Jiten Thakkar Gets Candid About His Platform Local Forever

Jiten Thakkar is a digital marketer & entrepreneur, believes businesses should use the power of digital media & try to establish a strong brand. He has launched Local Forever with a vision to get businesses online.

Jiten Thakkar started his company Local Forever this year as he wants to help small and offline local businesses. A lot of business owners don't know how to promote their business well to witness a wider reach. Also, due to pandemic, a lot of them suffered loses. Hence, Jiten started his company and provides services that help them build a space online and to sustain in the market; that too at a reasonable rate.

In a detailed interview, Jiten Thakkar shares everything about Local Forever - the reason for starting it, challenges he faced, how he promotes his work and a message for aspiring entrepreneurs. Read it all below:

What is Local Forever & what problem is it solving?

Local Forever is a platform designed to promote local business growth at all times. It is a local business directory where companies can list their businesses for greater exposure, as well as provides offline companies with a very unique subscription-based pricing model for website based services to get their business online. This concept was introduced after learning about several offline companies who were unable to survive during the pandemic in the difficult market & even if they understood they needed a website they didn't want to go through the hassle of buying domain name & hosting from somewhere & designing the website from somewhere else. For many small enterprises the biggest challenge they face is that they don't have onetime lumpsum budget to invest in the website to get their company & products/services online. With Local Forever, my intent is to address and resolve these problems and to showcase that getting your business online can be a very easy and pocket friendly experience to get your business online.

You aim to help offline small businesses. How do you make sure that they know about Local Forever? How do you promote your company?

Since the launch of the platform, we have been promoting Local Forever through various mediums including organic & paid digital marketing, Radio Advertising. Social Media has given us a tremendous response. We have also explicitly reached out to multiple local business owners in various sectors in order to educate them about the need to take their business to where their customers actually are - The Internet.

What prompted you to start a venture that helps small businesses?

Small businesses play a pivotal role in the economic development of any country as they tend to have a relatively large number of workforce. Small business owners usually run their business smoothly, however, if they choose not to concentrate on various business generation platforms, during unpredictable times, they find their company's survival difficult. We all know that , small business has struggled to find customers or generate adequate revenue during the lockdown and reports of businesses shutting down during this pandemic is what prompted the need for setting up a local platform that not only serves as a meeting point for buyers and sellers but also helps small businesses with getting started in the digital space with total ease.

What were the challenges you faced initially and how did you overcome them?

The original challenges included partnering with local sources, making a fully-featured platform ready to launch in a short span of time along with a workable pricing strategy. Our innovative model enables businesses to enrol in monthly subscriptions plans without any upfront deposit. This is done to ensure that small businesses regain their momentum in a short span of time.

How did you deal during the extreme lockdown situation?

Patience & persistence are the two attributes that helped us cope with the lockdown situation. During lockdown the times were tough for the whole world, however certain niches suffered more than the rest like Travel, fitness, wellness etc. Hence on the onset, we took the opportunity to focus and support these industries.

Apart from helping small businesses and expanding your company, what are your goals for Local Forever?

The aim at Local Forever is to be a leading local directory platform with end-to-end solutions that would make offline to online conversion hassle-free. Other priorities for us include the launch of our own operational software, providing result-oriented digital marketing services and making digital simpler for the end-users.

What advice you would give to aspiring entrepreneurs?

My top advice for someone looking to start their own business or expand their existing business is to take "ACT NOW". The thought should be to move away from the planning and start executing their idea instead of waiting for the right time or focussing on perfection. No Idea unless implemented, is successful.

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