You and I talk a lot about encouraging more entrepreneurs in your community. Maybe you’re wondering about where to find those potential entrepreneurs. A couple of people have asked that question lately, so let’s look into it. The more you cut down barriers to entry, the more people will be able to try different…
Get out the noise makers. Put on your party hats. Order a cake. It’s time to celebrate the backbone of our economy, the small business. Small Business Week 2017, April 30 through May 6, is a celebration of small businesses across the country. Small businesses mean jobs, dollars and economic growth. Across the U.S., more…
What supports can a municipality provide to encourage innovation and business start-ups? That was one of the listener questions when I was a guest recently on the Orton Family Foundation’s Heart and Soul Talks. Municipalities and local officials feel responsible for developing their local economy. Too often, economic development takes the same old form…
Guest Post by Stuart Langley This tidbit turned up in an Atlantic newsletter email this morning. If you’re a resident of California or another state that’s dealt with drought these last few years, we’d love to see (and possibly share) any photos you’ve got that show the impact on your local landscape. Please send…
Small towns struggle to fill big downtown buildings. Back in the day, they may have been department stores or large retailers. Now they most likely sit empty. Instead of waiting for one big tenant to fill them, what if we divided them up, and turned them over to a whole bunch of tiny businesses…
Guest Post by Micah Choquette Owner, Editor and Author of the Sapulpa Times, Sapulpa, Oklahoma, population 20,000 Angrily, I hit “Send” on the message, certain that I was burning a bridge by doing so, but at this point, I didn’t care. It was 2015 and I had just spent far too long chasing a deal with…
If you want to increase the sales of your product, you must get it in front of more people. While there are many ways to make that happen, a way used by many small businesses is an affiliate marketing program. It’s simple in the concept, one business agrees to carry another’s person’s products, usually on…
When Deb Brown and I spoke at the RuralX Summit, one of the ideas we mentioned was the tiny business village, where businesses pop up inside of storage sheds in Tionesta, Pennsylvania. Dylan Fulton and Camden Breitling, high school students from Miller, South Dakota, heard that idea and ran with it. Together with some supportive…
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