Adopt-A-Business

Happy GREAT Week, everyone! As a part of SUNY Geneseo's GREAT Day tradition, our wonderful Adopt-a-Business intern team put together a video showcasing our work this year in the local small business community. Check out how our program and the businesses we've partnered with have adapted and excelled despite pandemic challenges by watching at this link! https://cloud.ensemblevideo.com/hapi/v1/contents/permalinks/Fe6g7X3K/view

Special thanks to one of our interns, Ryan Houser, for producing this video!

Feel free to see the rest of Geneseo's GREAT Day program at this link as well: https://www.geneseo.edu/greatday-submissions/schedule

Adopt-a-Business in the Pandemic: Small Businesses, Big Obstacles, Bigger Opportunities Join the Adopt-a-Business internship team as we observe the unique challenges facing Western New York small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the academic year, our interns have collaborated with local business owners to work toward digital transformation by developing social media...

Do you own a small business near Geneseo? Are you interested in collaborating with one of our hard-working interns to improve your online presence and marketing tactics?

Adopt-a-Business is seeking businesses to partner with (virtually or in person) during the upcoming spring semester! Our trained, experienced student interns will be back in February and are eager to coach local businesses toward digital transformation.

You can register your business at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1hdCqCdCzYFzZoKTAGo-dSBAmtJ3uuUFUGUqHGg4okjzAkA/viewform?usp=sf_link.or help us get the word out by sharing the form with a friend. We can't wait to continue working with more local businesses in just a few weeks!

Adopt-a-Business Application Form (2020-2021) Use this form to register your interest in working with an Adopt-a-Business student intern. A member of the Adopt-a-Business team will be in touch with you shortly to discuss next steps. If you have any questions or problems filling out the form please email [email protected]. Thank you!

BIG NEWS FOR RURAL SMALL BUSINESSES!
https://mailchi.mp/ff384acfa302/special-edition-small-business-grants

💥 Special Edition // Small Business Grants! As part of our continuing commitment to elevate our impact in rural America, OneLISC is inviting small business owners in rural locations across the country to apply for the LISC-Lowe's Rural Relief Small Business Grants program. 

Check out the feature on SUNY Geneseo's Adopt-a-Business program in SUNY's Applied Learning Newsletter - the Umbrella!

Digital Main Street's Relaunch Main Street Program is open for enrollment! Completely free to businesses, this course will help small business owners relaunch their businesses with a focus on eCommerce and online marketing in the wake of COVID-19. The program goes beyond simply getting businesses online, it will help entrepreneurs create financial forecasts that allow them to recover from revenue loss, and transition their business model into one that relies less on foot traffic and face to face interaction.

enroll today!

Main Street Relaunch Program / Programme de relance de la rue Main - Digital Main Street Current Status Not Enrolled Price Free Get Started Login to Enroll   A $42.5-million investment from FedDev Ontario and an additional $7.45 million from the Government of Ontario brought together the Ontario Business Improvement Area Association, the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Area...

Our last Intern Spotlight is Nick Gartner! Nick is a senior Economics major with a minor in Business Studies. He is excited to have the opportunity to work with the local Geneseo community and sit down with clients to assist them in areas that need work. Nick is looking to gain experience communicating with clients and analytical skills. In his free time, Nick enjoys doing activities outdoors that include snowboarding, hiking, swimming, and various sports.

Thanks for tuning in while we have featured our eight interns over the past few weeks! Our consultations with local businesses have started and we are still looking for businesses to partner with this semester. Connect with us and register for a consultation if you or a business you know is looking to grow their digital presence!

Next up for our Intern Spotlight is Emma Janusz! Emma is a senior Business Administration major and Marketing minor from Buffalo, NY. She is excited that this internship will give her an opportunity to give back to a community that made her college experience so memorable. She is looking forward to getting to know her fellow interns and members of the community! Emma hopes to expand her knowledge about social media marketing and the importance of maintaining a strong digital presence. Outside of Adopt-A-Business, Emma is a member of RLK and spends her free time baking and making Spotify playlists. A fun fact about Emma is she was born in Cleveland, Ohio!

