KULR-8: Senator Daines Teams up with Google to Bring Small Business Workshops to Bozeman, Billings

BILLINGS – Representatives from Google hosted a free technology workshop for Montana’s small business owners in Bozeman and Billings.

Daines’ workshops are part of Google’s “Let’s Put Our Cities On The Map” small business events. Google experts will help small business owners create their own websites and train them on how to reach more customers and get discovered online.

Daines said, “You’ll see the tourist, you’ll see members of the community looking at their phones. They’re probably doing some kind of search to find a product or a service and what we’re doing here today is helping these small businesses learn, how to better use these tools, like Google, to drive their businesses forward.”

Daines said he’s glad to have Google in Montana, helping our businesses learn how to use a tool, like Google, to more effectively grow the business and more jobs. He said the internet is a very powerful tool, and small businesses are learning how to better apply the tools they can Google, to move people into their business. Businesses at the workshop received a customized domain name, free web hosting for one year, a local business listing on Google Maps and much more. Google is a way to find small businesses, and consumers go to Google to find where to buy food, products, and services.

Hillary Ross, People Operations Associate at Google, said “Hope that they’ll get new customers, increase growth and maybe even add new jobs in the Billings economy, because data shows when you’re online all this is possible.”

Joan Bergin, from Melstone, Montana, said “We’re hoping to enter the 21st Century with Google and be able to advertise online for 2 of the things that we do on the ranch.”

Bergin said she’s hoping by the end of the workshop, she can get people to come out to the ranch and see what she and her husband do. She said it’s really important to promote Melstone and to reach more customers online.