As you wrap up one year and prepare for the next, your business needs to do the same. You have some accounting tasks to reset and some backups to make. Must do Jan 1 These are the ones you can’t easily do later, so you don’t want to put them off. The good news:…
By Becky McCray When you ask small town people what challenges they want help with, the responses provide an interesting insight into rural areas today. SaveYour.Town and SmallBizSurvival.com conducted a survey among subscribers and visitors to their sites during 2017, receiving 250 individual responses. Participants included 215 from the USA, 25 from Canada, and…
I love pop-up businesses. We’ve talked before about how to get building owners to host pop-up businesses in empty buildings. You can also host pop-ups inside existing businesses, but business owners have a slightly different set of concerns than building owners. First, let’s talk about who benefits. The pop-up business gets the chance to…
You know how we give directions in small towns, right? We point you to houses by who used to live there, “the Allen place,” or direct you to turn where things used to be, “where that old barn burned down.” We do this in town and out in the country. This drives newcomers and…
How many times has your town lost its economic reason for being? Think back to the reason your town was founded. Did it start with farming or transportation? Maybe it was minerals or other natural resources. No matter what it was, I’m willing to bet that it’s not the prime driver in your town…
A city councilmember from a town in Washington told me she was so excited about the idea of pop-up businesses that she brought up the idea of short-term 3 month leases with some building owners. They keel hauled her, she said. She just couldn’t get them to be as excited as she was and…
Both times we’ve run the Survey of Rural Challenges, small town business owners have picked the same top challenge: adapting to being open later hours. That means I’m always on the lookout for ideas that work to help bring more people downtown and are also successful at generating business for local stores. Cindy shared…
As homes have gotten smaller and sprouted wheels in the tiny house movement, what of the home office? When does it get its wheels? A couple of years ago, a European company started creating and renting out “wilderness offices” in tiny yet upscale trailers placed in relaxing rural settings. They were “off the grid”…
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