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Why do people say there’s nothing to do here then not come to our concerts?

By Becky McCray

Concert-goers talking and enjoying the evening in downtown Webster City, Iowa.

  Let’s look at the tale of two small town concerts. Concert 1: We’ve done all the work, you just need to show up! One happened at an agritourism business. They brought in a couple of professional musicians for performances out at the farm. The musicians were reasonably well known, with some previous exposure on […]

October 15, 2018 Filed Under: Best of, community, entrepreneurship, marketing, mistakes, rural Tagged With: idea friendly

Shipping container businesses downtown: don’t make this big mistake

By Becky McCray

Lots of big cities have started shipping container business villages. I love the idea. But many of them are making a huge mistake that I don’t want to see small towns copy. The Big Mistake: Ignoring the street My friend Carlos Moreno of Tulsa, Oklahoma, pointed this out. Here’s a picture of the Boxyard in […]

September 24, 2018 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, mistakes, rural

Time management: knowing what NOT to do

By Becky McCray

  It’s the essential entrepreneurial skill that is under appreciated: knowing what not to do. In small towns, entrepreneurs tend to have more than one line of business. Some have seasonal businesses, and some just have different lines of income within their business. Where we have fewer people in our local market, it makes sense […]

July 2, 2018 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, management, mistakes, rural

Don’t wait until retirement to feature your people

By Becky McCray

Reitrement cake. Photo CC by VSPYCC on Flickr

  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, […]

December 26, 2016 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, marketing, mistakes, rural, Small Biz 100, social media

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