• Survey of Rural Challenges
  • Small Town Speaker Becky McCray
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

Reaching “at risk” kids for local jobs

By Becky McCray

Workforce is a challenge for 2/3rds of rural small businesses. Source: Survey of Rural Challenges, 2021 One under-utilized source of workers: At-risk students Tony Guidroz, from San Saba, Texas, told me he was shocked when he found out there were 702 kids in the local school district, and more than 400 were considered “at-risk” either […]

July 15, 2022 Filed Under: economic development, rural, workforce, youth Tagged With: at-risk students, blue collar jobs, career fair, workforce, youth

3 Major factors in rural remote work: incentives, flexible workspaces, and a sense of community

By Becky McCray

Remote work will dominate the future small town workforce Your current residents Your current small town residents will increasingly work from home or remotely. Gallup looked at jobs that could be done remotely and the locations where workers actually did them. Four times as many workers will work remotely going forward, compared to the number […]

June 6, 2022 Filed Under: community, economic development, rural, trends, workforce, youth Tagged With: community, coworking, internet, remote work, resident recruitment, rural, zoom towns

How to start a real small small business

By Becky McCray

Small Steps with kettle corn

  Your fellow reader Ava asked a great question: If I am already working, in school, and wanting to start up just a real small small business, then how would that work differently from someone who is coming from a completely different stand point, like not working or in school and is just generally starting […]

December 17, 2021 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, planning, rural, youth Tagged With: building a business, business ideas, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, part time businesses, rural, side gigs, side hustle, side hustles, small business

How Parents are Keeping Children from Becoming the Next Generation of Leaders

By Paula Jensen

A girl smiles while eating a meal at Eagle Butte, South Dakota.

  By Paula Jensen It seems I have almost always been interested in leadership.  My parents modeled leadership as I was growing up through their active roles in community, church, and school.  I joined 4-H at the age of eight, was called a “ring-leader” as an elementary student (which I don’t think this was a […]

December 28, 2019 Filed Under: community, failure, rural, youth Tagged With: guest post, kids, leadership, Paula Jensen, rural, youth

Next Page »

Howdy!

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.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

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.

Shop Local

Buy local buttonReady to set up a shop local campaign in your small town? You'll need a guide who understands how we're different and what really works: Shop Local Campaigns for Small Towns.

Best of Small Biz Survival

What is holding us back? Why does every project take so long in small towns?

How any business can be part of downtown events by going mobile

Concert-goers talking and enjoying the evening in downtown Webster City, Iowa.

Why do people say there’s nothing to do here then not come to our concerts?

Retailers: Fill all empty space, floor to ceiling

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2023 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in