By Stephen WindhausThrough two decades of small business development in the public and private sector, I have learned that the legal structure of small business ventures revolves around the entrepreneur’s desire to protect his/her assets, while having the flexibility to direct revenue to one’s personal income with the least amount of expense, and avoiding a…
By Ed Morrison In a knowledge economy driven by networks, public libraries can play an important economic development role. They can provide a research material, space for training, and opportunities to build civic networks. Equally important, they can provide strong stimulus for family reading, a core skill in the knowledge economy. Here’s an article out…
From today’s email, we have this on procuring federal contracts. Now, I have heard that the feds have an absolutely dismal record for contracting with small business, and even worse on women owned firms. If you are interested in procurement, you better take every opportunity to learn and network! National Procurement Council and U.S. Women’s…
Why Johnny Can’t Export By William Holstein You’d think that with U.S deficit in goods and services hitting $725 billion in 2005 that a great debate would be taking place about how to spur American exports. But hardly a word is spoken, whether out of disinterest or sheer ignorance, it’s hard to tell. But it’s…
Written by Jay Hearst Lead the Charge to Business Success: A Guide to Starting and Running a Successful Business Based on Lessons Learned at the School of Hard Knocks (2004; Sales & Marketing Professionals Publishing; ISBN: 0-9747667-0-4; $19.95) — written by been-there-done-that entrepreneur Jay W. Hearst … Here, excerpted from his book, are Hearst’s “Top…
EDPro Weblog: Economic Development for Today’s Professionals: by Ed Morrison Agritourism represents an important entrepreneurial strategy for rural communities. The public’s appetite for agritourism is growing, and the strategy is one antidote to sprawl. Read more. But the strategy should not be limited to visiting places. Developing rural products and rural brands can generate new…
I was struck by some smart comments from author Jack Schultz in the Elkhart Truth newspaper. Boomtowns need leadership and support “At first, I thought money invested into revitalizing main streets rather than industrial development was like throwing money down a rat hole,” Schultz said. “But now many people are moving out of the big…
The is the last in the series of posts from my website class handouts. Believe it or not, just creating your site and keeping the needs of your users in mind is not enough to ensure that people can find you using search engines. This is vitally important because seraching is the top activity online,…
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.
If you would like permission to re-use an article you’ve read here, please make a Reprint Request.
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.
