Inspired by the challenge from Julien Smith, I’m reading much more consistently this year. Here are some of my recent reads. Small Town Sexy by Kim Huston.It’s a whirlwind tour of Kim’s romance with small towns. From her window on the world in small town Kentucky, she offers up a sample of small town living,…
Shop local is a popular topic here, but this week I’ve watched a new trend pop up: bank local.Move Your Money is encouraging people to shift their money to locally owned banks. The site includes bank rankings by Institutional Risk Analytics. All of my local banks scored B+ or higher. The project was dreamed up…
UPDATE: We’re scheduled for Sunday, March 14, 2010, at 12:30 pm, in the Hilton Room E. Here is the detailed event page at SXSW. Hi, this is Becky McCray of SmallBizSurvival.com, and along with Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog.com, we’re going to answer your questions in a Core Conversation at South By Southwest Interactive, called “How…
Rural and small town tourism is all about experiences. That is why you should steal this idea for your local tourism: Meet the locals in Jamaica. [There are] about 300 ambassadors who volunteer with the Jamaica Tourist Board’s Meet the People program. Launched nearly 41 years ago, it arranges meetings between visitors and residents, basing…
Many small towns have un-used space in their downtown. A local resident in Buffalo, Oklahoma, has used some of that space to create short-term lodging for hunters. Julia Hinther runs a salon and gift shop. The space upstairs used to be an apartment for her sons. When one of her sons tried his luck with…
I hope our 4 ways to jumpstart your small biz in 2010 post helped lots of you get going with 2010. The National Federation of Independent Business liked it enough to ask me to do a webinar based on it. I’ve agreed, and it will be Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 12pm Eastern Time. I’m also…
Yesterday, I walked the small town of Okeene, Oklahoma, through a process to help them expand their tourism potential. We used the 8 Rural Culture Elements from Kansas Sampler Foundation. I wanted to share some of the discussion with you, in hopes it will encourage you to take a fresh look at your local tourism…
Mike Knutson is someone you should meet. He believes small, rural communities need to “Reimagine” their futures. At “ReImagine Rural” (www.ReImagineRural.com) he and others attempt to inspire rural residents to look at the futures of their communities differently and to base their community development efforts on innovative, transformative ideas. I think I favorite or share…
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