The drawback to Yeti Blue USB Microphones for podcasting Yeti Blue microphones are widely popular for podcasting and home sound recording. They do have a big drawback of being overly sensitive. They pick up too much background noise even when the gain is turned way down. I know because I bought one for my own […]
Business plans are not worth the paper they’re written on
by Deb Brown At least, the old way of doing them Writing a business plan is an intense project that takes up a lot of your time. You spend weeks and weeks on it, and you’re not even sure everything in it is correct. Your financial projections are just wild guesses. You’re not even open […]
The Stop Doing List for Communities
By Paula Jensen Have you ever experienced a time when you could envision what needs to happen but had no idea what to stop doing in order to reach the point of success? Here is a simple example: This year at Santa Day in my community someone asked, “Why do we give away turkeys to […]
How to get the city to suspend the rules for you
By Deb Brown When I was Chamber of Commerce Director in Webster City, Iowa, one of our big events was Junquefest, a three day event where vendors come to town and sell all kinds of junque. We wanted to close the streets and let the vendors park their trailers by their booths. That was […]
How Parents are Keeping Children from Becoming the Next Generation of Leaders
By Paula Jensen It seems I have almost always been interested in leadership. My parents modeled leadership as I was growing up through their active roles in community, church, and school. I joined 4-H at the age of eight, was called a “ring-leader” as an elementary student (which I don’t think this was a […]
Getting local businesses to cooperate with you: Shop Hopping Around Brownsville
Getting local businesses to cooperate can be a challenge in any small town. Everyone is busy in their own business, and few have time to dedicate to working with other businesses. Whether it’s a formal project put on by a group like the Chamber of Commerce or an informal get-together, there are big benefits […]
Survey of Rural Challenges 2019 results
What small town people see as their biggest challenges And what topics rural people most want help with Wouldn’t it be great if the people who say they want to help rural people would actually listen to rural people’s own challenges?! That’s why we created this survey! We use the results to create practical steps […]
Gathering the Doers
The first vision board presented by the design:SD team to the community of Webster, South Dakota, on Sept. 27, 2014, stated the following phrase in bold lettering: GATHERING THE DOERS. There were approximately 50 people in the room that day and surprisingly none of them got up and ran out in fear upon seeing the design:SD team’s […]
Shop Indie Local adds a new twist to tired Buy Local campaigns
Shop Indie Local summary: Shop Indie Local campaign website This campaign’s advantage: Usable year round, adaptable to local events and needs, not just a single day “Indie” message is resonating well right now, better than plain “local” campaigns Share the right message: People already think they want to shop local, just need a timely […]
Better entrepreneur training for small towns
Because I’ve been an entrepreneur since junior high school, I’ve been asked to help with all kinds of entrepreneur support over the decades. I’ve taught entrepreneur classes, I’ve been part of day-long entrepreneur events, I’ve taught workshops and I’ve been a mentor in formal and informal ways. And I’ve been thinking lately about what […]
