Getting Back to Business
- Posted April 13th, 2006 at 8:49 am by Yahoo! Search
- Categories: News/Announcements
Having recently returned from a small business event in New Orleans, we wanted to blog about our unique ‘ and fulfilling – experience.
Katrina impacted as many as 200,000 small businesses in the greater New Orleans area and along the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coasts. Being Louisiana natives, and knowing so many loved ones impacted by this terrible disaster, we wanted to find a meaningful way to help make a difference. Inspired by previous Yahoo! employee efforts to help address ongoing needs for the Gulf Coast’s recovery, we were confident we could support something specifically for the small business community.
We went to work on an event to give local entrepreneurs and small business advocates a ‘one stop shop’ for opening their businesses online. Soon, with the help of event co-chair and fellow Yahoo! Carol Lynn Martens, we earned the support of BellSouth and Solid Cactus (a website developer), along with the small business development centers of Louisiana and Mississippi. Of the 200 local entrepreneurs who attended the April 7 event, only a fraction of their businesses are currently back up and running. This was hardly surprising – we’d seen the empty streets with our own eyes and boarded-up windows and remaining debris all around New Orleans and the Gulf Coast area. A shortage of labor has caused stores to run with reduced hours and generated national attention. Even fast food restaurants are offering $12+ dollars and hour and several thousand dollar signing bonuses in order to attract much-needed labor.
In the morning, attendees of the New Orleans event sipped coffee as they shared their goals for the day: to learn about hosting and building a web site, implement e-commerce, and launch a sponsored search campaign (all provided by Yahoo! free of charge).
Afternoon sessions concluded with bursts of excitement and high fives all around. The majority of attendees launched new or improved online presences — like this one from Syble Fine Jewelry.
We left New Orleans thankful that we helped a little- helped by taking the time to teach them how to rebuild online and helped to remind them that their entrepreneurial spirit is important to the recovery effort ‘ and to their region.
David Filo (co-founder of Yahoo! of Lake Charles, LA) & Melissa Chaika Sobel (marketing manager, Yahoo! Small Business of Slidell, LA)
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That was heartwarming. :-)
Decades from now Online commerce will be a natural extension of Companies, and will buffer the effects of brick and mortar disasters – and Visa-Versa
http://digg.com/deals/Yahoo_Donates_eCommerce_Hosting_Click_Ads_to_Katrina_BIZs
That is very nice of you guys.
Yahoo giving free seminar for the people who lost business in katrina.
I urge you guys to do it an international thing. Africa, Middle East, and Asia for the 3rd world countries.
If you guys support that, you would see wonderfull technoology up. Helping 3rd world coutries acheive what they want to.
Nice IBM laptops :)
yes. nice.
but what about those who lost their loved ones? can technology replace that? can yahoo provide or fill in the void their loved ones left behind? vast majority, if not all, not all new orleans, or the world for that matter, are entrepreneurs. upper middle class and above are the entrepreneurs. what about the rest? the majority that comprises lower middle class and lower class?
development has to start from within. from one’s self. so what can you offer?
First we applaud the efforts of Yahoo to enable locals in any region. While we feel this is a valuable starting point, we feel much more needs to be done- as we see many more powerful actions done daily by many in different regions. Please regard Peachy’s comments as a passionate do’er not as any person or group saying one is better than. All enablement should be applauded and we applaud your work here.