The most common thing rural people ask us about remote workers is how to attract them. To find out what will make your town attractive, let’s look at what attracts people to your town right now. Every town has some people moving in every year, and we don’t notice them. We are far more aware…
Cooperatives can play a big role in small towns, providing products and services to fill gaps as well as giving local people a share of ownership. Rural cooperatives go way back Rural areas have a long history with cooperatives through cooperative telephone service, electricity, and agriculture. My husband is a member of the Alva Farmers…
By Paula Jensen Quite simply, community dialogue is an exchange of ideas and experiences through listening, sharing, and questioning. At its best, community dialogue is created in a safe environment where a diverse group of people gather to talk and understand each other. Community dialogue at its worst looks something like the embarrassing story I…
With more people working remotely, more people are working from places that are neither their offices or their homes. Cue the rise of the Third Workplace. You may remember “third places” as places you hangout that aren’t home and aren’t work. Coffee shops, bars and places like that. “Third workplaces” are places you work…
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…
Basics What is a pop-up? I explain more here. Tip #1: Group your pop-ups 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…
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…
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…
Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.
We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.
Meet our authors on the About page.
Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.
Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.
We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses.
Copyright © 2006–2026 Becky McCray • Site by Webdancers