You might have heard of Kiva, where a crowd of regular people pool money to make small loans to business people in the developing world. But you probably didn’t know they are making loans to small businesses in the US. In fact, I was surprised to find there has been a representative of Kiva…
Being open later hours in the evenings is hard for a lot of small businesses, but we have an easy promotion for you to make more sales later in the day. Reach out to your existing customers, and let them know you have a new service: Call ahead, and we’ll have it ready for…
We’ve all had times when we weren’t able to deliver what we promised to our customers. Maybe you’re going to be able to do it, but not when you promised. Or maybe it’s not going to be quite the way you said. Maybe a supplier didn’t deliver to you on time. Maybe you had…
Norfolk County, Ontario, is home to dozens of real businesses started by kids in grades 6 through 12, part of their Student Start Up project. Kids can apply with a simple “business plan” template and may receive $200 in start up funds to kick them off. This year (2018), they funded 39 student entrepreneurs….
Empty buildings in small towns are often empty for a reason, and that reason is often that they need work before any business could use them. Remodeling costs can be astonishingly expensive, so people often ask where they can find grants, loans or other funds to help them. Here are some of my favorite “usual…
Rural areas and small towns can tap the rising tourism trend of vacations from our phones. And new research shows ways to take advantage of the trend. Lots of rural areas already have poor cell phone reception and slow broadband, so we might as well take advantage of it, right? Philip Lovell Pearce and Li…
News flash: Rural areas already have autonomous vehicles Surprised? Both farming and mining already use fully or partially autonomous technology. I bet you already know about GPS-guided tractors, and you might know that big mines have big self-driving trucks and equipment. Almost no one mentions these highly-rural industries when talking about autonomous vehicles (AVs) for…
Any rural business owner can offer an apprenticeship Kevin Rubash is now the owner and designer at Interior Spaces which is a interior home design business in Webster City, Iowa (population 8,000). Kevin designs interiors for homes and business and sells everything from bedding to furniture to flooring and curtains. He got his first chance…
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