[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- You served your country.
Then, you transition back to civilian life
and begin serving your communities.
And for 2 and 1/2 million of you,
that meant starting a small business.
You're businesses are hiring fellow veterans
and military spouses.
They're supporting charities and giving your communities
a sense of community.
Sure, it hasn't always been easy.
You're doing what you've always done--
putting in the hard work and learning as you go.
So to help, Google has created one place
where your veteran-owned small business can
get a step-by-step guide to reaching customers worldwide.
Add a veteran-led badge to your Google listing
and let the world know that you, all 2 and 1/2 million of you,
are open for business.
Visit us online to get started.
[END PLAYBACK]
DONALD ALLEN: Hi, everyone, and thank you for joining us today
as we celebrate National Veterans Small Business
Week with today's Livestream, Connect with Local Customers
on Google.
My name is Donald Allen, and I'm so excited to be here
with you today.
So running a small business can be a great second career
after serving in the military.
We believe that digital skills training
for veteran-owned businesses, like building a website,
preparing a business plan, and honing in marketing
and audience strategy will be beneficial
as veterans try to grow or start their businesses.
This year, for National Veteran Small Business Week,
we want to celebrate businesses who identify as veteran-led
and help them grow their businesses
through digital tools and training.
After the presentation, we'll be hosting a Q&A where we'll
answer your questions live.
So throughout the Livestream, submit your questions
using the hashtag, #VetLedLivestream on Twitter.
We'll also be joined by Northern California VBOC advocate,
Coreena Conley, to ask her about free tools and programs
that VBOC and SBA have to offer for veterans.
All right, so first, a bit of background.
So in 2017, we launched Grow with Google,
an initiative to help people across the United States
grow their skills, careers, and businesses
by providing the best of Google's training and tools.
Specifically, we've launched products and programs
that help the veteran and military spouse community.
And we'll be sharing some today as well as resources
to learn more at the end of this Livestream.
In today's session, we're going to talk about a free tool
that businesses can use right away to get started connecting
with customers online.
It's called Google My Business.
And if you're new to Google My Business, don't worry.
That's why we're here today.
And I'll start by sharing an overview.
So Google My Business offers businesses
a way to manage how their information appears
across Google search and maps through what
is called a business profile.
All right, so try to picture this.
When we first moved to the Bay Area a few months ago,
my family wanted to go out to eat.
All right, so here we are.
We're in the air Airbnb.
We have no food in the house, new to the area.
And just like so many of our many PCS adventures,
we had no idea what was around us.
And keep in mind, I've got a family of six,
so we can't just go anywhere to go eat.
So I open Google Maps and typed in, "restaurants near me."
And what popped up was a bunch of business profiles
for businesses that were local to our area.
And so we found a quaint French comfort food cafe.
And it had pictures and hours, directions, and a phone number,
which is important because I needed
to call them to see if they could accommodate
my large family.
I'll just leave it to say that we went.
They could accommodate us.
We had a great time and is now a favorite of ours
that we now follow and we get updates from.
All of that it was through these business profiles.
So research shows that over 90% of customers looking
for business information through search engines
are looking for specific information, like business
hours, promotions, or available appointments.
This is important because how a business's information appears
in search results can impact when, how,
or why potential customers engage with you.
In context of our discussion today
of how businesses can use a business profile to connect
with local customers--
so I'll add that, not only are our customers looking
for specific information about a business,
they are looking for specific information
about local businesses.
There are billions of local searches made every month.
And more than 30% of all mobile searches
are related to location.
So what does this mean?
All right, you have customers who
are looking for specific information
and largely looking for this type of information
about a business in their community.
So today, we're going to discuss how
to connect those dots using features
available through Google My Business.
But before we dive in, it's important to note
that Google My Business was designed for businesses who
have a physical location or do business face
to face with their customers.
But if you have a business or are thinking
about starting one that doesn't meet one of these two
categories, you're fine.
There will still be opportunities
to gain tangible takeaways through today's topic.
So this is the part where I tell you what I'm about to tell you.
In today's workshop, we're going to discuss how businesses
can use Google My Business to establish
a local online presence, build a loyal customer base,
highlight what makes a service or product unique,
and use insights to help drive more
in-store or online traffic.
So you have options available to you.
This is where having a free business profile on Google
can help.
Customers are 38% more likely to visit
and 29% more likely to consider purchasing
from businesses that have complete profile information.
Before diving into the features of--
which can help your business connect with customers locally,
let's first take a review the anatomy of a business profile
on Google.
When a customer discovers your business profile,
the initial view they see is your business overview.
In a business overview, consumers
can find info about your business
like address, contact info, hours of operation,
business logos, photos, and more.
This overview allows potential customers quick access
to the best ways to connect with your business.
Through Google My Business, you have
access to a manager dashboard where you can update
all the information shown here.
So 96% of customers are more likely to visit a business that
has hours of operations on a Google search or maps results
page.
90% of customers are more likely to visit
a business that had a phone number on a Google search map
results page.
And 90% of customers are more likely to visit
a business that has photos on a Google search or maps results
page.
Ensuring this information is actively managed
can help increase the odds of connecting with new customers.
A recent update to business profiles on Google
allows for businesses the opportunity
to include branded images like logos in their profile.
Through this update, verified businesses
can create a short name or custom name for their business
profile to make it easier for customers to find them.
When businesses share this short-name URL,
customers can enter into their browser search bar using
the g.page/ your custom name to go directly to your business
profile.
Another great way to stand out to local customers
is by using attributes.
Attributes let customers see what your business has
to offer, such as whether a restaurant offers
Wi-Fi or indoor seating.
Some attributes like women-led or outdoor seating
can be highlighted as badges when customers
find your business on mobile.
For our veteran-led businesses watching today,
we create a specific, veteran-led business attribute
to let your community know that your business is
run by a veteran.
So all of these features are great.
But what if a business doesn't have a website for consumers
to visit once they found your business profile.
It's OK.
Google My Business includes the option
to create a free, simple website generated with information
from your business profile.
