Every business, no matter how small your town is, has to compete with someone. What advantage will you play up to your customers? Red’s, a barbecue place in my hometown, is promoting its location. See, 14 miles away in another tiny town is a terrific barbecue place. So Red’s is basically saying, “don’t make the…
The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one August 3-5, 2012. Have some good news this week? Put it in the Brag Basket. Don’t hold back because of that word, “brag.” When you hold back, you hide your good news and accomplishments that might…
A person emailed me about small town retail development a while back. I recommended he talk to Mandy Vavrinak and listed her email address. He emailed back, asking for more information about her. I thought to myself, “What more could he need?” That’s me with Mandy Vavrinak,At the 2011 Social Media Tulsa Conference. If he’d…
The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one July 27-29, 2012. Have some good news this week? Put it in the Brag Basket. I’ll be at a photo event thisweekend, so I dug up thisclassic basket photo.(CC) by SaltGeorge Don’t hold back because of…
If you’re running a Shop Local or Buy Local campaign in your small town, you should get your hands on a new resource from AMIBA. AMIBA is the American Independent Business Alliance. They’ve partnered with American Express OPEN to print up a 12-page color magazine. It includes “a thorough introduction” to organizing an effective campaign,…
In a small town, you might think everyone already knows about your business or your well-known tourism attraction. You might think you don’t need a website at all, or that it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a mobile-friendly website. You’d be wrong. You have new residents, people who have never needed your service before,…
When small town entrepreneurs prosper, they help their community prosper. It’s one of my core beliefs, and it’s supported by some scholarly research. Charles M. Tolbert, Baylor University, looked at the effects of small business on their local community. His research shows that more locally-oriented business establishments are associated statistically with: higher average income levels less…
The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one July 20-22, 2012. Have some good news this week? Put it in the Brag Basket. Peppers, (CC) by Thomas Lieser. Don’t hold back because of that word, “brag.” When you hold back, you hide your good…
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