Here is the original post about this. I bought a $100 gift card from a local business and planned to auction it off as a way to get the attention of a local business I want to work with. Ran the auction from 7PM Aug 22 to 7PM Aug 23. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19L7GiQsKX/ 14 bids from 9 different people... Aug 22 7:07p - $1 James 7:10p- $25 Lynne 7:16p - $30 Kim R 7:25p - $35 Dan 7:27p - $50 Lynne 7:40p - $55 Casey 8:05p - $60 Jess 8:05p - $60 Tracy 8:27p - $61 Mary 11:49P -$62 Casey Aug 23 10:20a - $65 Darra 11:15a - $75 Lynne 3:15p - $76 Casey 6:57p - $77 Lynne A change from my original plan is to take the winning amount and buy (in this case) a $77 gift card to another business....calling it "Auction It Forward". Sadly, there was no participation from the restaurant. Email and DMs have gone unanswered. If I happen to hear from them. I'll update. For this next auction, I will communicate with the business BEFORE I buy the gift card so I get participation.

I haven't seen this approach mentioned and would love some feedback, especially if you see a flaw I'm missing. If you sell to local businesses , web design, social media, SEO, etc. , one of the biggest challenges is simply getting the business owner's attention. They're buried with people trying to sell them the same things. I'm going to try a provide-value-first approach this week: 1. Buy a $100 gift card from a local business you'd like to work with. 2. Auction it on your business Facebook page or personal page, starting at $1, and tag the business so they can watch the auction happening. 3. Let's say it's a $100 gift card from a massage therapist. You get 29 bidders and the winning bid is $79. 4. The winner pays you $79 and gets the $100 gift card. Your cost to get the attention of that business owner was $21. ($100-$79) Let's say you now have 28 other people who have demonstrated that they're interested in buying what that business sells. So you approach the massage therapist: "29 people bid on the $100 gift card I auctioned. It sold for $79. Would you be willing to let the other bidders buy a $100 gift card from you for the same $79 winning price?" If she says yes, you send the losing bidders a link to purchase directly from the massage therapist for $79, with a deadline. The money goes directly to the massage therapist. You're out of the transaction. So instead of just cold calling the owner saying: "Can I help you get more customers?" You've spent $21, bought something from their business, created some social media attention for them, and potentially brought them several new customers before you've tried to sell them anything. Then you can ask: "Would you like me to do more of this?" That's the experiment I'm going to try. What am I missing? Where does this break? And how would you improve it? Thanks!