As we walked through downtown Belton, Texas, we stumbled on this live window display. The little girl and boy were clearly enjoying being part of the window display, and they certainly caught our eye. We didn’t step in to buy anything, but stopping people in their tracks is a first step. It gives you a…
The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one Sept 14-16, 2012. Have some good news this week? Put it in the Brag Basket. I’m out of the digital world this weekend, so please speak up and cheer for each other. Baskets o’Fall(CC) by beau-foto…
Since our book Small Town Rules was released by Que Publishing this spring, Barry Moltz and I have been sharing lots of videos, interviews, and guest posts all over the web. So I’m offering this series to share some of these ideas here. Even if you aren’t interested in the book itself, you can learn…
By Jon Swanson “Are you Martha or Molly?” I figured it was a simple question. He acted like he owned the place. “I’m George,” he said. The sign says Martha and Molly’s,but the customer service was George’s. It was a clothes and shoes shop in northwest Ohio, on a road where most of the cars…
Speakers from 20 states are converging on Kansas November 8, 2012, for a conversation about how high tech thrives outside Silicon Valley and all the usual big cities. It’s the Small Town State of NOW, which we used to call the 140 Conference. Contributor Jon Swanson and I will share apanel on true friendship this year. …
Big-box stores are getting smaller. Because so many big box retail chains are cutting back on store sizes, Barry Shlachter writes in the Fort Worth Star Telegram that this is a national trend. It’s also one of the Small Town Rules, where we know that bigger isn’t always better. A few juicy quotes from the…
If you chase two rabbits, you probably won’t catch either of them. That’s one of those “common sense” business lessons I’ve heard for a long time. Of course, I don’t follow it. My husband and I own a liquor store and a cattle ranch, I speak and write about small business, and I co-founded Tourism…
The IRS announced that it will start Form 1099-K matching in late 2013. In February of 2012, the IRS provided a reprieve from merchant card reporting on business returns for 2011 Schedule C and Forms 1065, 1120S and 1120; however, the IRS plans to change its approach after 2012 returns are filed. The IRS has indicated…
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