Thank you for wanting to learn more. I truly do appreciate it. I’m Nicole Smith, the founder.  I’ve been in the marketing/advertising/sales world since the original Grit newspaper was around. For those old enough to remember – I sold enough to earn the ‘illustrious’ ventriloquist doll!

I can not remember a day in my life that I didn’t think about the many ways to genuinely touch more people for one reason or another. From conversation styles to commercials. Not reach, but touch. Connect.

The “I understand you for where you have been. I respect your knowledge and life experiences and I really appreciate that you take the time to understand me”.  The unconditional, truly genuine, touch.

From a business standpoint, touch is tough!!  Not for all business owners, but for most – “the struggle IS real”. Balancing which cutting edge info/product is the right one to learn about this week. What seminars you should be involved with? And is that another upcharge from a vendor that supposedly locked in your price for a year?  Finding enough time to juggle each aspect of running a business can be more than exhausting.

From a customer standpoint, we are overloaded with commercials and spam email and phone calls from around the world. Each pushing products and services we are not even interested in. It’s frustrating to filter though all the hype when all we want is a simple answer. The closer to home, the better.

Customers want to know that the business they choose to give their hard earned money to, will fill their needs and will appreciate their business.

Business Owners want their customers to know that they value each and every customer they have.

So how can we accomplish this connection?

It’s tough. There is no easy answer. I know there are statistics and scientific facts, but each area of business, each type of business, each business owner and each customer is a unique piece of a much larger puzzle.

I decided to compile my napkin notes and created a county based website that encourages both customers and business owners to participate. I made it free to all users. All business structures are welcome, Home based to Franchises. The on-the-go-all-day-long mom to the disabled vet who can only leave the house once a month. I’ve done my best to create a community connector from businesses to customers and customers to businesses.

From a customer perspective:

  • Customer AND phone friendly website
  • Categorized business directory for the county with name, address, phone and map
  • Local Events Calendar – to keep up with events happening around town,and even submit your own
  • Local Church Calendar– all churches are welcome, bible school dates to mission fundraisers
  • Military Heroes Page – let’s acknowledge and appreciate together, the Heroes of our area -past and present
  • $1 Classifieds Page – post Happy Birthday with photos for $1 with the profits going to build a scholarship for high school seniors
  • Rate and Review your favorite local businesses on their listings to share your experience with others
  • Purchase a ShopGastonCounty.com reusable shopping bag with profits going to local, community charities.
  • FREE Monthly Drawing where 1 (one) lucky winner, wins a ShopGastonCounty.com reusable shopping bag full of coupons and freebies submitted by area businesses.

From a Business perspective:

ShopGastonCounty.com is focused on providing all businesses in the county with an online presence. We offer free business listings and free advertising opportunities. We share business’ Facebook and Twitter posts, whether paid subscribers on our directory or not.

All businesses also have the free advertising opportunity to be included in our monthly drawing by contributing a coupon, freebie or gift certificate. Our drawings are heavily promoted throughout the county, at our expense.

For businesses that do not have a website or wish to have a greater online presence, we provide subscriptions, for free and at a low monthly or annual rate.

A subscription includes:

    • Business Name (included in free listing)
    • Address (included in free listing)
    • Phone (included in free listing)
    • Pin on Map (included in free listing)
    • Category(ies) selected by you (included in free listing)
    • A full business description
    • Photos
    • Hours of Operation
    • Facebook Link
    • Instagram Link
    • Twitter Link
    • Website Link
    • The ability to track visitors to your listing

Let’s explore and support the businesses around us and let’s work together to show our customers that we could not make it without them.

This adventure started with ShopClevelandCounty.com in March of 2016 and in July of 2016, with the expansion of ShopGastonCounty.com.