approaching local companies for sponsorship?

I'm in the works on a hopefully successful website. The website is for people in my area to find things to do, bars or restaurants to go to and other various points of interest. It is somewhat being built as a directory/review website, but it's much more localized. I need help paying for some of the things being done to the website and I was wondering if local companies (mind you local, not a McDonalds or Target store) would be willing to pay a small fee each month to be considered "sponsors". How would I go about asking these companies and what could I potentially offer THEM in return. I'm honestly not very good at communicating, so asking is somewhat difficult for me.

I thought I could offer my users coupons to their store that only users through my website and facebook app would get. Those coupons could bring in new customers to their store. I would also have their store/business/restaurant be in a "featured" area. What else could I do to help them if they help me?


edit: one thing I will do is provide a page on the website which will tell the potential sponsors what the site is about, how it can help them and ect. If you know of any pages similiar to what I'm describing, please link me to it. I don't want to sound greedy, so I really want to see what others are doing similar to what I will be doing.

 

In return,you can make some landing page for the store that sponsor you.
At the landing page,you can list down what the store sell,their price etc.

 

Check how Groupon works I hope it will help you.

As for the stores convince them to provide you with promo coupons and in reward they will get a lot of new visitors.