What is your backup plan,if your phone line is rippedout during the busyChristmas season? Here is another reason to consider Square for credit card processing over a traditional merchant account. Yesterday, the phone line was ripped off of the back of our store. (It looks like it was snagged by a truck and drug down…
Small town economies look strong for 2012. The trends for small town and rural businesses are always different from the general small business trends, and for once this is good news. The national economy is not looking all that good, but the rural economy looks strong. Rural small business trends are always different from general…
Photos and videos of your customers or visitors can be compelling. But before you use a photo of person, you want to think about legal issues. Did anyone get a photo release form? I’m not going to wade into the legalities, but I will link to someone more qualified than me: Stanford University Libraries Copyright…
I have a bricks and mortar liquor store. We have used traditional credit card merchant processing for five years, and we just switched over to Square. I’ll tell you why we converted and how we did it. Our Old “Traditional” Merchant Processing Yes, I really do have a liquor store. Our traditional merchant was Retriever…
When I talked to regular everyday tourism professionals and volunteers and business people at the Nebraska travel conference about social media, several said this was the best piece of advice I gave them: Talk less about you, and more about them. It’s hardly revolutionary. You’ve probably heard it before. You might even have said it…
If you are in tourism and use (or want to use) social media marketing, come by the Tourism Currents Open House this Wednesday December 7 and Thursday December 8, 2011. Tourism Currentsprovides trainingon social mediafor tourism. At Tourism Currents, you’ll find online training to get you up to speed and then keep you up to…
When I recently co-hosted an online chat with Jim Kukral for NFIB, one attendee asked about how to get more people to come through the doors during the holiday season. It’s a great question and I have some tips that can help. Want more people to come throughthe doors? Dress up your external spaceand put…
Small towns have trouble competing with the entire global economy, but that’s what we are up against. Dave Ivan from Michigan State University is presenting a webinar of ways we can better compete. In 2009, I heard Dave’s Can Small Towns Be Cool talk, and it was FULL of excellent info. You can bet I’ll…
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