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Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource
  • marketing | rural | Small Biz 100 | success

    Building Your Business – Try Affiliate Marketing

    ByGlenn Muske March 22, 2017March 9, 2017

    If you want to increase the sales of your product, you must get it in front of more people. While there are many ways to make that happen, a way used by many small businesses is an affiliate marketing program. It’s simple in the concept, one business agrees to carry another’s person’s products, usually on…

    Read More Building Your Business – Try Affiliate MarketingContinue

  • Empty building with windows advertising a moving and storage business
    entrepreneurship | marketing | rural

    Your secret advertising tool: empty buildings downtown as billboards

    ByBecky McCray March 13, 2017March 8, 2019

    Seems like every rural downtown has a few: empty buildings or buildings used for storage. Those empty buildings are actually a potential advertising tool. Look at these examples that Vienna Lee showed me in Elkhart, Kansas. Both buildings are empty, with only the front windows used to advertise other businesses.   The hardest part may be…

    Read More Your secret advertising tool: empty buildings downtown as billboardsContinue

  • marketing | Small Biz 100

    Stand Out to Build Your Small Business

    ByGlenn Muske March 8, 2017March 3, 2017

    “You have to be odd to be Number 1” – Dr. Seuss. What makes your business different from the competition? This question is one to constantly think about. Being different, or being odd as Dr. Seuss writes, is just another way of reminding you to help your customers identify your business and your business niche….

    Read More Stand Out to Build Your Small BusinessContinue

  • Simple social media trick for small business: ask for requests
    entrepreneurship | marketing | social media | success | tools

    Simple social media trick for small business: ask for requests

    BySmall Biz Survival February 6, 2017January 2, 2018

      How can local businesses build more sales through social media? Just ask for requests, then answer them. Your fellow reader Julie Barr wrote in with this example she spotted: Hi Becky, I knew you would appreciate how our local liquor store took to social media to increase their business! Here’s what they did: The…

    Read More Simple social media trick for small business: ask for requestsContinue

  • Rural Real Estate: When You’re the Only Game in Town
    entrepreneurship | marketing | rural

    Rural Real Estate: When You’re the Only Game in Town

    ByH.E. James January 30, 2017January 2, 2018

      By H. E. James, MBA Rural businesses occupy a unique place in their communities.  If you own one, you know that you have a corner on your market while possibly having a market on the corner.  This is especially the case for niche businesses like real estate agents. In small towns, there is unlikely…

    Read More Rural Real Estate: When You’re the Only Game in TownContinue

  • marketing | Small Biz 100

    When Marketing for Your Small Business, Use All Available Tools

    ByGlenn Muske January 11, 2017January 6, 2017

    Let’s begin with a story. It’s a story about a man who was upset with the way things were done. The man decided to compile his issues and then post this for people to see and comment. Because of a new technology, his message was not only read by the community but reached far and…

    Read More When Marketing for Your Small Business, Use All Available ToolsContinue

  • When Google Maps has your small business listed in the wrong place
    entrepreneurship | marketing | rural | Small Biz 100

    When Google Maps has your small business listed in the wrong place

    ByBecky McCray January 2, 2017January 1, 2017

    When Google has you in the wrong place, it matters! Google Maps, Google Local, and mobile Google searches all share the same basic data, so if your address is wrong in one, it’s wrong in all of them. When I view the Google insights for my own business, it reports hundreds of people viewing my…

    Read More When Google Maps has your small business listed in the wrong placeContinue

  • Reitrement cake. Photo CC by VSPYCC on Flickr
    entrepreneurship | marketing | mistakes | rural | Small Biz 100 | social media

    Don’t wait until retirement to feature your people

    ByBecky McCray December 26, 2016

      Seems like there’s been a lot of retirements announced in my small town newspaper lately. There’s usually an ad giving a profile of their career, their smiling photo, and details of the retirement reception. As I read the latest one, I thought it seemed like a shame. Here was the story of a well-qualified person,…

    Read More Don’t wait until retirement to feature your peopleContinue

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