Cash Mobs are a good tool for small towns. It’s all about getting your people out to support one business in order to get the message across: local businesses matter and you matter to local businesses. But if that’s all there is to it, you miss the chance to build on their success. Laura Meadows,…
This first appeared in our weekly email newsletter, A Positive View of Rural. Even though I love local business, I’m about ready to ban “shop local.” Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I mean, I’m something of a shop local champion. So why am I ready to get rid of “shop local”? Because I’m afraid it has…
You get what you measure. That is, anything you actually go to the trouble to keep records on, you will pay more attention to and likely improve. If you make yourself write down everything you eat, you’ll find yourself feeling accountable. You’ll actually eat less or eat better things so you won’t be embarrassed to…
One of our readers from Reimagine Goldendale asked this on Facebook: People are constantly being encouraged to shop local, but small town retailers have a tough time keeping their prices down when their wholesale costs can be so high. Do you have any advice on how to order wholesale so retail prices can be more…
If you’re running a Shop Local or Buy Local campaign in your small town, you should get your hands on a new resource from AMIBA. AMIBA is the American Independent Business Alliance. They’ve partnered with American Express OPEN to print up a 12-page color magazine. It includes “a thorough introduction” to organizing an effective campaign,…
Luling, Texas, has a terrific Chamber of Commerce Shop Local campaign, using “Homegrown” as the theme. They are profiling local businesses in the news paper, organizing cash mobs, and more. They even posted a big sign pointing highway travelers to the downtown business district. How are you cultivating your local economy? If it includes a…
Another report from the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies Conference, about the holidays “shop local” campaign that any business can participate in, called Shift Your Shopping. The facilitators were Laury Hammel, Sustainable Business Network Boston, and Joe Grafton, Somerville Local First. The goal is to get people to understand that shifting their shopping matters….
This week, I have a tip to help you promote entrepreneurship. Use a social bookmarking site to collect the websites of businesses in your area. This idea is one way of recognizing your existing entrepreneurs, presented by Dave Shideler in a webinar called “Building Entrepreneurial Communities.” Why use social bookmarking? 1. As you bookmark those businesses,…
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