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Towni

Platform allows service industry staff to share and monetize their local expertise with customers they encounter daily
My name is Evan. I was born and raised in West Michigan and still continue to call it home to this day.
townico.com
5×5 Night Food and Farm Businesses
Voting Closes:

August 22, 2022 11:59 pm

About this idea
Travelers are constantly trying to immerse themselves in the local scene. Employees in the hospitality industry are the people that know the community better than anyone else. It has come time that Towni formally introduces these two parties. And while we're at it, we are going to make it beneficial for both sides. Tourists receive the best local recommendations and hospitality industry professionals receive tips for their recommendations. Now travelers can explore like a local and employees' tips don't have to end when their shift does. Towni is a digital platform that allows service industry employees(servers, bartenders, hotel employees, tour guides) to monetize their local expertise with customers they encounter naturally everyday. The process is extremely simple: 1) Through our website, Townico.com, employees sign up for an account. They are officially a Towni 2) They build out their profile by adding in their favorite local spots. Restaurants, bars, museums, parks, etc. The ideas are truly endless and are up to the unique taste of each Towni! 3) Once they are finished adding recommendations they simply hit the "Request Towni Cards" button on their profile. This notifies us to send out custom Towni business cards with unique QR codes linked to their profile of recommendations. 4) Once received, Towni's hand out their Towni cards to customers they naturally encounter every day! (e.g. a waitress handing out a Towni card to a family eating at her restaurant that is from out-of-town) 5) When a customer receives a Towni card and scans the link to the Towni's profile they can see the full list of the Towni's favorite local spots. They will receive a text with a link to the profile and 2 hours later, after they have had a chance to try out the recommendation list, an automated text will be sent asking for feedback and a tip for the Towni. Asking for recommendations from local people happens daily in this industry. We are avid travelers ourselves, we have met with countless people that are in this industry, and we have created a solution that helps everyone!
Impact
Heading into 2020 tourism was at an all-time high. This industry was obviously hit extremely hard in 2020-21 and new challenges emerged as they navigated through the pandemic. As a direct result of an entire industry being negatively impacted, the employees, the businesses, and the communities had to show resilience that few can understand. The impact of the Towni Movement is not just limited to Towni's, there is a widespread flow of positivity to everyone involved: - Towni provides new income streams for the people of this industry for their recommendations ** A waitress hands a Towni card to a family on vacation and recommends a newly opened ice cream shop. The family has a great time and a couple hours later, they tip the waitress $5.00 through the Towni app** - Towni can help highlight new and unique local spots that can be hard to find with the cluttered search engines of today **The great local sub shop tucked around the corner will never make a “Top Ten Things to Do” on a search engine, but they get direct business when a bartender makes it a Towni recommendation** - Towni allows restaurants, hotels, bars, tour guides and so many more the ability to pay their workers more without that money coming from their own pocket! **Working with bar owners, Towni is able to facilitate more income for the Bar’s employees at zero cost to the owner** - Towni unleashes people's inner creativity and entrepreneurship. Allowing them the freedom of running their own business within a business and reaping the benefits **Amazon created a platform for thousands of entrepreneurs to sell products. Towni creates a digital platform for potentially millions to tap into the “Tip Economy” and turn their knowledge of their local town into a revenue stream** At its core, Towni puts the grassroots of the travel and hospitality industry in the limelight. The industry, with incredible pent-up demand, is on an amazing comeback and we want to be a helping hand to everyone involved. The travel industry depends on the bartenders, the waitresses, the desk clerks, the tour guides, the valets and more. Towni empowers them all.
What I'll do with $5,000
$5,000 would be a tremendous help. We would use the money in the following ways: -$2,200 to build out an additional plug-in on the website to add additional texting capabilities to customers -$1,200 for online/digital marketing promotions and campaigns through social media, email, video -$1,000 for physical marketing materials to help build out presence in our initial markets -$600 for updated printer additions to do in house printing of our Towni cards
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About Evan Hart

My name is Evan. I was born and raised in West Michigan and still continue to call it home to this day.

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SUBMISSIONS THIS MONTH ARE FOR FOOD AND FARM BUSINESSES THAT ALIGNED WITH MICHIGAN GOOD FOOD FUND’S MISSION (OFFERS HEALTHY, AFFORDABLE FOOD; INCLUDES RACIAL DIVERSITY IN OWNERSHIP AND/OR EMPLOYMENT; AND IS ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS). IF YOU THINK YOUR BUSINESS IS A FIT PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR IDEA!

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