• Survey of Rural Challenges
  • Small Town Speaker Becky McCray
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

Need a downtown business idea? Try a Cookie Crawl

By Becky McCray

A tray of cookies on a craftsman-style table

  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 […]

July 22, 2019 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, marketing, rural Tagged With: activities, downtown, effective marketing, entrepreneurship, events, guest post, Maury Foreman, promotions, retail, rural, service businesses, small business

How $5 and a bowl of soup can rebuild your community

By Becky McCray

A list of project pitches: 1. Upper floor tours. 2. Bike rentals. 3. Permanent info booth. 4. Food truck festival. 5. Jazz equipment.

  Have you heard of “soup” events? People pay a small amount, say $5, to attend a local pitch event. Local groups pitch their ideas, everyone votes, and the winner gets the money. The real winner is the community, of course. It boosts activity, gets people talking to each other, builds momentum and rewards people […]

June 3, 2019 Filed Under: community, economic development, entrepreneurship, finance, rural Tagged With: catalyst, Detroit, Enid, events, food for thought, idea friendly, networking, rural, show of hands, soup, Wheeling

Getting people to mix at an event

By Becky McCray

People moving along a picnic serving line

  Holding an event and want to get people to mix across some divide? Put the drinks and plates on one side, the food and cups on the other. See what you did there? You’ve separated the food from the plates, and the cups from the drinks. This simple trick of making people move around […]

May 27, 2019 Filed Under: community, rural Tagged With: community building, events, hosting, rural

Small Business Marketing: Start Your Own Holiday

By Glenn Muske

Ground Hog Day

If you have followed this blog, my colleague, Becky McCray, has provided lots of ideas for building communities and the small businesses in those areas. Her blogs have suggested things such as Pop-ups – https://smallbizsurvival.com/2014/03/what-is-a-pop-up-business.html Shared spaces – https://smallbizsurvival.com/2017/04/small-town-retail-trend-shared-spaces.html Tiny businesses – https://smallbizsurvival.com/2017/03/tiny-businesses-in-storage-sheds-a-rural-economic-development-tool.html I am adding another thought to this list by suggesting that a business or […]

July 26, 2017 Filed Under: marketing, rural, Small Biz 100 Tagged With: events, ideas, market plans, marketing, opportunities, small business marketing, successful marketing

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Partners

We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses. Logo with "Shop Indie Local" Move Your Money, bank local, invest local Multicolor logo with text that says "Global Entrepreneurship Week" Save Your Town logotype

Best of Small Biz Survival

A shopkeeper and a customer share a laugh in a small store packed full of interesting home wares.

How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores

Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors

Wide view of a prairie landscape with a walk-through gate in a fence

Tourism: Make the most of scant remains and “not much to see” sites with a look-through sign

Holyoke Hummus Company cart

How one food business keeps adapting, from table to cart to truck, to restaurant and back again

Make extra money from extra workspace: co-working and 3rd workplaces in small towns

Newspaper story headline says, "Made in Dorrigo Markets a bustling success"

Boost your maker economy with a “Made in” day

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2023 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in