The Semi Local Business Survey

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it feels like almost all talk about business these days revolves around “online business.”

We all know the internet is a great place to start and grow a business—the barriers to entry are lower than ever before—but what about millions of businesses that still exist offline? What about all the mom and pop shops and restaurants and lock smiths? They’re real businesses, too, aren’t they? There’s plenty to be learned from them, isn’t there? They’ve been around a lot longer than the internet, after all.

With the big division between online and offline businesses today, somebody needs to bridge the gap. There’s no reason these two worlds can’t or even shouldn’t exist together.

That’s why, when Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing came to me the other day to ask for help promoting a survey he created to learn more about how small on and offline businesses are bridging the “internet gap,” I was actually excited to help out for once.

I get pitched a lot to promote things for other people at Riskology.co—around once a day—and, as you’ve probably noticed via the practically non-existent promotion here, I turn everyone down.

Today is a very rare exception, and I’ve decided to let you know about this project for two reasons:

  • A lot of Riskology.co readers run interesting micro-businesses and learning about how everyone around here operates their little companies is both interesting and valuable to the whole community.
  • I took the survey myself and thought it was worthy of my time.

The purpose of the survey is to learn about how small offline businesses are starting to expand online, but I’m interested in it for a different reason. Riskology.co is an online business, but I’m currently looking for ways to expand in the opposite direction. I want this site to reach more people where I am, here in Portland.

I’m interested to see how many other people are like me. I want to learn what they’re doing to improve their businesses and how they’re expanding away from the internet.

So, if you run a micro-business like I do and you want to learn how others like you are running their projects, click the link below to take the Semi Local Business survey:

–>Take the Semi Local Business Survey<–

Once you’re done, take a detour to visit Firepole Marketing. Danny will be compiling the results there in the next week or two, and I think the results will be… very interesting.

Have a great weekend!

~~~~~

P.S. I have some very big news to announce next week that will drastically effect your enjoyment of Riskology.co (in a good way, of course). Stay tuned!

Image by: susieblackmom