So it's a great starting point to being online,
perfect for small businesses who do not yet have a web presence.
And creating a website with Google My Business
takes about five minutes.
There are three steps to creating a website would
Google My Business.
One-- click Website from your Google My Business dashboard.
And once you do this, Google My Business
will pull the information from your profile
to populate the website.
You have the option then to customize
some elements of the site, including the theme, text,
and photos.
And when you're ready to go live,
you click the Publish button.
These websites also come with a free URL and hosting.
You can customize your website address by entering the first
part of the domain name, and it will automatically be followed
by .business.site.
So if you enter the name Stacia's Bakery,
your website address would be staciasbakery.business.site.
Alternatively, you can register your own domain name.
This option is not free, and you'll
need to register a domain through Google domains.
But, if you already have a registered domain name, even
with a registrar other than Google,
you can use it for your new Google site as well.
OK, so let's discuss a couple of creative ways businesses
can use the website feature in Google My Business.
If you wanted to build a website for a hair salon,
you would first consider how you would want your customer
to engage with this.
Some of the questions you might ask yourself
include what are the deciding factors
that a potential customer would use when choosing a salon?
Do they want to see before and after photos?
Do customers like to read reviews?
Do customers prefer to make appointments or just walk in?
Would customers prefer as he pricing on individual services?
These are all the things that can be solved
through the website template.
For example, you could showcase before-and-after photos
and include reviews from your business profile on Google,
so customers can see proof of the quality work that you do.
Next, you could include a Book Now call-to-action button.
So it's important to note, one out of two customers,
they'll want to schedule an appointment when
searching for a business online are looking for a way
to schedule that appointment.
So one of the things that really came out to me
was, when I first got out of the military,
I needed to get a haircut.
I couldn't just go on base and go
get my haircut like I had been.
I had to go find a real barber.
And so I actually used the Google Search
and found a profile for a business near me.
And the one that I chose for me was a one
that I could schedule the appointment right there
in the profile.
It was great.
And Google works with third-party scheduling
software.
Provider-- sorry.
Google works with third-party scheduling software providers
to enable online booking through Google Search, Maps,
and Reserve with Google, a service that allows people
to book appointments and reservations directly within
the search engine, found at google.com/map/reserve.
And the last feature that you could utilize
would be pricing information to include info
about the cost of services.
Another thing that you can do is use photos.
And bright and vibrant ones are best to showcase products
in the gallery.
On this slide, you can see how a bakery showcases
examples of how the food looks.
Me, personally, I definitely prefer more pictures of donuts.
And if I were still thinking of the hair salon,
I may want to show before-and-after pictures
to demonstrate my good work.
Choosing the right photos can go a long way
in helping customers feel confident
that the service types and quality of work you provide
online with their goals.
Another feature that I want to point out is custom domains.
Google My Business will allow you a free domain,
which includes a .business.site at the end of the business
name.
However, you may decide that you want to purchase a custom
domain, which is shorter.
And when thinking about which domain
is best for your business, a few the best practices
include making it easy to type, keeping it short,
using keywords that your customers are already
using to find you, avoid numbers and hyphens, and be memorable.
Those are just a few ways that you
can customize a website for your business
through Google My Business.
In addition to the features I just mentioned,
businesses can also customize their website
using a pre-designed template.
These templates come in a variety of layouts and color
schemes allowing you to select one that
supports your brand guidelines.
All right, so in this section, we're
going to discuss ways to help you build a loyal customer
base using welcome offers.
All right, so when people follow your business,
they become a follower.
And they will see your updates and offers and photos
across Google and then they're For You
feed when you go into Maps.
Business owners can check out the Customers tab
to learn more about their followers in the Google My
Business app.
The benefit here is that this creates
an additional channel for business owners
to reach their customers.
And then you have the welcome offer.
You can attract people to your business with a welcome offer.
Now, what this is is, when they click Follow on Maps or Search,
they'll get an offer, such as $5 off your first meal.
And then they can redeem it in in person.
The benefit here is you're giving users
another reason to visit you.
Again, going back to our stat, which
said that 90% of customers are looking for business
information through search engines,
are looking for specific information
like business hours, promotions, or available appointments.
Promotions serve as a great way to capture consumer attention
and convert them into customers.
Here's what that process looks like for your customer.
So a user follows a business that
has a welcome offer set up.
The user is informed of what it means to follow
your business via a pop-up.
The user can choose a dismiss the offer or choose to save it.
And then, the user can go back to the business profile
and view the offer when they are ready to use it.
All right.
There's three ways that we can create an offer.
So the first one is, click the Create
a Welcome Offer from the Home screen.
I find that to be very aptly named.
The second way is to set up a welcome offer in the Profile
Editor screen.
And the third way is to click Create offer
during the first-time use prompt.
Now that we've decided to create an offer,
and we've navigated our way to the starting point,
there are just four steps in creating the offer.
The first one is to enter information about the offer.
Next, you want to add a photo.
And then, third, you want to add a title and description
to what your offer is.
The last one is to view the welcome offer
and double-check the details, and then click Publish.
Another useful feature in Google My Business
is the post feature, which allows
merchants to post live updates directly
on their business profile.
We briefly discussed the posts earlier in this workshop.
Posts serve as a great way to keep loyal customers up
to date on new products or service launches
or other good information for your business.
So when customers have more access to your business
information and updates, they can make better decisions
as they browse.
This allows you to directly communicate
with your local customers, to improve your customer
experience with timely information,
to promote your sales, specials, special events, news,
and new offers.
And this also allows you to engage with your customers
through videos and photos.
Posts can be created from your computer or from your phone.
On your computer, sign into Google My Business
or open the Google My Business app on your phone or tablet.
If you have multiple locations, after you sign in,
you're going to need to select a location you'd like to manage.
And then, click Post from the menu.
At the top of the page, choose the type of post
you'd like to create from the options given.
The options to add photos, videos, text, events, offers--
and a button to your post appear there.
Click each field, and enter the relevant information.
To see a preview of your post, click Preview.
