James Dalman is another of my Oklahoma friends. He does terrific web design, and he designed my personal site at BeckyMcCray.com. I’ve seen his love for small towns. When he told me this story, I begged him to write it up. He’s describing the number one complaint I hear about small town businesses over and…
International Day of Rural Women sounds pretty cool. It’s every October 15, as declared by the United Nations. Rural women Primrose and Portia, friends from my South Africa trip. The problem is the U.N. page talks about “rural women” but they actually mean “rural women in developing countries.” That’s a pet peeve of mine: saying “rural” when…
Last year at the Small Town 140 Conference, I shared a bit of a rant about how outside people see small towns and why that matters to us getting together online and in person. If you can’t see the video, please click through to Small Biz Survival. Here’s what I said: Last week I opened…
Not every small town can be saved. And maybe we shouldn’t try to save every small town. If a 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 them? Or should they focus on the ones with the best…
In a small town, you may need several lines of income to survive. So, sometimes, people try to start multiple businesses all at once. That’s a mistake, and to see why, let’s take a look at farming. Farmers take their time in adding any new crop. That new crop will take acres away from the…
Speakers from 20 states are converging on Kansas November 8, 2012, for a conversation about how high tech thrives outside Silicon Valley and all the usual big cities. It’s the Small Town State of NOW, which we used to call the 140 Conference. Contributor Jon Swanson and I will share apanel on true friendship this year. …
I love talking to my friend Paul Chaney because he really gets both small business and small towns. He wrote a great book on the basics of social media for small business called The Digital Handshake. When I heard he had a new book coming out, this one on F-commerce, I invited him to tell…
At a recent event, a fellow small-town resident asked me, “Isn’t small towns dying just part of a natural progression?” I said no. Here’s why. We’ll always need small towns. Small towns combine natural resourcesand supporting businesses. 1. Our security depends on small towns. Our nation needs a secure food supply, reliable production of natural…
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