AllForLocal is my small business. What we do is not unique, but how we do it is. Instead of focusing on a feature set, we have taken a small business-focused approach - get to know your community and then serve them contingent to direct needs. This approach allows us to challenge any competitor because we have a stake in this region, and we know it better than the rest. We know our users - we have shopped locally, we have eaten at local restaurants, we have attended local events, and we were all once part of a local school (The AllForLocal team will be creating a blog for the purpose of rating small businesses in this area if you want to see our perspective on local companies).
Up until now, I have yet to tell you exactly what AllForLocal does, intentionally. Instead of delivering an elevator pitch, I will tell you about our market - we focus on small businesses; they are what makes small towns prosper. They give back in taxes, they have a direct interest in seeing their business, and transitively their town do well, and this is why they need our help as consumers to make them thrive.
The fact is, small businesses are struggling in many places. The major hurdle for these businesses is their reach, their marketing, and their ability to appeal to consumers. In a study by Mintel Reports, out of a group of adults that do not shop locally, 30 percent stated that they don’t know where to find local goods and services and another 23 percent say it is too inconvenient to find local goods/services. Our website inherently solves this problem. Our directory of local goods and services rivals our competitors because our information is all in one place, and thorough. If you were to go online and search for a small business, especially one without a website, you will be hard-pressed to obtain a thorough set of information about a business, including store hours, payment types, and other information that is not readily available. With AllForLocal, a user-powered directory, this will never be a problem again.
Additionally, once we are off the ground and running, we will be implementing other features that allow our users to communicate amongst each other. Users with similar values and interests will be able to connect and potentially find new places to shop locally or keep busy.
What I am asking of you if you have taken the time to read this far - please go onto AllForLocal's website and look around. Sign up if you are interested. Add a business or two, or look to see if your favorite business is in the database. If your friend, family, or neighbors want to find local businesses, tell them about us.
If you aren't in the Capital Region and like our idea, send us feedback and tell us. After all, with more motivation from interested users, we will continue to create great features and functionality that will make finding local businesses near you far easier. Take 5 minutes, and "Rate My Startup". The more feedback we receive, the better we can become. Thanks!
