Somebody in Your Town Searched for What You Do This Week.
They found somebody else.
Not because that business is better than yours. It’s usually because Google could read their profile and couldn’t quite read yours.
Here’s the 8-minute audit that shows you exactly what’s missing.
This is built for Maryland business owners without a marketing team, storefront, or spare afternoon.
You Did the Hard Part Already.
You built the business. You do good work, and your customers like you enough to send their friends.
But still, when someone in your area pulls out their phone and searches for exactly what you sell, you’re not in the top results.
It usually comes down to one of these:
- You claimed the profile years ago and haven’t opened it since
- You filled out the profile, but it’s never brought a single person through the door
- You work out of your house and weren’t sure you were even allowed to have a business profile on Google
- You’ve been meaning to get to it, and that’s been true for a while
None of these mean you’re bad at this. They mean nobody ever handed you the list.
I’ve Watched Too Many Good Businesses Stay Invisible.
I’m Paula, and I run Chesapeake Bay Solutions out of Columbia, Maryland. I work with small local businesses. Not big names; the little guy, building something that matters in their own community.
I kept running into the same thing: owners doing excellent work, quietly missing out on customers who were actively looking for them, for reasons that took an afternoon to fix.
So I wrote down every single one of those reasons, and found that there are 18 of them.
I’m not going to tell you your business depends on a Google profile, because it doesn’t. Your Google Business Profile is one piece of a much bigger picture, and anyone telling you otherwise is trying to sell you something.
But it’s a piece that keeps working while you’re at school pickup, and that’s more than most marketing can say.
Open It. Fill It Out. Fix 3 Things.
1
It works far better as an audit than a memory test.
2
18 items across 3 sections. “Not sure” counts as blank, and blanks are the entire point.
3
Add up your score and read page 8.
That’s where 18 gaps narrow down to the 3 fixes that actually outrank the rest.
4
One row. Not all 3. That’s the page that decides whether this actually happens.
This Isn’t Something You Read. It’s Something You Fill Out.
The 18-point checklist
Split into 3 sections: can Google place you, can Google tell what you sell, and does it look like anyone’s home.
A scoring page with zero shame
Progress bands instead of grades. Nobody scores 18, and I say so out loud.
The “if you only do 3 things” page
The 3 fixes that carry more weight than the other 15 combined, with time estimates and a first move for each.
A planning grid built around real life
The 15-minute pocket, the 45-minute pocket, the after-bedtime pocket. Assign one and you’re done.
The home-based business section
You’re allowed to have a profile without a storefront. Most people who skip it don’t know that, and it’s the most expensive thing on the list to get wrong.
In 8 Minutes You’ll Know Exactly Where You Stand.
Not a vague sense that you should probably do something about marketing. A number, a list, and 3 specific things to fix, in the order that matters.
And if you skip it? Nothing dramatic. Your business keeps running the way it’s been running.
Except somebody in your town is going to search for what you do next week too. And the week after that.
They’re not choosing your competitor on purpose; they just can’t find you.
You Won’t Find a Free Afternoon, and Thankfully, You Don’t Need One.
I stopped waiting for a free afternoon years ago. What I have instead are pockets, and this guide is built for pockets. It’s built for the carpool line and the hour during practice, after bedtime, and with your laptop on the couch.
It takes about 8 minutes to find your gaps and 4 minutes to fix the biggest one.
Everything else can wait for next week.
In service and sincerity,
Paula Henry
Chesapeake Bay Solutions LLC | Columbia, Maryland
Beekeeper, Scoutmaster, quilter, and a person who left a 10 year career to build something around her family.