Tips on getting listed in the app

It's not mispelled,  It looks like Old English to me.
Please remember Cuddles is doing his best.

When I first started planning the development of The Original Shop Local Delmarva app, I was faced with an initial, but crucial, decision.  How should I get locally owned and operated businesses listed?  Now that sounds like a very straightforward question, but the answer carries serious implications about what sort of website or company you are dealing with.

Let's take Yelp as an example.  Like most online business directories, Yelp scrapes the Internet for businesses, lists them, and then provides a link for the business to "claim" their listing.  Until the business finds out that they are listed on Yelp, they rack up reviews unbeknownst to the owners.  Any negative reviews go unanswered, which could cost the business new customers.  

If you search "Locally owned and operated businesses in [your town], [your state]", you might end up on the site www.chamberofcommerce.com.  It might look official to you, but it is not.  They, too, scrape the Internet for business listings without the owner's permission.  You are expected to know your listing is over there getting reviews, some of which might be negative.  Users might believe they are on an official Chamber of Commerce website, but they are not.

And then you have legitimate Chamber of Commerce websites that list local businesses, but their listings include every business that pays their dues to the Chamber.  Users have no clue which businesses are truly locally owned and operated as opposed to any business (franchise or nationally owned) with a physical presence in the town the Chamber is located.  My Chamber of Commerce, for example, listed a business headquartered in Texas.  I'm willing to bet a sizable portion of residents think of it as a locally owned and operated business, but it is not.

My developers gave me the option of scraping the Internet to load the SLD directory.  I rejected their suggestion.  My philosophy was, and still is, based on a simple idea.  Your business listing is yours and you should have complete control over where, when, and how it should be used.  

I didn't develop The Original Shop Local Delmarva to make money other than what is needed to run the app.  I set out to level the playing field for the Mom and Pops so that they can effectively compete against the franchises and national corporations.  (There is a caveat in what I just said about franchises, but I'll cover that in a future article.  If you are a franchise owner, please feel free to contact me.)  

I reckon with what I just said above, either I have much longer range of views for SLD (I do) or I'm getting tired of typing (I am).  But you, the business owner, and you, the user, share the SLD driver's seat.  I'm just the navigator.  Bots roaming the Internet best stay in the marked crosswalks.

With that said, please allow me to address some of the sign-up concerns I have heard and the workarounds you can use to get listed without feeling like you might be compromising your privacy concerns or feeling overwhelmed by the technical requirements.

• What's with this W9 requirement?
  
  The W9 helps me confirm that your business is both real and locally operated.  In reality, the W9 only lists your company (verifying you're not sixteen-year-old Sally selling hair ribbons out of her bedroom) and business address (your headquarters aren't outside of Delmarva).  In other words, your W9 doesn't share important information that might be a privacy invasion.  The W9 simply states the information that is already public information and is used regularly in business-to-business transactions.  It is one of a few tools I use to ensure the integrity of the directory.  The tools aren't perfect, but all are a matter of public information.  Some of those same tools are used by those scraping websites I mentioned.
  
  
• What if I simply don't want to send you my W9?
  
  Don't send it.  Contact me instead.  You can email me at support@shoplocaldelmarva.com or call me at 410-463-4196.  (If I don't answer, please text me.  Some day I might figure out how to set up my voicemail.) 
  
  It's not too hard to convince me you are locally owned and operated.  Once I'm convinced, I'll send you a properly formatted form to substitute in the W9 field. 
  
  Here's a thought for you.  You want to get listed, but how do you know I am a locally owned and operated directory?  You don't until you talk to me.
  
  
• What if I'm a home-based business and want to conceal some private information like a home phone number or address?
  
  The address and phone number fields are not cross referenced by the app.  You will want to make sure your town, state, and zip code are accurate to ensure your potential customers at least know the general area your business is located.  Your phone number can be real or masked.  If, for some reason, you don't want anyone to know your phone number, you can enter 555-555-5555 and you're good to go.  My developers, however, assure me that they followed proper protocols to protect your information from bots that roam the web looking for phone numbers and emails.  While an incomplete street address might go unnoticed, a masked phone number or email address may raise some eyebrows among your potential customers.
  
  
• Where is my information stored?
  
  Any information you share with SLD is stored in the cloud until you delete your listing.  The only people who have access to your information is my development team and me.  For example, if you submit your W9, it is stored in the cloud that only my developers have access to.  The app then emails me a copy so I can review it.  I review the copy and then delete it.  None of your information is shared or sold to anyone.
  
  Oh, and once my developers send me a contract completion form to sign (it's in the works), even they won't have access to the cloud and your information anymore.
  
  
• I'm busy and don't have the time to figure out the technical aspects of listing my business.  What do I do?
  
