Too often, our planning starts from what we don’t have. We focus on what to improve, what we lack, what we messed up last year. My friend, educator Kristie Pretti-Frontczak suggested a strengths assessment instead. Here are her questions to kick off your thinking: What do you aspire to accomplish within the next year, within…
“I need help in marketing my product. “ That short sentence is the one I hear often as I work with small-business owners. Most often, when asked to clarify what they want, the owner talks about increasing his or her sales. They want to see more goods and services go out the door. While sales…
By Becky McCray When you ask small town people what challenges they want help with, the responses provide an interesting insight into rural areas today. SaveYour.Town and SmallBizSurvival.com conducted a survey among subscribers and visitors to their sites during 2017, receiving 250 individual responses. Participants included 215 from the USA, 25 from Canada, and…
The numbers are daunting. Every 60 seconds, 347,000 tweets are shared. 510,000 Facebook comments are made. 5,100 Instagram photos are liked. 48 hours of video are uploaded on YouTube. Now add information we get from other online information sources such as email, blogs and websites. Then there is what might be called the traditional sources…
I love pop-up businesses. We’ve talked before about how to get building owners to host pop-up businesses in empty buildings. You can also host pop-ups inside existing businesses, but business owners have a slightly different set of concerns than building owners. First, let’s talk about who benefits. The pop-up business gets the chance to…
Small Business Saturday has come and gone. What worked? What did you do? And what do you wish you would have done? Now is the time to answer those questions. Yes, I know that for many of you it is also the holiday shopping season and you have just run the gauntlet of getting the…
You know how we give directions in small towns, right? We point you to houses by who used to live there, “the Allen place,” or direct you to turn where things used to be, “where that old barn burned down.” We do this in town and out in the country. This drives newcomers and…
Buzz words, the hot topic – You know what I am talking about. Go to a networking event and just listen. As you listen, there is a good chance you will hear certain words, tactics, techniques or ideas brought up and discussed several times. These same words are ones that you are probably also seeing…
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