Sheila Scarborough and Leslie McLellan of Tourism Currents laid out a simple starting point for all your social media efforts. Good news: it’s as easy as filling in the blank. Fill in the Blank (Our company) is where (our customers) find (the thing we offer) with (this benefit) So all you have to do is…
Is there a distinction between wishing and hoping? Wishing is feeling or expressing a strong desire for something that is not easily attainable. It’s like wishing to win the lottery but you don’t buy a ticket. Hoping is to look forward with desire and reasonable confidence that something can happen. You can hope that you win the…
Our friend Maury Forman of Washington state, sent us this idea from Madras, Oregon: On February 16 the Madras Downtown Association and Petite Sweets hosted the first-ever Cookie Crawl. Participants paid $5 and received a box and map that listed all the locations where the beautifully decorated cookies were available. Petite Sweets decorated cookies…
If you need outside funding to get to the next step in your rural small business, your next step is too big. Before you bet big on your business idea, test it with small steps. Make some sales from your front yard, then try a booth, then a trailer, then think about moving up…
Looking for the perfect instant summer business idea for young entrepreneurs? Try phone clinics. I saw this idea pop-up in a meeting that involved a cross section of the town of Cathlamet, Washington. People of all ages were there: students from the high school, county commissioners, chamber of commerce members. One of the adults…
You’ve seen it before: a chain link fence right in the middle of a downtown. Usually there’s barbed wire at the top. Let’s face it, barbed wire is not the friendliest look for a downtown. We can do better. Why chain link in the first place? When a business ends up with an empty lot…
There are dozens and dozens of 3 legged stool analogies. The Three Legged Stool of Retirement Planning …of Politics …of Sustainability …of Accounting …of Organizational Architecture. And all the headlines: Why Leadership is Like a Three Legged Stool. Apple’s three-legged stool at WWDC 2019. ‘The three-legged stool’: McDonald’s recipe for franchise success. Think about…
Guest post by Paula Jensen I remember in 1997, just following the birth of my second son, when more than one elder in my community told me, “It is so sad that your children will never graduate from Langford High School like you did!” Those comments told me that the local leaders were questioning…
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