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2023 trends for rural and small town businesses

By Becky McCray

Finding rural trends buried in big reports Business Insider rounded up the trends reports from LinkedIn, Pinterest and other social-driven sites. They didn’t dig out the best trends for rural businesses and small town entrepreneurs, so I did that for you. Retail is recycling Pinterest points to vintage and mixed decor trends. That’s a good […]

December 26, 2022 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, rural, social media, tourism, trends Tagged With: ecommerce, GenZ, influencer marketing, innovation, materials, retail, sustainability, vintage

How to be more open to new ideas #IdeaFriendly

By Becky McCray

Greet a new idea like you would greet a new person: with your respect, not your opinion. #IdeaFriendly

When you’re introduced to someone, you wouldn’t start the conversation with, “Hi, I think your hair style is a big mistake.” So why do we greet new ideas with “That will never work”? How to greet an idea respectfully Picture being introduced to someone you’ve never met. You look them in the eye, and you […]

July 3, 2021 Filed Under: ideas, rural Tagged With: idea friendly, IdeaFriendly, innovation

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

Effective Innovation

By Glenn Muske

Innovation

Innovation for the sake of innovation might not be the answer to building your business. And yet today as we scan the business world, it would seem that the opposite is true – innovate or disappear. So what’s the truth? The truth about successful innovation is “it depends.” And it depends on your current customer […]

November 1, 2017 Filed Under: Small Biz 100, success Tagged With: consumer data, good management practices, innovation, small business success, success

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