If part of the services you provide includes helping people make a plan, be sure you don’t stop there. If you don’t address this pitfall, it’s going to hurt your sales and hold potential customers back. The problem Everyday people, like your customers, want to have a plan, but they have an important doubt….
Small town people know that lean times can happen to anyone and any business. If you only sell to walk-in customers, what do you do when the city tears up your sidewalk? If you only do consulting, what do you do when you get sick for a month? If you only sell online, what…
If you have ever sold a home, you can sell your business in a small town A guest article by John Warrillow, author of Built To Sell Owning a business in a small town has many benefits, but one of the drawbacks is the difficulty of finding a buyer for your business when you decide…
Start with this checklist Here are specific steps any small business in a rural area can take to get started on social media marketing. Physical, bricks and mortar businesses, claim your Google listing first: Claim your Google listing at https://www.google.com/business/ What to do if you’re not in the right place on the map Update your info,…
When I saw this news article, the light went on over my head! This is such a great fit for small towns to boost their tourism. Norfolk County, Ontario, is hosting the culinary industry at the Terroir Rural Retreat. It will be the day after the major Terroir Symposium held in big city Toronto, almost…
Everyone loves baby chicks. That’s probably why every Easter, we hear about families who buy chicks for their children, only to realize they grow up to be full size chickens that don’t really fit into their lives. One farmer in Nebraska turned that into a business idea: she rents chicks to families for Easter….
Setting business hours is a big mess. In our Survey of Rural Challenges, small business owners told us that trying to be open later hours with no success was their number one challenge, two years in a row. When Deb Brown and I did our Q&A session on The Future of Retail, several people asked…
We want our downtowns and our retail stores to be welcoming for all kinds of customers. We’re especially interested in bringing young families downtown for shopping and for special events. To do that, we have to think from their perspective about what keeps them from coming downtown. Their answers might surprise you. Jennifer Carlson…
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