Aah, those were the days when you had to carry around those city pamphlets with the maps to know where everything is, and finding your local tailor or whatnot was such a beast because you had to open it all up. All those folded squares! Utter madness.

Enter: the smartphone. The beautiful, beautiful smartphone. And as any small business owner, the smartphone is essential! You know why?

Cyberspace and Real Space Combined

The fact is consumers use their smartphones for just about everything —

Checking the weather, looking at movie times, watching movies and TV, shopping.

That’s right, shopping. Do you see where I’m going with this?

If you’re one of those entrepreneurs operating in a specific location that many might miss (as the case with many small businesses), you’re going to benefit greatly with a mobile feature Google has available to just about any smartphone out there….

It’s Called Google Maps

Rating: 4 out 5 stars

Imagine being listed specifically on this app, and know that you’re customer traffic will increase dramatically.

Really, all you need is a Google account, list your business on the map, and everyone who types in your service will locate you — either by satellite view or customary view. It’s pretty handy.

It’s all about convenience. Yes, the Yellow Pages are quite the nostalgic tradition, but the way and wave of the future now is convenience. When you think about it, that’s the essence of technology.

People can take their smartphones, look you up, without all the messy folded paper or hefty page books that just happen to be yellow!

It’s all flashed out there, clean and slick, and ready to go with the best pixels money can offer.

Here’s the slight catch, though —

Location, Location, Location

As in, if you happen to be an entrepreneur, you might not need a location. The flip side of the coin about technology is that literally everything can be done online. Business convenience: that’s the name of the game.

Before you know it, you realize you don’t need a physical office, no mortgage payment, no office supplies (at least in this physical office). All you need is a laptop (or even better, a tablet!), and your business rocks. Digital paper.

So how in God’s name do you list a business on a Google Map without a physical office? You don’t. You don’t need it.

That might be the newest wave of the future, really, is the fact that everything out there will go so digital that offices will disappear, paper will disappear, pens will disappear. The list goes on and on.

The fact is most entrepreneurs simply stay mobile. They have sufficient contact methods to allow any prospects to communicate — IMs, phone number, chat, e-mail, social media. The whole ten yards.

Yes, I said ten yards, because at this rate of technological genius, you need more than nine yards!

Can You Say Touchdown?

Since we’re on the subject of yardage, of course: the fact is if your business requires that you have a physical location for customers to view your product, Google Maps is a must. But if you’re mostly mobile, guess what: Google Maps is a miss!

You can keep this in mind, though — it doesn’t hurt to have your business, whatever it is you do, listed on the Google Maps, because the fact is prospects will know that you’re local and have your contact information as well. There are, obviously, many other ways to get a search going online for your business — like a regular search engine! (Duh)

But when you’re talking about an easy mobile app, like Google Maps, why not list your business? It would only take you a minute or two. Piece of cake. And definitely first down. (Since we’re on the subject of yardage. And football.)