Guest Post by Chris Brogan The COVID-19 quarantine has crushed so many small businesses and the economy at large. It’s truly been the worst financial crisis unfurling in this country since the 1930s. And while some measures are in place to help this not reach that level of despair, many people are finding themselves out […]
Masks are the new “no smoking” for small businesses
Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash Guest post by Chris Brogan The whole quarantine and COVID-19 situation has impacted small businesses even more than the big guys because it’s not like anyone has massive reserves of cash around so that you could deal with shutting down for months at a time. And now, as different […]
Refilling the rural business pipeline
This is a short sample from the SaveYour.Town video “Refilling Your Business Pipeline” featuring Deb Brown and me. Small towns and rural communities will need new business startups to revitalize their local economies, but not many people have the resources today to do a startup the way it’s traditionally been done. Part of what holds […]
Huge vacant buildings: grants to renovate?
Should we offer incentives to fill it with small retailers? How do we convince the mayor and economic development group? The empty factory building A reader wrote in to ask about converting and dividing up a huge old building. Because my answer isn’t quite what the reader asked for, I’ve taken the details out. […]
Economic self defense for small towns
Editorial by Becky McCray Not everyone who says they’ll help your town is telling you the truth. If you want a resilient small town economy and prosperity for the people in your town, I have some self-defense ideas for you. Focus more on your own people, less on attraction. Stop paying people to bring business […]
Open Up – It’s the Customers
As different places begin to allow local businesses to open up, you’re not alone if you’re breathing a sigh of relief mixed with a gasp of worry. We all need the money. We all want to get back to being useful for the people we serve. And some or most of us are worried about […]
Remember when we used to try to hide our accents?
By Chris Brogan I’m originally from Maine. Accents up there come through the nose. Most famously, people from Maine are supposed to say “Ayuh” when we mean “yes.” Midway through high school, I moved to Massachusetts, where you lose the nasal thing, but you also lose all “r’s” from conversation. “It’s hahd to sound […]
Show and Tell – How Video and Maybe Even LIVE Video Are Important for Small Town Business
By Chris Brogan They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes, it might be worth a thousand dollars, too. Over the last ten years, restaurants and bars who post their best dishes or drinks as photos on sites like Instagram have learned that people love seeing examples of what they’ll get if […]
Did America Get Too Big? Next steps for small businesses right now
Survival skills for small town businesses in the Coronavirus era By Chris Brogan As the world starts to ask what’s going to happen when this pandemic is finally over and we can look at what it will take to jumpstart the economy again, one venture capitalist says we have to save Main Street and not […]
What would you be doing this weekend, if the world hadn’t fallen apart?
Guest post by Paula Jensen I was on my second video conference of the day earlier last week and a peer in the meeting said, “Time-out! I need to ask everyone a question.” We all agreed, and he said, “What would you be doing this weekend, if the world hadn’t fallen apart?” Some people answered […]
