Just a bit ago, I placed my entry in the Daily Kos rollcall diary, and when I got to the part about my profession, I entered this:
Self-employed Jeweler (biting my nails about the coming economic slowdown)
I wondered just how many other Kossacks were self-employed and also biting their nails, and thought there must be some way for us to all help each other in the 'Internet Age'.
So, this isn't too awfully long, and I'm hoping for help in organizing it, but here's the idea:
I want to find a way for all of us to support each other in our business endeavors-- every little bit will count in the slowdown that we keep worrying about, and even without a slowdown, it would be nice to be able to support the great people who post here.
My question is this:
Could we (and Should we) establish a kind of online Yellow Pages-style directory for all the Kossacks who are small business owners (or I-do-"X"-in-my-free-timers)?
I envision something that could be searched by 'businesses near me' (for things like, say, plumbers ;-P) or by 'type of business' for things that you can more easily purchase over the internet & have shipped (for things like, say, jewelry!)
I think we would just need to have people send some basic information: their location, a desription of what they do, and a link to their business website or other website where people can see contact info and pictures of the work. From there, it would just take a few hours of organizing, and a person with some website creation skills to add a search function button, and
VOILA! Instant DKos Directory for Small Businesses!
What do you guys think? Suggestions? Criticisms?