In addition to my articles here, I write a weekly newsletter called A Positive View of Rural. There’s no cost, if you’d like to sign up.
Occasionally, I also write guest articles for other sites, and I want to be sure you get a chance to catch those as well. These are some of my recent items shared on other sites and other places.
Top Small Town and Rural Small Business Trends For 2017
This builds on the 3 rural megatrends and adds practical steps rural businesses can take to capitalize on them. It’s at SmallBusiness.com, started by my friend Rex Hammock, a great resource for your local businesses.
Healing the country through travel and tourism:
A discussion on the importance of travel in creating broad-minded people led to this two-part article on how tourism professionals and everyday people can encourage more travel and bring us closer together as people. These are at Tourism Currents, which I helped in the founding of years ago. It is the resource for social media training for tourism and hospitality.
How to Meet the Needs of Your Rural Attendees
You might want to pass this one along to the committee planning that next big conference. You know the one I mean: the one that never remembers to include rural topics even though it’s a state-wide or big regional event that’s supposed to serve all the people. Thanks to a connection from Sheila Scarborough, DMAI (Destination Marketing Association International) shared this story.
6 actions businesses can take to help in downtown revitalization efforts
Deb Brown and I shared ideas for businesses who find themselves in a downtown that could use some love and support. My friend Paul Chaney was kind to feature us in this article at Small Biz Trends.
Why Small Towns are Buzzing About Rural Creative Placemaking
You keep hearing about placemaking, creative placemaking, and maybe even rural creative placemaking. What the heck does it mean? I explain the buzzwords and share practical resources in this guest piece for Orton Family Foundation. I’ve really enjoyed building a stronger connection with the folks at the Orton Foundation. They’re doing good work.
Spurring Rural Entrepreneurship: 8 Innovative Business Models That Don’t Break The Bank
The Innovative Rural Business Models are all about spreading economic opportunity to more people in your community. Author Amy Cortese at Locavesting invited me to share them as prototype other communities can use. When you tear down the barriers to entry, then more people can benefit from owning even a tiny business. Rather than focusing more support and attention on the people who already have the most, this shifts the conversation to the smallest steps, the tiniest accomplishments that can lead people to business success.
Most of these came about because of connections. If you have a connection that you think would be right for spreading some of my practical rural ideas, I’d love to hear about it. Just hit reply and tell me, or leave your thoughts in the comments.
- Community engagement planning: old way vs. Idea Friendly way - October 3, 2021
- Boost your maker economy with a “Made in” day - September 17, 2021
- How a ghost town made something from nothing with a folk festival - September 3, 2021
- Rural business idea: sell foraged fruits and more - August 3, 2021
- Best practices for rural housing - July 19, 2021
- How to be more open to new ideas #IdeaFriendly - July 3, 2021
- Market your small town as a movie filming location, attract movie and game fan tourists - June 28, 2021
- Survey of Rural Challenges 2021 results, analysis of themes from 2015 through today - June 7, 2021
- What makes a small town a micropolitan or nanopolitan? - May 22, 2021
- Improving Rural Housing: turning blighted dilapidated houses into new homes - May 7, 2021
