✨ New Portfolio Project ✨

Designed a homepage mockup for a fictional bakery, Sweet Crumb Bakery 🧁

Focused on warm branding, clear layout, and strong CTAs to improve first impressions and user flow.

📌 Mockup only — not a real business

#WebDesign #UXDesign #UIUX #UIDesign #HomepageDesign #Portfolio #DesignPortfolio #CreativeWork #Freelance #Freelancer #SmallBusiness #LocalBusiness #Branding #BrandDesign #VisualDesign #ContentDesign #Copywriting #WebCopy #PastelAesthetic

Venezuelan food truck marks anniversary, National Empanada Day

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A local Venezuelan food truck that got its start serving up tasty …
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Cooking #empanadas #FoodTruck #foodie #GuaiqueriHawaii #hawaiieats #JurianRojas #Latinfood #localbusiness #MercadodelaRaza #NationalEmpanadaDay #OmarlysFernandez #patacon #plaintain #SmallBusiness #Venezuela
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2585435/venezuelan-food-truck-marks-anniversary-national-empanada-day/

RE: https://kolektiva.social/@firestorm/116346370857505543

Our city's independent bookstore needs your help!

My local anticapitalist, antifascist, LGBTQIA+ friendly, anarchist, super ultra crunchy, cooperatively owned, and self described "radical bookstore" is falling on tough times.

Hurricane Helene was a doozy y'all, a ton of small businesses like this are closing with no plans on reopening. The FEMA payments meant to help Asheville and WNC are being bogged down in a bunch of red tape, so many of us haven't seen a dime of them yet, even though some of it is earmarked to help small business. And, although tourism is coming back (and we're very very open for business!) the shock to the system was just too big for a lot of folks.

I've seen long-standing cornerstorne-of-the-neighborhood places just like this wink out of existence without any warning, only to be replaced by exploitative, soul-sucking corporate owned chains run by people who don't even live or pay their taxes in our community. I don't want to keep seeing this happen to the town I grew up in.

These are good people who provide an essential service to our city: being some of the loudest, most outspoken defenders of our human rights, and providing civic minded reading material you won't find anywhere else.

They sell books other people don't want you to read, and that generally means those are books you're obligated to read.

Also, they once hosted the backroom of their bookstore out as a viewing space for a no-budget student film I helped make like a decade ago and they were real cool about it so-long-as everyone we invited to the screening bought a coffee or a book. Do you think Barnes & Nobel would do that? Would Amazon?

Check 'em out! Buy a banned book! Become a sustaining member of one of the best independent bookstores around!

https://firestorm.coop/

#Asheville #WNC #HeleneRecovery #Helene #SmallBusiness #LocalBusiness #ShopLocal #Bookstodon

SHAWERMA PLUS: lOCAL, AWARD-WINNING

Waterloo’s Shawerma Plus
is growing its fanbase across
Ontario with the opening of two
restaurants in Mississauga and
one in Port Elgin.
Founded in 2012 by Asem
Ghabra and Baraat Khudeir,
Shawerma Plus started with
a space on King St. N. before
moving to its current 1,000
square foot space in University
Plaza in 2019. The family opened
its second location at 1111
Westmount Rd. E. in 2016.
While other shawarma chains
have pursued aggressive
provincial and national
expansions, Jawad Ghabra, cofounder and partner at Shawerma
Plus, said the brand is taking
time to make sure each new
restaurant meets their standards.
“We opened a few locations,
and then we pulled the brake a
bit to see what needs to be fixed
or changed. The more locations
we open, there is always a
chance that we’re going to miss
something with the quality,
experience or culture that we
bring,” Jawad said.
The idea of planning the
expansion of his family’s business
is something Jawad said he never
thought he would be doing when
his father first told him about the
idea for a shawarma restaurant in

Jawad was living in Dubai,
newly married and expecting his
first child when he received a call
from his father who was living in
Waterloo.
“He’s always been passionate
about food and catered on
the side. He and my mom are
amazing cooks. But I told him
I didn’t recommend it because
the success rate is very low.
Restaurants are risky. They didn’t
have the network either. But he
wasn’t going to listen to any of us
telling him to slow down or stop,”
he said.
Jawad said his father was set on
opening a shawarma restaurant
and spent months perfecting his
recipe and looking for a space.
The family is originally from
Syria, and Jawad said his father
had lost much of his savings
when the family fled the country.
“He put all his remaining
savings into the building and
opening of the restaurant. That
was a crazy risk, because that’s
everything. There’s nothing left
on the table,” Jawad said.
Ghabra flew to Waterloo to help
with the branding, website and
the build-out of the restaurant.
After returning to Dubai, the
restaurant opened and, while
sales were good, Asem told Jawad
that he was quickly running out
of capital and did not see the
restaurant being open for more
than a few months.
With a young family and
growing career in Dubai, Jawad
knew that he could not let his
father’s dream fail. Without being
asked, he sent his father most of
his savings.
“He asked why I did it, and I
told him that I could tell from his
voice that he didn’t want to give
up. Six months down the line, he
called back and said that money
was gone. I genuinely remember
this moment. I didn’t want them
to close. I didn’t want to get into
the food business. But I told my
wife, ‘I’m going to quit my job
and we’re gonna go to Canada’,”
he said.
Jawad and his family landed in
Waterloo in 2013, and he quickly
got to work at the restaurant,
just not in the way he thought
he would.
“We arrived at the restaurant
and he said, ‘Jawad, go do the
dishes and clean the washrooms’,”
Jawad said.
After giving up his life in
Dubai, Jawad was stunned and
asked why. His father gave him
a lesson that would shape how
Jawad would lead the restaurant
from its original location to the
growing franchise it is today.
“He said, ‘Let me ask you this,
do you know how to make a
shawarma? Do you know how to
handle the register? Why are we
even debating? Just go.’ I went.
That’s how I started,” he said.
“It’s been a crazy journey, and
the journey is just not mine. This
is the journey myself, my family,
a lot of our employees, and
partners have taken,” Jawad said.

Local kindness wins! ✨

​A parcel for a local business, Express Curtains, was misdelivered to me. I phoned them, and they collected it within 10 minutes. Bringing chocolates to say thanks! 🍫

​​I think we often overlook how much these small, local connections matter for our daily wellbeing. A little bit of gratitude goes a long way. 🌿

​#Gratitude #LocalBusiness #Kindness #SmallWins #CommunitySpirit

📍 Stop chasing directory volume — chase quality!

The smartest local SEO move in 2026 is building your listings in layers: core trust profiles first, then niche verticals, then city directories. Consistency beats quantity every time! 🎯 Don't let duplicate listings kill your local visibility!
❌ No duplicates
✅ Clean NAP data
✅ Right categories
✅ Relevant verticals
Full guide here 👇
🔗 https://listingbott.com/blog/best-local-business-directories/

#LocalSEO #SmallBusiness #SEO #LocalBusiness #DigitalMarketing