  Simply email me (support@shoplocaldelmarva.org) with a description of the problem you are having.  Together, we'll get you listed.  
  
  
  
  

I'm very big on privacy. When new technology hit the market in the form of the telephone, privacy rights were immediately raised.  In 1928, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead v. United States that wiretapping phone lines didn’t violate privacy rights because the lines were public property. Justice Louis Brandeis dissented, famously stating that the Constitution protects "the right to be let alone."  It took another almost forty years for the US Supreme Court to reverse that 1928 ruling.  During Nixon's presidency, the US Supreme Court ruled that a warrant is required to tap the phone lines.

While our Congress hasn't exactly caught up with the Digital Age, I strive to operate in the digital world under the strictest of privacy considerations that I think should be, not what is.  My guiding principle is you have a right to be left alone. My app relies on third party entities, and I try to make sure the third parties follow the same principle.

Don't you just hate it when you're enjoying a chicken neck and a net scrapes you up and throws you in a basket?  You won't find any of that tomfoolery going on around here.

Grow with The Original Shop Local Delmarva

Yes, I know he spelled it "Clipbbord", but Cuddles is doing his best.

Anything worth building takes a lot of careful planning and time.  Sure, I could throw some straw together and call it a house or some sticks and call it a mansion, but neither creation would stand for very long.  We all know it is the house of bricks that stands strong for just about anything that blows its way.

I started The Original Shop Local Delmarva (SLD) fifteen years ago.  I originally built it out of straw, namely on the Facebook platform.  While that Facebook page is still going strong today, it wasn't strong enough to support the shop local movement on its own.  So I built a website.

The website offered stronger support, until the hosting site upgraded its servers.  The website crashed and my efforts to fix it ensured it stayed crashed.  I followed the hosting company's instructions, but nothing worked.  I faced taking on two possible solutions: rebuild the site from scratch or build something new that would be stronger and more useful for supporting locally owned and operated businesses.  That something new was an app.   

Cuddles' Notes
You can find the app
in Google Play Store.
Apple version coming soon

I maintained (and still maintain) the Facebook page:


https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057578195068  


Right now, my website is a simple landing page:


https://businessowner.shoplocaldelmarva.org/


The site is a page where you, the business owner, can list your business with the ability for you to update and add to it anytime you want. 

When you load your information, it is instantly uploaded to the SLD app.  There's no need for a shopper or tourist to visit a website and plan out their shopping trip ahead of time.  They can pull out their phone, click a few options, and find their locally owned and operated businesses near them...or up to fifty miles away, on the spot, no pre-planning required.

While I saved the money over the last ten years to get the app built, I also developed a three, five, and ten-year plan of how to grow the app and the shop local movement.  Like any business plan, it sets goals.

In the three-year plan, the goal is to get 500+ businesses listed and 1,000+ users per day.  The first three years are mostly building the foundation.  The whole Shop Local Delmarva movement can't happen without a solid base of participating businesses and users.

In the five-year plan, the goal is to develop your listing as your personal advertising platform.  That's where the subscription levels will become important.  By five years, I aim to have a skeletal advertising design in place with room to expand for the AI technology coming. 

We're beginning to see what the AI technology can do.  Its capabilities are predicted to take off like a rocket after about 2030.  Gone will be the days when big corporations were the only ones who could afford flashy advertising.  Mom and Pop will be able to create a catchy, two-minute video over their morning cup of coffee at little to no cost.

In the ten-year plan, the goal is to have 75% of the locally owned and operated businesses listed with usage levels rivaling, or even surpassing, other business directory sites like Yelp or Angies List.  I also have a lot to learn in the next ten years because I'd like to see The Original Shop Local Delmarva (that's all the locally owned and operated businesses and supporters) gain the political clout needed to cut the red tape in starting and running a small business, receive tax incentives on par with the national corporations, be eligible for health insurance benefits on par in cost and benefits as what the big box stores have, and even qualify for wholesale pricing that narrows the gap between Mom and Pop and the out-of-towners.  

Cuddles' Notes
You can list your
business regardless
of the phone you own

The Original Shop Local Delmarva’s plans and goals may sound like a tall order of lofty dreams, but none of it can come to fruition without your support. It all starts with listing your business.

Get listed today:  https://businessowner.shoplocaldelmarva.org/

The Original Shop Local Delmarva is growing!

Before we could build something, we needed a tool.  I built The Original Shop Local Delmarva app to be that tool. 

Now we’re building something together using that tool.  We're building a stronger local community and a louder voice for our locally owned and operated businesses.  But we needed another tool to tie the app, businesses, and people together. 

