Lots of small towns struggle with retail, both retaining existing stores and encouraging new stores to open. In Elk City, Oklahoma, the municipal government actively encourages retail experiments by rebating some sales tax to new retail businesses. Economic Development Director Jim Mason told me about it at a regional meeting, and I thought it…
What good is it to teach people how to be good entrepreneurs if you don’t make more places for them to try out tiny business ideas? Right now, once they finish the class, they need to have all their ducks in a row in order to go into business in the traditional ways. In order…
Deb Brown, co-founder of SaveYour.Town, joins us today to share a story about a group of guys she met in Akron, Iowa. I’ve been talking about the old boys at the coffee clubs for a long time, and usually as members of the Committee of Negativity. You know them – they meet for coffee and…
It’s already happening. Older business owners are retiring and closing businesses because they can’t find buyers. Universities and business support agencies are scrambling to set up succession planning courses and workshops. Chambers of commerce are making desperate efforts to find buyers. But there’s an unusual option most people overlook: employee ownership. If the business…
“Every one of your Innovative Rural Business Models is illegal!” That was the code enforcement guy at a recent event I spoke at. I just nodded and agreed. Yes, sure they are in some towns or in some circumstances. But so what? Don’t let an outdated law or rule stop a great idea…
Guest post by Steve Dee I’ve been using the Waze app for directions (and more importantly using crowd-sourced information to avoid police traps) since before it was bought by Google. I first started looking into editing the Waze map as a means of routing tourist travelers away from our school’s 15 MPH speed zone….
Jerry Johnson issued a bit of a challenge in the comments, encouraging us all to brainstorm potential business ideas for young rural entrepreneurs. That reminded me of a terrific list of actual student businesses in Norfolk County, Ontario. It’s a list of real businesses started by kids in grades 6 through 12, part of their…
A reader wrote to me about an influx of low-income people into his town, using subsidized housing and other community services. He said a town council member had talked about them as “a drain on resources” and “dead weight.” I got angry when I read that. But it took me awhile to figure out…
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