And if you're happy with the preview, in the top right,
click Publish.
And if you'd like to change your post, in the top left,
click Back.
Edit your draft until you're ready to publish, and then
click Publish.
A few ways to use posts, though, are, like a what's-new post.
A what's-new post is one that provides general information
about your business.
You can include a photo, video, a link,
a call-to-action button, or other information.
For example, a restaurant could make a post
to promote a new menu item.
Or in this example, Honest SOUL Yoga
announced a new yoga studio location.
Product posts are posts that emphasize a specific product
that your business sells.
Product posts require a title, a photo, or video.
You can also include a call-to-action button
and other information.
And then, we have offer posts.
Offer posts are ones that provide promotional sales
or offers from your business.
Offer posts require a title and a start and end date.
A view offer call-to-action button is automatically
added to the post.
And you can also include a photo, a video,
a coupon code, a link, as well as terms and conditions
with that post.
This is a great method for getting seasonal offers
out there.
One more idea-- you can use posts to highlight
important business information.
This last post shows Honest SOUL Yoga's hours of operation.
And you can create a post like this
and include additional information
that might help customers.
So for example, last year, specifically,
my family, on Black Friday, we were out
trying to do some shopping, get an early start to the season
and trying to figure out the hours of operation for,
not just stores, but also restaurants that we
were in the vicinity of.
It was really difficult unless you went to the store
and saw the sign in the window.
But using this post, you can announce to all your followers
what your hours of operation are on those special days.
Posts appear in your business profile in Search and Maps.
You can create posts from Google My Business app on your phone
or tablet or from the Web dashboard using a laptop
or desktop.
You can also see how posts are influencing potential customers
by reviewing their activity from the Google My Business
dashboard, which brings us to our last topic today.
So our final topic today is how a business
can use the Insights feature in Google My Business
to drive in-store and online traffic.
Many customers find businesses through Google Search and Maps.
Google My Business Insights focuses
on how customers find your listing on Search and Maps
and what they do after they find it.
Think of this as an understanding
the story of your customer, where they're from,
and how they come to interact with your business.
OK, so there's a lot of different types of insights.
Some of the insights provide you different ways
to understand how customers interact with your listening.
So the first one--
how customers find your profile.
It shows how many customers found you in a direct search.
In other words, they search for your business name
or address versus a discovery search, which
is where they search for a category, a product,
or a service, and your profile happened to appear.
The next one is search queries, which
is available on the web version, but not available
on the app to view.
Search queries show you the queries
that we use to find the business on Google, where customers
found you on Google--
Google Search versus Google Maps.
The next one is customer actions.
So this shows you what searchers did once they
found your profile on Google.
The actions include, did they visit your website?
Did their request directions?
Did they call you?
Did they just view your photos?
The next one is direction requests.
You'll see your location pinned on the map and a heat map
that shows the most popular places from which
people ask Google Maps for driving
directions to your address.
The total number of requests broken down
by city or neighborhood are displayed as well.
The next insight is phone calls--
when and how often searchers called your business
via the Google business profile on Google.
You can view trends by day of the week or time of day.
And then, the last one we'll talk about today's photos.
This is the number of photos associated with your profile
and how often their view compared to photos
of businesses similar to yours.
All right, so we're going to dive in a bit
into three of these available insights.
So in the Insights tab, you can track common terms and search
trends for your business.
These queries should help you create
better posts with Google and even ads
to engage your customers.
Search queries focus on the terms
that your customers use to find your business on local search
and Maps.
You'll see the queries used in the last week, last month,
or even the last quarter.
But to protect users' privacy, you'll
only see the queries that meet our privacy threshold.
All right, so the next section here
shows how customers behave after they
found your listing on Google.
The graph shows you how many customers
completed the following types of actions
when viewing your listening.
Did they visit the website?
A customer views your website, and this
is displayed as website actions on the bulk report.
Did they request directions?
This is where a customer requested directions
to your business.
And this is displayed as directions actions
on the bulk report.
Did they call you?
This is clearly where a customer called your business
and displays as phone call actions on the bulk report.
And then there's the total actions,
the total customer actions for website, directions, and phone.
To view how many customers complete an action
on a specific day, you simply need
to select the day you're interested in.
And so, on the desktop, you just placed a cursor over the day.
And on mobile, you just tap the day.
And to the right of the graph, click the checkboxes
to turn on or off the various filters.
Now, the graph displays the total number of times anyone
clicked one of the actions.
So whether they just clicked, request directions
or place a call, this is going to show you
anyone that clicked it.
So this means a single user can request directions
to a business 100 times in a single day,
and we will show you that 100 requests were
made in that one day.
The next section here shows where
customers are when they request directions to your business.
It's on the map displayed.
You'll see your location pinned in the popular places
your customers are when they ask Google Maps for directions
to you address.
The total number of requests broken down
by city or neighborhood are displayed as well.
You can zoom in and out on the map using the controls
in the bottom-right corner.
Now, the graph displays a number of unique users in each source
location, so by postcode or city or even country.
So this means that a single user can request directions
to a business 100 times in the time period,
but we would only show one request for that person.
OK, in today's workshop, we discussed
how businesses can use Google My Business to establish
a local online presence, build a loyal customer base,
highlight what makes a service or product unique,
and help drive more in-store and online traffic.
For hands-on support with any of the topics
we discussed today, visit the smallbusinesspros.com,
and schedule of one on one with a small business pro today.
Small Business Pros offers a quick and easy way for you
to optimize your online services,
use your existing data to make more strategic decisions,
and resolve your issues in real time.
You can find more free, online business tools
@GROW.GOOGLE/VETERANLED.
As a reminder, if you have questions,
you can get those questions answered
using the hashtag, #VetLedLivestream for a chance
at having your questions answered live.
Next up, we'll chat with Coreena Conley from the Veteran
Business Outreach Center, which is partially
funded by the Small Business Administration
about the importance of National Veterans Small Business
Week and additional tools and resources
available to the veteran small business community.
