STEUBENVILLE, Ohio -- Digital platforms and tools have changed how small businesses operate and succeed. Companies like Facebook, Google, and many more help my family run our restaurant, connect with customers, and grow the business. However, the rhetoric in Columbus and Washington, D.C., about breaking up or changing the way these companies operate should concern every small business owner in the Buckeye state.
Three generations of the Scaffidi family work together. Our goal is to run a local neighborhood restaurant serving homemade Italian food in a comfortable, relaxed environment. We arent pretentious or fancy; nor are the ways we use digital technology.
We use Google Ads and we optimize keywords, so that customers find us in search results and in video ads on YouTube. Facebook and Instagram help us reach countless new customers in fun and engaging ways. We post pictures and videos of my grandmother and aunts making fresh pasta and homemade tomato sauce. When the weather is nice, we advertise our new outdoor patio. We spend only a few dollars, but we know quickly whether an advertisement is successful.
Digital platforms provide remarkable data and analytics that empower us to reach customers in ways we had never imagined a decade ago. For the first time, the platforms have made sophisticated marketing available to small businesses with even smaller budgets. Previously, small businesses advertised in the Yellow Pages and used coupon mailers and hoped that people would see their ads.
Our digital technology is so much more than advertising. Gmail and Google Docs cost very little, but they are essential to how we run our business and communicate with employees and customers. We use Quickbooks to manage the books, ADP for payroll, and Sling to help with employee scheduling. These tools are relatively inexpensive, and they enable our neighborhood restaurant to compete with franchises and chains that have million-dollar IT and advertising budgets.
However, we are concerned that this might not always be the case. The Ohio Senate has held hearings about whether large internet companies are anticompetitive. Lawmakers may rewrite the laws to make it easier to break up tech companies, and Attorney General Dave Yost is part of an investigation into tech companies.
Do policymakers understand that if they force these companies to break up or change significantly, that would almost certainly mean fewer free or low-cost tools for small businesses? Advertising prices will skyrocket, tools like G Suite will get expensive, and countless small businesses will be punished.
Frankie DiCarlantonio and his family operate the Scaffidi Restaurant Group in Steubenville, Ohio.
There are so many industries where a few big players control more essential items than digital advertising just think about health insurance, airlines and gas stations. Why isnt there an effort to break up these conglomerates or change the laws to improve opportunities for new airlines, insurance companies, or oil companies?
Digital platforms like Facebook and Google are not perfect. But for our restaurant, the good far outweighs the bad. Our elected officials, whose campaigns use lots of digital advertising, should know better than anyone that these tools are inexpensive, effective and essential. Elected officials know that regulating the digital economy will have consequences far beyond big tech. They need to be sure that small businesses that rely on digital platforms are not collateral damage of these investigations or legislative efforts.
Frankie DiCarlantonio and his family operate the Scaffidi Restaurant Group in Steubenville, Ohio. DiCarlantonio also serves as the Jefferson County Democratic Party chairman.
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