With all the technology available to us, sometimes we work with people for years before we ever meet in person. That can be terrific, or it can be a headache. Digging around in my notes from conferences, I found these tips on managing a distributed workforce from a 2008 session at SXSW with Andrew Huff,…
Another great source for business intelligence: the Retail Owners Institute offers industry benchmark data on six key financial ratios. In a section called Store Benchmarks, they break down industry averages into 51 different retail lines. They give five years of data for these six financial ratios: Current Ratio Gross Margin Percentage Return on Assets Percentage…
Nebraska MarketPlaceJoy Marshall, event planner for the Center for Rural Affairs, reminded me that it’s almost time for the Nebraska MarketPlace, held Feb. 23-24, 2010, during National Entrepreneurship Week. Oklahoma Entrepreneurship ConferenceShelli Todd, director of OKStartup.com for Oklahoma’s Department of Commerce, sent details on the 2010 Entrepreneur’s Conference, also Feb. 23-24, 2010. The conference has…
Every week, I open a new Brag Basket. It’s not really about bragging. It’s about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself or share some good news about yourself or a friend. Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets…
What makes for an interesting town history? It’s not names and dates. It’s stories. You’re trying to attract visitors, and the best way to do that is pull them into the story. We don’t care about a list of names of prominent town founders. We do care about the story of the woman who won…
We love to share small town success stories. Deborah Reynolds sent us this one after our most recent newsletter. (If you missed our newsletter, you can read it here.) I want to share a story with you about one woman who is making a difference in our small town of Decatur, Texas, actually in our…
Inspired by the challenge from Julien Smith, I’m reading much more consistently this year. Here are some of my recent reads. Small Town Sexy by Kim Huston.It’s a whirlwind tour of Kim’s romance with small towns. From her window on the world in small town Kentucky, she offers up a sample of small town living,…
Every week, I open a new Brag Basket. It’s not really about bragging. It’s about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself or share some good news about yourself or a friend. Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets…
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.
