Shop local is a popular topic here, but this week I’ve watched a new trend pop up: bank local.Move Your Money is encouraging people to shift their money to locally owned banks. The site includes bank rankings by Institutional Risk Analytics. All of my local banks scored B+ or higher. The project was dreamed up…
UPDATE: We’re scheduled for Sunday, March 14, 2010, at 12:30 pm, in the Hilton Room E. Here is the detailed event page at SXSW. Hi, this is Becky McCray of SmallBizSurvival.com, and along with Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog.com, we’re going to answer your questions in a Core Conversation at South By Southwest Interactive, called “How…
Rural and small town tourism is all about experiences. That is why you should steal this idea for your local tourism: Meet the locals in Jamaica. [There are] about 300 ambassadors who volunteer with the Jamaica Tourist Board’s Meet the People program. Launched nearly 41 years ago, it arranges meetings between visitors and residents, basing…
Many small towns have un-used space in their downtown. A local resident in Buffalo, Oklahoma, has used some of that space to create short-term lodging for hunters. Julia Hinther runs a salon and gift shop. The space upstairs used to be an apartment for her sons. When one of her sons tried his luck with…
Erratic or limited hours are a frequent complaint about small town businesses. But how can you convince small business owners to expand their hours? My friend Charles French sent me this very neat tool: “while you were out” notes for businesses. Here’s how it works. Customers use them to let businesses know when and how…
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. Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a…
New business owners always have questions about taxes. I visited this IRS-made site. It is remarkably “user friendly” and intuitive. The video is of an excellent quality and there are many features that make it very easy to use. You should, at least, go watch/listen to the Introduction. Then you can chose whichever area is…
I hope our 4 ways to jumpstart your small biz in 2010 post helped lots of you get going with 2010. The National Federation of Independent Business liked it enough to ask me to do a webinar based on it. I’ve agreed, and it will be Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 12pm Eastern Time. I’m also…
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