One of the speakers at the recent Midwest Rural Assembly started off by telling this story about a small town hardware store. (I think he said the story came from Kinky Friedman, when he was Texas Agriculture Secretary.) The hardware store is where when you have a project, they will loan you a tool. They…
The Oklahoma City edition of the Get Social Conference brought out some direct and honest advice about dealing with critics. Get Social crowdby Jessica Miller-Merrell The dog keeps barking, and the train keeps moving on. @stargardener Being active in social media doesn’t make people like you. Sometimes they just want your ___.@eblakejackson What my spouse…
This is the second of several reports from the Making Place Matter in Northwest Oklahoma Rural Community Economic Development Summit held in Alva on June 3, 2010. A session on community building covered a wide range of topics, from the Main Street approach, to supporting local businesses, rural tourism, rural grocery stores, the participation of young people,…
The upcoming US Census matters to rural small businesses because it will affect your community for the next ten years. Census data is key to: Federal grants, especially CDBG and Rural Development Economic development efforts Redrawing political boundaries from Congressional districts, all the way down to local political boundaries Every single person counted brings $790…
We love to share small town success stories. Deborah Reynolds sent us this one after our most recent newsletter. (If you missed our newsletter, you can read it here.) I want to share a story with you about one woman who is making a difference in our small town of Decatur, Texas, actually in our…
Shop local is a popular topic here, but this week I’ve watched a new trend pop up: bank local.Move Your Money is encouraging people to shift their money to locally owned banks. The site includes bank rankings by Institutional Risk Analytics. All of my local banks scored B+ or higher. The project was dreamed up…
As more rural people join social networks, small town business people are looking to build in person networks with their fellow social media users. Chris Cornell shared his story in the Brag Basket: I own and operate a small business (custom picture framing) in the Village of Pleasantville, NY. I’ve been attempting to build…
[Our Friend Cody Heitschmidt has a new project. I offered him a few ideas, but he needs your ideas, too. -Becky] I just leased a 2300 seat concert hall in Hutch for all of 2010. Gonna see if we can liven Hutchinson, Kansas, up a little. Thoughts? No, really, I want your thoughts! I love…
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