Our friend Maury Forman of Washington state, sent us this idea from Madras, Oregon: On February 16 the Madras Downtown Association and Petite Sweets hosted the first-ever Cookie Crawl. Participants paid $5 and received a box and map that listed all the locations where the beautifully decorated cookies were available. Petite Sweets decorated cookies […]
Join the community in the Brag Basket
The Brag Basket is open! This one is for July 19-21, 2019. Bring your good news, big or small, to share with everyone. What can you share in the Brag Basket? introduce yourself share some great news from this week celebrate progress, even baby steps congratulate a friend applaud for each other confess your undying […]
Need funding for the next step in your business?
If you need outside funding to get to the next step in your rural small business, your next step is too big. Before you bet big on your business idea, test it with small steps. Make some sales from your front yard, then try a booth, then a trailer, then think about moving up […]
Any good news this week?
The Brag Basket is open! This one is for July 12-14, 2019. Bring your good news, big or small, to share with everyone. What can you share in the Brag Basket? introduce yourself share some great news from this week celebrate progress, even baby steps congratulate a friend applaud for each other confess your undying […]
Youth business idea: phone clinics
Looking for the perfect instant summer business idea for young entrepreneurs? Try phone clinics. I saw this idea pop-up in a meeting that involved a cross section of the town of Cathlamet, Washington. People of all ages were there: students from the high school, county commissioners, chamber of commerce members. One of the adults […]
Share little victories in the Brag Basket
The Brag Basket is open! This one is for July 5-7, 2019. Bring your good news, big or small, to share with everyone. What can you share in the Brag Basket? introduce yourself share some great news from this week celebrate progress, even baby steps congratulate a friend applaud for each other confess your undying […]
Chain link is everywhere in downtowns. Here’s how to dress it up.
You’ve seen it before: a chain link fence right in the middle of a downtown. Usually there’s barbed wire at the top. Let’s face it, barbed wire is not the friendliest look for a downtown. We can do better. Why chain link in the first place? When a business ends up with an empty lot […]
Every town has some good news and the Brag Basket is here for you
The Brag Basket is open! This one is for June 28-30, 2019. Bring your good news, big or small, to share with everyone. What can you share in the Brag Basket? introduce yourself share some great news from this week celebrate progress, even baby steps congratulate a friend applaud for each other confess your undying […]
Stop using “3 legged stool” to describe any idea
There are dozens and dozens of 3 legged stool analogies. The Three Legged Stool of Retirement Planning …of Politics …of Sustainability …of Accounting …of Organizational Architecture. And all the headlines: Why Leadership is Like a Three Legged Stool. Apple’s three-legged stool at WWDC 2019. ‘The three-legged stool’: McDonald’s recipe for franchise success. Think about […]
What’s the Life Expectancy of Our Community?
Guest post by Paula Jensen I remember in 1997, just following the birth of my second son, when more than one elder in my community told me, “It is so sad that your children will never graduate from Langford High School like you did!” Those comments told me that the local leaders were questioning […]
