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The startup Womply recently brought us Groupon-like "effortless offers." Today it launches Loyalty Cloud, hoping to slice through the messy customer-loyalty market with the "simplest loyalty program ever for local merchants." Last month a new startup, Womply , launched to bring "effortless offers" schemes to local merchants--coming with an impressive pedigree because it's co-founder Brandt Squires was formerly GM and Head of Sales at LivingSocial . Just weeks later, Womply has an additional offering--Loyalty Cloud--that promises the same sort of effortless experience but for customer loyalty schemes, rather than Groupon -style "special offers." According to the new sitei, it's simplicity rests on the fact that, "Merchants create offers that reward customers for repeat visits and Womply handles everything else, from marketing and remitting offers to customers, to providing analysis and insight on the amount of revenue generated as a result." To this end, Womply's new Loyalty Cloud is trying to be a complete one-stop shop for local business loyalty schemes: Simpler even than stamping a rubber stamp on a collector card, and providing deep customer analytics that would be tricky to get any other way. It manages this by being seamless from a customer and merchant point of view, with the transaction happening "in the cloud" via "Womply's high-tech platform that enables the company to spot credit and debit card transactions at participating merchants and to push cash credits to customer payment cards." The whole thing is designed to be merchant-centric, rather than focussing on the deals or the end-user customers.

Lisa Price, CEO of Carol's Daughter, talks frankly about how she transitioned from mixing beauty products in her kitchen to helming a team of experts who do it for her. View the video on Inc.com at: http://www.inc.com/video/201112/carols-daughter-ceo-founder-lisa-price-lets-go-of-the-reins.html Advertisement: Strengthen Customer Relationships

Three questions you should ask to define the purpose of your company, and why. In my research into the origins of organizational purpose one thing impressed me about those leaders in the social service sector.

Somewhere along the line you started treating it more like a resume. It's time to fix that. Overall, LinkedIn is the best social media platform for entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals.

One business owner's strategy for embracing her role as the boss. This is a guest blog post from Vanessa Merit Nornberg, President of Metal Mafia , and a member of the Inc

As tech-sector regulations pile on for start-ups, here's how to keep innovating while weathering the legal storm. Is your company a scofflaw? Are you sure

If you can't describe your own products without resorting to marketingspeak, you're losing sales. Here are 3 mistakes to avoid. Most product descriptions suck, especially when they’re written by marketing people who have never sold anything.

Congress is beginning to view entrepreneurship by 20-somethings as a low-cost fix for all that ails the economy. A little realism, please?

Face it: There are days when being an entrepreneur sucks. Here are a few simple steps to getting your mojo back. No matter what you do for a living , the key to success is superlative performance, day after day after day.

Everyone at my company understands that the next sale begins when the customer says yes, and making that sale is part of their job.

It may surprise you just how much each lost customer is costing your business. Are you investing heavily to acquire new customers, while losing customers at an even faster rate

Want to know which of your employees are doing a bang-up job, and which are falling down on it? Take a few calls from irate customers.

The social networking software company--a perennial on the Inc. 5000--is seeking to raise as much as $117 million.

Too much inventory and not enough demand can cripple a business of any size. Let this be your warning. When AMR , the parent of American Airlines, declared bankruptcy earlier this week, few should have been surprised

Professional basketball is run by smart businesspeople. So why do they think they're exempt from the law of supply and demand? The NBA lockout came about because the league won’t admit that it has the same problem as football, hockey and baseball: Too many teams for the customer base to support