More small businesses seeing value of technology tools during the pandemic

For small businesses, the digital divide tends to be less about access to technology and more about knowing how and why to use it. But the pandemic has shown business owners just how valuable the internet can be to their bottom line.

Take Jukebox in Cleveland, for example.

The bar and restaurant has been around for about seven years, but before the pandemic, it didn’t have much of an online presence beyond a website and social media.

But when the pandemic shut the doors to bars and restaurants, owner Alex Budin worked to add an online retail component to Jukebox, selling bottles of wine and packaged cocktails. Even when Jukebox reopened to in-person dining, Budin kept the retail side going. Adding it was a “reactionary” move last year, but it has become “a key part of how we do business now,” Budin said. On-premise dining will always be the core of Jukebox, but the online options help.

And that goes beyond food and drinks. Jukebox long has had an active…

Read more…