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Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource
  • Sign says, "Closed after dark."
    economic development | entrepreneurship | rural

    Help for small towns with no streetlights

    ByBecky McCray February 17, 2015July 1, 2023

      The number one complaint I hear about small town businesses is limited shopping hours. In our busy world, people want to shop in evenings and on weekends, but small town businesses tend to be closed then. When we talked about this in my newsletter group, Nora wrote back with an important stumbling block: it’s…

    Read More Help for small towns with no streetlightsContinue

  • How Randolph, Nebraska, turned a dilapidated property into a new spec house
    economic development | rural

    How Randolph, Nebraska, turned a dilapidated property into a new spec house

    ByBecky McCray February 16, 2015February 15, 2015

      How can a community transform a dilapidated property with an $8000 assessed value to a new home that will return many times more value to the city? How can a community potentially bring a new family to town to live and work here? How can local investors create greater wealth for our community school,…

    Read More How Randolph, Nebraska, turned a dilapidated property into a new spec houseContinue

  • Basket weave pattern
    brag basket

    Look into the Brag Basket for good news

    BySmall Biz Survival February 15, 2015

      The Brag Basket is open! This one is for Feb 15-28, 2015. Bring your good news to share with everyone. What can you do in the Brag Basket? introduce yourself share some great news from this week congratulate a friend applaud for each other confess your undying love for rural places How do you…

    Read More Look into the Brag Basket for good newsContinue

  • Yield sign with "Opportunity Ahead"
    entrepreneurship | Small Biz 100 | success

    Know Why You Want to Start a Business

    ByGlenn Muske February 12, 2015March 15, 2015

    If starting a business is in your plans, determining your primary reason for such an effort is vital. You may think that is an odd comment to make because people obviously start a business to make money. That’s true for some, but people start businesses for lots of reasons. Money is not always the primary…

    Read More Know Why You Want to Start a BusinessContinue

  • Small-town hardware store
    customer service | entrepreneurship

    How do you stop extending credit and still keep your customers?

    ByBecky McCray February 9, 2015February 8, 2015

      Reader Scott Shipley wrote in with a question that I bet lots of people can identify with: a small town store that would like to get out of the business of extending credit to customers. “My mom runs a general store in a small town of about 350 people in Southern Alberta Canada,” Scott said. “For…

    Read More How do you stop extending credit and still keep your customers?Continue

  • Basket full of eggs for sale.
    brag basket

    Brag Basket eggs you on to share good news

    BySmall Biz Survival February 6, 2015February 1, 2015

      The Brag Basket is open! This one is for Feb 1-14, 2015. Bring your good news to share with everyone. What can you do in the Brag Basket? introduce yourself share some great news from this week congratulate a friend applaud for each other confess your undying love for rural places How do you…

    Read More Brag Basket eggs you on to share good newsContinue

  • customer service | Small Biz 100

    My Super Bowl Sunday Customer Satisfaction Contest

    ByGlenn Muske February 5, 2015November 2, 2015

    It’s Super Bowl Sunday. I knew two teams were vying for a trophy. And the media didn’t let me forget that lots of advertisers were going for best commercial. What I didn’t know was that I also would be running a contest, a contest in terms of customer satisfaction (the customer being me). Here is the…

    Read More My Super Bowl Sunday Customer Satisfaction ContestContinue

  • Teacher's Desk. Photo by Becky McCray.
    entrepreneurship | marketing

    Talk about the problems. Sell the results. Teach the basics.

    ByBecky McCray February 2, 2015November 2, 2015

    Implementation. Execution. Basics. A friend and I were talking about essential concepts. They are critical to your business, but they are not exciting. They are in fact boring. These boring ideas determine whether or not you’ll succeed in business or anything, really. My friend said, “Here’s a quick list that comes to mind: * execution…

    Read More Talk about the problems. Sell the results. Teach the basics.Continue

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