But first, let's take a look at a veteran
led small business story featuring Chris Nolte, army
veteran, and founder of electric bike company, Propel Bikes.
CHRIS NOLTE: My name is Chris Nolte.
I'm the founder of Propel Bikes.
Throughout school, I didn't really
have all that much direction.
I'd thought of the idea of going into the military.
When I returned from overseas, I returned with a back injury.
I really spent most of my time at home
just kind of feeling broken.
A friend of mine got an electric bike.
I built one up for myself.
And then, suddenly, I'm mobile again.
So I ended up starting this electric bike business.
And I knew that, if I was to grow this business,
I was going to do it all on the web.
Recently, we added the Vet-Led attribute.
We've actually seen an increase of business
specifically for people that want to support
veteran-owned businesses.
The first year, we sold about 25 bikes.
And last year, we sold about 1,000.
Everybody that found us, they found us on Google.
What I do today, it's very fulfilling.
It's kind of a new mission for me.
DONALD ALLEN: And welcome back.
And wow, that was an awesome story.
Congrats to Chris and all of his success with Propel Bikes.
Now, we want to welcome our special guest, Coreena Conley,
who serves as a chief executive officer
for the Veteran's Business Outreach Center
serving California and Nevada.
So welcome, Coreena.
COREENA CONLEY: Thank you.
DONALD ALLEN: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself,
the Small Business Administration, your work
with VBOC and the importance of National Veterans Small
Business Week?
COREENA CONLEY: Absolutely.
And thank you so much for having me
on today to celebrate their National Veterans Small
Business Week.
You know, just a little fun fact--
that there's over 2.9 million veteran businesses
out there in our great nation that
contributes over $1 trillion, over $1 trillion
with a revenue to our local economy.
So imagine that as a whole.
So again, I am really humbled and honored
to serve as a CEO for the Veteran's Business Outreach
Center.
We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
We're partially funded to the US Small Business Administration
and the Governor's Office of Business and Economic
Development.
Our program is really designed to be able to assist veterans
in their initiatives to either start, sustain, or expand
a small business initiative.
So the services that we offer are
complementary because they're paid by your public tax
dollars.
And there's three forms of services that we offer.
The first one is, we offer complementary, one-to-one
small business consulting services.
So let's say, for example, you're a veteran,
and you're coming to our organization,
and you're looking to either start a business.
So what our process is is that, we
are designed to take a look at you as a person as a whole
and identify what you're learning style is.
And then, our counselors are trained to adapt to what
you're learning style is.
The reason why we do that is because of the fact
that we want to alleviate--
starting a business can be really stressful.
And with stress is fear.
So we want to be able to alleviate that emotion called--
we call it the false evidence that appears real mentality.
So we can adapt to whatever your learning style is to assist you
in your endeavor to do the valuation or reality
therapy of starting a business.
Or if you're an existing business,
and you're looking to grow or to sustain, or to put together
a succession plan, we will also adapt to whatever your business
needs are.
And our consulting services are done in a couple
of different capacities.
The first one is, it can be telephonically done.
Or we can do-- we use our Webex where we can actually face-time
with you, so then you can face-up the information
that you're reviewing with a counselor.
And also, through that consultation,
review cash flow projections, creating a strategic plan,
building a website, whatever that initiative is
that we are doing with you.
And then, the other one is obviously in person.
So we have an office, which is-- our office is located
in Sacramento, California.
So that's why we offer the different platforms
because everybody has-- most everybody
has a smartphone, a computer where they can go ahead and log
on, and it's more effective for them to do that.
And the other service that we offer
is over 200 trainings on an annualized basis.
One of the signature programs is created by SBA.
It's called the Boots to Business program.
DONALD ALLEN: Oh, I know that one.
COREENA CONLEY: Yeah, you went through that
during your transition?
DONALD ALLEN: I did.
COREENA CONLEY: Yeah, so, as you know, then that program
has eight modules, and it really walks you
through the conceptual idea of starting
a business to the fiscal financial management
piece of it, to the operational piece of it,
to creating that strategic plan or that business plan,
depending on what generation you are, right?
And it gives you a snapshot view.
So it allows you to be able to identify
if entrepreneurship is something that is right for you.
So it really just opens your eyes up to say, OK,
this is something that I think that I
might want to be able to do.
But when a person goes through that program, wherever
their home base is after their they come out of the military,
then they can contact one of the 22 VBOCs
that are nationwide, which can be
easily accessible on the sba.gov website.
And so each one of those programs or those VBOC centers
will tailor their services to whatever
your specific needs are.
And then, the last service that we offer
is, we host conferences, which are
one- to three-day conferences.
And they have a community-based focus.
So for example, we just had a small business and DVBE segment
DVBE and the government-- you know we use lots of acronyms--
DONALD ALLEN: We do.
COREENA CONLEY: --which means Disabled Veteran Business
Enterprise.
And so it was a small business one-day summit,
and it was part of the National Veterans Small Business Week
celebration.
And so with that, we had our best practices businesses
that have come through the Veteran's Business Outreach
Center program.
Some of them are still small businesses, and some of them
are actually medium-sized businesses.
So we help them grow and foster their business through,
either that neophyte level all the way
through succession planning.
So that's what the VBOC programs do.
So with that best practices, the audience
had an opportunity to engage based upon their industry
sector.
What were best practices?
What they would have done differently
and what worked well for them?
Then, the other component that we had is
we had an economic future forecasting, which
talked about, what are the economic trends, which
are so viable to a small business
owner when you're creating your strategic plan or direction
is--
if this is what my business initiative is going to be,
then how is it going to fit within the marketplace
and the demographic area that I serve?
Or if it's global, then how does that fit globally, as a whole?
DONALD ALLEN: So that's interesting.
And one of the things that came up-- so I'm a veteran,
you know.
COREENA CONLEY: Thank you for your service.
DONALD ALLEN: Well, thank you.
And so I know we've got a lot of veterans
who are watching today.
So one of the things that comes up
a lot, especially in the transition,
is the idea that we're not quite ready yet.
