In an era when we’re encouraging every rural business to look further outside their local market, it’s interesting to see a business go the other direction. Most rural auction companies use the internet to promote the items at their sales and to accept bids from far-flung customers. But one auction service I heard…
I thought you’d like this, from a recent local economic development newsletter that I received: “We just finished our annual business count. We use this comprehensive employment database to drive our economic development, planning and to keep aware of trends….We don’t include home-based or mobile businesses.” Anyone else see something wrong with that or…
After we talked about the difficulties in finding good people for low-level jobs in rural areas, I wanted to follow up with a challenge Mike shared with us: “Getting people to live here or come here for the jobs we have open NOW!” Mike’s not the only one with workforce challenges. It was one of…
One of the top issues named in our recent Survey of Rural Challenges was how to retain young people. It ranked the number one concern in 2015, and number 2 in 2017. One participant commented, “We have already identified that to survive, we will need entrepreneurial millennials who want to be rural by choice. The…
Did you know that: You will find a family business in one out of every 10 households. Family businesses contributed over $10 trillion, by one estimate, into our U.S. economy. Family businesses generate over 50% of U. S. business revenue. Family businesses employ over 50% of the U.S. workforce. Do you get a sense of…
“How do I attract good employees for low-level jobs?” That was one of the responses to our Survey of Rural Challenges. You don’t. That would be my answer. You will have to re-imagine and remake those jobs. Let’s look at a lumber mill, a real one in a real small town that friends from Oregon…
Guest post by Deb Brown We had filmmakers from San Francisco in our town this month making a movie about us. They are telling the story of Webster City, Iowa, and how we’ve bounced back from the loss of a major manufacturer and the hundreds of jobs they took with them. It’s a big deal…
“Everything gigantic in American [retail] is about to get smaller or die.” James Kunstler wrote in 2013. He said big box retailers were on the brink of scale implosion, and that “every element of economic reality is now poised to squash them.” Fast forward to 2017, and we’ve gone over the brink. Washington Post reported last month…
Since 2006, this site has been helping people like you in small towns move forward without waiting on outside experts, big budgets, or perfect plans. You don’t need any of that to get started.
If you care about your business, your downtown, or your community, you’ll find ideas here you can actually use. Take one. Try it out. Let me know how it goes for you.
Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.
We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses.
Copyright © 2006–2026 Becky McCray • Site by Webdancers