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The Stop Doing List for Communities

By Paula Jensen

Paula Jensen

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 […]

January 20, 2020 Filed Under: community, economic development, mistakes, rural Tagged With: community, economic development, guest post, idea friendly, innovation, jobs, Paula Jensen, rural, small towns, tradition

How to get the city to suspend the rules for you

By Deb Brown

A woman carries an up-cycled chair she bought at Junque Fest surrounded by a diverse crowd

  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 […]

January 7, 2020 Filed Under: community, entrepreneurship, rural Tagged With: Climate, community, Deb Brown, events, permission, regulations, rules

Survey of Rural Challenges 2019 results

By Becky McCray

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 […]

December 5, 2019 Filed Under: announcement, community, economic development, rural, trends Tagged With: community, diversity, rural, small business, Survey of Rural Challenges, surveys

Crowdsourced ideas for coffee shops and other third places

By Becky McCray

Coffee shop with local art displayed on the walls

  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 […]

May 20, 2019 Filed Under: customer service, entrepreneurship, marketing, rural, Small Biz 100 Tagged With: coffee shops, coffeesoutside, community, crowdsourced, customer service, food business, gathering, restaurant, small business, small business success, success, third places

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