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How small town businesses can market to remote workers and turn them into new customers

By Becky McCray

A person is working on a laptop from a rooftop deck

With the rise of remote work, more people move to small towns even temporarily to work remotely. Small town businesses have the opportunity to tap remote workers as new customers. Why remote workers are hard to market to New residents who work remotely can be hard to find: they aren’t all working at the same […]

May 15, 2023 Filed Under: marketing, rural, trends Tagged With: co-working, customers, marketing, remote work, rural, small town, zoom towns

Survey of Rural Challenges 2023 results

By Becky McCray

Survey of Rural Challenges

To find out what rural people felt were their biggest challenges, SaveYour.Town and SmallBizSurvival.com surveyed 315 rural people from the US, Canada and Australia between November 2022 and January 2023. The results make up this fifth edition of the Survey of Rural Challenges. Download the PDF Report Survey of Rural Challenges 2023 by debworks Top conclusions […]

May 8, 2023 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, rural, Survey of Rural Challenges, trends Tagged With: diversity, issues, rural policy, Rural surveys and polls, Survey of Rural Challenges

Rural and small town ideas from the OU Placemaking Conference IQC 2023

By Becky McCray

Kids playing on a chalked map of their community

Recently I attended the OU (University of Oklahoma) Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) Placemaking Conference This was the 10th annual event. There were 600 people attending from 40 counties in Oklahoma and 6 surrounding states. I attended the 2017 event along with my colleague Deb Brown. The focus was inevitably on big cities, but I […]

April 5, 2023 Filed Under: community, economic development, rural, trends Tagged With: conferences, Institute for Quality Communities, placemaking, rural, rural urban connections, University of Oklahoma

Local leaders: Start with intuition about your community then add data

By Paula Jensen

Paula Jensen

How do decisions about your town’s future get made? Do government officials and volunteer leaders rely on what they already know, or do they rely on data generated by outside experts? Or might it be both? By Paula Jensen Intuitive decision making is based on gut feelings, past experiences, and personal judgment. It involves using […]

March 30, 2023 Filed Under: economic development, rural Tagged With: data, decision making, leadership, local government, research

Rural tourism trends say small towns are still cool

By Becky McCray

Slide text: Times are changing. Putting new destinations on the map: rural towns, countryside, and back to cities. A domestic rediscovery. Blended travel creates longer stays and workcations. Brighter light on wellness.

But you already knew that Tourism Currents, experts on social media for tourism, wrote about 5 travel trends to blog about right now, and there’s a lot for rural communities to latch onto there. 1) Wellness Travel Sheila says, “where people can go to relax, detox, relieve stress, get a massage and spa treatments, eat […]

March 27, 2023 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, rural, tourism, trends Tagged With: rural culture, small towns, tourism, Tourism Currents, travel

Move Your Money and Bank Local

By Becky McCray

Move Your Money, bank local, invest local

April is traditionally Move Your Money Month in the shop local community. Bank Local and Invest Local are the financial parts of the shop local movement. In 2023, the timing couldn’t be more noticeable. High profile bank failures, lots of talk about other banks in trouble, and a serious debate about the financial system (AGAIN!) […]

March 22, 2023 Filed Under: economic development, finance, rural, shop local, survivors Tagged With: AMIBA, Bank Local, banking, economic development, local investing, Move Your Money, shop local

Using a building as a warehouse or storage in a small town? Put up a sign

By Becky McCray

A building used as business storage with an old faded sign that says "Carrier Air Conditioning"

Repurposing empty buildings as business storage or a warehouse is a common small business practice in small towns. Putting up a sign is a good idea for at least two reasons.  Retail businesses may be storing extra merchandise. Manufacturers might have extra materials or finished product ready to ship. Service and repair companies have to […]

March 13, 2023 Filed Under: economic development, mistakes, rural Tagged With: community development, emtpy buildings, non-retail, retail, rural, service businesses

How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores

By Becky McCray

A shopkeeper and a customer share a laugh in a small store packed full of interesting home wares.

  If you have a retail store in a small town, you know how difficult it can be to attract customers in the door. With so much online competition and limited resources, it is hard to get people in the store and buying your products. In this article, we’ll share some of our best ways […]

February 19, 2023 Filed Under: Best of, marketing, rural, shop local Tagged With: effective marketing, entrepreneurship, retail, shop indie local, shop local, shop small, small business, small business success, store

Check your small business website for outdated pandemic changes, missing info

By Becky McCray

Hands on a laptop, working

My friend Rob just told me he was checking out a local fitness place. He was interested until he saw their website included some pandemic-related changes that probably aren’t still true, like canceled classes and limited hours. Since he doesn’t know for sure, he moved on to looking into a different place. This is a […]

January 31, 2023 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, marketing, mistakes, rural Tagged With: checklist, COVID, marketing, pandemic, website

Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors

By Becky McCray

Electric vehicle chargers are a perfect place for tourism wayfinding signs. EV charging stations are popping up in lots of rural places, especially along interstate highways and along the coasts in the US. They’ve become relatively common at some motels as well. Chargers are also popping up globally in rural places. Deb Brown reported seeing […]

January 15, 2023 Filed Under: Best of, economic development, rural, tourism, trends Tagged With: Electric Vehicles, EV, EV Charging, placemaking, rural, tourism, trends, wayfinding

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