I walked into a local retail shop in Alva, Oklahoma, population 4,000. It’s called Bates & Co., and they are best known for their handcrafted hairbows for infants and kids. But when I walked into their store, they had all kinds of things under one roof: women’s clothes, fashion jewelry, travel accessories and more. It…
Twenty years ago today, I hit “publish” on the first post here at SmallBizSurvival.com. I was sitting in the backroom of my liquor store in Alva, Oklahoma, population at the time of just under 5,000 and dropping. That very first post asked: ‘Can you build a growing small business in a declining small town?’ I’ve…
How the Roofer Nailed Marketing Guest Post by Chris Brogan Let me tell you about an experience I had in a little diner in Lewiston, Maine. I sat at the counter of a busy Maine diner slinging breakfast to a crowd of mostly locals, it seemed. One guy a few seats away from me did…
Jim Katzman wrote a great article on Medium about creating swag that customers actually want. One of his tips was “Leverage Local Pride.” That got me thinking: Local products would make the best swag. Local products are easier Instead of designing a batch of custom pens or ordering another lot of logo coffee mugs, walk…
I’ve been in business a long time now, from retail to service to ag, and I’ve learned some things about wrapping up one year and getting ready for the next. Some of it I learned the hard way! Whether you run your business on paper, desktop software, mobile or cloud services, there are common tasks…
At the LaunchRuralOK Small Business Resource event in Alva, I overheard the owner of Millie Coffee from Fairview, Oklahoma, talking to a service provider she wanted to work with. She apologized for not having business cards with her, then handed over her shop’s loyalty card instead. I looked over my shoulder and said out loud,…
I grew up in a small town in Maine, but I don’t think of myself as a small-town guy. My parents were involved in local community service groups. My Dad was the Cub Scout leader, a member of the Jaycees and the Elks club. And I remember helping him and other volunteers build a…
By Stephanie Ward, Firefly Coaching Caring isn’t something you can do if you’re only using it as a tactic. You can’t fake caring, either you do or you don’t. The good news is that we all have the capacity to care. It’s a state of being that you can tap into, just like gratitude. We…
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