Successful business owners understand the market they are in and who they are competing against. Have you taken the time to figure this out for your business? Understanding this and then developing your business to respond are crucial for long-term viability. Yet research suggests that often the business owner takes too narrow of a view…
I am a farm boy. Grew up on a what today would be a small farm. My summers and after-school hours were spent working on the farm. Days were long and there was always something to do. Putting up hay always happened around July 4th. For most of my farming friends, this was a way…
Michael Shuman Interview Economist and Author Michael Shuman knows a heck of a lot about why we have a local movement. He’s also the author of the books Small Mart Revolution and Local Dollars, Local Sense. In this interview, he goes all economist on durable and nondurable goods right at the start, but hang on,…
Jen Risley spoke on a panel with me at the American Independent Business Alliance Conference, and I want to share one or two smart tricks she uses. Jen represents Monadnock Buy Local, covering 35 small towns in the Monadnock Region of southwestern New Hampshire. Her members are all local businesses. She’s a one-person staff so she…
For small town businesses, email is one of the most effective marketing tools available. Customers already like you, right? So they are more likely to open your emails than those from anonymous big brands. Emma Wilhelm, with Mad Mimi email marketing, presented these tips on building up your list of customer email addresses at the…
Small towns watch the endless parade of cars going by on the highway. How can we get them to stop? That question from a reader got me thinking. I’d love your ideas on this question. My ideas: Before you worry about “getting people to stop”, recognize that “family and friends” visits are your primary source…
You’ve been hearing a lot about the need to keep your small town store open during the evenings. Your chamber of commerce is putting on more evening events. The new fitness place up the block is open late. Everyone seems to be trying to get people downtown during later hours, but when you’ve tried opening for…
Conference and meeting attendees know that the a lot of the most useful information is gathered during the breaks. This same idea is why people gather at the coffee shop in the morning. It is the informal times, when we take a few minutes to slow down and connect with others, where we often get…
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