Small retail spaces like retail collectives and shed markets generate prosperity for rural areas and small towns when they: give small business ideas an affordable foothold create experiences that draw customers in build on the element of discovery for customers test promising retail concepts shelter businesses too small to survive on their own fill gaps…
Do you tend to panic about a lack of business at a certain point during the year? Do you always feel like you’ll never get enough bookings for the fall? I know several independent professionals who feel like this: a professional photographer who always worries in late summer that there won’t be enough bookings for…
I have a monthly call with 2 international business friends where we share our work and mentor each other. Last week, one of them asked how we felt and what we planned for possible recession. Decide for Impact coach Erno Hannink studies the stoic philosophy and says not to worry about this kind of issue. Focus…
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…
Guest post by Rob Hatch My dear friend John Grossman and his wife Dawn own the Holyoke Hummus Company in Holyoke, Massachusetts. I’ve marveled at how they grew from setting up a small folding table at a local park selling falafel sandwiches to acquiring a cart. Next, they outgrew the cart and bought a food…
Are you a proficient online gamer or metaworld master based in a rural community? You could make a small business out of being a virtual world tour guide. Years ago, a now-defunct business ideas site profiled Synthtravels, a business that offered guided tours of online virtual worlds. If you’ve heard of the metaverse or…
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…
At the recent National Rural Electric Cooperative Association PowerXchange Expo, I noticed one booth that really stood out. In fact, it was so good, people stopped to take pictures of the booth displays. (When was the last time someone took a picture of your booth display?) What made this booth stand out? Hand drawn visuals….
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