When was the last time you had barbecue? Can you remember the smoky smell of roasting meat wafting out of the smoker? It’s delightful, let me tell you. Which is why it’s so smart of Shady Oak Barbecue and Grill in Fort Worth, Texas, to channel all the customers so they have to walk right…
You can have the greatest product or service, but if no one knows you’re there, your business will fail. That’s a harsh statement to make, but it is true. The business world is littered with great ideas that did not succeed because the businesses had no buyers. A common reason for the lack of buying…
At the 2010 Oklahoma Entrepreneurs Conference, a panel of communities shared how they had become more entrepreneurial. Artists are entrepreneurs, too, and Mangum, Oklahoma, is home to several arts businesses. “If you count every man, woman, child and chicken, we have 2500,” Maxine Thomason said. She was the Mayor of Mangum, a former program manager…
After the rush of holiday business at our store, I decided to get everyone (all 5 of us) involved in cleaning up, fixing up and sprucing up. So I tried playing “Go For Broke.” (I remembered reading about a version of this game in Paul Hawken’s book, Growing a Business.) I took the little cork…
Guest post by Lyn Falk Retailworks, Inc. Your storefront says a lot about you and your business, actually. It’s your customer’s first impression of your brand. When competing with the big box retailers that are inevitably on the outskirts of your town, you need to turn on the charm––something the national chains can’t compete with! Think of someone…
I think the definition of “small business” is just too broad. It covers everyone from the part-time self-employed to the 500-employee business, and every government agency in every country has their own definition. Our advice here at Small Biz Survival is targeted to businesses based outside of big cities. We try to be the…
A few weeks ago, we had an interesting discussion about “Copy and Paste Towns” in our weekly newsletter. I mentioned how national chains want to “copy and paste” their standard template on your town. No one wants their small town to end up looking just like every other town and suburb. And we don’t…
If you’re worried about your business, your small town economy, or surviving in tough times, you have a choice. You could choose to focus instead on improving your business basics. Here are my top three small-business basics you can’t afford to ignore when things aren’t going well. 1. Bookkeeping and Accounting Finance may be everyone’s…
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