As New York went into lockdown last year, Simplisk, a Rockland-based branding and marketing company, got to work pitching in to help small businesses struggling to survive the pandemic.
According to Sheila Keenan, co-founder and principal of Simplisk, it has always been the company”™s mission to help small businesses, and that critical time was the inspiration for its Rockland Main St. Marketplace.
“When New York started the lockdown, when that came into effect, we wanted a way to really support small Rockland businesses, but also to help the community come together digitally, since we had to be apart physically,” Keenan said. “So in that isolation, we were recognizing that there was a need for small businesses to be supported, but also for people to be able to impact their local area.”
The turnaround time to launch was quick, especially considering that Simplisk is just a two-person operation so far.
“It was seven days from when we started development to when we launched,” Keenan said. “On March 13, that”™s when lockdown started. On the 15th, we had the concept and on the 20th, we launched the marketplace.”
In the beginning, it centered mostly on food and restaurant businesses, which had been and remain still heavily impacted by the pandemic. It provided a central way for consumers to know whether restaurants were open or closed, operating with curbside pickup or offering family meals.
As the pandemic wore on, visitors could find out whether neighborhood spots were hosting outdoor or indoor dining, doing takeout or offering alcohol to go, among many of the other variables that have sprung up in the industry this year.
It”™s not just restaurants, however. The marketplace has a spot for every local industry. Keenan and her partner built it to be a resource to uplift small businesses of any kind. They also included a directory for business support and reopening resources, and even public health resources for anyone to access.
“We see and we hear from people that they really want to support small businesses, but they find it very difficult or inconvenient. So we want to make it simpler while also helping to strengthen our local economy and small businesses,” she said. “These small businesses are the engines of innovation and when they die off, you lose a lot of ingenuity and so we really didn”™t want to see that.”
Both members of the team have significant experience in marketing on a larger scale. Though Simplisk has only been around as a business since 2018, they had both previously been working in marketing with large corporations. Keenan worked at Pfizer in Pearl River until the corporation downsized the plant, at which point, she was able to reevaluate her goals.
“I realized I had a passion for working with small businesses and a variety of businesses, not necessarily in one industry,” she said.
The Main St. Marketplace platform certainly reaches a variety now, with nearly 700 Rockland businesses in 22 categories participating, and is particularly successful around holidays and special occasions.
It also hosts an online “window shopping” feature, through which businesses can sell their products directly on the site.
The platform”™s growth has led Simplisk on a new path for the project: Keenan and her partner are working on a rebranding effort and focusing on developing new features. Currently, the marketplace is accessible at simplisk.com/marketplace, but soon it will find a new home at OneRockland.com.
The platform”™s features have been free so far, but starting in July, window-shopping services will be available through a premium subscription. All other basic services will remain free and even expand, adding features such as events and deals exclusive to the platform.
Keenan”™s goal is to help businesses first and foremost, and recognizes that many modern business services that have become essential, especially in the technology sphere, have significant tradeoffs for businesses.
“As a small business, those things (like fees) are a difficulty,” she said. “I think that everybody”™s aware of the Doordashes and the Grubhubs, which are great services that are out there, but depending on how much they”™re taking off the top of a service, the less a business is left with at the end of the day. Our goal is to help small businesses, so the last thing we want to do is be a hindrance to their sales. We really want to be an ally in their endeavors.”
Soon, the marketplace will also expand into offering its services for local musicians, artists and even podcasters.
Another new feature, Rockland RoadTrips, is also in development. Keenan said that Simplisk is discussing with Rockland County Tourism a partnership to launch the feature alongside a new campaign from the tourism agency, to promote local businesses, activities and places of interest across the county.
“I grew up in Rockland, I”™m originally from Pearl River,” Keenan said. “I”™ve always found as I”™ve grown up around here that it”™s a tough place to navigate, for locals as well as visitors.
“So one of the goals that we have with Rockland RoadTrips is to make that navigation a bit easier. So with this new feature, locals and tourists are going to be able to use our ”˜concierge service”™ to create their perfect day in Rockland, or they can check out our sponsored, preplanned itineraries, which can be half a day, or a day or a weekend, and they”™ll really focus on local businesses, local activities and local places of interest across the county. And one thing that we already have on the Marketplace is interactive mapping, to get them there a little more easily.”
While Simplisk is busy expanding features and crafting a local focus in its home county, branching out to new markets hasn”™t been ruled out, as long as the heart of its mission remains.
“As you can imagine, it”™s a very complex effort to digitally capture an entire county, so we are very much hyperfocused on Rockland for right now,” Keenan said.
“With that said, we are open to the possibility in the future of working with other municipalities at the county level to bring our technology to them, but the model of that would be very different. We will always have a hyperlocal sense, so let”™s say if we were going into another county, that would have a hyperlocal feel to it as well.”
