Found this poster on a site called Nextdoor and wondered how many small biz and independent workers ( plumbers or electricians or Yoga trainers,etc) in Kerala can make such posters to promote their services.
It's said picture is worth thousand words. On the same lines, a picture (before and after) or an illustration about the service, or a poster on Canva or any AI tool can make a good first impression with a potential customer.
However, there's a problem! Almost 95% of labourers or cleaners or maids, and even small biz owners haven't got a clue on how to take a picture of their work and how to share it to a Facebook group or share it to their Whatsapp contacts for getting leads. Most biz depend on word-of-mouth marketing to get clients.
That's the Problem:👆
What's the possible solution? 👇
Here's is a Fantastic Idea on how to empower small biz owners and independent workers, blue collar workers with the tools to reach customers or share their work.
For this idea to realize, we need the help from an unlikely corner - high school students. It's a totally unique method which can change many lives and also give young boys and girls a first-hand experience in all aspects of small biz - marketing, tracking, messaging,evaluating biz ideas, mentoring, etc.
Concept Overview:
High school students will form groups to support local independent workers in their community by helping them market their services. Students will create posters, update contact information on a local portal, and manage social media presence for these workers. This initiative will give students practical experience in small business operations, marketing, and customer engagement.
Here are the step by step Process:
Detailed Plan for High School Students to Support Local Independent Workers
1. Formation of Student Groups:
Step 1: Divide students into small groups of 4-5 members.
Step 2: Assign each group a mentor (a teacher or a local business expert) to guide them through the project.
Step 3: Have each group select a locality to focus on, ensuring that different areas are covered.
2. Identification of Independent Workers:
Step 1: Conduct a survey or walk through the assigned locality to identify independent workers (e.g., plumbers, electricians, tailors, local grocers).
Step 2: Create a list of potential workers to assist, ensuring they are interested in receiving help.
3. Research and Understanding of Each Small Business:
Step 1: Each group meets with the identified worker to understand their services, target audience, challenges, and current marketing strategies (if any).
Step 2: Research on similar businesses to gather ideas on how to effectively market such services.
4. Creation of Marketing Materials:
Step 1: Students brainstorm ideas for posters, business cards, and flyers that will help promote the worker’s services.
Step 2: Design and create the marketing materials using tools like Canva or Adobe Spark.
Step 3: Ensure all materials include essential details such as service offerings, contact information, and any unique selling points.
5. Digital Presence and Promotion:
Step 1: Set up a simple online portal or social media page dedicated to promoting local businesses in the locality.
Step 2: Update the portal/social media page with information about the worker’s services, including photos, descriptions, and contact information.
Step 3: Teach the worker how to manage their social media presence, post updates, and interact with customers.
6. Engagement and Feedback:
Step 1: Encourage the students to monitor feedback from customers, including reviews and comments on social media.
Step 2: Work with the worker to respond to feedback, thank customers, and address any concerns.
Step 3: Identify areas for improvement in service or marketing based on customer feedback and suggest actionable changes.
7. Documentation and Presentation:
Step 1: Students document their process, including challenges faced, solutions implemented, and results achieved.
Step 2: Prepare a presentation to showcase the impact of their work to the school, mentors, and community members.
8. Reflection and Skill Development:
Step 1: Conduct a reflection session where students discuss what they learned about small business operations, marketing, customer engagement, and teamwork.
Step 2: Identify and document the skills they have developed, such as communication, design, digital marketing, and problem-solving.
Key Benefits for School Students:
☑ Skill Development: Students will learn essential skills such as communication, digital marketing, design, and problem-solving.
☑ Community Impact: Local independent workers will benefit from increased visibility and improved business practices.
☑ Educational Value: Students gain real-world business insights and experience that go beyond traditional classroom learning.
Conclusion:
This project not only enhances students' learning experience but also strengthens the community by empowering small businesses. It is a valuable initiative that aligns with educational goals and community service.
Let's take the example of high-school 8 std onward till Plus 12 students of Govt schools!
1. State Labor and Employment exchange together will create a new portal called NextdoorKerala ( Sample name). It can list all services under different heads. It will be designed not by NIC folks but by company like TCS or Infy or Wipro. The agreement is that they should sponsor this project, which includes maintenance, etc.
2. The kids should be given a 2 hr training on the objective of the project. The objective is simple - they first has to find out people who are doing daily workers ( electricians, plumbers, labourers, yard cleaners, maids, ironing people, home cooks who make food, etc). So, each class will be grouped in a team of seven students.
3. Students will be told to find out people who does good service, who are reliable but doesn't know how to advertize their service. For example, I recently saw an old lady carrying brooms made of coconut leaves. She was taking it to each household for a sale. So, such products information too should be collected.
4. Students will have a school mentor who will be a teacher assigned the job of collecting information and updating it on the NextDoorKerala site!
At this stage, kids will take picture of the person providing the service, collect phone number and contact information. They will do this on a fortnightly basis
5. Part from collecting information of local skilled people, phone numbers of auto drivers, taxi drivers, pick-up auto drivers should be collected. Such information makes it easy for people to hire them.
6. Each locality will have a physical board, more active and updated. Btw, we have seen how the board set up at junctions by Tvm Corporation are just blank. This board should be be smaller in side and located at both sides of the road.
7. Kids will take print out and post information about local biz, local talent on this board. also, each ward will have a Facebook Group or Page. This information will be posted on the online board.
8. The efforts by the teams must be supervised by a designated teacher and occasional meeting should be held to monitor the progress IT mentor or State Labor dept, or the portal handling company.
9. On the portal, there must be an option for registered user to put feedback of the service. ( star rating). If complaints or grievances come, it must be handed by the labor dept staff.
10. The final objective and ongoing success of the project comes from the way it's executed. Also, a highly rated labourer or worker or service provided will be given preference in the listing. Also, few profiles can be share in other FB groups like WIT so that they get more enquiries.
P.S - When I first took a screenshot of the image from nextdoor website, I just thought of sharing it for it's simple content value. And, only after writing few lines, then my mind veered to a larger idea of using a portal to share details of workers who don't have the skill to market their services. I liked the aspect o of engaging school students in community service.
Btw, today is August 15, Independence day. I just wish our country adopts a better call to use our local talent, make sure that every citizen has food on the table.
In Kerala, the minimum food can be rice, coconut chamandi, and one boiled egg and rasam. It can the basic food or bare minimal standard food that each person should have.
Can we have some food stamps where people who can't afford a day's meal gets a stamp and they can go to a local centre to have free food! For local centres, we can design something like Indira Canteen in Bangalore. I'm not sure how it works, but I have seen people having food there. I presume that food is subsidized in such places!
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