South Carolina

During his 28 years as a U.S. Air Force pilot, Darren Hartford had the opportunity to travel the world–and experience many different tea and coffee cultures. So when looking for his next career after retiring from active duty in 2017, he decided to buy a small premium tea business, Oliver Pluff & Company. Darren took over in 2018, and says his military leadership skills have come in handy as a business owner. “It’s about being able to make a decision and move,” he explains. “The ability to adapt and plan on the fly, to take a problem and just figure it out–those are things the Air Force taught me that you also use in a small business.” Based fittingly in Charleston, a historic port during the tea trade–Oliver Pluff teas are hand-packaged in the company’s signature tins and recreate blends from previous centuries. The tea is sold through their website, which also carries coffee, toddies, accessories, and more.

Implementing Google Workspace, and moving away from paper tracking, has significantly improved Oliver Pluff's efficiency. “You can share documents and ideas without three different apps running, and keep it all in one spot,“ Darren says. Google Sheets helps them collaborate in real time and easily track inventory, and the team shares Docs and photos in Drive. Google Meet helps Darren meet “face-to-face” with retailers, suppliers, or marketers, and make deals without the added expense or inconvenience of traveling. And Gemini in Google Meet supports him with scheduling and notetaking. Darren also runs Google Ads, and credits Performance Max campaigns for contributing to the 46 percent spike in e-commerce sales they saw in the year after starting them–and the continued growth since. Now seven years into his new command, Darren has doubled employees and quadrupled revenue–and Oliver Pluff’s first storefront is expected to open in downtown Charleston in spring 2025.

After a 23-year-long career in manufacturing logistics, Charlotte Groce was stressed and burnt out. She thought, “If I can put 70 hours a week into someone else’s business, why don’t I put it into my own?” She left her demanding job and was volunteering at a food pantry when a newspaper ad seeking pergola dealers grabbed her attention. She purchased the franchise territory and formed Palmetto Outdoor Spaces in 2012. The company, which offers all manner of porch shades, shutters, screens, and indoor shading, has since grown to nine employees. Charlotte began spreading the word with print ads, but a few classes through her local SCORE Business Mentoring program turned her marketing strategy around. Managing her own Google Ads campaigns since 2014, Charlotte now works on optimizations with help from the Google Ads support team, and attributes about 30 percent of the company’s growth to Google Ads.

A Google Business Profile has also been valuable to the company, accounting for about 80 percent of their leads. With so many people improving their homes during the pandemic, Palmetto Outdoor Spaces’ revenue grew 58 percent from 2019 to 2022. Now Charlotte’s been checking out training resources on Grow with Google’s YouTube channel. She’s learning about Google Analytics to increase quality leads as she expands the indoor shading part of her business, as well as more about managing Palmetto’s own YouTube channel. “You can learn anything you need to about Google,” Charlotte says. “There are so many tutorials and videos, so much information.” Most of all, she’s proud to be creating something greater than profits for her two sons and the community. “It's so rewarding knowing that I'm contributing to the lives of my employees and supporting their families and livelihoods,” Charlotte says. “When your employees are happy, the customer’s happy, and then success follows.”

In 2010, Tay Nelson created Bobby's All-Purpose Seasoning in homage to his late father and brother, both named Bobby. In 2014, Tay decided to learn to cook BBQ for his wife, Sarah, and turned to pitmaster Aaron Franklin’s YouTube channel to discover the secrets. Tay only had a charcoal grill, but developed a way to manipulate the fire and use his signature seasoning to create tasty BBQ. Over the years, Tay developed recipes that friends and co-workers raved about, with many even suggesting he should open his own restaurant. In 2018, Tay was working at a local plant and seeking a second job to make ends meet. After receiving his seventh rejection letter, "I said I would never fill out another job application,” Tay recalls. After praying and considering next steps, he decided to take a leap of faith and open his own restaurant. With Sarah’s support, Bobby’s BBQ was born. On YouTube, Tay learned how to apply for a small business loan, and Sarah learned how to write a business plan for the bank so they could buy a professional smoker. Throughout that first winter, Tay braved the cold to stoke outdoor fires and perfect his technique, while Sarah worked on recipes for the homemade sides.

Shortly after opening in October 2018, lines were around the building and people were driving three hours from Charleston to give it a try. "I love barbeque, but I love people more,” says Tay. “Everyone is welcome here. Whether you’re homeless or wearing a suit, we invite you in.” COVID-19 complicated things—indoor dining was banned—but Tay and Sarah moved quickly, putting their menu online and adding a delivery option. Demand continued to climb. "Customers kept coming, and we kept hiring,” says Tay. Today, Bobby’s BBQ is thriving, and Tay and Sarah use their Business Profile on Google to respond to their reviews and YouTube to learn everything from growing their business to doing their own plumbing. “Life is good, but we still take it one day at a time,” says Sarah.

In 2008, Mary Wise was working as a pharmacist at a large pharmacy store chain in Charleston, South Carolina, when she had a change of heart. She wanted to do something more personal. After talking it through with her husband, Michael, a former product manager, they made the decision to open their own pharmacy. They soon did, and they greatly enjoyed being closer to the business and customers. But in doing so, they noticed another opportunity. There were a lot of people who didn’t want to or couldn’t come in the store, but there wasn’t a great way to shop online. “There wasn’t really a good way for people to connect with online businesses that would take the time to help them find the right medical equipment and supplies,” Michael said. So they put some inventory online, and it was an instant success. Shortly after, they launched their own website, HME Medical Shop, and they suddenly had two new businesses.

The Wises turned to Google Ads to reach consumers searching for specific medical terms and products. “If somebody with multiple sclerosis is looking for a specific product, we’re right there and can explain exactly what they need and what challenges they may have using the product at home,” said Michael. In addition to Google Ads, the Wises use Search Console to monitor and improve their performance on Google Search. “These tools are so key to see who we’re reaching and to learn more about our customers,” said Michael. Over the past two years, HME Medical Shop has experienced a 256% increase in traffic to its website and subsequently a 166% increase in revenue. “Shopping ads have driven the lion’s share of this growth,” said Michael, who reports a 200% year-over-year increase in revenue from Google Ads alone. The Wises also use G Suite to communicate with their team and Google Analytics to learn more about users who visit their site.

Today, the Wises pride themselves on providing a quality service for those in need. That personalized service they sought to offer with their pharmacy has served them very well online as well. “Medicare and insurance companies make it really difficult to get these things covered,” said Michael. “We provide a low-cost online service and someone to talk to.” HME Medical Shop serves between 600,000 and 700,000 customers per year and plans to continue growing with the help of Google. “We want to keep developing online tools that help people connect with what they need medically,” Michael said. “It all starts with leveraging the technology available. Google tools are such a huge foundation to build from.”