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Three recommendations

By Becky McCray

Our long time Friend Zane Safrit is writing about small business in a new location. His insights on health care, failure, success, word of mouth marketing, and more are now at Zane Safrit. Update your feed reader!

New friend G.L. Hoffman has a terrific article on small towns and the loss of design, in Design and the WalMarting of America.

Used to be, the local small town retailer, whether a clothing store, gift shop, furniture store, or whatever, was owned by someone with real passion for their store. They lived, breathed and slept clothes, gifts or furniture. They knew their stuff.

What they had was DESIGN. Sure, more of their stuff was made in America, but the distinguishing ingredient was the inherent design and quality sense of the store owner. That is what you buying. You went to the gift shop and got a wedding gift, chances were very good, no matter the price point, that it was of good quality and had been designed well. If it wasn’t, the passionate store owner would not inventory it. So, all of us got used to having quality items naturally in our personal and work spaces.

Read the whole article at What Would Dad Say.

Third, a real world friend now working up to being a techie Laurie Reyes has made her first blog adventure. She’d love to have some comments and tips!

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Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

www.beckymccray.com
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April 12, 2008 Filed Under: community, rural

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Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    April 13, 2008 at 5:06 pm

    Hi New Friend, Becky…thanks for mentioning my article. I wish I had a better solution or answer now. Do you?
    Best, GL

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  2. Becky McCray says

    April 13, 2008 at 5:26 pm

    GL, my answer is still the same. I’m here to support exactly the kind of local business that you discuss. They aren’t all gone. If you walk into the women’s clothing store in Alva, you know that Dee will take good care of you. Her DESIGN shows in everything, right down to the upscale shopping bags.

    This site is my way of trying to help change the world.

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