As an extended celebration of this year’s ‘International Women’s Day’, we recently hosted a Maps for HER virtual meet-up for empowering the women-led local businesses around us ! It was great to see attendees being so eager to help out women led local businesses and learn from fellow women business owners and Local Guides about how they manage their businesses so well using Maps and My Business. The best part of the meet-up was that we got to see both sides of the coin and understand how Maps and Google MyBusiness can help both the customers and the women-led business owners to come together, understand their needs and somehow connect them all together with amazing features they offer… free of cost!!!
The meet-up started by a brief introduction of attendees followed by a presentation and a video by me on ‘Ways to support a local women-led business using Maps & Google My Business’. We spoke about how photos, reviews, list , Map edits and setting up Google My business really helps them. As you help them, make sure you also buy from them and share your feedback with them and on Maps so that it makes them feel happy ! Appreciation and love is what makes these women be proud of whatever business they own so make sure you reflect the same in your contributions on Maps.
Post this @TheRealKristin spoke about how she started her own BOBA tea shop in Coventry,UK and how Maps helped her build a strong community of business owners. She gave details regarding how she helped the business owners around her know about the benefits of having their businesses listed on Maps and how they could easily manage their businesses using amazing My Business features all at zero costs ! Here are some of the tips she shared to help local women-led businesses :
- Ask the owners to check their My Business profile everyday or every week for sure and ask them to use it as a free tool which would help in keeping their Maps listing polished.
- Ask the owners to check for notifications they get on My Business App so that it helps them know their audience better and also helps them keep the customers engaged by offering discount offers , etc which would reflect on Maps too.
- The business owners can also use My business and Maps for their marketing campaigns and increase their income by watching what is trending on the stats they get !
- Help the owners understand the basic free version of My Business set-up as that will help them a lot to expand their business.
After getting some cool tips from Kristin, @FalguniP spoke about her Cake business, how she started 4 years back and how Local Guides helped her do the initial set-up. She also stressed on the point that as a Local Guide one should write a review only when one experiences it. She shared her experience about how fake reviews affected her business earlier. She mentioned when it comes to getting payment in other currencies,GPay should come up with something that it helps business owners like her to carry international businesses smoothly.
Post this Gursheen shared about her Floral decorations business in Mumbai , how it got affected due to COVID and how Local Guides helped her gain customers by adding honest reviews and Photos on Maps. Thanks to Google My Business and Maps, her business is now reached out to local as well as customers abroad. She also shared a video on how she uses Google My Business which you can see in the photo album. As a women-led business owner she gave a tip to keep updating the My Business at least twice a week and keep adding photos so that the customers know what is trending and can place orders accordingly.
The energy and enthusiasm of the attendees was amazing as we discussed further on how as Local Guides we help out women businesses.Rosyma’am @RosyKohli also mentioned how she helped a woman to set-up her own parlour business in Mumbai using Maps. @Anil6969 also mentioned how he helped a woman to set-up her Flower business on Maps. @Ddimitra , @doc_dells , @indahnuria and @Dr_AlwyPaul also shared their stories about how they helped so many women-led businesses on Maps. It was great to know from Alwyhow she helped her mother expand her business using My Business and Maps. @StephenAbraham also mentioned he intends to help a women led business near him soon as there aren’t many in Malaysia. @KashifMisidia also spoke about how he helped his daughter to put her business on Maps and how he helped her and many other women-led businesses to use the ‘My Business’ App. The most important tip he gave was to use the My Business App regularly and ask the business owners to click on ‘Claim this business’ so that they can manage the business well and use the great features offered free of cost by Maps !
A Big Thank You to all the attendees for coming and speaking their heart out and sharing so many wonderful tips for both the women-led business owners and Local Guides like us who wish to support a women-led business near them! Special thanks to Kristin , Falguni and Gursheen for sharing their experiences as a women business owners with the audience and taking out time for the meet-up from their busy schedules. Thank you Ajit dada and Shirish for constant support**.** Thanks Ratri for a lovely collage which you shared in the album.
Let’s keep up the momentum and keep helping women led businesses near us ! In case if you are already helping a woman-led business, please feel free to mention here in comments and you can share the Maps contribution screenshots in the Photo Album. This meet-up was a part of #MapsForAll meet-up series started by me to make Maps more inclusive and helpful for all. To see other meet-ups which were a part of this series, kindly check the post on Connect.
Isha thanks for the wonderful recap as always!
…, Gursheen told about her floral business…