From Upstate New York town to Global Marketplace: How we got our flags off the ground Guest Post by Mike Cronin My business, Gettysburg Flag Works, is a manufacturer of flags and flag-related items. Although we love our brick and mortar operation, we realized that we needed a digital presence in order to remain competitive….
Two business lessons from a local business: You have to be open to make the sale. Pay attention to the customer in front of you. My hometown Alva, Oklahoma, (population 6,200) holds a monthly first Friday Art Walk downtown. It’s primarily about fine arts displays, but a few businesses are starting to be open as…
Simply Made Apps is a tech start-up based out of Fargo, North Dakota, population 110,000. They reached out to us because although that’s not really a small town, it is definitely rural and remote. Co-founder Brandon Medenwald talked about what it’s like to run a high-tech business in an isolated small city, far from…
How do you view your business? Is it a way to make a living or a way to live your life? That is a question business owners commonly ask themselves or are asked by researchers. People start businesses for a variety of reasons. However, many of the reasons fall into one of these two categories….
Every week, I look for small town and rural business stories to share with you. I look for stories about shop local and the local movement, planning and development as relates to rural, rural news, community involvement, and ideas you can try in your town. Some of them end up as stories I share…
The visibility of your business may seem insignificant, but it is a key factor to the success of many enterprises. Being visible comes in many ways. Today we hear a great deal about your online visibility. Plus, you have visibility, in a sense, when people know your name and that you exist. Yet the visibility…
In general, towns are more or less the same. Streets, houses, trees. It’s the details that make one different. Sitting down for a meal in the restored Harvey House in Waynoka, Oklahoma. Watching the white-haired men lawn bowling at the seaside on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Enjoying a scoop of juneberry ice cream in…
A pop up business is just a temporary business. Different authors may add different qualifiers, but I like to keep things simple. A pop-up is a way to take advantage of fleeting opportunities, test whether an idea is workable and to learn from direct experience. Pop-ups can be: Booths and stands at festivals Short-term…
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