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| 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.
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| Cuddles' Notes You can find the app in Google Play Store. Apple version coming soon |
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.
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| Cuddles' Notes You can list your business regardless of the phone you own |
Get listed today: https://businessowner.shoplocaldelmarva.org/
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