And so at what stage, from ideation creation, like that,
I have an idea I want to start a business,
to I'm actually operating-- at what stage should
I come see you and your team?
COREENA CONLEY: That's an excellent question.
So to be quite frank, it doesn't matter what stage
in the game you are because the veteran's business outreach
centers are designed to assist you wherever you are,
specifically, in whatever that cycle of starting a business
or growing a business.
So at any point in time, you can connect with your local VBOC
office.
They'll do a needs assessment to figure out
where you are specifically.
So if you're a startup, we want to vet
the concept, vet the idea.
We want to determine whether or not
the idea, by doing some market research,
is going to fit within the demographic area
that you're looking to host your business.
So let's say you're going to be starting--
I don't know.
Pick something.
DONALD ALLEN: Underwater basket-weaving.
COREENA CONLEY: OK, underwater basket-weaving.
And you want to have a retail site that is--
so you're going to build a tank, this whole retail facility.
DONALD ALLEN: Absolutely.
COREENA CONLEY: So what we want to do
is we want to take a look at what businesses and what
the economic trend is going to impact your business,
number one.
So that's the first thing.
So with your local municipality, what
is the five-year plan for that for that infrastructure,
for that municipality that's going to support your business?
Or is there another business that's
similar that's a box chain that's
going to come in that's going to have the same business
initiative that you're going to do?
And is that going to be your direct competition?
And what's the mile radius of that?
The other part of it is that, taking a look
at the economic research, we have
access to a phenomenal program that SBA provides to us
as VBOCs is called IBISWorld.
And IBISWorld allows us to pull economic trends
so we can assist you and give you the information that you
need to be able to value your business concept and idea.
So that might be the [INAUDIBLE] marketplace
of what you're doing.
But we want to make certain, where are
your sales going to come from.
Are you going to foster your relationships
and do contracts with corporations?
Are you looking for the general population sector?
Or is it a combination of-- how are you
going to generate that revenue?
And what does that strategic plan look like-- operationally,
financially, to your marketing, to your branding,
to your succession planning as well.
DONALD ALLEN: So one of the things that comes up is--
coming back to my underwater basket-weaving business.
COREENA CONLEY: Yes, this is such an awesome program
to get started.
DONALD ALLEN: So in my head, I'm going to do $5 billion
of revenue in the first week.
COREENA CONLEY: Yes.
DONALD ALLEN: If I bring that plan to you,
are there going to help me gauge some of that.
COREENA CONLEY: So we're going to give you reality therapy
is what I'm going to call it.
DONALD ALLEN: Reality therapy, right.
COREENA CONLEY: So we're going to take a look at your industry
sector and what is reasonable cash flow that you're
going to generate.
So if you come in, and you tell me--
unless you have a contract with maybe a major health
care or a for-profit organization
that's going to say, we're going to give you
a contract for that dollar amount,
then that's going to solidify your revenue, right?
But it also depends on the terms and the conditions
of that contract.
So we sit down with you, and we take a look at what
your owner's infusion is.
Because you have to have working capital.
You have to have sustainability.
And so that's why your cash flow projection is really important
because it talks about your different revenue streams.
And you can't start out a business with $5 million.
DONALD ALLEN: No?
COREENA CONLEY: Well, you could if have a contract
or you have something that supports
that and evidence that.
Because more than likely, if you're
going to start out a business that's going to have $5 million
you said, within the first year?
DONALD ALLEN: First week.
COREENA CONLEY: First week?
That's-- you know, what?
That's very aggressive.
DONALD ALLEN: Underwater basket-weaving, it's
coming at you.
COREENA CONLEY: So you must be using Google, right?
And analytics to help you with that.
So what we will do is we need to make
certain that you have enough money to cash flow
your business.
So you have a $5 million contract.
You're going to perform it in the one week.
So how are you going to afford to have money
in the bank-- that's either your own owners infusion
or a line of credit established or some kind of funding
to support that contract?
Because more than likely, contracts
don't get paid until 90 to 180 days out,
depending on where it starts.
So what we're going to do is take a look, again,
at your industry sector, what is reasonable in that industry
sector?
What are some past performance?
Who is your competition?
So a mini-MBA program-- we call it the SWOT analysis, right?
What are the Strengths, what are the Weaknesses?
We're to call it areas of improvement, right?
What are the Opportunities for your business?
And what are the Threats to your business?
DONALD ALLEN: So a SWOT analysis, OK.
COREENA CONLEY: Yes, yes, and so we're
going to take a look at that and determine
what is a reasonable cost for the services
that you're offering or the products that you're offering?
So for your basket-weaving business,
is it just going to be isolated to a certain demographic area?
Or is it going to be or a national?
DONALD ALLEN: Well, I just presumed
that I would put it online and make my $5 million a week.
COREENA CONLEY: So again, we'll take it back
to reality therapy.
So what will happen is, all of our consultants in our program
have an MBA.
We have some that are CPAs as well.
So we'd have you sit down with a consultant,
take a look at your industry sector,
and put together a cash flow projection that's reasonable.
We're going to give you-- that's what
I call it the reality therapy.
And though the services are complementary.
We're not going to do the work for you.
We're going to mentor you and guide you through that process.
So the energy and effort that you put into it
is the rate of return that you're going to get out of it.
DONALD ALLEN: Oh, perfect.
COREENA CONLEY: We have a lot of the people that come in,
and they want us to do the work.
But if we do the work for you, then how
are you going to successfully own and operate your business?
DONALD ALLEN: Fair point.
But that brings me to an interesting question.
So I know a lot of veterans are thinking
about starting their own business as they get out.
What are the value that you see that a veteran brings
to starting up their own business?
COREENA CONLEY: That's really an excellent question.
So you've been a military member.
You know that Department of Defense
spends billions of dollars of training military members,
right?
DONALD ALLEN: True.
COREENA CONLEY: With their standard operating procedures
and also how to be able to handle situations that are
stressful situations, right?
You have a ready-action plan.
So that's what makes veteran business owners so successful.
I think you're at the top 90 percentile of success
ratio of them succeeding.
