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Gathering the Doers

By Paula Jensen

Paula Jensen

The first vision board presented by the design:SD team to the community of Webster, South Dakota, on Sept. 27, 2014, stated the following phrase in bold lettering:  GATHERING THE DOERS.  There were approximately 50 people in the room that day and surprisingly none of them got up and ran out in fear upon seeing the design:SD team’s […]

November 22, 2019 Filed Under: community, economic development, rural Tagged With: #Iamrural, doers, engaged, gather your crowd, guest post, idea friendly, Paula Jensen, rural, starting, take small steps

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

Are all small towns dying? Can you save a small town?

By Paula Jensen

  There have been too many years of disinterest and disinvestment in rural America and at times I grow weary of defending the value of the rural place I call home to a national audience. I have read multiple articles about the rural underclass and the poverty that plagues our landscape from Bloomberg Business, NY […]

March 23, 2019 Filed Under: community, economic development, POV, rural, survivors, trends Tagged With: #Iamrural, Ben Winchester, guest post, Nebraska, Neligh, Paul Krugman, Paula Jensen, Ray Kurzweil, rural communities

Too many tomatoes! What to do with extra garden produce

By Small Biz Survival

Shelves of fruits and vegetables in trays

How to set up a community fruit and vegetable stand in your neighborhood Reprinted from Love Food, Hate Waste by permission Community fruit and vegetable stands are popping up all around New Zealand, giving people a place where they can leave their excess produce for others to help themselves to. These little roadside structures are […]

March 18, 2019 Filed Under: community, rural Tagged With: food, gardening, guest post, local food, sharing

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