Fab Dolan – Director of Marketing at Google Canada
Fab Dolan is the Director of Marketing at Google Canada. At work and in his talks, he draws on his experiences leading iconic businesses—brands such as Cheerios and Green Giant, and revolutionary upstarts such as Android and YouTube—as well as the experiences of the digital agencies, startups, and engineers he meets with regularly.
What is your key advice to small business owners for 2021?
2020 will forever be remembered as a year that shook small businesses. But, it should also be remembered as a year where Canadian entrepreneurs showed their resilience, creativity, innovation, and their ability to be nimble. Almost overnight, small business owners across the country closed their doors and had to pivot their operations online to stay connected to their customers – whether that’s implementing curbside pick-up, offering online yoga classes, or selling products through their website.
As 2021 gets underway, my advice for small business owners is to continue to build their presence online. The habits Canadians formed while staying home are here to stay and that means online is the first stop for many in their purchasing journey – even if they later end up purchasing in-store.
There are a number of free resources available for Canadian small businesses looking to get online for the first time and resources for those looking to expand their digital presence. See my top three picks below.
- If you aren’t online yet, Digital Main Street’s ShopHERE powered by the Google program builds websites for Canadian businesses for free. You can get your business up and running online in a matter of weeks. Sign up here.
- Visit Google’s Small Business Hub, which provides the tools needed to get online, connect with customers, and build digital skills. More than 1.5 million Canadians have visited the site to date.
- For small businesses looking to expand their presence in other cities or countries, check out Market Finder, a free tool to identify new potential markets, discover helpful operational information and start selling to customers at home and around the world.
