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

By Becky McCray

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"

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 […]

March 23, 2025 Filed Under: community, customer service, entrepreneurship, marketing, rural, trends Tagged With: branding, building a business, effective marketing, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, marketing, rural, small business, small business success

How to let customers know when changing your business hours

By Becky McCray

Screenshot of an instagram post with Christmas week business hours. One comment asks, "How late are you open new year's eve?"

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 […]

March 12, 2025 Filed Under: customer service, entrepreneurship, marketing, rural, Small Biz 100, social media Tagged With: effective marketing, entrepreneurship, marketing, retail, rural, service businesses, small business

New sidewalk sales idea: Sell through the fence

By Becky McCray

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.

  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 […]

September 2, 2024 Filed Under: customer service, entrepreneurship, marketing, rural Tagged With: food business, restaurant, service businesses

How to remember customer names: write them down

By Rob Hatch

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 […]

May 28, 2021 Filed Under: customer service, marketing, rural, Small Biz 100 Tagged With: Chris Brogan, customer service, memory, Rob Hatch, tips

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