You’ve been hearing a lot about the need to keep your small town store open during the evenings. Your chamber of commerce is putting on more evening events. The new fitness place up the block is open late. Everyone seems to be trying to get people downtown during later hours, but when you’ve tried opening for…
Independent contractors and related tax questions are some of the most common questions we get from readers, so I was glad to see these webinars offered by the IRS Small Business/Self-Employed Division during Small Business Week. The webinars will cover: What to do when you hire and pay independent contractors, and How best to…
One small town retail issue is dealing with customers who compare your prices to the prices with other far-away locations. A smart way to head that off is to create comparisons between different products within your store. Sometimes customers compare your price on a single item with that item in a different store or online….
Your new business has opened its doors. It has been a challenge finding a good idea, obtaining funding, and getting the necessary permits in order. You have also had to find suppliers, get your facility ready, whether a brick and mortar store or an ecommerce site, and maybe hire some employees. So now that you’ve…
From Upstate New York town to Global Marketplace: How we got our flags off the ground Guest Post by Mike Cronin My business, Gettysburg Flag Works, is a manufacturer of flags and flag-related items. Although we love our brick and mortar operation, we realized that we needed a digital presence in order to remain competitive….
Two business lessons from a local business: You have to be open to make the sale. Pay attention to the customer in front of you. My hometown Alva, Oklahoma, (population 6,200) holds a monthly first Friday Art Walk downtown. It’s primarily about fine arts displays, but a few businesses are starting to be open as…
Simply Made Apps is a tech start-up based out of Fargo, North Dakota, population 110,000. They reached out to us because although that’s not really a small town, it is definitely rural and remote. Co-founder Brandon Medenwald talked about what it’s like to run a high-tech business in an isolated small city, far from…
I realize that no one likes accounting, but I like WaveApps. I like that they focus on businesses with 9 or fewer employees, or no employees at all. I know that there are a lot of specialty apps out there, one for invoicing, one for receipts, something else for payroll. I don’t need the job…
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