Uniontown, Washington, (population 300) has a strong base of arts, artisan and craft entrepreneurship. When I toured Uniontown, a woman spoke up who wants to start a quilt retreat, a place for people to come and quilt together. More than a local quilting bee, she’s imagining a full retreat space. She owns a historic home…
This is a short sample from the SaveYour.Town video “Refilling Your Business Pipeline” featuring Deb Brown and me. Small towns and rural communities will need new business startups to revitalize their local economies, but not many people have the resources today to do a startup the way it’s traditionally been done. Part of what holds…
By Paula Jensen It seems I have almost always been interested in leadership. My parents modeled leadership as I was growing up through their active roles in community, church, and school. I joined 4-H at the age of eight, was called a “ring-leader” as an elementary student (which I don’t think this was a…
I think it’s time to stop calling things a failure just because they come to an end. This comes up because I asked a friend about a project in her town that rehabbed downtown buildings. “It’s not really active anymore,” she said with more than a note of failure in her voice. Let’s check…
If your town can’t get its act together enough to accept help or seek opportunities, should outside groups spend any of their limited time and resources on you? Or should they focus instead on the places with the best prospects of success? When I first had this conversation with Joe Borgstrom a few years ago,…
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…
Every business person, no matter how successful they appear, deals with failure daily. It’s just a part of doing business. Every week, I fail in my business.I never can outguess the customers! Looking in from the outside, you don’t see the whole picture. A smart friend told me he’s intimidated when he looks at people…
Starting is easy. Finishing is hard. And we all tend to beat ourselves up over our many unfinished projects. I have just as many as you do, I’m sure. So here’s a trick I thought of while talking with the very smart Rob Hatch, and I think it has real potential. We all have trouble finishing…
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