What makes for an interesting town history? It’s not names and dates. It’s stories. You’re trying to attract visitors, and the best way to do that is pull them into the story. We don’t care about a list of names of prominent town founders. We do care about the story of the woman who won…
We love to share small town success stories. Deborah Reynolds sent us this one after our most recent newsletter. (If you missed our newsletter, you can read it here.) I want to share a story with you about one woman who is making a difference in our small town of Decatur, Texas, actually in our…
Inspired by the challenge from Julien Smith, I’m reading much more consistently this year. Here are some of my recent reads. Small Town Sexy by Kim Huston.It’s a whirlwind tour of Kim’s romance with small towns. From her window on the world in small town Kentucky, she offers up a sample of small town living,…
Every week, I open a new Brag Basket. It’s not really about bragging. It’s about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself or share some good news about yourself or a friend. Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets…
Shop local is a popular topic here, but this week I’ve watched a new trend pop up: bank local.Move Your Money is encouraging people to shift their money to locally owned banks. The site includes bank rankings by Institutional Risk Analytics. All of my local banks scored B+ or higher. The project was dreamed up…
UPDATE: We’re scheduled for Sunday, March 14, 2010, at 12:30 pm, in the Hilton Room E. Here is the detailed event page at SXSW. Hi, this is Becky McCray of SmallBizSurvival.com, and along with Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog.com, we’re going to answer your questions in a Core Conversation at South By Southwest Interactive, called “How…
Rural and small town tourism is all about experiences. That is why you should steal this idea for your local tourism: Meet the locals in Jamaica. [There are] about 300 ambassadors who volunteer with the Jamaica Tourist Board’s Meet the People program. Launched nearly 41 years ago, it arranges meetings between visitors and residents, basing…
Many small towns have un-used space in their downtown. A local resident in Buffalo, Oklahoma, has used some of that space to create short-term lodging for hunters. Julia Hinther runs a salon and gift shop. The space upstairs used to be an apartment for her sons. When one of her sons tried his luck with…
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