I went around to local businesses while organizing for Small Business Saturday. In every store, I found something I didn’t realize that they carried. Every single store. I’m not making that up! I knew my favorite women’s shop had kid’s clothes, too, but I didn’t know about the new line of watches or the…
A reader asked me about outside food trucks invading a town of about 2,500 people. It’s a good question, and I’m glad to have a chance to share it with you. I am having a hard time in our small town with food trucks wanting to set up for a couple days of the week? I…
Bike tourists exploring the scenic byways through Baker County, Oregon. Photo (CC) by Baker County Tourism on Flickr. Guest post by Mark Matthews, Chief Executive of Advance Cairns (Australia) ON YOUR BIKE….!!! Mountain biking has experienced rapid growth over the past 20 years as riders seek out new trails and new experiences. And some communities are…
You don’t have to settle for a normal business. Rural businesses are exploring new shapes, new locations and new ways of doing business. Here are six innovative ways people are building businesses in small towns today. 1. Pop-ups These are temporary business that may last from just one day to several months. You’ve seen short-term…
One-third of American consumers have used virtual-assistant services on their smartphones recently. That will climb to two-thirds of all consumers in developed markets using them daily, by the end of 2016, Gartner estimates. As search engines and intelligent digital assistants have gotten smarter in the types of questions they can answer, people are getting more comfortable…
Daily Yonder reported recently that the number of rural businesses declined. The article is very good with detailed analysis. But I was struck by what it didn’t talk about: non-employer businesses. You know, self-employed people. Self-employment is a critical part of the rural business picture, moreso than in urban areas. Stephan J. Goetz predicted that 25%…
Last week, we talked about how big box retailers are getting smaller. Why is the big box retail sector making this expensive and difficult change to smaller stores? Because consumers have already started changing. Humorist David Sedaris summed up this consumer feeling in an interview. “I’d rather go to an actual shop — preferably a small…
“Everything gigantic in American [retail] is about to get smaller or die.” That’s the dramatic claim by contrarian economist James Kunstler,writing about the big retail sector in Business Insider. He says big retail is on the brink of scale implosion. Kunstler points to the same trends that are affecting small towns: online shopping, global delivery,…
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