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Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource
  • Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors
    Best of | economic development | rural | tourism | trends

    Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors

    ByBecky McCray January 15, 2023March 25, 2023

    Electric vehicle chargers are a perfect place for tourism wayfinding signs. EV charging stations are popping up in lots of rural places, especially along interstate highways and along the coasts in the US. They’ve become relatively common at some motels as well. Chargers are also popping up globally in rural places. Deb Brown reported seeing…

    Read More Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitorsContinue

  • Paula Jensen
    community | economic development | rural

    Has your community made negativity a habit?

    ByPaula Jensen July 6, 2022July 5, 2022

    Living in a small town, we are often inclined to see change in our community as a threat to ourselves and our way of life. When we feel threatened by change, uncertainty rears its ugly head and our negativity often takes over. We say things like “What’s wrong with the way we’ve always done it?”…

    Read More Has your community made negativity a habit?Continue

  • A diverse group of people with laptops sitting around a table, coworking.
    community | economic development | rural | trends | workforce | youth

    3 Major factors in rural remote work: incentives, flexible workspaces, and a sense of community

    ByBecky McCray June 6, 2022June 6, 2022

    Remote work will dominate the future small town workforce Your current residents Your current small town residents will increasingly work from home or remotely. Gallup looked at jobs that could be done remotely and the locations where workers actually did them. Four times as many workers will work remotely going forward, compared to the number…

    Read More 3 Major factors in rural remote work: incentives, flexible workspaces, and a sense of communityContinue

  • A person is working on a laptop from a rooftop deck
    community | economic development | rural

    How to recruit new residents, remote workers, or remote entrepreneurs

    ByBecky McCray June 2, 2022May 27, 2022

    The most common thing rural people ask us about remote workers is how to attract them. To find out what will make your town attractive, let’s look at what attracts people to your town right now.  Every town has some people moving in every year, and we don’t notice them. We are far more aware…

    Read More How to recruit new residents, remote workers, or remote entrepreneursContinue

  • entrepreneurship | ideas | rural | trends

    Metaverse business idea: virtual world tour guide

    ByBecky McCray April 15, 2022

      Are you a proficient online gamer or metaworld master based in a rural community? You could make a small business out of being a virtual world tour guide. Years ago, a now-defunct business ideas site profiled Synthtravels, a business that offered guided tours of online virtual worlds. If you’ve heard of the metaverse or…

    Read More Metaverse business idea: virtual world tour guideContinue

  • Pew Research chart showing preference for cities has declined, a growing share now favors suburbs, and many more prefer rural than urban
    community | rural | trends

    Way more people prefer rural than urban, new Pew Research study finds

    ByBecky McCray February 1, 2022May 26, 2022

    Pew Research released a major rural vs urban study, and the headlines missed the best bits. Pew Research’s new social trends study has shown up in a lot of news stories with widely varying headlines. Pew themselves titled it “Americans Are Less Likely Than Before COVID-19 To Want To Live in Cities, More Likely To…

    Read More Way more people prefer rural than urban, new Pew Research study findsContinue

  • Top 5 Rural and small town trends 2022
    community | economic development | entrepreneurship | POV | rural | trends

    Top 5 Rural and small town trends 2022

    ByBecky McCray January 3, 2022July 10, 2023

    Who knows what trends will affect small and rural communities in 2022 and beyond? Not many trends pieces cover rural places. These trends are specifically about rural and small towns. I’ve been following rural trends and writing about them since 2009. My trends reports have been commissioned or quoted by Main Street America, Emergent Research, the…

    Read More Top 5 Rural and small town trends 2022Continue

  • Small Steps with kettle corn
    entrepreneurship | planning | rural | youth

    How to start a real small small business

    ByBecky McCray December 17, 2021

      Your fellow reader Ava asked a great question: If I am already working, in school, and wanting to start up just a real small small business, then how would that work differently from someone who is coming from a completely different stand point, like not working or in school and is just generally starting…

    Read More How to start a real small small businessContinue

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