Collaboration is the name of the game for a local entrepreneur.
Taylor Hughes is in the midst of compiling an interactive online Chatham-Kent business directory. He spent a couple of years working in the municipality’s Small Business Centre.
“I believe the last time we had some form of business directory put together was back around 2010, and it’s just in pdf form so once it’s set up, it’s set up and it’s not exactly user friendly for updates and things,” Hughes says. “The emphasis we’re driving is that it’s a community-driven directory, so I’m hoping I’ll get some buy-in from the business community and the municipality, and then we’ll get some sharing and stuff like that.”
With as many as 5000 individual businesses across CK, Hughes believes there’s a demand for more regional, collaborative marketing.
“The big thing I’m looking to do is harness the energy of the collective community. Everybody’s already saying the right words, but now if we can basically harness all the different voices and drive it to one place, it should drive quite a bit of traffic.”
Hughes is compiling some of the database himself, but says ShopCK will also be open for business owners to submit their own information, creating an interactive, constantly evolving list for consumers to browse.
“Chatham-Kent has such a vast geographic landscape, we often don’t realize we have so many amazing businesses and community initiatives going on in our own backyard.”
Hughes hopes a locally-based collaborative database will encourage more regional marketing, rather than spending advertising dollars outside of the community.
ShopCK.ca is expected to go live and be open to submissions in the next few weeks, with proper site for consumers to browse in a couple of months.