Any advice on how to conduct a Main Street stroll?The idea is to get our locals to actually come into our stores. We have many retirees with money living in our community but they seem to have no use for Main St. They often drive several hours to the nearest city to shop. We are…
Courtesy of Glenn Muske: The North Dakota State University Extension Service and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Service have teamed up to release a new self-directed program, “Marketing Agritourism Online,” to help agritourism enterprises attract business. The program is FREE and available at http://go.unl.edu/agritourism I learned about “top working” pecantrees on an agritourism tour ofCircle’s Pecans. …
The sharpest marketing advice I’ve heard came not from some marketing guru but from a small town photographer, one who built a global business from a home base in a small town. Mike Klemme found a niche, filled it,and killed it. And that is how hebuilt a global business. Mike Klemme is a professional photographer…
The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one March 1-3, 2013. What good news will you add to the brag basket? I’ve got more than a basket-full of snow,myself. So let’s share some good news.Photo (CC) by kizzzbeth. Don’t hold back because of that word,…
Some small town business people tell me no one would subscribe to their blog. Some bloggers tell me no one subscribes anymore; RSS readers are dead. To me, that’s all the more reason to blog now. Here are nine reasons to blog even if no one ever subscribes. You’ll improve your writing. You’ll look for…
By Glenn Muske Rural and Agribusiness Enterprise Development SpecialistNorth Dakota State University Extension Service – Center for Community Vitality Today, small-business owners increasingly feel that they cannot effectively compete in marketing when facing huge marketing campaigns, thus hindering their chance at growth. Yet these small-business owners often forget the advantages they have. Glenn Muske from North…
In Scotland, while staying in Stirling, we picked up a driving tour brochure. It listed a monument to the McRae Clan in the nearby Sheriffmuir area. Being good McCrays, we had to go try to find it. The problem is that the instructions were nearly indecipherable to us. They were crammed into one long block…
Economic development is notoriously complex, frequently involving many different government agencies and multiple different departments in just one business opening. The traditional way of structuring economic development is to have one person with the title of economic development director. (If you’re a small town, that might be a half-time person, or shared with a larger…
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