Small Business Shared Interest Group

As a small business owner, I was shocked when a customer came into our shop and said they were excited to do business with us since we are Veteran owned.  That's great, you may say.  Actually, it is not.  We are not Veteran owned, nor would I ever claim to be!  I asked where he had heard that.  He pulled up our Google listing and showed me that our listing stated we were Veteran owned.  I immediately called our website support and asked why they would post that.  Here is where the story gets interesting.  They didn't write it.  We, instead, found out that Google had re-written our business description using AI.  Because we had postings referencing Veterans (like thank you to our Veterans) the AI program had assumed we were veteran owned.  Here's the second challenge.  It's not easy to get changed. 

My advice to all business owners is please check your listings periodically to make sure they are accurate! 

As a small business owner, I was shocked when a customer came into our shop and said they were excited to do business with us since we are Veteran owned.  That's great, you may say.  Actually, it is not.  We are not Veteran owned, nor would I ever claim to be!  I asked where he had heard that.  He pulled up our Google listing and showed me that our listing stated we were Veteran owned.  I immediately called our website support and asked why they would post that.  Here is where the story gets interesting.  They didn't write it.  We, instead, found out that Google had re-written our business description using AI.  Because we had postings referencing Veterans (like thank you to our Veterans) the AI program had assumed we were veteran owned.  Here's the second challenge.  It's not easy to get changed. 

My advice to all business owners is please check your listings periodically to make sure they are accurate! 

As a small business owner, I was shocked when a customer came into our shop and said they were excited to do business with us since we are Veteran owned.  That's great, you may say.  Actually, it is not.  We are not Veteran owned, nor would I ever claim to be!  I asked where he had heard that.  He pulled up our Google listing and showed me that our listing stated we were Veteran owned.  I immediately called our website support and asked why they would post that.  Here is where the story gets interesting.  They didn't write it.  We, instead, found out that Google had re-written our business description using AI.  Because we had postings referencing Veterans (like thank you to our Veterans) the AI program had assumed we were veteran owned.  Here's the second challenge.  It's not easy to get changed. 

My advice to all business owners is please check your listings periodically to make sure they are accurate! 

As a small business owner, I was shocked when a customer came into our shop and said they were excited to do business with us since we are Veteran owned.  That's great, you may say.  Actually, it is not.  We are not Veteran owned, nor would I ever claim to be!  I asked where he had heard that.  He pulled up our Google listing and showed me that our listing stated we were Veteran owned.  I immediately called our website support and asked why they would post that.  Here is where the story gets interesting.  They didn't write it.  We, instead, found out that Google had re-written our business description using AI.  Because we had postings referencing Veterans (like thank you to our Veterans) the AI program had assumed we were veteran owned.  Here's the second challenge.  It's not easy to get changed. 

My advice to all business owners is please check your listings periodically to make sure they are accurate! 

When AI first became publicly available, we looked up my company and it listed the wrong owner. We have had a single owner/founder for 20 years, but AI listed one of the company's executive employees as the owner, which was completely inaccurate. Thankfully AI learns quickly, so hopefully these types of errors don't live out there too long. 

Checking your information regularly definitely seems to be the best defense against inaccurate information!

As a small business owner, I was shocked when a customer came into our shop and said they were excited to do business with us since we are Veteran owned.  That's great, you may say.  Actually, it is not.  We are not Veteran owned, nor would I ever claim to be!  I asked where he had heard that.  He pulled up our Google listing and showed me that our listing stated we were Veteran owned.  I immediately called our website support and asked why they would post that.  Here is where the story gets interesting.  They didn't write it.  We, instead, found out that Google had re-written our business description using AI.  Because we had postings referencing Veterans (like thank you to our Veterans) the AI program had assumed we were veteran owned.  Here's the second challenge.  It's not easy to get changed. 

My advice to all business owners is please check your listings periodically to make sure they are accurate!