Deluxe Corp Selects High-Potential Small Business Owners for Year-Long Marketing Lab

ST. PAUL, Minn., June 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Deluxe Corporation (NYSE: DLX) today announced the entrepreneurs selected to participate in Project REV, a year-long marketing lab designed to help small business owners find the marketing tools and resources they need to drive business success. Project REV was inspired by a quantitative research study that shows almost 80 percent of small business owners are frustrated with marketing because too often they don't see results.

Deluxe partnered with SCORE (SCORE.org) to select nine small businesses representing a range of industries, locations, business maturity and size to participate in Project REV. The participants are:

• Trevor Byrne, AUM Framing & Gallery, the oldest custom-framing store in Denver, recently under new ownership.
• Felicia Frazier, Staging by DWELL (stagingbydwell.com), a residential and commercial real estate staging and redesign company in Columbus, Ohio.
• Mary Helton, Fenton Family Eyecare (fentonfamilyeyecare.com), an optometry office and dispensary in suburban St. Louis.
• Tasha Oldham, My Story, Inc. (mystoryinc.com), a video production firm based in Los Angeles.
• Diane Presser, Comfort Coach Transport, Inc. (comfortcoachtransport.com), a medical transportation service in the San Diego area.
• Charles Raines, Florida Fresh Stonecrab, a wholesale and retail seafood distributor in Tampa.
• Amy Sandoz, Ready Set Go Kits (readysetgokits.com), an online retailer of emergency preparedness kits and supplies in suburban Portland, Ore.
• Scot Waggoner, W.B. Builders (wbbuilders.com), a residential remodeling contractor in suburban Minneapolis.
• Yamile Jackson, Zakeez, Inc. (zakeez.com), a company headquartered outside Houston, that specializes in the research and development of products and services that help parents and babies bond during extended hospital stays and beyond.  

Over the next 12 months, Project REV participants will be paired with marketing advisors from Deluxe and business counselors from SCORE. With their help, the participants will create and implement customized marketing plans. REV participants will each receive up to $5,000 in marketing products and services from Deluxe to help execute those plans.  

Participants will collaborate and share their results with each other and with other small businesses to help demystify the challenges associated with small business marketing.

"Through Project REV, our goal is to take the 'miss' out of hit or miss marketing for the small business owner," said Laura Radewald, Vice President of Enterprise Brand for Deluxe. "We know small business owners want to be able to do their own marketing and be confident it will work. Project REV is a chance for us to experience first-hand the struggles small business owners face with marketing and to share what we learn to help other small businesses succeed."

Project REV participants will document their year-long marketing journey with brief videos and blog posts at www.projectrev.com and will network with other small business owners throughout the year on PartnerUp.com, the Deluxe-owned social network for small business owners.

"We hope small businesses everywhere will follow our participants' journeys, learn from their experiences and ultimately fuel their own business growth," Radewald said. "The knowledge-sharing opportunities inherent in Project REV are exponential. Ultimately, insights from this project will enable Deluxe to develop more relevant and useful marketing solutions for our 4 million small business customers."

About Deluxe Corporation

Deluxe Corporation is a growth engine for small businesses and financial institutions. Through its industry-leading businesses and brands, the Company helps small businesses and financial institutions attract and retain customers. The Company employs a multi-channel strategy to provide a suite of lifecycle driven solutions to its customers. In addition to its personalized printed products, the Company offers a growing suite of business services, including logo design, payroll, web design and hosting, business networking and other web-based services to help small business grow. In the financial services industry, Deluxe sells check programs and fraud prevention, customer loyalty and retention programs to help banks build lasting relationships and grow core deposits. The Company also sells personalized checks, accessories, and other services directly to consumers. For more information about Deluxe, visit http://www.deluxe.com.

About SCORE

Since 1964, SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" has helped more than 8.5 million aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners through counseling and business workshops. More than 12,400 volunteer business counselors in 364 chapters serve their communities through entrepreneur education dedicated to the formation, growth and success of small businesses. For more information about starting or operating a small business, call 1-800-634-0245 for the SCORE chapter nearest you. Visit SCORE on the web at www.score.org and www.score.org/women.

SOURCE Deluxe Corporation