Montgomery Business Offers Free Services to Other Businesses

Move over Groupon, a new local daily deal site is hitting the suburbs.

Montgomery-based online Wepummel is the brainchild of Montgomery resident Jeff Donahue.

The goal behind the business, said Donahue, is to help people find coupons in categories of their choosing for local businesses and everyday things. “You’re going to spend money anyway, may as well save a few dollars and shop local,” he said.

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The site is growing; starting in the Oswego/Montgomery area it has already expanded into Naperville and Aurora, providing even more businesses the opportunity to advertise and offering even more deals to consumers.

The way it works, said Donahue, is local businesses sign up to create a coupon for their business. “The entire process is in their hands,” added Donahue. The business picks what they want the coupon to offer, how long it runs and anything else relevant.

Then, consumers can create a free account and check off categories of local businesses they might be interested in. Then, when a business uploads a new coupon in the mile radius the user selected, the user can print it off right there.

“There’s no obligation to purchase the coupon beforehand, no fee or download software needed,” said Donahue. “Just a free coupon.”

Currently, through the rest of the year, Wepummel is offering free spots to all local businesses, and will continue to be free for the duration of their time with the site.

“We’re not Groupon, we don’t have millions of members,” said Donahue. “So right now we want to focus on getting the word out.”

Businesses are not obligated to run coupons all the time, either. “They can run a deal for a little while, take a break, and come back when it’s a good time for them,” said Donahue.

Right now Donahue said the company “isn’t make a dime,” but when they do turn profitable, which he hopes will be sometime next year, Donahue said he plans on giving back to the community.

“We will be donating a percentage, around 20 percent, of our earnings back into the communities we’re doing business with. We want to be able to give back to those areas for supporting us.”

In the future Wepummel hopes to have a mobile app so people can use coupons right off their phone.

“We are extremely passionate about helping locally owned businesses,” said Donahue. “We will continue to strive for a free way for residents to reach out to businesses in their area."

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