Web site provides exposure
Local businesses receive a boost on shopsutter.com
By Ching Lee
Appeal-Democrat
ching_lee@freedom.comAlthough Rhonda Cameron has been a resident of the Yuba-Sutter area since 1984, she admits she never step foot in many of the small businesses in her community.
That is until she started working on the recently launched Web site, shopsutter.com
The Web site currently features 100 of Sutter County's small businesses, all of which get their own Web pages displaying their products and services. And they get if free for one year thanks to Sutter County, which allocated $50,000 in federal welfare and incentive funds to the project in hopes of stimulating economic development.
"This was a way to showcase them all in one place", said Cameron, who heads ThinkComputing, the driving force behind the project. "It was also a way to raise awareness for Sutter County and to get people to shop local, to circulate the revenue locally. If we can get people to spend their money her, then we have a better chance of generating jobs."
Sutter County initially contracted with Yuba College to do the Web sites, and the college eventually subcontracted with ThinkComputing to implement the project said Human Resources Director Ed Smith.
"The goal was to give Web sites to those businesses that didn't have them, " he said. "If they find this is successful for them, they may choose to do e-Commerce. But at least they can showcase their businesses on the World Wide Web."
The Web site's featured businesses where chosen on a first come, first-served basis, said Monica Hart, president of Cambridge Business Center, which together with Cambridge Career College, provided the marketing promotion and publicity for the project. The businesses were chosen to represent a cross section of the different businesses in Sutter County, she said.
"It was all done democratically through public announcement," said Hart. "It was anyone who got their stuff together first."
Cameron said the real challenge was looking for all of Sutter County's hidden treasures" - those businesses that may not have much of a presence in the community but offer products and services comparable to those businesses in bigger cities like Sacramento.
It took about four months to gather all 100 businesses and to build their pages, Cameron said. First, her team drove around the city looking for businesses. Then they approached the business owners about the Web site.
"Some were reluctant at first because here you've got people saying they are going to give them a free Web site," said Cameron.
But after a few businesses got onto the Web site, other businesses began to come around.
"We started building their trust, and they realized we weren't just trying get money from them - because that's what they really thought - but that we were trying to build something for them," she said.
When asked about the Web site on Monday, Daljeet Randhawa, owner of Preet Video on Lincoln Road, said he hadn't seen it yet, but noted a customer who came in that day told him he had seen it.
Although the store's name refers to videos and media, a quick cruise through shopsutter.com reveals the various merchandise Preet Video carries besides videos - including food, clothing and other gift items.
"I'm not sure using that much Internet myself, but I think (the Web site) will give more advertisement and opportunities for my business," Randhawa said.
Nancy Balkowitsch, owner of Hello Gardener on Plumas Street, likes the Web site and thought "they did a very nice job."
"I think any exposure is great. Every little bit helps," she said.
While she supports the project, she also believes it would be hard for her to know how many of her customers are coming into her store because of the Web site.
"I don't know how you'd track that unless you're selling on it," Balkowitsch said.
Smith said there are plans to expand the Web site to give other businesses the same visibility, but funding has not yet been allocated.