Our next Intern Spotlight is Ryan Houser! Ryan is a senior Communication major and Film Studies minor at Geneseo. What excites him about this opportunity is that he gets to meet a lot of new people around the community and help local businesses improve their social media presence. Ryan is looking to improve his interpersonal communication skills and develop more knowledge on how to use the different social media platforms. His passions are playing basketball, writing sports articles, and making podcasts with his close group of friends. A fun fact about Ryan is that he is an uncle!

Our next Intern Spotlight is Valentina Chavez! Valentina is a junior Business Administration major with a Marketing minor. The thing that excites Valentina the most about this internship is being able to give back to the community that has helped shape who she is today. The Geneseo community is very important to her, and she is very thrilled to have the opportunity to help small local businesses in her home-away-from-home! A couple skills that she hopes to improve are time management, communication, and entrepreneurship. Outside of Adopt-a-Business, Valentina is a Live Sales Coordinator for University Tees. A fun fact about Valentina is that she was born in Colombia, raised in Queens, NY, but just recently moved upstate!

Google's Annual Holiday Livestream will be held this Wednesday, October 14th from 9-10am!

Join us for a virtual watch party where you'll learn how to sell online to customers as they kick off their holiday shopping!

Can't make that date? No problem! Just click the link below and a playback link will also be sent to you.

Register here: https://community.grow.google/s/event/a0r1E00000ChGxI/workshop-20201014?tabset-7115a=2

Partner Event: Workshop: 2020-10-14 Learn how to sell online to customers as they kick off their holiday shopping this season. We’ll walk through the benefits of setting up an online store with Shopify and how to list your products on Google Shopping so that you can sell from anywhere. Plus, learn about more helpful tools to stand o...

Our next Intern Spotlight is Eric Brown! Eric is a junior Accounting major with a Marketing minor from Lancaster, NY. He is excited to work with local businesses around Geneseo and the surrounding communities. From this internship, Eric hopes to deepen his roots with the small business community, learning and teaching in all ways that he can. He hopes to gain insight on how to expose businesses to their communities and beyond through social media, and help develop/deepen a relationship between the two. Outside of Adopt-A-Business, Eric is an RA on campus in Livingston Hall. He enjoys spending his free time playing tennis, hanging with his friends, and most of all golf. A fun fact about Eric is that he can spin a basketball on his finger for as long as he wants!

This week's first Intern Spotlight is Sarena Toback! Sarena is a senior Business Administration major with a Marketing minor from Rhinebeck, NY. She is looking forward to working with the AAB team and getting the chance to work directly with local businesses. She is excited to learn all aspects of digital marketing and gain consulting skills. Outside of AAB Sarena is involved on campus in the marketing club, American Marketing Association, and serves as the current VP of academics for Sigma Kappa Sorority.

Up next for our Intern Spotlight is Chris Baglieri! Chris is an Accounting Major and minoring in Data Analytics. Before Geneseo, he grew up in Pittsford, New York and attended Pittsford Mendon High School. Chris is excited for the Adopt-a-Business Internship because he sees it as an opportunity to broaden his knowledge of small business processes and gain insight on how these processes can be improved digitally. He also sees the internship as a good way to supplement his Data Analytics Minor. He has not previously gone out into the Livingston County community much, but looks forward to the opportunity of meeting and working with local small business owners. Outside of school and Adopt-a-Business you can find Chris taking his dog Lava on hikes, biking through the countryside, or eating a big bowl of pasta.

Our first full day of Adopt-a-Business consultations is this Friday, September 28th. To kick off our partnership with the local community this fall, we'd love to feature some of our hard-working interns!

Our first Intern Spotlight is Madelynn Maiolo! Madelynn is a junior Communication Major at SUNY Geneseo. What excites her most about working with Adopt-a-Business is that she gets to learn more about what marketing really is by getting out into the real world and working closely with small businesses. She values the real world experience that the program offers, and the opportunity to give back to the community that she has been a part of the last few years. A skill that she would like to develop is digital creativity. Madelynn loves spending quality time with family and friends, practicing self care, cooking, and listening to podcasts. Outside of Adopt-a-Business, Madelynn is the Promotional Manager and a Mentor for the Geneseo Opportunity for Leadership Development (GOLD) program, a Teaching Assistant within the Communication Department, a member of Greek life, and a barista at Crickets. Madelynn is looking forward to the rest of her internship!

