When rural entrepreneurs prosper, they help their communities prosper. That’s why I support rural entrepreneurs. The best way I can help your community to prosper is to help your entrepreneurs and business owners. They are the ones who will help find solutions to local problems. That’s why I was excited by the CNN story of…
The trend of “reshoring” manufacturing showed up in my back yard last week, with a story in the Alva Review-Courier about local business Vantage Plane Plastics. Vantage Plane Plastics in my hometown,Alva, Oklahoma, is competing with Chinafor manufacturing jobs. Another Oklahoma manufacturer had planned to outsource their product to China, when a sudden increase in shipping costs…
A headline like, “Regional and rural small businesses outperform metropolitan-based businesses,” is sure to get my attention. This one is from Australia, and mirrors U.S. trends. In Australia: Business looks good at the Exchange Hotel, in Grenfell, Australia (population 1900).Photo (CC) by Pip Wilson. All small business monthly growth for October 2011 was 2.8%, while regional and rural…
Small town economies look strong for 2012. The trends for small town and rural businesses are always different from the general small business trends, and for once this is good news. The national economy is not looking all that good, but the rural economy looks strong. Rural small business trends are always different from general…
A big trend in urban real estate is coming to small towns, to create a new opportunity to retain more young people. Young real estate buyers have made an epic shift, away from big suburban homes, and toward smaller spaces in walkable neighborhoods. I read about this first in Grist: Millennials not looking for McMansions…
Rural sourcing is a trend I love. It leverages technology to bring more high tech, higher paying jobs to rural areas. But it’s a small trend, and I’d love to see it spread to more places and more people. What does a small town need to do to support rural sourcing? How can you get…
Each year, I do a rural small business trends article for Anita Campbell’s Small Biz Trends. Here’s the 2011 Trends Driving Rural Small Business. (check the original post for more comments!) Local, government and economic development are the three key factors shaping rural small business in the coming year. Within each of these factors are smaller subtrends. Here’s…
Shop local is a popular topic here, but this week I’ve watched a new trend pop up: bank local.Move Your Money is encouraging people to shift their money to locally owned banks. The site includes bank rankings by Institutional Risk Analytics. All of my local banks scored B+ or higher. The project was dreamed up…
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