I am a farm boy. Grew up on a what today would be a small farm. My summers and after-school hours were spent working on the farm. Days were long and there was always something to do. Putting up hay always happened around July 4th. For most of my farming friends, this was a way…
Sometimes, you ask me for help with questions of importance in your town. Then I turn around and ask you to help each other. This morning, Dena needs your help with a parking meter question. Our City Council is considering putting parking meters downtown to discourage employee/owner parking and encourage quick turnover of spaces. I…
Michael Shuman Interview Economist and Author Michael Shuman knows a heck of a lot about why we have a local movement. He’s also the author of the books Small Mart Revolution and Local Dollars, Local Sense. In this interview, he goes all economist on durable and nondurable goods right at the start, but hang on,…
Jen Risley spoke on a panel with me at the American Independent Business Alliance Conference, and I want to share one or two smart tricks she uses. Jen represents Monadnock Buy Local, covering 35 small towns in the Monadnock Region of southwestern New Hampshire. Her members are all local businesses. She’s a one-person staff so she…
The Brag Basket is open! This one is for May 16-18, 2014 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 join in? Below this post is the comment section….
We have been celebrating Small Business Week in the U.S this week. It is a time to recognize what small businesses mean for us and for our communities. In small towns, they form the mainstay of where we shop and eat. Our everyday lives depend on them. Yet, we often don’t think of what these…
For small town businesses, email is one of the most effective marketing tools available. Customers already like you, right? So they are more likely to open your emails than those from anonymous big brands. Emma Wilhelm, with Mad Mimi email marketing, presented these tips on building up your list of customer email addresses at the…
Pernod Ricard, owner of Absolut vodka, is building a terrific connection following Small Town Rule 7: Build Your Local Connections. They are working with local distilling entrepreneurs worldwide on a project called Our/Vodka. Each will be called by the local city name, like Our/Austin or Our/Melbourne. The local partner will open micro-distilleries that will produce vodka following a set…
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