If you’re a retail business or one that serves a local market, there is a free and simple way to add to your arsenal of ways to be found.

Have you used Google maps lately? You’ve probably noticed on the map you can see names of sites. If you click on Search Nearby, red stick pins show up on the maps which indicate various businesses and landmarks. You could be one of those stick pins on the map. Any time someone Googles an area, you show up. Google Places not only provides the map, but each business can provide a customizable listing that pops up when the user clicks on the red pin.

A listing may already exist for you. Google attempts to put one together from info it gathers from the web. If one does exist, you can go in and modify it as you see fit. Check to see if one exists for you, and on the listing you can click on the Business Owner? Button to claim the listing and then modify it. 

It’s simple to set up if one does not already exist. Just go to Google Places and create your listing. Google provides step-by-step tools to create a great listing.The listing can be pretty robust. Not only can you put contact info, hours of operations, etc., but you can almost put a full Yellow Pages sort of ad in there. There’s room for photos, videos, and other information that your customers will find helpful. Logos and brand names work. You can advertise special events. Even insert a printable coupon. The listing can be changed regularly, so you can keep the info up to date and change coupons and add/delete events as needed.Google Places comes with its own analytics, so you can see how many impressions your listing has received, as well as click-throughs.Other search engines, such as Bing Local and Yahoo Local, have similar services. And if you like the results, you can also add Yelp and Foursquare for a full range of geo-listings.  For more info, go to the Google Places Help Center.

On January 30, 2010, Don Brozek of CenterPoint found himself judging Business Plans, one of the competition categories at a regional conference for Future Business Leaders of America held at Lincolnway West High School.

The conference and competitions attracted 250 high school students and their business class teachers.  The day started with a keynote address from State Senator Debbie Halvorson and continued with breakout sessions on a range of business and career development topics.

FBLA-PBL is the largest business career student organization in the world. It is a national organization which partners with PhI Beta Lambda business honor society to provide a quarter million high school students with the skills needed for careers in business and business-related fields.

After his busy day of judging and chatting to the participants at the conference Don was excited to see so many young people giving up their Saturdays, and getting involved and motivated by the conference events, saying ‘judging by the enthusiasm all around me on Saturday, I am optimistic again about our economic future, and the quality of the business plans was so good I hope we see many of them in CenterPoint ready to start their own businesses”. 

FBLA-PBL’s National Awards Program recognizes and rewards excellence in a broad range of business and career-related areas. Through state-based competition at the spring State Leadership Conferences, students compete in events testing their business knowledge and skills. Top state winners then are eligible to compete for honors at the National Leadership Conference each summer.Competitions ranged from creating and preparing business plans to banking and finance, marketing, management decision making, and website development. Winners advance to state and then national competitions.

Let us know how you feel about encouraging students to get involved in business activities while they are still in High School.