• 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

For easier social media marketing, fill in the blank

By Becky McCray

Sheila Scarborough and Leslie McLellan of Tourism Currents laid out a simple starting point for all your social media efforts. Good news: it’s as easy as filling in the blank. Fill in the Blank (Our company) is where (our customers) find (the thing we offer) with (this benefit) So all you have to do is […]

August 5, 2019 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, marketing, rural, social media, tourism Tagged With: branding, calendaring, destination marketing, effective marketing, entrepreneurship, Leslie McLellan, marketing small business, online marketing, planning, retail, service businesses, Sheila Scarborough, social media marketing, Tourism Currents

Use the Midwinter Slump for Growth

By Glenn Muske

Taking off

Many retailers experience a sales slump during after the holiday season. How do you respond? The slump comes as no surprise and most small-business owners know they just need to plan for it and ride it out. They think of it as time to work in the business and perhaps to grab a short vacation. […]

January 24, 2018 Filed Under: planning, rural, Small Biz 100 Tagged With: business growth, growth, planning, small business success, success

Life Happens

By Glenn Muske

Life

Let’s start with Best Wishes for 2018.  That wish was to be a part of my post last week. But as you may or may not have noticed, I didn’t get a post done. This is not the first time it has happened but those missed times were typically planned for some reason. Last week […]

January 3, 2018 Filed Under: planning, rural, Small Biz 100, success Tagged With: business planning, disaster, disaster preparedness, life events, planning

Building a Sustainable Business

By Glenn Muske

As you probably know, if you are going into business, the odds your business will be around in five years are not good. But they aren’t as bad as you may think, either. Approximately one-third of businesses close within two years. At the five-year mark, about one-half of all businesses have closed. We don’t approach […]

May 24, 2017 Filed Under: Small Biz 100, success Tagged With: business continuity, long term planning, management, operations, planning, small business

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