The reality is that all big businesses were once small. If you bore down into the history of practically all businesses, they once had few, if any, employees. They operated from cramped quarters including basements, garages, sheds, a desk in the corner, the kitchen table, or a corner table in the local coffee shop. The…
Guest post by Deb Brown We had filmmakers from San Francisco in our town this month making a movie about us. They are telling the story of Webster City, Iowa, and how we’ve bounced back from the loss of a major manufacturer and the hundreds of jobs they took with them. It’s a big deal…
The Brag Basket is open! This one is for May 26-28, 2017. Bring your good news, big or small, to share with everyone. What can you share in the Brag Basket? introduce yourself share some great news from this week celebrate progress, even baby steps congratulate a friend applaud for each other confess your…
As you probably know, if you are going into business, the odds your business will be around in five years are not good. But they aren’t as bad as you may think, either. Approximately one-third of businesses close within two years. At the five-year mark, about one-half of all businesses have closed. We don’t approach…
“Everything gigantic in American [retail] is about to get smaller or die.” James Kunstler wrote in 2013. He said big box retailers were on the brink of scale implosion, and that “every element of economic reality is now poised to squash them.” Fast forward to 2017, and we’ve gone over the brink. Washington Post reported last month…
The Brag Basket is open! This one is for May 19-21, 2017. Bring your good news, big or small, to share with everyone. What can you share in the Brag Basket? introduce yourself share some great news from this week celebrate progress, even baby steps congratulate a friend applaud for each other confess your…
Late last year, I did a blog post looking at how clustering of competitors may have positive results (https://staging.smallbizsurvival.com/2016/11/competition-and-clustering.html). Recently I was asked about this idea in terms of small rural town cafes. If any of you have lived in the Great Plains region of the country, you know the towns and the cafes I…
SmallBizSurvival.com and SaveYour.Town joined forces to conduct an international rural survey of 250 rural people during 2017. Some of the results don’t match up with the usual stories we hear about rural. A few surprising results: More people mentioned a lack of workers than mentioned a lack of jobs More people were interested in…
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