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Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource
  • A loyalty card from Millie Coffee
    customer service | entrepreneurship | marketing | rural

    Use your loyalty card as your business card

    ByBecky McCray December 15, 2025

    At the LaunchRuralOK Small Business Resource event in Alva, I overheard the owner of Millie Coffee from Fairview, Oklahoma, talking to a service provider she wanted to work with. She  apologized for not having business cards with her, then handed over her shop’s loyalty card instead. I looked over my shoulder and said out loud,…

    Read More Use your loyalty card as your business cardContinue

  • A woman smiling at the camera while standing in front of a clothing rack
    customer service | entrepreneurship | rural

    Caring is a small town business advantage

    BySmall Biz Survival October 2, 2025

    By Stephanie Ward, Firefly Coaching Caring isn’t something you can do if you’re only using it as a tactic. You can’t fake caring, either you do or you don’t. The good news is that we all have the capacity to care. It’s a state of being that you can tap into, just like gratitude. We…

    Read More Caring is a small town business advantageContinue

  • A screenshot of the Common Ground Coffee and Market Instagram feed, showing four images, a group of people with valentine hearts, a group of staff members, one person facing the camera for an explainer video, and one video with text that says "open the shop with me"
    community | customer service | entrepreneurship | marketing | rural | trends

    Create customer experiences online like Open the Shop With Me videos, and in person, like Silent Book Club

    ByBecky McCray March 23, 2025August 6, 2025

    When Kathleen Minogue of Crowdfund Better mentioned Common Ground Coffee and Market to me, I found their Instagram feed was full of stealable ideas for small business social media marketing. We first talked about how they let customers know about changes to their hours. They’re in Boise, Idaho, which I realize is not a small…

    Read More Create customer experiences online like Open the Shop With Me videos, and in person, like Silent Book ClubContinue

  • Screenshot of an instagram post with Christmas week business hours. One comment asks, "How late are you open new year's eve?"
    customer service | entrepreneurship | marketing | rural | Small Biz 100 | social media

    How to let customers know when changing your business hours

    ByBecky McCray March 12, 2025August 6, 2025

    Post extensively on social channels, and pin your hours post to the top of your page Your small business has times when you need to change your hours either for holidays, staff issues or (my favorite) extending into evening hours. How do you retrain your customers so they notice the change? Let’s look at a…

    Read More How to let customers know when changing your business hoursContinue

  • In a downtown, three people are standing on a sidewalk next to a yellow painted board fence. There are two small windows in the board fence that can open outward.
    customer service | entrepreneurship | marketing | rural

    New sidewalk sales idea: Sell through the fence

    ByBecky McCray September 2, 2024September 2, 2024

      In the small town of Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, Marilyn Pope Francis ran a restaurant with a fenced patio for tables and chairs. She set up hot serving dishes and a cold drinks station in the gazebo to serve customers. Here’s the part where we learn that Marilyn is a low-key business genius. Next to…

    Read More New sidewalk sales idea: Sell through the fenceContinue

  • How to remember customer names: write them down
    customer service | marketing | rural | Small Biz 100

    How to remember customer names: write them down

    ByRob Hatch May 28, 2021May 17, 2021

    Guest post by Rob Hatch Chris Brogan recently shared a story of a local bookstore in his hometown. He asked them to order a specific book for him that wasn’t in stock. The owner wrote down his name and phone number and told him she’d order it. The next week, when he walked in the…

    Read More How to remember customer names: write them downContinue

  • Small Town Main Street Business
    customer service | entrepreneurship | rural

    Masks are the new “no smoking” for small businesses

    ByChris Brogan July 13, 2020

    Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash Guest post by Chris Brogan The whole quarantine and COVID-19 situation has impacted small businesses even more than the big guys because it’s not like anyone has massive reserves of cash around so that you could deal with shutting down for months at a time. And now, as different…

    Read More Masks are the new “no smoking” for small businessesContinue

  • customer service | economic development | entrepreneurship | management | marketing | rural | shop local | trends

    Open Up – It’s the Customers

    ByChris Brogan May 19, 2020

    As different places begin to allow local businesses to open up, you’re not alone if you’re breathing a sigh of relief mixed with a gasp of worry. We all need the money. We all want to get back to being useful for the people we serve. And some or most of us are worried about…

    Read More Open Up – It’s the CustomersContinue

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