'LinkedIn' for local, small businesses?

During the ‘digital revolution’ consumers have increasingly become more demanding towards businesses: they expect friction-less and efficient transactions across multiple channels, after booking their ride hailing service (Uber, Grab) they want to be picked up almost immediately and to buy their stocks in no more than a few clicks on their smartphones. Unless they are on a relaxing holiday and sometimes even then, they detest taking detours.

Big brands and businesses have either led or caught up with the digital revolution and deploy large departments who even further fine tune the customer experience. But what about small businesses?

Many if not most small businesses have not: they still operate as if it is the end of the 20th century. Yes, many did introduce an online presence via a website or social media. While they do want patrons to shop local and support their business, they hardly make it easy for them to do so. And transacting with small businesses is far from friction-less: after finding the phone number of a local real estate agent on a property platform or their own website, you still have to copy and key in their number to call them. When you find a property on a website you’re interested in and want to know the estimated value, you still have to enter the postal code and house number. As an expat, how to read and interpret the listings on a monolingual property platform? To find a food truck selling pizza near your office, you’ll have to clutter your phone further and download an app, or jump from the food truck's website to its Facebook page to end up deciphering the schedule in minuscule print from their Instagram story or finding a half empty 'tic-tac-toe' style diagram with some colors and scribbles. You'll have to navigate websites and apply different filters to finally find a techno festival of your liking near Barcelona during your holidays.

Is it that small businesses don’t have the funds and knowledge to improve the customer experience in the digital era? Although that may play a role, I believe the mindset is much more important. As a small business owner (and I have been one myself), you think the world of your business and you can hardly look at it from a customers' perspective. Where big brands and companies don’t have the luxury to stay behind, because their customers will jump to their competitors if they do, small businesses 'enjoy' the luxury of lapsing as most of their peers don’t or innovate poorly as well.

So should small businesses invest in the latest technology? NO, for example introducing a mobile app as a small business is ludicrous as only a few customers (read: family & friends) will download it and use it once to prove their loyalty. The cost of developing and maintaining a mobile app is simply not worth it for small businesses.

What would a solution for local small businesses look like?

I would describe such a solution as a? ‘LinkedIn for small, local businesses' but with an intuitive and graphical user interface that allows the patron to act immediately and friction-less. For example, she can call the property agent without dialing, book a viewing in the agent's calendar, register for an open house and check the estimated value of the property. A platform where you can find a techno festival in July near Barcelona and open cellars for wine tasting near Bern in Switzerland in May by sending your request in a single message. Where you don’t need to know the name of a particular food truck to find pizza trucks on Thursday near your office. And where you can find out which farmers’ markets are open this Saturday near Los Angeles, without having to dig deeper to check whether they will really be open.

Aren't Facebook and Instagram already the place to be for local, small businesses? They rather have become cemeteries for small businesses as they literally bury them among their peers unless they pay to rise to the surface. Social media don't offer patrons any useful tools to discover businesses of their interest. This platform on the other hand will make small businesses stand out to the customer, as it only highlights what is relevant depending on where, what and when.

Interacting with such a wide variety and large quantity of small businesses should be fast, friction-less and mobile-first. Similarly to ChatGPT, just send a message and get a reply. Complementary to ChatGPT which digs into data older than mid 2021, the platform contains volatile, actual and future data, relating to one one-off events, schedules, and ever changing properties being offered and sold. By massively joining such a platform and assuming it will meet the high standards of the modern patron, small businesses become a formidable commercial force as a group.

dm2find aims to become this platform. Currently it focuses on North America, Western Europe and Japan. Listing as a small business (for now roaming street food vendors, taprooms organizing events at their premises, markets, museums and real estate agents are admitted) is FREE. Contributing schedules, events and property for sale and rent will eventually become premium features. You can access dm2find by sending a message on Facebook or to https://m.me/dm2find in English, Spanish, Japanese or Dutch (more to come).