Small businesses are ‘hot commodities’ right now, with San Jose alone sporting over 60,000 of them. They spice up communities and provide livelihood to thousands of people. However, many fizzle out before they can even really get started, as a result of their struggles with marketing. Many of these businesses are run by fewer than ten people, with no room for marketing specialists and/or individuals who know how to build/promote brands. For my senior project, I am searching for discernible trends in marketing challenges that small businesses in the Bay Area tend to face and working to create a plan or plans to preemptively handle those issues. Through this project, I hope to help small businesses in the region stay afloat and expand their operations, which is beneficial for directly involved individuals (such as employees) as well as customers/society as a whole. I’m conducting this project remotely, with the exception of business site visits I may conduct. As part of my plan, I’m collecting qualitative and quantitative (if possible and legal) information from small businesses that range across a variety of different industries, primarily through interviews. Post-collection, I’ll dissect the data using techniques such as keyword coding and category comparisons to determine any trends or common issues. I’ll then work to develop a solution to one or more issues, the form of which (app, marketing plan, YouTube channel, etc.) is conditional on the actual problem I’m tackling. I hypothesize that my project will allow businesses (that use my solution) to more effectively market themselves, allowing them to become a relevant competitor in their industry instead of fading into the background.