (and that is good) – but the lessons we learned and the growing pains we experienced were worth their weight in gold.

The organic growth numbers from our existing rewards malls has been considerable. We have a pipeline full of programs that we hoped would launch during the last three months and are now scheduled to commence in the upcoming quarters. As the saying goes, “there is many a slip twixt the cup and the lip” but if nothing spills, everyone concerned with BSP will be happy campers.
On the plus side of the ledger, we accomplished some pretty impressive things in 2008 which could result in some exciting growth in ’09. We were able to use our upgraded platform as a vehicle to create new, innovative rewards programs with our clients, several of which will launch early next year. Going into the year we have a better perspective on the extended scope of our platform and some unique areas where our program may exhibit higher usage and more attraction.

We signed agreements with two new marketing partners that have already borne fruit and we look forward to launching large scale programs through them in the coming months. These new relationships, combined with our existing marketing partners and in-house marketing efforts offer exciting opportunities.

On the light side of things, we had another fun-filled holiday party. It was held at the office as usual (to keep the costs down of course.) Our entire staff of 13 (and some of their family members) attended along with a few members of our Board. James (our head techie) and Ema (our all around administrator), and Stefanie (Business Development Director) planned, coordinated and acted as MC for the silly party games (great fun) we play every year. It felt good to share the camaraderie and laughter with the greatest staff anyone could ask for.
So to answer my original question….it was all of the above, but because of the roll over programs coming up, 2009 is looking good!

I will keep you posted. Until next year….

The 3rd Quarter

How has the economy affected me and BSP?

On a personal level….Never mind, I don’t want to discuss it. I know the economy is a great big downer so I don’t open my statements to find out how just how much I am down. I have made a decision that the best policy is to wait a year and hope it recovers.

On the other hand, our BSP Rewards business is doing all right, and getting better.
We are in the right place at the right time during a bad time. What do I mean by that?

BSP is sort of in the retail business. We build private branded web malls for all types of companies, groups, debit card issuers and non-profits…and the retail industry is getting pounded – BUT the downturns are in the brick and mortar sector and not relative to internet e-commerce. In fact internet sales are increasing, which is a wonderful thing, as we have the “Largest Web Mall in the Galaxy”.

The year is proving to be quite interesting due to the changes is our merchant mix, new clients and enhanced profit margins. At the beginning of the year we dropped our largest merchant from the program. Although they created a great amount of transaction business for us (approximately $3 million), the margin was small and the cost associated with customization for them proved not to be economically beneficial to the company. We felt we could replace that transaction volume and do so at higher margins - and we did.

During Q3 we increase the number of merchants in our mall to 764 – a gain of 28. We increase the number of mall members from 555,104 to 572,651 and maintained our year to date transaction volume at increased gross margins – even without the big merchant.

For the third quarter ended September 30, 2008, gross revenues increased 64% to $573,203 compared to $350,565 for the third quarter ended September 30, 2007 and the first nine months of 2008 resulted in a gross revenue increase of 138% to $1,767,689 compared to $742,482 in the same period of 2007.

Comparing the 2007 and 2008 nine month, after adjusting for the dropped client, the figures are even more impressive.

We recently announced additional branded web malls that are coming on board (WXEL Public Radio and Television) and Information Strategies (a large newsletter publisher) and we hope to feel a little of the impact from them starting in December. We are getting close to finalizing some significant new web malls for some major companies…. Please hope, along with me, that we can sign them.

I will keep you posted. Until later…

Where Have I been?

It has been an exciting time in my personal and corporate lives (sometimes it is hard to tell them apart – just ask my wife).

I have been doing a great deal of travelling over the summer – from the mundane to the exotic. Chicago, New York and Lexington, KY on the business side and London, Spain, Casablanca, France and Italy of the working vacation side.

New York was New York. It’s a wonderful city to visit and provides a great potential for business (both past and future) with the extended value of housing Wall St. The expo I attended was more of a boutique trade show focusing on direct marketing and although always an interesting expo, it does not produce a great deal of business. The prime reason for the NY visit was to meet with existing contacts and to let the financial market have one more glance at me before I hibernate in our Florida offices for the winter.