Adopt-a-Business is now taking clients for the fall 2020 semester! Be sure to tell your favorite small businesses about our program so that we can assist them with their digital media marketing needs.

Apply for an appointment here: www.geneseo.edu/adopt-a-business-apply

We are so thankful we were able to participate in Virtual GREAT Day this year! Our end of semester project was a Virtual GREAT Day submission where the students walk you through their learning objectives and the impact the program had on them.

Watch and learn about what Integrative Learning and the AAB Internship means to our incredible student interns!

Integrative Learning in Action: What My Adopt-a-Business Internship Means to Me

Looking for guidance on how to start your businesses' digital transformation? Adopt-A-Business and Letchworth Gateway Villages are excited to announce the launch of Digital Main Street - an innovative e-learning platform to help your business go digital.

Contact us to set up an initial consultation today!

Digital Main Street - Transforming Bricks-and-Mortar | Digital Main Street Digital Main Street assists main street businesses with their adoption of technology with easy to use tools and resources.

Are you creating actionable content for your business!?

This article breaks down why you need to start in 2020!

"Google and other search engines are looking for content that encourages users to take action..."

https://www.boostability.com/why-creating-actionable-content-should-be-your-2020-goal/?utm_source=boost&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Attention Required! | Cloudflare If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware.

Love this episode from Rochester podcast Queen Speaking talking about Brand, Brand Loyalties and How to Win Customer Loyalty from a consumer's point of view!

Where Do Your (Brand) Loyalties Lie? Today, we’re getting into what makes us loyal to a brand, what we pay attention to, and the impact of marketing. We also shout out a few of our favorite brands, including some local love.

Thank you to everyone who came to our Adopt-a-Business End-of-Semester Presentation last night! We are so glad we were able to share our experiences working with amazing businesses and organizations this semester, and we are already looking forward to next semester!

Adopt-A-Business is now closed for Winter Break. We will begin taking appointments again the first week of February 2020.

To register for an appointment please visit: https://www.geneseo.edu/cil/adopt-business/business-app

Thank you and we wish you a wonderful holiday season and New Year! See you in 2020!

Businesses | SUNY Geneseo Businesses will be able to work on campus with students through SUNY Geneseo’s Institute for Community Well-Being located in Doty Hall, Room 303, or receive support on-site in Perry, Mount Morris, and Geneseo via training clinics hosted by the Letchworth Gateway Villages Initiative.

Wondering what some of the benefits are of verifying your business on Google? This article explains some of the reasons why! Join Adopt-A-Business and Letchworth Gateway Villages at a free verification clinic on 11/22 for help with the verification process!

Benefits of Claiming and Optimizing your Google My Business Listing For SEO purposes, claiming and optimizing the Google My Business listing creates a strong signal to Google that your business is active and allows you to rank higher in local Google searches for your industry. Google has a strong preference for local searches which allows small businesses to compete

Not sure how to handle that online review? Learn best practices from Hospitality Pros at this Visit Rochester Event!

Social Scaries: Managing Your Online Reviews Social Scaries: Managing Your Online Reviews The hospitality industry can either thrive or die based on online reviews, and it can be an overwhelming process to manage reviews, comments, and feedback within online communities. Join us for an educational session that will help you avoid the "social s...

Get ready for the holiday season with Google's annual livestream event! Adopt-a-Business will be hosting a special viewing party on Friday, October 18th Wadsworth Library (Geneseo, NY) from 2:30-4pm. Register now!

We love our local businesses! Check out this spotlight on Hopp'd & Brew'd.

