I’m always collecting small town business ideas. On Twitter, I saw Scott Balster @scottbalster of Loveland, CO, suggest a small version of two popular labor-exchange services: TaskRabbit and Elance. TaskRabbit is a task and errand service connection. People list tasks they need done, everything from housecleaning to delivering groceries. Other people sign up to take…
The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one July 5-7, 2013. I’m doing some traveling, so the Brag Basket is traveling, too. This week, it celebrates our readers in Australia. What good news will you add to the brag basket? Don’t hold back because…
Every time I see my local chamber director at an event she lets some little bit of news drop like everyone knows it. Inevitably, someone at the table is surprised. (Usually me.) “Chambers of Commerce consistently undervalue their information,” Ali Crain, with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Executives told me. I agree. As the small town chamber…
We just finished with National Small Business Week, and now we turn around and talk about Independents Week. What’s the difference, and why does it matter? Small business is a designation of size. So anything under 500 employees, according to Small Business Administration definition. I don’t know about your small town, but in mine, 500…
We’re doing something new with the Brag Basket. The Brag Basket is going on a tour, visiting and celebrating our readers. This week, we’re off to Cuba, Missouri. Our reader Jane S. Reed is a tireless supporter and promoter of Cuba, and she sent us not one, but a truck load of links to good…
As small-business owners know, a business needs customers coming in the door to survive. But a common fallacy is that customers will flock to your store just because you open the doors. Building a customer base is a huge challenge, but it is reality. Even with a great product, you need to let customers know…
Photos are a critical promotion tool for your small business, and visuals remain a top trend in tourism. If you’ve been scattering your online photos from Facebook to TwitPic to Instagram, now is a good time to look at what has changed with Flickr. With 1TB of storage space for your photos, Flickr now gives…
Do you know the most common safety problem across all kinds of business? It’s slips, trips, and falls. That’s part of what I learned from Krista Roquemore, Safety Instructor at Pioneer Technology Center in Ponca City, Oklahoma. All accidents are 100% preventable, Krista said. She challenged us to come up with any possible accident that…
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