Inspiration
My parents owned a small business since 2016, got a strong idea of the startup process and the difficulties and obstacles associated with it.
What it does
Helps entrepreneurs and small business owners easily connect with each other based on location as well as find easier places to live. It takes in key words from the user and returns locations containing those key words along with the necessary contact information. For example, the user inputs "cell phone" into the program, it would return cell phone stores around the user and provide them with the necessary contact information to reach each of them. Most of these are smaller businesses, so oftentimes its a great opportunity for smaller businesses to connect with those who are more experienced in this field.
How we built it
Using Python and webscraping techniques, we were able to receive key words from the user and search for them on google maps and return locations that had that name. We accomplished this by simulating a human searching google maps using those key words and receiving the locations of these areas.
Challenges we ran into
Webscraping was new for us and as such, it was a struggle learning and implementing techniques at the same time. Unclear/Obscure errors in code, made it difficult for us to progress, we had to comment out segments of our code and just try to isolate where the errors were occurring.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Program works well for the most part, and it even displays a GUI map with pins of possible locations, we also implemented a program which searches for houses in a specific area of interest and displays them to a user based on a budget that the user defines.
What we learned
Python UI and Webscraping Techniques
What's next for Entrepreneurship/Small Business Networking Application
Making a mentorship/advice program to allow more seasoned business owners to help those who are just starting out, there will be some incentives for them to ensure they excel at their job Discount Coupons etc to help users save money where they can Making it work as a proper working application that can be implemented for use over the upcoming months to help resurge the economy starting with smaller businesses. Identifying areas with more/less competition and demand based on the key words that the user inputted, and as a result, this would allow people who are planning to start a business to choose the most optimal location to begin their business.
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