Chicago was decidedly more interesting. It is much more hospitable and has the added benefits of Chicago Hot Dogs and Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. In other words, it is a delight to a my gourmand palate.

The trade show was the largest venue for the Motivation Industry and all of the companies listed on the gift card section of the BSP Rewards Malls were there. I am not sure that it was such a great show for the exhibitors but it was excellent for us. There were substantially fewer attendees this year and even booth spaces that were paid for in advance by some of the companies remained empty. The economy strikes again!

On the other hand, our vendors had more time that they could spend with me and were more motivated to work with us on special promotions and greater discounts. We were welcomed more warmly than last year – but that was probably because of increased purchase volume we are attaining with them – you think?

The European and Mediterranean vacation was sandwiched in-between the two trade shows and frankly, I loved it. I was celebrating my 50th (yep) anniversary and my wife decided that she deserved a major vacation. The only caveat was that I could take my world BlackBerry and be on the hotel and ship’s provided computers for one hour in the morning and one hour at night. I have got a great wife who understood I wouldn’t be able to relax and enjoy myself for that length of time if I wasn’t able to be in contact with the office and clients.

So, I am back and rejuvenated and working on some interesting “stuff” right now so look for some interesting news in my next blog.

Until later….

Licensing at its best

WOW! LIMA was a gigantic show.

I travelled to NY a few weeks ago to participate in the LIMA Show. To say the least, it was a unique experience.

To begin with I should tell you about the LIMA organization. It is comprised of over 1200 companies involved it the licensing of products or the use of their names. The members and exhibitors at the show ran the gamut from Disney, to Mattel, to Sony…actually the Who’s Who of Name Brands.

BSP Rewards has been appointed the official loyalty/rewards/incentive/promotional partner of LIMA – and we are extremely proud of that! Take a look at the web site www.bsprewards.com/lima. Needless to say, this opens up a world of possibilities for our BSP platform.

We stuck our toe in the water at the trade show to get a better feel of the industry and the potential and actually had a floor office to meet with potential clients. We presented with two of our outstanding strategic partners – The Ignition Network (a full service marketing and promotion organization) and Prepaid Solutions (the division of West Suburban Bank that issues debit/prepaid cards that promotional and BSP points can be loaded on to). Our trio of companies showcased a homogeneous platforms of promotional services that have never been offered before..really cool.

We did a little exploring of the show and visited many of the name brand booths. It was almost like visiting a theme park as the big company’s displays were both large scale and extensive.
I would like to give special thanks the LIMA staff for their assistance and enthusiasm. We are as excited to work with LIMA as they are with us.

As always, I try to accomplish as much as possible during my trips – especially when in New York. I travelled the day before the show to see some potential clients and spend a little time with Wall Street types. As it turned out, it was well worth the extra day – and not just for the 3 free meals.

But that may be the focus of my blog next time.

Until later….

Texas Payroll Card Show

… Discover Card Strategic Partnership

Well I returned from my Texas trip thrilled with our relationship with Discover but not having time to see much of Austin.

The flight was interesting and bumpy. I flew to Dallas for my Austin connection and as fate would have it, we ran into the largest band of lightening storms Texas has seen for some time. I arrived a hour late into Dallas but the Austin flight was delayed as well.. no harm – no foul.

The Payroll Card Show was held in the convention center which was only a 5 block walk for my hotel. The offsite meeting I had the on the second day was at the Four Seasons Hotel and that was only a block for where I was staying. I had to walk right by it on the way to the convention center.

All in all, I had a walking tour of about five square blocks which wasn’t enough to take in what was described to me as one of the great cities in the U.S. Although I didn’t see much of the city, I saw a great deal of the APA Payroll trade show – and that was wonderful.

It is amazing how the doors open when you can go around to all the booths that Discover Card has a relationship with and are introduced as their strategic partner. Discover Card sent an email and a PowerPoint presentation a week before the show to all of the companies that had booths.
It outlined how the BSP program was an excellent payroll card “value added feature” which was “merchant funded” by our 750 participating retailers. Needless to say, it opened a lot of doors for us and we already did five demonstration follow ups in this first week after the show.