And it's also predicated on the industry sector as well.
But because they've been trained,
and it's how they take--
so let's say you're a veteran.
You've recently transitioned out.
And you're looking to start a business,
or you're already in a partnership in a business.
So what we want to do is take a look
at what the needs assessment are with your business,
where you're going to grow it, or how
you're going to start it.
And we're going to take that experience.
Maybe you're starting a business in whatever experience
you have in the military.
You want to transition that experience
into corporate America to start your business.
And we've helped many, many, many clients
through that threshold from--
they come in, they have a conceptual idea.
This is what I did in the military.
I was in charge of supply, the supply chain,
and I know that I could get supplies from point A
to point B. So we actually have a client that
came through this program about four years ago.
They started out with a conceptual idea,
and now they're running over $22 million in contracts.
But they allowed us to do our job
by guiding them and mentoring them
through that whole process.
So any business can be successful if you plan
and you strategize.
But that plan is just used as a barometer.
And because of the fact that things happen in business--
when you're an entrepreneur, and you start out,
you wear many, many hats.
You might be the CEO, but you're also
the janitor, which every job is equally important.
You can be accounts payable, customer service.
You can be the sales department as well.
And you can be your you own human resources department
as well.
So what we take a look at really is what your bandwidth
and what your skill set level is and to help you,
to those areas that you don't have that bandwidth,
to fill those areas either with collaborative partners
or resources that will give you what you need
to have a solid foundation.
But it's up to you to take the advice
and to implement the advice.
We can only give you the advice.
And we don't make decisions for you.
DONALD ALLEN: That's good.
No, it sounds really great, especially about guiding us
through in a nonjudgmental way.
That's really important.
What if my idea is super brand new, secret,
and I don't want anyone to know about it.
Is there confidentiality?
COREENA CONLEY: Absolutely.
So what I mentioned earlier--
so the consulting services that we offer
are confidential just like a bank fiduciary relationship.
So when you register for services with our organization,
we have a confidentiality statement.
And also, in there, it describes to that--
what that level of confidentiality is.
All of our consultants and all of our staff members
also have to sign a confidentiality statement
on an annualized basis.
And we train what that confidentiality means.
So let's say you're starting a business,
and you have a friend who's starting the same business.
And that friend calls in because they want to find out
about your business initiative.
So what we're going to do-- just like what a bank does, or just
like, if you have a medical care provider,
they're going to verify that it's you.
So we will ask them a series of questions,
like the last four of your social security number,
what branch of the military.
So there are certain key questions
that we ask them because we have access to that information
to verify that, when we're doing a telephonic consultation
or we're doing--
or someone's just calling in, that we
know that we're connecting with you and speaking with you.
DONALD ALLEN: So all right, this one is on behalf of my wife.
COREENA CONLEY: Yes.
DONALD ALLEN: What options are there
available for military spouses?
COREENA CONLEY: So there are the same opportunities
for military spouses for entrepreneur training services
to the VBOC programs as if you, the veteran, had came through.
It's as simple as that.
So we support veterans of all eras,
transitional military members, reservist guard members,
and spouses.
And so if your spouse is going to be in business with you,
we will have you sign an authorization of release form
because we serve the veteran, right?
And then, your wife would register for service as well.
And we would onboard her the same way that we onboard you.
DONALD ALLEN: [INAUDIBLE].
COREENA CONLEY: And so the same thing
if you are a veteran business owner and you
have a key management team.
Your key management team would register for services.
You would sign an authorization form for each one of them.
And then we would work with you as a team.
That doesn't mean that they can receive the services
in lieu of you as the veteran.
It's in collaboration, so we could build capacity
for you and your business, or with you, I should say.
DONALD ALLEN: OK, so what if my business isn't $5 million
a week?
What if it's really only about $20,000, $30,000 a year?
Do you guys still help with that?
COREENA CONLEY: So yes, so again, we--
it doesn't matter the size of your business,
whether you're a micro business, or you're a small business,
or you've generated no revenue whatsoever.
We're here to guide you, to mentor you,
and to support you if you're starting, growing, sustaining,
and all the way through an exit strategy.
And even through the exit strategy,
if you're looking to bring on another veteran
to take over your business, we'll mentor both of you
in that transition period.
Because we want to make certain that it's fluid
and that it's successful for both of you.
And we also help with the valuation and acquisition
of a business.
So our services are really broad.
So it's just not business planning
and strategic planning.
It's all about acquisitions and mergers--
access to capital is a big one.
DONALD ALLEN: That was actually my next question.
COREENA CONLEY: I can read your mind.
So access to capital is one of the greatest hurdles
that small businesses have, right?
Because it's all predicated upon the business itself.
What is the owners infusion?
What cash do you bring to the table?
Not you going out and getting a credit card,
taking a cash advance, that's not cash, right?
DONALD ALLEN: That doesn't count?
COREENA CONLEY: Right.
Well, it counts, but it's not true owner's infusion.
What collateralization?
So there's different types of financing that's available.
But financing for a small business
is unique to the business.
It's not like you're going to go buy a house and you're going
to give them your W-2s, your last year's s,
your 30-days' bank statements, and your last 30-days' pay
stubs.
It's different.
It's uniquely designed and underwritten
based upon the industry sector, your business, what
you say, in your strategic direction or your plan,
what your business is going to do,
and what does cash flow projections.
Again, I'm going to go back to the fiscal wheelhouse.
Whatever those projections say, are they
reasonable with the industry sector?
And do they make sense based upon what your marketing
plan is, your branding analysis, and whatever
those different revenue streams are going to be?
So we take a look at, not only you as a person, as a whole.
We take a look at your business as a whole as well.
And then, that's how we guide you.
So it doesn't matter if you're starting, sustaining, growing--
so we've had people that are survival mode, right?
We've had veterans that are deployed.
And we're helping them work with their business owner
back in the states.
And we're doing it telephonically
or emailing so their business is sustainable when they return.
DONALD ALLEN: OK, so this is my last question for you
before we move on.
So I know you're with VBOC.
