Basics What is a pop-up? I explain more here. Tip #1: Group your pop-ups When you’re planning to add pop-up businesses or shed businesses to your small or rural community, concentrate them in one area. Better to have four sheds or pop up businesses together on a single lot, than fourteen vendors spread out all…
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…
Survival skills for small town businesses in the Coronavirus era By Chris Brogan As the world starts to ask what’s going to happen when this pandemic is finally over and we can look at what it will take to jumpstart the economy again, one venture capitalist says we have to save Main Street and not…
At the Main Street Now conference, I sat in on a session about coffee shops. I wrote down bunches of ideas that the audience shared. I thought you might know a coffee shop person, or you might think of ways to use these with other types of small town businesses. Hold trivia nights or…
Of all the reasons why small-business owners start businesses, two are noted most often. They are a desire to be in control and having more time for family. Yet once in business, many owners indicate that neither goal has been achieved. By its nature, control should allow for deciding how much you want to work….
Is your business a family business? When most people hear that phrase they think in terms of some formal and regular involvement of family members in defined business activities with some payment for such activity. Yet in the broadest sense, family businesses cover a much broader involvement of family members. The work might include the…
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….
Success for a small business means watching your pennies. Margins are usually small, sales are often weak, and there is little or no cushion available to absorb a mistake. It is also true that small business owners must not get so caught up in watching pennies that they miss the holes that are leaking dollars….
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.
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.
We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses.
Copyright © 2006–2026 Becky McCray • Site by Webdancers