Thinking of starting a new business? Own a local business and looking for resources and new ideas? Looking for a directory of solopreneurs and small businesses in Columbus? Just plain interested in local news and growth in your community? Look no further than Metropreneur.
Launched Tuesday, August 3rd, TheMetropreneur.com seeks to be the go-to Columbus news source and directory for small businesses and entrepreneurs, in addition to offering social networking functionality to connect its user community.
I chatted with founder Walker Evans (of ColumbusUnderground.com fame) about the project.
What made you decide to start Metropreneur? Who else is involved in the site?
Around six months ago, my wife Anne and I were wrapping up the process of bringing her into a full-time position with our company, Evans Creative Group, and we had just started to brainstorm about what our next goals or projects would be. We’re continuing to grow ColumbusUnderground.com, but we were also toying with the idea of creating some sort of “spin off” type project that would focus on topics that we only occasionally cover on CU. The topic that quickly rose to the top of our list was “Small Business Development and Entrepreneurship”. We did quite a bit of local and national research, started reaching out into the community to assess our ideas for the project, and after a few months of development, TheMetropreneur.com was launched on August 3rd. Anne and I are handling most of the operations side of the new business while our launch team is rounded out by Melanie McIntyre, our Editorial Director and Jared Thompson, our Advertising Director. Both are seasoned media professionals and are great assets on this new venture.
What kind of information do you plan to share on this site?
The Metropreneur is a local/regional resource that will cover small business news throughout Central Ohio. We have small business profiles and success stories, topical and trend-based articles, Q&As and interviews, community spotlights, guest editorials and more. We feel that The Metropreneur will be a unique resource as the only dedicated media outlet in town that focuses exclusively on small businesses and startups. We’ve also put together a “Local Resource Database” that contains over 100 individual organizations and companies that provide different types of assistance to local entrepreneurs. That includes financial assistance, marketing firms, social media consultants, local government programs, retail opportunities and more. That database will continue to grow as we regularly add new resources to those lists. I should also mention that all of this content is provided for free.
What audience do you think will benefit the most from Metropreneur?
Our primary target audience is the small business owner or aspiring entrepreneur. We want The Metropreneur to play a proactive role in local economic development by helping new businesses get started and existing small businesses thrive. Additionally, we’re already seeing that some of our audience on the site falls into the category of “B2B” Service Providers… business owners or outreach coordinators who are looking to connect with small business to network or to provide services or products. And last but not least, we’re anticipating that the general public will become more and more interested in what we have to offer as well. The locavore and “buy local” movements are rapidly growing as more and more customers are preferring to support their local economy and get to know more about their local businesses and business owners. Even if those customers aren’t interested in starting their own business, they may find a lot of our content interesting as it allows them to see a little bit more of what is happening within the local small business community and build their own personal awareness.
If someone is interested in contributing articles, what should they do?
If anyone is interested in contributing a guest/community editorial, send a quick idea or pitch to Melanie McIntyre: mmcintyre@themetropreneur.com. We’re looking for rich content that is topical, timely, thought-provoking and informational. Also, if there is a topic that anyone would like to see covered more in-depth, or an idea for a small business that deserves some media attention, send those ideas to Melanie as well.