By the way, one of our clients, Global Cash Card, had a booth at the show. We had a chance to spend some time together and draw up the marketing steps for payroll card programs they already had us layered on to – Ruth’s Chris and StaffMark.

We came up with some exciting promotions that they will be utilizing on additional programs they are launching. By the way, Global Cash Card is a phenomenal company to do business with. Exciting stuff!

I will be updating you on our further inroads into the payroll card market. With Strategic Partners like Global Cash and Discover, it should prove to be a very interesting ride.

Until later….

Busy Times

Canada, Trade Shows and Travel

It has been another interesting month which started with the Card and Payment prepaid debit card trade show. We jointly presented with our strategic marketing partner – Meridian Enterprises and their MeridiCard. The show was targeted to the banking and debit card issuers and our BSP “merchant funded” rewards platform got a lot of play.

We are in the conversation and proposal stage with various card issuers and have already announced our relationship with One World United to build them a private branded mall and to add the BSP platform to their Debit Cards.

What makes this so unique is that most of their cards are being issued in Canada and it opens the door for BSP to a large Canadian market. We already have nearly 200 merchants in our mall that service this market which gives us a giant head start on the program. We had plans to expand and serve our Canadian neighbors this year, and the One World Card relationship is our first step toward a larger and growing presence. Hail Maple Leaf!

We are now looking at the network marketing industry and some of their payroll cards that serve Canada as the next step in our expansion. We have already private branded malls for 5 such companies and initiated and launched a category on all of our malls that feature the Canadian merchants. We are now busy on developing a platform totally tailored to that market.

This past week was a busy one for us. Between a Board of Directors meeting and a guest speaking engagement and introducing our newly designed mall look, there was a great deal to prepare for.

One of our clients, Anserteam, is a professional group consisting of over 70 professional Staffing agencies across the country. We have already launched their association web mall and are now developing a program whereby their participating companies can feature their own private branded malls. The platform will be utilized as a value added bonus for their staffing employees as well as an incentive and referral rewards system.

Well it is now time for me to hit the road again…New York and the following week in Austin Texas…pretty diverse audiences.

I will give you updates later - pardner.

I’m Back..again

… Not that you missed me.
It has been an interesting month with trips to NY and Las Vegas while the team at the office was busily working away on new client malls.

We launched a new BSP Rewards Mall for Challenger Sports and a unique rewards and loyalty program for a large national beer company.

I mentioned the trips first so I ought to tell you what they were about. NY served a dual purpose (1) Wall Street meetings and (2) new client prospects.

The Wall Street meetings were easier than in the past because we have a much better story and growing company to talk about. Tom Hill, our brilliant Director of Operations and Board Member was on the trip and handled about 2/3 of the speaking…and he does a much better job of it than I do. He did so well that I invited him to speak at an Investor Seminar later that week in Ft. Lauderdale.

The Las Vegas trip placed me in front of a totally different audience. I attended the Prepaid Card Conference and met with clients (Global Cash Card, Prepaid Solutions, The Ignition Network and EDebit Pay) as well as some excellent new prospects.

It was both a great education for me and an outstanding venue to meet and greet. Because our BSP platform layers seamlessly on top of debit and credit cards as a value added benefit, the show proved a perfect opportunity to expand our relationships.

By the way, I don’t drink much (one glass of wine), don’t gamble at all and I returned to my room by 9pm each night. Yep, Vegas doesn’t like visitors like me.

Back to our new clients. Challenger Sports is an interesting opportunity as it opens the door to millions of potential members. Challenger holds youth soccer camps for over 100,000 kids every summer and also work with soccer clubs across the country that embrace over 5 million members. Our role is to bring a money saving mall to the members and a fund raising program to the clubs.

Their members shop in our mall of over 700 national merchants and the clubs receive continuous passive revenue from every member transaction. Great for the member (receives cash value rebates), the Soccer Clubs (receives a % as donations) and BSP Rewards (you can easily guess why).

