Why Small Businesses Matter
Shop small, do big things for your community
Why Small Businesses Matter puts a spotlight on the local merchants who donate their time, talent, goods, and services for the betterment of our community. The shop local movement spreads virally as local businesses who are “tagged” have the opportunity to share their story!
You're IT 203local!
Four questions with Micaela Marshall, founder of 203local.
Why did you start your business?
203local was started to promote local businesses in the “203” and events that locals in the “203” would enjoy attending. We are different from other accounts in the area because we only post about local brick-and-mortar businesses. Therefore, all of our followers are local so why would anyone else follow us!?
What is your best-selling product/service?
While we do advertising for businesses on our social media channels, blog, and website, most of our revenue is generated from consulting and running social media accounts for local businesses. We would always rather teach a business owner about elevating their online presence than do it for them as it’s more cost-effective. Of course, we’re always available as needed for custom packages depending on customer needs.
How many local businesses do you use to support your business (products and services) and can you name them?
We have experience with running 50+ social media accounts and have worked with hundreds of local businesses throughout the years. We are currently working with the Westport Downtown Association, Evaritos in South Norwalk, and The CBD Curators on Bedford Street in Stamford in addition to consistent promotional assistance for events with Hey Stamford, Half Full, and any other businesses/events our media partners as for help promoting.
We thought that people would pay us to post on our channels once we gained a lot of followers (we have 50K local followers across our local channels), but for the most part, people hire us to run their social media accounts, update their websites, and maintain their online presence (apple, google maps, etc.) as we have a ton of experience keeping these platforms up to date.
It’s extremely important to keep your online presence up to date when it comes to things like Apple Maps and Google as all cell phones use these services while GPSing and/or googling businesses. If a customer sees you’re open and drives to your business and you’re not, they will not trust it the next time. If you’re marked closed when you’re open and they choose not to call and check, you’ve now lost business.
Visit 203local online here, and make sure to check out their Facebook and Instagram (Stamford) pages as well!
HamletHub thanks Fairfield County Bank for making our Why Small Businesses Matter series possible!