Occasionally, we profile small business mistakes, so we can all learn and improve our businesses. I called a local plumber and left a voicemail explaining what I needed done. Two days later, he called me back, and left me a voicemail. He said if I would call him back, we could talk about it. I…
These were the smartest trade show handouts at the Dallas Safari Club show this year. Vancouver Island Guide Outfitters printed targets on one side, and their flyer on the other. Magic formula: a useful item, inexpensive, with room to feature your business. What creative and useful trade show handouts have you seen? New to SmallBizSurvival.com?…
Small Biz Survival is 5 years old today! And it’s Friday, and that means Brag Basket. How perfect is that? I promised Copyblogger we’d have cake.Photo by Gerry Snaps The Brag Basket is all about sharing. It’s here so you can introduce yourself, share some good news, or congratulate a friend. So it’s not really…
The average age of US farmers is over 57.Photo by Becky McCray Here is a chance to double down in San Francisco on 24 January 2011. Two million young people—many of them from rural backgrounds—have served in the U.S. military since the attacks of 9/11. These veterans are facing extremely hard times, with very high…
Image by iconshock Blogger is one of the easiest ways to start a blog for a small business. Easiest, but not the best respected. To the blogging elite, the blogspot.com address has become a kind of badge of shame. However, Blogger continues to introduce new ways to make your blog look good and work for a small…
What’s the best location for a new tourism visitor center? “Instead of mall location, a smartphone location.” My friend Scott Townsend pointed this out on Twitter. Why? “So much more info (maps, tours, photos, calendars, social media links, etc)” Have you started building your smartphone location? New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what…
After I told you about my project folder, Jen asked for my day-to-day planning tool. So here it is: a simple weekly calendar. Before I start my work week, I review the projects in my project folder and assign the next actions to particular days on my weekly planner. I use the six most important…
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…
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