A local veteran owned business was highlighted by a national Google AI campaign that illustrates how Google’s AI efforts can help small businesses find success.
GO-KOT, an Ashville based company that makes sleeping cots for camping and for first responders, is owned by Air Force veteran Teresa Down.
Down bought the company, which had been in business since 1978, and has been using Google products to help run her business.
“I use all of Google’s tools,” Downs said. “Google’s customer service has been wonderful and so helpful. As a small business owner, customer service is very important to me. They are always there and ready to answer questions or help in any way.”
As a small business, Downs said it can be difficult to find the money to spend on marketing, but with Google, marketing has been made a lot easier.
“GO-KOT relied solely on word-of-mouth for years,” Downs said. “To grow, we needed to advertise. I started with learning digital marketing by familiarizing myself with Google’s Merchant Center, a handy tool that helps our products show up in search results, and exploring AI-powered advertising tools like Performance Max.”
Downs said she is happy that Google is focusing on small businesses in this campaign.
“Google is this big tech company, so to see them focus on small businesses and veteran owned companies, too, is great.”
Downs hopes to see GO-KOT continue to grow and help further their mission of helping people.
“Since 2018, we’ve experienced significant growth, with e-commerce sales increasing tenfold,” said Downs. “Beyond profitability, we prioritize giving back. We’ve partnered with a young man in Birmingham supporting the homeless, donated to Christian organizations taking mission trips, and just recently, it felt really good to be able to donate cots to North Carolina after the hurricane.”
