Coworking is like shared office space, except it’s more than that. Coworking works best when it’s a community, too. If you’re trying to build more entrepreneurship in your town, coworking is a smart place to focus. A new study from Emergent Research and partners showed that coworking spaces are human spaces. “The key finding…
Your fellow reader Rhonda Howell asked for tips, tricks, and sound advice for podcasting. Since I’ve dabbled with podcasting on and off since 2006, I wanted to offer my opinion on some basics. Step 1. Know what you want to say. Have a purpose for your podcast. Write down the reason you’re creating a podcast. What…
Help, our downtown is dead! When I talk with people about their small towns, the most common thing I hear is that their downtown is dead. They don’t have many businesses, the few businesses aren’t open convenient hours, and no body goes downtown because there’s nothing going on. Or some variation on those themes. You’re not the…
Small-business success often comes quietly. It rarely announces itself with drums and a parade. Instead, it comes from the voices of clients, customers, mentors and employees. But it can be reached only if you, the owner, are ready to listen to these voices and capture the ideas and thoughts they offer. In general, we are…
My online friend Rick Wolff asked about folks who educate artists on marketing their work. He drew lots and lots of responses. I think artists are important businesses in small towns. We have plenty of creative and interesting people who paint, sculpt, make pottery, do all kinds of traditional arts, and that’s not counting our…
Recently, my wife and I decided to be a local tourist. We took a couple of days to go visit local historical sites that we had never seen before. Our trip took us into some very small North Dakota towns where we decided to spend the evening. We found our lodging using a smartphone. The next…
If your town can’t get its act together enough to accept help or seek opportunities, should outside groups spend any of their limited time and resources on you? Or should they focus instead on the places with the best prospects of success? When I first had this conversation with Joe Borgstrom a few years ago,…
If you’re a business owner, which appeals more: spending $20 to capture a new customer or spending $1 to retain an existing customer? These numbers represent broad averages but reflect reality, according to research. This means developing a sustainable business requires focusing first on building customer loyalty. Every business needs to build its customer base,…
Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.
We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.
Meet our authors on the About page.
Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.
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