Not all of our viewers are here in California.
COREENA CONLEY: Yes.
DONALD ALLEN: How do they go about getting access?
Can they get access to the service?
COREENA CONLEY: Absolutely, absolutely.
So SBA is a federal agency.
It's called the US Small Business Administration.
And SBA has numerous programs for small people--
or individuals that are looking to start, sustain, or expand
a small business initiative.
Because small businesses are the economic engine
of our great economy.
At the end of the day, it all boils down to that.
And with that being said, if you go
to the website at www.sba.gov, that's www.sba.gov,
and then the office of Veterans Business Development
is the program that funds and is responsible for the VBOC
centers nationwide.
DONALD ALLEN: Outstanding.
OK, well, great.
So thank you so much, Coreena.
If you don't mind staying with me--
COREENA CONLEY: Absolutely, yes.
DONALD ALLEN: Well go through some Q&A?
So now we're going to take a few questions live from Twitter.
As a reminder, if you have questions,
you can get those questions answered
using the hashtag, #VetLedLivestream on Twitter.
All right, let's hop into our first question.
COREENA CONLEY: Excellent.
We're excited.
What's the first one?
DONALD ALLEN: Ooh, OK.
This one is from the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
What would you recommend if founders do not
have a physical location and want to use Grow with Google?
All right, so unfortunately, you cannot use Google My Business
as an online-only business.
But you can market your business using SEO and Google Ads.
We've covered both of these topics in depth in our previous
Livestreams, which you can access
at g.co/grow/livestreams.
All right.
COREENA CONLEY: That's an excellent question.
DONALD ALLEN: All right, let's see here.
What else we got?
COREENA CONLEY: Question number two.
DONALD ALLEN: Question number two.
Well, let's see.
Oh OK, here's one for you, Coreena.
So this one is, what's the difference
between VBOC and SBA?
COREENA CONLEY: So the Veteran's Business Outreach Centers
are partially funded from the US Small Business Administration
due to public law 10650.
All of the 22 VBOC centers nationwide are--
some are nonprofit organizations, 501(c)(3)'s.
Some of them are also connected with local community colleges
and/or state universities on their economic development
wing.
So each one of them are independently operated,
but we are grantees from the US Small Business Administration
through the Office of Veterans Business Development
through the public law 10650, which started in 2004.
DONALD ALLEN: So it's working together.
COREENA CONLEY: Yes.
So basically, SBA is the federal agency
that allows us to be able to be the boots on the ground
to provide those direct service deliverables--
the confidential consulting services, the over 200 training
platforms on an annualized basis,
and then, the conferences that we host.
DONALD ALLEN: OK, cool.
All right, question number three.
COREENA CONLEY: Yes?
DONALD ALLEN: This one coming from Clayton Library--
how can vets get involved with Bunker Labs in Atlanta?
All right, well, actually, there's
actually an event in Atlanta tomorrow, which is still
accepting RSVPs for a launch event between Google
for Startups and Bunker Labs.
You can get involved by going to Bunker Labs
website at bunkerlabs.org.
COREENA CONLEY: And Bunker Labs is one
of our collaborative partners.
Todd Connor who is the executive director-- yes.
So the VBOC programs collaborate with a lot
of the nonprofit organizations and for-profit aid agencies
that provide those direct service deliverables.
DONALD ALLEN: So that's great.
You can access a lot of different resources,.
It's like owning all of them.
COREENA CONLEY: That's correct.
So they takes-- they say it takes a village
to raise a child.
So it takes a village or a multitude
of different agencies, nonprofit organizations, both federal,
state, local municipalities, institutions
of higher education to be able to serve our constituency base.
So we all work together and collaborate.
DONALD ALLEN: OK.
Next question here is from Avery from Madison, Wisconsin.
All right, are there more veteran-specific
workshops or lessons that you can recommend?
So I'll take first part if you want to take second part.
COREENA CONLEY: Certainly.
DONALD ALLEN: So as I mentioned before, Grow with Google
just launch a resource hub where veterans like--
where veterans can find products, tools, and lessons
to start or grow their businesses.
One resource is the Primer app.
Primer offers a quick and easy-to-understand business
and marketing lessons.
You can find topics like creating
a business plan, increasing sales, managing finances,
or more.
Primer also offers customers mini-courses
tailored to veterans and military spouses
that you can find by searching Veteran Led or [INAUDIBLE] biz,
with a Z in the app.
The URL is grow.google/veteranled.
COREENA CONLEY: Very nice.
So I'm going to add to that if I may.
DONALD ALLEN: Go, please.
COREENA CONLEY: So there are a lot of different resources
out there for individuals for their small businesses.
There's a small Business Development Center,
which is also funded by the Small Business Administration.
So if you're looking to do government contracting as well,
procurement technical assistance centers as well, they
provide, specifically, contracting opportunities
if you're looking to grow and expand your business.
International trade-- centers of International Trade
Organization, the Service Corps of Retired Executives as well
and the Women's Business Centers.
DONALD ALLEN: I know SCORE.
COREENA CONLEY: Yes, that's right.
You were a counselor with SCORE.
DONALD ALLEN: I was.
COREENA CONLEY: That's an excellent question, though.
DONALD ALLEN: Yeah, thank you.
Uh, what do we have here?
Sasha from Des Moines--
COREENA CONLEY: All right, Sasha, what do you have to say?
DONALD ALLEN: All right, what's the difference between Google
My Business and things like Google Places for Business
Google Business Profile, Google Listings, Google Plus Business
Pages?
OK, I can get that one.
COREENA CONLEY: OK.
DONALD ALLEN: Google My Business let
you take advantage of your businesses present on Google.
So with your Google My Business account,
you can manage and update your business profile
and build a website to attract engage more customers.
Google My Business business profile
encompasses what was once known as Google Places for Business,
the Google Listings, and replaces the Google Plus
Business page, so it consolidates and replaces it.
Oh, here we go.
This one is from Scott.
It says, is there a search feature
to make the veteran badge searchable?
And how do we shop and do business
with vet-led businesses locally?