Local Business Spotlight: Hopp'd and Brew'd | Genesee Valley, New York Lodging, Dining, and Visitor Information Genesee Valley, New York Lodging, Dining, and Visitor Information

Tonight, October 8th 6pm-8pm, is the Destination Downtown: The HOW Behind the WOW event! You will not want to miss this event at the Big Tree Inn in Geneseo to learn about how to increase your "shopability" rating, where the"decompression zone" is in your business, and the secrets of effective merchandising that are proven to increase sales. Tickets can be purchased here: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07egirmgk5ef01ccb3&oseq&c&ch&fbclid=IwAR1ceCjTzhTH24D_lp-_db7bWeEDxBh_Hl7bchHttfI6Ev-TCL65WtXrF3I

Last but not least is Madeleine Metcalf! Madeleine is a Senior Business Major at Geneseo, and she is super excited to be interning with Adopt-a-Business this year. Madeleine loves the Genesee Valley community and has always wanted to take part in seeing the local businesses succeed. She is looking to grow her depth of knowledge of digital marketing strategies and hopes to meet a lot of the local business owners, as she is an aspiring business owner herself. In Madeleine's free time, you can catch her organizing the TEDxSUNYGeneseo event, or in the kitchen baking cakes!

Our next Student Spotlight is Michael Hughes. He is a senior Business Administration Major and Marketing minor at Geneseo. What excites him about this opportunity is that he gets to increase his involvement in the community and meet local business owners. He values the real world experience and getting to help businesses improve their online and social media presence. A couple skills that he would like to develop are consulting skills, creativity, and time management. A couple hobbies of his include listening to music, traveling - or just thinking about his next adventure! Besides Adopt-a-Business, he is very involved on campus and serves on the Dean of the School of Business Advisory Board, is the treasurer of the Marketing Club, and is the community service chair of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. Michael is looking forward to the rest of this internship!

Our next Student Spotlight is Julia McGaugh, a junior Communication major and Edgar Fellows minor from Latham, NY. Julia is excited to consult with clients and get to know the small businesses in the communities surrounding Geneseo. She is looking forward to collaborating with her fellow interns, who come from a variety of departments and offer a wide range of experiences. Julia hopes to expand her knowledge of the tools and platforms that can help businesses get their names out into the community. Throughout the year, she hopes to see clients gain confidence with these tools and wants to develop her mentoring skills in that process. Outside of Adopt-a-Business, Julia works in Residence Life as the Assistant Residence Director of Wayne Hall and serves on the e-boards of TEDxSUNYGeneseo and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. In her free time, she enjoys photography, bike rides around Geneseo, singing, and traveling. A fun fact about Julia is that she learned to juggle in China!

Our next Student Spotlight is Cecilia Kula who is a Junior Economics major with a Marketing minor here at Geneseo. From this internship, Cecilia is excited for the opportunity to learn from small local business owners. She is also looking to develop stronger communication skills. In her free time you can catch Cecilia hiking or kayaking!

Our interns had their first client meetings this Friday so it is time to meet the intern team with our first Adopt-a-Business Student Spotlight! Abby Sickles is a SUNY Geneseo Junior with a double major in International Relations and Economics. Abby is excited for this internship because it is a chance to push herself out of her comfort zone and increase her involvement in the community. She is looking forward to developing her professional communication skills as well as her understanding of the importance of utilizing digital media in a small business setting. A fun fact about Abby is that she studied abroad in Ghana and interned on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. this summer!

Business owners- would you like to grow and build your business? On Tuesday September 24th, there will be a free program held for start up business owners at the Livingston County Chamber of Commerce from 5-6pm.

At the meeting, you will receive a free copy of: Plan, Launch, Grow: Your Guide to Building and Growing a Small Business in Livingston County.

You will also be introduced to the resources available to you in Livingston County as a new entrepreneur. Please register at:
tinyurl.com/planlaunchgrow or, call 585-243-7124 to reserve a space for this FREE event.

All are welcome! Take advantage of this great opportunity!

Plan, Launch, Grow Come hear how the Office of Economic Development can help you BUILD your business and how the Chamber of Commerce can help you GROW your business! Plus, you'll hear from speaker, coach and consultant Frank Swiatek on leadership and management and receive a free e-copy of Frank's Book: How to Catch F...