Who knows what trends will affect small and rural communities in 2022 and beyond? Not many trends pieces cover rural places. These trends are specifically about rural and small towns. I’ve been following rural trends and writing about them since 2009. My trends reports have been commissioned or quoted by Main Street America, Emergent Research, the […]
Tip for better pop-ups and shed businesses
When you’re planning to add pop-up businesses or shed businesses to your small or rural community, concentrate them in one area. Better to have four sheds or pop up businesses together on a single lot, than fourteen vendors spread out all over. Your goal is to make it feel like a concentrated burst of new […]
Boost your rural retail business with this trick
By Deb Brown The old way of doing business is one building, one business. What if you could test an idea and have a business inside a business? Anyone of us either knows or can find someone who is making things from their home and selling it. What if you encouraged already existing home-based businesses […]
The Role of Public Policy in Rural Community Economic Development
By Paula Jensen My husband is a mechanic. The tools of his trade are important to his work. He has a large toolbox with many drawers lined in soft black padding. His tools lay clean and organized inside each drawer for easy access when he needs the right tool for a job. Yet, when things […]
