Jubon to Transition
By Co Founder: Bonnie Meier
On January 1, 2013 it will be four years since Jubon was born. Jubon was started to help small town businesses have a web presence, to try to encourage people to shop locally and to be a central point to access the web pages of local businesses. That was before Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Pinterest, were commonly used. Today, there is really no reason that businesses can’t have an online presence. Therefore, we feel that it is time that Jubon takes a different form. I, personally, use Jubon every day. I drive to Iowa State Bank to get on their web site to check my checkbook balances, I drive places to find telephone numbers (it is quicker than the telephone book), while we were on our world cruise, I checked Oolman Funeral Home frequently to see which friends we lost while we were gone. Therefore, Jubon is not going to go away, it will just change its way of operation. After October 1, 2012, no new businesses will be added to the map in any of the six communities on the Jubon map. All the businesses that pay their $10 per month through December will remain on the Jubon map indefinitely. Basically the map will remain as it is the last day of December this year. The big difference is that there will no longer be a charge to be on the map. The Jubon8 (little red car) will still travel the streets and open the billboards, however, no new billboards will be added and no one will have to pay to remain on the map. Jubon will remain as a business, partly because it is the “parent” company of Jubon Juweelen. Jubon Juweelen is a thriving little retail business that is almost 1 ½ years old in downtown Orange City. Since Jubon Juweelen is a dba of Jubon, Jubon will remain. The Jubon Journal will still be issued on the 24th of every month; however, it will feature products of Jubon Juweelen rather than members of Jubon in general.
Therefore, if any business would like to be on the Jubon map, they must let us know by the end of September. Even if you were on and went off, you are welcome to come on again as long as you let us know before September 30 and pay the $10 per month for October, November and December. After that there will be no charge to be on the map unless things change again, and you would have plenty of warning, if that happens.
We appreciate the participation of all those who have been and are still on our Jubon map. Jubon can still be beneficial to our communities and the directories can be helpful in finding locations and telephone numbers. We look forward to working with you as we transition into the free Jubon service, which will start on the 1st of January 2013. Thank you for the privilege of working with you. Please let us know if you have any questions. Everything will stay the same until the 1st of January. You can still add coupons, submit articles for the Jubon Journal or make changes in your billboard. We would welcome any feedback as to our future plans. You can write comments by going to Jubon’s homepage and linking to “contact” in the upper right hand corner. That will connect you to the comment section. If anyone would like to have a “permanent” coupon on after January 1, you are welcome to do that.
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