Each week, I publish a newsletter with a positive view of rural. Recently, I featured the idea of giving your small town a dash of color. Keith Snyder of Lincoln, Illinois, replied with some great news about how his town is letting their color and creativity out. Lots of ideas you can use here….
Many small town businesses enjoy a kind of monopoly: they are the only source for their product in their location. If you are the only pizza place in town, you feel like you have an advantage. But what do you do when you find out competition is opening soon? Do you hate the new business,…
Now that most cell phones can access the internet, you might think that wifi access doesn’t matter for tourism. And no one would want to work while on vacation, right? Well, more than ever, wifi and work spaces are important to local tourism strategies, especially in small towns. Let’s start with this key point: Your…
Ratings help your customers decide. They help customers decide which product to buy, but more importantly, they help customers decide whether to buy at all. Online rating sites have shaken up almost every business category. You can adapt that idea in your business whether you sell products in a downtown store, services online, or something…
I talked to a small town Chamber of Commerce director. She told me how much she hated their current website. She was eager to get a new one, but replacing it would involve a committee, and bids, and approvals, and a long and expensive process. You don’t have to be a Chamber of Commerce to…
Today, food isn’t limited to restaurants. Food trucks, pop up cafes, and other mobile food options are taking hold. But what works for big cities doesn’t necessarily work for small towns. What are the rural options for mobile food? In northwest Oklahoma, we commonly see barbecue trailers and trucks. At events like festivals and fairs,…
Here’s another great small town/rural tourism idea you can steal, this one from Canada. A two-day Taste & Tour Middlesex Conference started off with networking and local food. It’s important to do the fun stuff first. Then they turned to learning the second day, with a traditional conference event. “Tourism continues to be one of…
I’m always collecting small town business ideas. On Twitter, I saw Scott Balster @scottbalster of Loveland, CO, suggest a small version of two popular labor-exchange services: TaskRabbit and Elance. TaskRabbit is a task and errand service connection. People list tasks they need done, everything from housecleaning to delivering groceries. Other people sign up to take…
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