By Marci Goodwin, co-founder of SmartStart Business Development Over the past few months, the SmartStart Business Development team has been deep in the weeds researching rural entrepreneurship programs to better understand what is actually happening on the ground with local microbusinesses and how communities support them. Microbusinesses are those with less than 10 employees and make…
How do decisions about your town’s future get made? Do government officials and volunteer leaders rely on what they already know, or do they rely on data generated by outside experts? Or might it be both? By Paula Jensen Intuitive decision making is based on gut feelings, past experiences, and personal judgment. It involves using…
Rural communities were not immune to the chaos of 2020, but remained more concerned with ongoing challenges. To find out what rural people felt were their biggest challenges, SaveYour.Town and SmallBizSurvival.com surveyed over 280 rural people in the fourth quarter of 2020. The results make up this fourth edition of the Survey of Rural Challenges. Challenges…
Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium hosted by Oklahoma State University. It’s an online event on October 13, 2020. What is the Symposium about? The Symposium is meant to raise awareness, attract resources and stimulate research toward solving grand challenges facing rural communities. And goodness knows we have some grand challenges. I’ll be facilitating…
Knowing what your customer wants is the base to building a successful business. Of course, you still must meet that need, let customers know you have what they want, and price it at a level that customers feel is acceptable. But the process begin with knowing the problem they are trying to solve. Market research is…
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