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How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores

By Becky McCray

A shopkeeper and a customer share a laugh in a small store packed full of interesting home wares.

  If you have a retail store in a small town, you know how difficult it can be to attract customers in the door. With so much online competition and limited resources, it is hard to get people in the store and buying your products. In this article, we’ll share some of our best ways […]

February 19, 2023 Filed Under: Best of, marketing, rural, shop local Tagged With: effective marketing, entrepreneurship, retail, shop indie local, shop local, shop small, small business, small business success, store

How one food business keeps adapting, from table to cart to truck, to restaurant and back again

By Rob Hatch

Holyoke Hummus Company cart

Guest post by Rob Hatch My dear friend John Grossman and his wife Dawn own the Holyoke Hummus Company in Holyoke, Massachusetts. I’ve marveled at how they grew from setting up a small folding table at a local park selling falafel sandwiches to acquiring a cart. Next, they outgrew the cart and bought a food […]

April 28, 2022 Filed Under: Best of, entrepreneurship, management, rural, survivors, trends Tagged With: business success, food business, guest post, small business success

In an economic crisis, spend your brainpower before your dollars

By Becky McCray

Book shelves with divided cardboard boxes filled with wine bottles

Be frugal. One of the Small Town Rules is to spend your brain power before spending dollars. Be creative about how you handle challenges rather than to throw money at the problem. Venture capital vs. Bootstrapped We’ve all heard about startups that have been funded by whatever venture capitalist or angel that has just dropped a […]

November 25, 2020 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, management, rural, survivors Tagged With: economic crisis, economic downturn, entrepreneurship, frugal, good management practices, recession, small business success

The Idea Friendly Method to surviving a business crisis

By Becky McCray

Holyoke Hummus Company cart

Small towns have endured boom and bust cycles, commodity crashes, mill and factory closures, environmental disasters and losing their economic reason for existing. Rural communities have reinvented themselves before, and rural businesses are re-inventing the way they do things.  How Holyoke Hummus stays Idea Friendly through a crisis John is the owner of Holyoke Hummus […]

October 6, 2020 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, management, rural, survivors Tagged With: business crisis, business success, change, coronavirus, COVID, covid-19, COVID19, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Holyoke Hummus Company, idea friendly, Idea Friendly Method, Innovative Rural Business Models, SaveYourTown, small business, small business success, success, take small steps

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