US Markerboard Featured on American Express Open Forum
Source: www.openforum.com
Wednesday, June 1, 2011

US Markerboard and President & CEO Scott Newman are featured on American Express Open Forum. The forum is a gathering place for business owners, leaders, and entrepreneurs to connect and collaborate on ideas. The American Express Open Forum posts exclusive articles on all aspects of business and US Markerboard is highlighted in an article named “27 Real-Life Small Business Mistakes And What They Learned.”

The article focuses on common business mistakes people may make and how they succeed after the mistake. In the article Newman spoke about previously relying on one manufacturer for a product and when that manufacturer was unable to meet the needs of US Markerboard. The company was left scrambling to find another manufacturer to fill customer orders and demands. Newman was able to work with other manufacturers to resolve the situation but stated “What I found was that having good working relationships is crucial to growing a business. There must be trust and communication to make it work. But, for better or worse the business relationship can change at any moment and for any reason and you need to be prepared and you need to have a Plan B.”.

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Aptimize: US Markerboard Case Study
Source: www.aptimize.com
Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Founded by CEO Scott Newman over ten years ago, the company has experienced sustained, rapid growth over the past decade. Today the company offers the largest selection of whiteboards and communication boards in the business, and has expanded into other facility furnishings such as floor and entrance mats.

US Markerboard’s growth has been driven by their early adoption of web-based sales, even with highly customizable products. They disrupted the whiteboard and chalkboard business at their inception when the vast majority of the market was limited to local vendors with extremely narrow product selections. USMarkerboard.com gave customers a place to explore a much larger selection of the most innovative and reliable products in the business, and they could order any of those unique or custom products with the click of a mouse.

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Inspiration At Work: Scott Newman, U.S. Markerboard’s President and CEO, Committed to Give Back
Source: Atlanta Business RadioX: Inspiration At Work
Monday, February 7, 2011

U.S. Markerboard is one of the world’s most successful virtual office products companies but Scott Newman, President and CEO, has more in mind for success than just the bottom line. In his appearance on Inspiration at Work, Scott talks about his company’s commitment to giving back to the community and how this giving spirit is simply a part of the U.S. Markerboard culture.

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America Gets Organized: The Clutter-Busting Products
As seen in REAL SIMPLE Magazine - Web Exclusives
By: Kate Parker, October 2007

Excerpt from 'The Visual' Newsletter - October 2007
US Markerboard was sought after by Real Simple Magazine because they found the exact product they needed for their feature story, 'America Gets Organized: The Clutter-Buster Products'! We can all identify with the subject of 'clutter', right? Whether it's at the office, your classroom or at home, things just always seem to pile up. Take action this season and do something about it so 'clutter' becomes a thing of the past. Read the
web exclusive and visit our website for details on the product they selected.

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Making its mark: US Markerboard
Source: Boston Business Journal, Pages 32-33
By Sean McFadden, Friday, April 6, 2007

This is a direct excerpt from the Boston Business Journal.

HOLBROOK -- Scott Newman has learned to manage fast-paced growth in a business that has evolved from window blinds to whiteboards.

Newman's company, US Markerboard -- incorporated in 2000 as Brite Visual Products Inc. -- has made a big impression in the marketplace as an online distributor of school and office fixtures and furnishings, which it has grown from its niche in whiteboards.

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Connecting with Amazon: Making their mark on the Internet
Source: The Patriot Ledger, Page 27
By Julie Jette, Thursday, February 10, 2005

This is a direct excerpt from The Patriot Ledger.

QUINCY - Tucked away in one of a half-dozen brick buildings on Quincy's gritty Water Street, US Markerboard doesn't exactly announce its presence to the world.

It doesn't even have a sign visible from the street.

But the 9-year-old office fixtures retailer is about to become more visible on the Internet thanks to a new agreement to sell its products on Amazon.com, one of the largest online merchants.

Like the much larger Amazon, US Markerboard is one of the few purely online retailers to survive the bust of the Internet bubble. It represents 26 office products manufacturers and has about 500,000 visitors a month to its web site, usmarkerboard.com.

'When it was impossible for a dot-com company to make a profit, we were making a profit from Day One,' said Scott Newman, 38, who owns the business with his father, Bob Newman, 64.

US Markerboard's product list includes about 6,000 items for sale including whiteboards, blackboards, office and school furniture and other products. Manufacturers ship products directly to US Markerboard's clients, about 39 percent of whom order custom-made products.

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick uses a whiteboard in his office that was ordered through US Markerboard, and Saturday Night Live once ordered 25 red folding chairs through the site.

The Newmans say their presence on Amazon.com should help propel the company's sales growth rate to about 35 percent this year, up from 22 percent last year. Bob Newman said revenues at the 14-employee company in 2004 were in the 'mid-seven digits.'

'It's going to give me an opportunity to move product to customers I might not have had otherwise,' Scott Newman said. 'It's also going to add name recognition for us.'

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Advertisers Bid, You Click, They Pay
Source: The Washington Post, Page E01
By David A. Vise, May 13, 2004


This is a direct excerpt from The Washington Post.

Google's business model reflects that twofold desire. In many ways, the search engine has come to resemble a free-circulation newspaper that makes its profit by selling ads. In Google's case, the company gives away the search engine for free to Internet users seeking information on the Internet, and then, like the newspaper, makes its money on clearly marked ads.

One difference is that in a free-circulation newspaper, top dollar can buy prime positioning for ads. But on Google, just being the highest bidder doesn't guarantee that an ad will appear in the top-tier position.

The ranking of ads on Google is the product of two factors: the price a company is willing to bid on keywords and the frequency with which consumers click on the ad. Even if a company bids higher on certain words than any other firm bids, if consumers are not clicking, that ad will move down to a less prominent spot.

Google said it takes this approach so that computer users see the most relevant ads first. Industry experts say the practice also makes good business sense since Google gets paid only when consumers click on an ad.

'They don't want dead ads at the top of their Web site,' said Scott T. Newman, president of US Markerboard, who spends a few hours each day tweaking his ads and bids and said he has built a profitable, growing business entirely through search. 'They give you a little bit of a break if you get a good click-through rate.'

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