All right.
I'll take this one.
The attribute is not currently searchable.
The attribute will show up in two places.
So in Search, when you're searching
for a place using an Android mobile device,
users will see the attributes like veteran-led
on the profile.
And when searching for a place using an iOS mobile device,
users will need to use a Chrome app in order to find a place,
and then, they will see the attribute in a highlight
section.
On Maps-- on Maps, all users will
need to open a business listening
and tap the two-line description of the business
to see the attributes associated with that business.
So it's more of an abbreviated version on the Maps
versus when you go and do a search.
And let's see here, OK, so this one's for you.
COREENA CONLEY: OK.
DONALD ALLEN: This is from Sylvia inside Albuquerque.
I only have a business idea right now.
What are some things I need to consider before starting
a veteran-owned business?
COREENA CONLEY: Well, that's an excellent question.
So my first and foremost recommendation for you
is to get into sign up for services with a local Small
Business Development Center, a Veteran's Business Outreach
Center so they can actually help you--
or SCORE--
DONALD ALLEN: Or SCORE.
COREENA CONLEY: To vet that process of what
your concept of what your idea is
and how that concept or whatever the idea is that you have,
how it fits within the marketplace.
So the most important thing is get to the local resource
partner, either a Veteran's Business Outreach Center--
you can find them on the sba.gov website.
And let those professionals assist
you to help you mentor you to walk you through and evaluate
that concept or that idea.
DONALD ALLEN: Yeah.
COREENA CONLEY: Because you want to find out whether or not
it's going to be feasible or not feasible.
DONALD ALLEN: Absolutely.
And I'll also plug SCORE here from the SBA.
So when I was a mentor over there, a lot of the times,
we would take in businesses that were still in the idea phase
and didn't really have anything flushed out.
And we would help walk them through the fleshing out.
But in the same tone, we weren't going to do the work for you.
We would give you the tools, and you need to go do the legwork.
COREENA CONLEY: And that's where--
when I go back to the needs assessment,
just like you go to a health provider,
they're going to do a needs assessment based
upon your health needs.
So we do a needs assessment based upon your business needs.
What is your experience in the industry sector?
What do you bring to the table of your knowledge?
Because it's one thing to have a conceptual idea,
but not had that subject matter expertise
to be able to perform the deliverables.
So then we have to identify, can we
find someone who has that subject matter expertise
that you can hire or be your partner in that business?
So it's just basic evaluation.
So then, that way, the reason why
we offer the services is, we don't
want you to start a business, and we've had people do this.
They come and go, we want to create a plan, right?
We're just going to start a business.
So they'll come in.
They'll say, this is an excellent service.
We'll start them in that direction,
but they don't want to create a strategic plan.
What they want to do is they go out,
and they sign a lease agreement, they're
in a retail store front.
And then they come back six or nine months later saying, hey,
we don't have enough money to flow.
So then, what we do is we take a look at either a sustainability
plan or survival plan or an exit strategy,
whatever their particular situation is.
So that's why these resources are so important.
DONALD ALLEN: Absolutely.
COREENA CONLEY: They're complementary.
They're paid by your public tax dollars.
These are people who are-- they are certified.
They're professionals.
They know their industry sector in and out.
And they're there to guide you and mentor you.
So the first thing I would do is to go to sba.gov.
Find your local resource partner,
whether it's a VBOC, and SBDC, a Women's Business Center,
or, SCORE whatever it might be, and then get services
from them.
Let them guide you and mentor you through that process,
so you can make good, valid business decisions.
DONALD ALLEN: Outstanding, yeah.
COREENA CONLEY: That's a great question.
DONALD ALLEN: So the next one is Clayton Library.
Can you briefly briefly discuss the Patriot Boot Camp
Partnership, or--
OK, I can do this one.
So our Google for Starters Partnership
will pair startups founded by veterans and military spouses
in the Patriot mentor program with advisors from Google
to provide product expertise.
We're especially excited to support the Patriot Boot
Camp as they inspire and equip additional military spouse
and veteran founders to succeed.
Wow, we've got a lot of questions all of a sudden.
COREENA CONLEY: That's because you're doing a fabulous job.
DONALD ALLEN: All right, so this one
is from Justine from New York.
Is Google Reserve the same as the appointment booking
feature?
OK, no, but they do work together.
So Reserve with Google connects to a wide variety
of online services that let you book, reserve,
and get things done like Mindbody, Tripadvisor, Booksie,
and many more.
So if you choose those services, it automatically
connect you to your Google My Business business profile.
COREENA CONLEY: Very nice.
DONALD ALLEN: Got another one here from Justine?
No, that's a copy there.
This one's from Lily from New York.
COREENA CONLEY: New York is live.
DONALD ALLEN: I know, they're definitely here in force.
Is there a one-stop place where I
can learn more about Google's resources for veterans?
Yes there is, actually.
So please visit grow.google/veteranled where
you can find Grow with Google's free tools and resources
for veteran-led businesses.
And again, that's grow.google/veteranled.
COREENA CONLEY: That's an excellent question.
DONALD ALLEN: They're coming.
They've definitely woken up.
So this next one is a Julia from Ann Arbor.
All right, so I own a business, and one of my employees
is in charge of responding to text messages that come
in from Google My Business.
Is there any way that I can monitor the messages?
OK, so no, but you can see the average response time
if you have an Android device.
Reports in Messaging Insights will display the average wait
time for a message response using the last 28 days of data.
To see the reports, just go on your Android phone or tablet,
open the Google My Business app, and tap Customers and then
Messages, and you should better get a report.
All right, well, I think that's about all
the time we have for today.
And I hope that you found this information valuable.
Thank you, Coreena.
COREENA CONLEY: Thank you.
Thank you for your service and inviting me out today.
DONALD ALLEN: Oh, thank you.
And thank you for joining us.
And thank you all for attending the Livestream.
From all of us here at Google, I won't say a Happy National
Veteran Small Business Week.
Thank you.
COREENA CONLEY: Sign out.
[MUSIC PLAYING]