How GoDaddy Canada supports small businesses during pandemic times

We all know the past two years have been an incredibly challenging time for small business owners as they navigate their path to recovery. Particularly so for those in the restaurant industry. They were forced to pivot, spin, and do cartwheels as they try to weather the tumultuous times. As consumers we’ve been doing our best in keeping up with all the guidelines and restrictions as much as we could. Take out, delivery, meal kits, and generous tips are just a few ways we continue to support our favourite restaurants. 

 You may have noticed GoDaddy Canada’s recent campaign featuring Andre De Grasse and three Canadian small business owners including Harpreet Banwait of Pizza Hub. Like many, he faced unprecedented obstacles being in the restaurant industry. But the unstoppable nature of Canadian small businesses like his fuels us. 

Pizza Hub is a small family run business that prides itself in using the finest and freshest, locally sourced ingredients. “However, our secret ingredient is always love, which is what keeps people coming back for more,” said Banwait.  “We’ve been serving residents of the GTA for more than a decade and will continue to spread joy and magic through our food for as long as we can.”

His love for the culinary arts came from the mastermind behind Pizza Hub, his father. Banwait tells us his father’s passion and dedication to food and hospitality is a time-honoured family tradition shared with his own father and brothers growing up. Their mission is to treat their customers like members of their own family. “As my father says, ‘If we wouldn’t serve it to our family, we wouldn’t serve it to our customers’. I have inherited my father’s commitment to excellence. From our dough, sauce, and toppings to our special, secret-recipe banana pudding, every dish is made with the utmost finesse and care. Everything is prepared daily, on our premises to ensure the highest level of freshness. You won’t find these flavours anywhere else, just ask our customers!”

 

The challenges he faced during the pandemic wasn’t for the faint of heart and Banwait tells us there were many.  “One thing we pride ourselves in is getting to know our customers, and treating them like family every time they return. In the past, we were able to foster these relations with people who would come and dine in with us every week. But with the restrictions on indoor dining operations, the spark isn’t the same as before. Either people are rushing in to pick up their orders or resorting to online delivery options, which has been so unfortunate from a relationship-building perspective. We’ve also faced several supply chain issues which has impacted our ability to maintain our inventory and therefore in some instances not being able to offer some menu items. That can be a big problem because customers demand consistency – they want to order their favourite items and if they’re not available they will take their business somewhere else. I could go on, but I’ll leave it there!” 

 We wanted to learn more about how GoDaddy helped supported his family’s business.

As a small business owner, Banwait tells us GoDaddy helped him be seen during the pandemic. “Hosting our website on their domain not only gave our loyal and returning customer base access to our menus but also helped new customers discover our business. During the pandemic, we added search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities to our website to ensure Pizza Hub was on page-one search results for delivery and takeout across the GTA. GoDaddy’s SEO is a do-it-yourself tool built into GoDaddy Website Builder that improves your website’s SEO. Optimizing the website improved its search result ranking, making our business easier to find when potential customers searched for things like dinner, pizza or delivery.”

The great thing about GoDaddy Website Builder is that it allows you to create a responsive website with no technical knowledge, so it was a no brainer to go with their platform! I love that I can manage everything for my website in one place - from website updates to email and SEO, everything is managed in the GoDaddy Website Builder dashboard. Personally, my favourite feature is…you guessed it…the SEO capabilities which ensures Pizza Hub is always top of mind for consumers when browsing for the perfect bite to eat in the GTA,” said Banwait.

GoDaddy regularly features real small business owners in their campaigns — the most recent with Andre de Grasse. How did Pizza Hub get involved?

“As a long-time GoDaddy customer, I was honoured to star alongside fellow small business owners, Jasmine and Dr. Dev, in their latest campaign to highlight the unstoppable spirit of entrepreneurs. It’s been a challenging couple of years for everyone, especially small businesses, so getting any chance to put ourselves out there was a welcomed one. I had no idea that I would be working with Andre De Grasse until after I was selected to be a part of the campaign, it was very exciting!” Said Banwait.

What keeps Banwait motivated to keep his business alive?

He tells us that having a unbreakable spirit is a prerequisite to being a small business owner. “You have to remember that most of us are putting our all on the line to do what we do, but we love that and that’s what drives our passion. One thing about small business owners is that we must put our community first. So that’s what keeps us motivated – our people – whether it’s customers, suppliers, other small businesses or the people in our own kitchen, building a community is integral to keeping the business alive and thriving, we’re only as good as the people around us.”

What advice does he have for other small businesses at this time?

This year Banwait tells us he hopes to motivate small business owners to easily create a website with GoDaddy for their business or idea. “You truly never know where it will take you. Like me, I never thought I’d be working with other small business owners like Jasmine and Dr. Dev, as well as Andre De Grasse on this campaign. We share similar stories of overcoming obstacles from the past two years and are excited to continue cheering one another on. That’s what it’s all about, having that unstoppable spirit and continuing forward no matter what life throws at us.”

Any silver linings during these most challenging times? “Throughout the pandemic, restaurants were impacted heavily by the lockdowns that banned indoor dining. Pizza Hub had to pivot over the past two years and placed a big emphasis on takeout and delivery options which wasn’t a huge priority for us previously. Perfecting our digital presence with our website was a big win for us,” said Banwait.

Okay, and we need to know…pineapple on pizza? Yes or No?

“Hell, yes…it’s a Canadian invention after all!” 

Who else feels like pizza now? We'll leave the site link here: pizzahub.ca