So, I built another tool.  Over in the right-hand column you'll see a newsletter sign up form.  With this tool you will be in the loop as The Original Shop Local Delmarva grows over the next ten years.  Yes, The Original Shop Local Delmarva has a five-year plan and a ten-year plan.  Its ultimate goal: build a model of a shop local movement that builds sustainable local economies and communities that local communities across the country will want to emulate.

Please sign up for the newsletter to stay in the loop.  Your email will not be sold or used by anyone other than The Original Shop Local Delmarva to deliver you our newsletter once a month or so.

The first issue will be coming out in about a week.  The first issue will explain how to list your business, where to find help, how to advertise with The Original Shop Local Delmarva, and will start sharing the long range dream The Original Shop Local Delmarva holds.  Don't miss it!  Sign up over there on the right today.

Shop Local Delmarva app goes live

 From Shop Local Delmarva Facebook page:

Sneak peek of the new Shop Local Delmarva app

Here's your first look at what to expect with the new Shop Local Delmarva app in pictures.  Please keep in mind the app you will see tomorrow is not the finished product.  It is the foundation for a project that will be in work for at least the next ten years.  Your feedback is important to shape how the app will grow and adapt to your needs.  What you will get tomorrow is Shop Local Delmarva 1.0.  You will shape its future versions as the Shop Local Delmarva community grows.  

Please note as you browse through the pictures, all businesses you see are fictional and were test businesses in developing the app.  They will not be listed in the live version being released tomorrow.

First up is the warm up page.  As the app downloads the directory, you'll see the place holder page with the new name, The Original Shop Local Delmarva.  Since I didn't hold onto my Shop Local Delmarva name and website from eleven years ago (that would've cost a lot of money), someone else now uses the name and .com website that goes with it.  I had to rebrand my business name (adding "The Original") and change the website, that will be coming sometime in the future, to .org instead of .com.  There is a .com website out there, but it is not affiliated with the app or the work I started fifteen years ago.

Once everything loads up, first time users will have the option to sign up as a user or business owner (vendor).  Users can create a personalized account or simply use the app as a guest.  Business owners, however, will be required to set up an account.  Don't worry.  It's free to sign up and maintain a business account.  Once you've set up an account (user or business owner), you won't see this page any more.  The app remembers who you are.

You will next be taken to the page that greets you every time you open the app after being set up.  The app will load the businesses within a five-mile range of where you are currently located.  You will need to have your location activated for this to be accurate.

The important feature on this page is the search field.  Of course you can search by business name, but the most helpful tool will be the three transit line menu in the right hand side of the search bar.  There are two sets of filters.  One sets the distance radius to search from zero to fifty miles out.  The other filter searches by category and subcategory of the business.

The miles slide bar is self explanatory.  If you want to search all businesses by miles only, you're done.  Click the "apply filter" button.

The category filter is also self explanatory.  You get to select one main category and then the subcategory becomes active.  The subcategory is tailored to each main category and so will be different for each main category.  You can select as many subcategories as you like.  Click the "Apply Filter" button and all businesses meeting your search requirements will be shown.

Please note you can use both filters at the same time.  For example, you can search for retail (main category) businesses in a 15-mile radius of your location that are nurseries/garden centers, roadside stands, or florists that offer loyalty programs or rare and exotic plants.

As a business owner, you will want to take advantage of the category and subcategories.  Category and subcategories are how most people will find you.  All business owners get to pick one category.  Paid subscriptions determine how many subcategories you can pick to describe your business.

When you select a business, you'll see the details of the business.  The one pictured below is the Heron level subscription.  It has the most features available.  Subscription levels range from Shorebird (free) through Oriole (a bit more options, yet affordable) to Osprey (even more options) to Heron (the most options).

Since the app is new, Shorebird and Oriole are the best options to select.  We need a sizable directory to attract users, so I wanted to make the subscriptions attractive and affordable.  The Osprey and Heron levels are competitively priced for the features they offer but not cost effective right now.  The nice thing, though, is as the app grows, business owners can change their subscriptions at any time.  If by summer, for example, we have 500 businesses in the directory and 10,000+ users, the business owner can easily change their subscription to the level with more features to attract more customers than a basic free Shorebird or Oriole level can attract.

If you click on "Profile" in the lower right hand corner, you'll see your personalized account (means you can add your picture), but more importantly, you can find all the important fine print.  

And there you have it, the buck ninety-nine tour of the Shop Local Delmarva app.

Right now the app is only available for android phones.  The iOS phone availability is coming at a later date.  As a business owner, though, you don't need an android phone to add your business to the directory.  Tomorrow I will be posting a landing page where all businesses owners can load their business information.  It's a lot easier to upload the information from a desktop or laptop than on the tiny screen of a phone.  Also, the link to the landing page will be accessible in the right hand column of this page.