ActiveRain/KeepSum Contest: Cut Your Business Expenses by 60%

At ActiveRain, we're small business owners too. So are the folks at KeepSum!

We know first hand that being an "independent contractor" or running your own real estate brokerage or any small business for that matter is not easy. Yes, many believe that being a real estate agent is easy and glamorous: you make your own hours, you collect what appear to be huge commission checks, and you drive fancy cars. However, what the public doesn't see is what really goes on behind the curtains.

• You have to split commission checks with everyone - even your kids.
• Post cards, websites, signs, and other marketing services and materials are not free. And have you seen the price of stamps lately?
• You have a staff or team that count on you to close X number of deals every month.
• Your car is only 6 months old and it already has 18k miles on it. Gas costs the same even if it's a hybrid!
• After you spend countless months trying to keep a deal together...you tallied your hourly-pay just above minimum wage.
• There's subscription to this, that and the other thing, networking events, conventions, open houses...everything cost money!
• And what about your dues... you got office dues/rent, board of REALTOR® dues, Sentry Card dues. A fee here, a fee there, a fee everywhere.
• And it's only Wednesday. It literally never ends.

By the way, next month we get to do it all over again. Wouldn't it be nice if you could KeepSum (pun intended) of that money you worked 16 hours a days for?

is a group-buying service for business owners in the real estate industry. They offer up to 60% savings on the products and services you already use (or do not use but should) to run your small business, except at a much lower group rate. Deals range on everything from:

• Accounting Tools
• Training and Education
• Printing and Marketing Services
• Social Media Tools
• Tech Tools
• Website Development
• And anything else you think you may need

We are very excited at ActiveRain to introduce you to KeepSum. Now the group buying power of the real estate industry can help you get deals on lots of great products and services. KeepSum will be launching at the end of August with weekly deals for the real estate industry and we wanted to have a contest to tell them what you'd like to see by way of deals in your inbox.

You can sign up between now and August 26th at Midnight Eastern Time to be eligible to win one of the $20 credits for being the 20th, 40th, 140th (or any multiple of 20) person to sign up. Comments left before that same date and time will be thrown into a hat (alright, we might use a more technological solution to get random winners) for the four prizes offered at random. Any Tweets sent to @KeepSum prior to that date and time will be eligible to win the prize.

Will be officially launching on August 30th and we will announce the winners here on the ActiveRain blog on that date as well as tell you about the first KeepSum deal specifically for the real estate industry.