Are you in a tourism-based town where people stay in town overnight, but head out touring all day long? Ever complain that the tourists stay, but they don’t spend? Here’s a suggestion, inspired by something Peggy Sanders said in her guest post last week, Which town is yours? “Instead of complaining that the hordes are…
Guest post by Peggy Sanders Let’s compare two small towns and how their retail outlets do business. Town A has a population of 3,700 and is on a steady decline shown by a loss of 15% since 2000, and Town B has 990 residents with a 27% increase during the past 16 years. Towns A…
No one creates jobs in a vacuum. They need to connect to customers. They need to connect to people at suppliers and service providers. They need to connect to people who help them think of the new ideas that generate new value that create more demand that lead to new jobs. They need to…
Guest post by H. E. James, MBA Has your small business ever been dinged because of credit card fraud? The smaller the business, the harder it is to shoulder the chargeback costs when a fraudulent transaction occurs. Before October 2015, most of those charges were borne by credit card companies themselves rather than merchants…
I spent a couple of days last month touring Lake Arrowhead, California, meeting merchants and retailers, talking to residents, and holding a work session with the board of the Village Merchants Association. They have a ton of natural assets, great ideas, but have trouble getting the merchants to come together toward common goals. They’ve…
Glenn Muske wrote Your Small Business Needs a Sign. Ouch! This really hit home for me. Our store sign was damaged by wind and hail, and we left it there for way too long because it seemed like such a big job to do anything. Too many questions: how much will it cost? Which big city…
This appeared in my newsletter for ministry leaders, “The Guy Down The Hall“. But Becky pointed out that the planes circle for small businesses, too, and I decided to share it here. I grew up near O’Hare Airport. We could always see planes lined up across the sky, waiting to land. At busy times, we could…
My friend Mark Riffey is from the small town of Columbia Falls, Montana. He normally writes about marketing, and he offers excellent advice. But last week, something different popped up. He wrote to his hometown folks to address the loss of an important local employer. I know many of you can relate to this…
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