We just finished with National Small Business Week, and now we turn around and talk about Independents Week. What’s the difference, and why does it matter? Small business is a designation of size. So anything under 500 employees, according to Small Business Administration definition. I don’t know about your small town, but in mine, 500…
We’re doing something new with the Brag Basket. The Brag Basket is going on a tour, visiting and celebrating our readers. This week, we’re off to Cuba, Missouri. Our reader Jane S. Reed is a tireless supporter and promoter of Cuba, and she sent us not one, but a truck load of links to good…
As small-business owners know, a business needs customers coming in the door to survive. But a common fallacy is that customers will flock to your store just because you open the doors. Building a customer base is a huge challenge, but it is reality. Even with a great product, you need to let customers know…
Photos are a critical promotion tool for your small business, and visuals remain a top trend in tourism. If you’ve been scattering your online photos from Facebook to TwitPic to Instagram, now is a good time to look at what has changed with Flickr. With 1TB of storage space for your photos, Flickr now gives…
Do you know the most common safety problem across all kinds of business? It’s slips, trips, and falls. That’s part of what I learned from Krista Roquemore, Safety Instructor at Pioneer Technology Center in Ponca City, Oklahoma. All accidents are 100% preventable, Krista said. She challenged us to come up with any possible accident that…
We’re starting something new with the Brag Basket. The Brag Basket is going on a tour, visiting and celebrating our readers. To get started, we’re stopping in Wister, Oklahoma. That’s as far away from me as you can get and still be in Oklahoma. Reader Sherry Miller of Wister shares her cat, Diva, taking over…
If you are a small-business owner, your marketing effort typically takes one of two paths: You do what you always have done or you try a variety of things but question what, if anything, is making a difference. Understanding what makes an effective marketing plan is not easy. And then the development and implementation of…
Here’s an idea from Milwaukee that any small town or rural region could copy: Downtown Dining Week. Downtown restaurants are offering a special rate, lunch for $10, and dinner for $20 or $30. That keeps it simple. My town of about 5,000 people has a downtown sandwich shop, a lunch counter at the drug store, and…
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.
