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 […]
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 […]
Crowdsourced ideas for coffee shops and other third places
At the Main Street Now conference, I sat in on a session about coffee shops. I wrote down bunches of ideas that the audience shared. I thought you might know a coffee shop person, or you might think of ways to use these with other types of small town businesses. Hold trivia nights or […]