My neighbors in Fairview, Oklahoma, have an excellent store-front improvement contest going on. And you can copy it. CJ’s Country Store has a nice frontin downtown Fairview, Oklahoma They’re giving businesses plenty of time, the qualifying period is June 1, 2012 ‐ September 30, 2013. They’re making it worth merchants’ time. 1st Place: $5,000 2nd Place:…
Reader Micah Choquette asked on Twitter: @beckymccray any tips on finding business info and demographics for my town? Do ppl keep records like biz’s that opened/closed ths yr?— Micah Choquette (@meetmicah) November 14, 2012 This is a tough question, because most small towns lack this kind of basic economic data. Two online resources can help,…
Small Business Saturday is focusing more people’s attention on small businesses for holiday shopping. That’s good. But what does it mean? How can small town businesses benefit? What do we need to do? The bottom sticker is for SmallBusiness Saturday from 2011.Seen in Portland, Maine. Small Business Saturday is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Nov 24, 2012….
Investment Ready Places is a new description of small towns and mid sized cities, from the team at Street Sense: Atul Sharma, Kevin Lavelle and Joseph Nickol. Small towns and cities have lots of potential. Mid-tier towns and cities are our most dynamic urban settlements and have the largest untapped potential for fostering economic growth. They vary…
Reader Carie Fuhrman, with the City of Princeton, Minnesota, shared this story on our contact form. Great stuff! –Becky By Carie Fuhrman Downtown Princeton, MNPhoto courtesy of City of Princeton staff. I’d like to tell you about what the Princeton, MN (pop. 4,698) community is doing to revitalize their downtown and help small business owners and entrepreneurs….
Not every small town can be saved. And maybe we shouldn’t try to save every small town. If a town can’t get its act together enough to accept help or seek opportunities, should outside groups spend any of their limited time and resources on them? Or should they focus on the ones with the best…
Eric Canada, Blane Canada Ltd., invited me to co-present a webinar on Blogging for Economic Development. I also made some notes from the other presenter I want to share with you. Eric said that blogging, by his research, is one of the key social media strategies for economic development. I have to agree. Blogging Lessons…
At a recent event, a fellow small-town resident asked me, “Isn’t small towns dying just part of a natural progression?” I said no. Here’s why. We’ll always need small towns. Small towns combine natural resourcesand supporting businesses. 1. Our security depends on small towns. Our nation needs a secure food supply, reliable production of natural…
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