That brings me to the large national brewery…….let’s save that for next time .

I’m Back

Please excuse my absence for the past 2 weeks, but I have a reason (an excuse actually). I had company…we had company..and also we were working on some new big clients; which I am happy to report – have joined the program.

First, about my personal visitors. Every year, during the winter season, our good friends come down for Chicago to spend 9 or 10 days. Needless to say, they like the Florida weather and have the added benefit of getting even with us for visiting them for 9 -10 days during the summer. Balancing the time between them and work posed its problems, but it all got done. (With the help of the great BSP Rewards staff).

My business visitors, if not fun, were a pleasure in a different manner. We had both the Board of Directors come in for a meeting plus our auditors for their annual “search and report” audit.
The Board meeting was actually wonderful and beneficial. We reviewed our progress for 2007 and outlined our expansion plans for 2008. It was an extreme pleasure to see grown men get so excited!

The auditors were pleasant and nicely efficient. They did the job of week long delving, questioning and peeking found that all was in order.

Then came the best part of the two weeks … the new clients and their large member enrollments. The one I will mention this week is EDebit pay – a very large debit card issuer who auto-enrolled their entire data base and is enrolling all new card holders as they receive their cards.

The fact that such a large company chose the BSP Rewards platform as a value added benefit for their cards (after reviewing our competition) is both praise and validation of our outstanding program. This not only provides an abundant amount of new members that can shop with our merchant in our web mall but also advances our plans to have a multitude of cards that will work seamlessly when we expand into the brick and mortar channels.
All in all, it was a enjoyable and productive two weeks.

Now it is back to full time for me and that could result in some new large scale clients..but that would be telling.

….Talk to you soon.

Charging My Batteries

The holiday season proved to be wonderful and intense for BSP. We set new records daily and had to spend many extra hours coordinating the process.

My personal workweek included about 70 hours in the office and working from home. That is not a complaint as I love what I do and the people I do it with – and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Annually I pick a week to recharge my batteries and the 5 days is coming up starting January 21st. I entertain visiting guests and work part-time (down to about 45 hours that week). I come in every day but normally cut out around 1PM to spend some time with the visiting dignitaries. But fear not, if anyone needs to get in touch with me they can easily do so as my Blackberry rarely leaves my hand.

I am going to need that little respite because, as I noted last week, BSP Rewards is about to go through a large and rapid growth cycle. The first quarter of ’08 will be filled with new branded site launches and what looks like, monumental membership growth….and really long work hours in order the handle it.

On the other hand, the staff will probably be happy to get rid of me for a while -except on that Friday. Every Friday I take the group out to lunch and they undoubtedly won’t be too thrilled if I miss it. (I may have to extend my work hours until 1:30 that day).

In the mean time I have a full week to work with the team on some really neat new things, so look for a couple of announcements soon.

….Talk to you soon.

New Year’s Resolution

Well, 2007 is past and it is time to seriously contemplate what I would like to improve on in 2008. We came so far in 2007, with record breaking transaction volume and building our web mall to become the largest on the internet- and of course, we want to grow even bigger and more rapidly. It is time to capitalize on our momentum …so here goes.

First, my resolutions on a personal level;
1. Lose some weight (I won’t tell you how much). Well that’s enough about me personally!
Business wise the list of resolutions could be a lot more numerous, but I will limit them to the following.

1. Design a group of unique features for the BSP Rewards web malls.
2. Develop a new optional interface to enhance the member’s shopping experience.
3. Create a reminder program when a member shops outside the platform.
4. Develop a gift and event reminder program.
5. Expand the Mall with additional “great” merchants.
6. Build branded malls for larger national product and service clients.
7. Create marketing materials to increase frequency of member shopping.
8. Enter new channels.
9. Form mutually beneficial partnerships.
10. Hold a few surprises for later.
11. ….and of course increase sales volume and revenues tremendously.

All if all it is an ambitious list… but we have an outstanding team that can get it done.
Watch for some exciting announcements in the first quarter.
Look out rewards world – here we come!