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The Power of Coming Together
Small rural communities are here to stay! This should not shock anyone. If you read this blog on a regular basis, you have heard the message before. Yet a look at many news sources would suggest that...
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Chris Gibbons explains economic gardening
Photo by Patrick on Flickr Chris Gibbons is well-known for pioneering the concept of “Economic Gardening” in the small-town of Littleton, Colorado. (Population about 40,000, and part of the greater...
View ArticleSmall Towns Have a Future – 10 trends in our favor
If you believe what you read or hear from the media, then all small towns are dying. But that’s not the real story. The real story is much too nuanced for a sound bite or 3 minute story: some small...
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Does touring empty buildings lead to new businesses?
Deb Brown’s Tour of Empty Buildings has lead to a lot fewer empty buildings for Webster City, Iowa. When my friend Deb Brown started as Chamber of Commerce director for Webster City, Iowa, they had too...
View ArticleWhy rural is key to developing Unmanned Aerial Systems
Did you know that military won’t be the biggest use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)? In fact, agriculture will account for 80% of UAV use in coming years, Jim Mason...
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Redesign your downtown without breaking the budget
Most small town downtowns could use some sprucing up. Different businesses have different styles from a bunch of different decades. None of the signs or facades match. Clashing is probably a better...
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Rural America is winning. We have the Brain Gain.
Guest post by Rick Skorupski The new face of rural: adults over 30 moving back to small towns to raise their families. Photo by Becky McCray. Population migration – a net loss or a net gain for the...
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Entrepreneurs or Small Business Owners: Does a Community Care?
Small Business or Entrepreneurs If you look back through various writings, these two terms, entrepreneur and small business owner, were once considered the same thing. Yet today business schools and...
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Why big box stores are getting smaller and what that means to small towns
Big boxes are looking to smaller stores. The natural extension of this trend is to even smaller stores, like the ones in your small town. Photo by Becky McCray. “Everything gigantic in American...
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Use social lists to connect local businesses
Listing all your local businesses on a sign is a great start. Now to take that online! Photo by Becky McCray of Concrete, Washington. Want to promote your local businesses? Use a social list-making...
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Holiday shopping campaigns besides “Shop Small”
Small Business Saturday and its Shop Small slogan get a lot of attention, but they aren’t the only holiday shopping project small town businesses can join for more buzz this season. Shift Your Shopping...
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The problem with statewide meetings that ignore rural
Any area-wide event can add rural content with rural-themed roundtables or open discussion groups like these. Cities and towns, urban and rural, face a lot of the same challenges. We share the same...
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19 things you can do with a building that has no roof
A news story from Garland, Texas, got me thinking about what you can do with a roofless building. We came up with a lot of ideas for empty buildings, so I knew we could do something with roofless...
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Empty hospital building now home to Innovation Lab
InnovationLab helps rural businesses in Sonora, CA Guest post by Greg Falken Tuolumne General Hospital opened its doors in 1849, serving miners in the gold fields of California. By some accounts, the...
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How Randolph, Nebraska, turned a dilapidated property into a new spec house
In place of a dilapidated property, Randolph, Nebraska, now has a new energy-efficient spec home financed by local investors. Photo provided by Gary A. Van Meter, Revitalize Randolph. How can a...
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Help for small towns with no streetlights
How can you attract customers if it’s really dark downtown? Photo by Julien on Flickr. The number one complaint I hear about small town businesses is limited shopping hours. In our busy world, people...
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How do you get local businesses to join the chamber or business association?
How can the Chamber of Commerce or a business association get businesses to join? What makes a business want to join an association like that? The old way of doing things won’t cut it in today’s...
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Ag plays a key role in rural prosperity
Today is National Agriculture Day in the US. I’m proud to be in agriculture as a rancher here in Oklahoma. I’m also proud of the role that agribusiness plays in small towns all over the world....
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Rural economic development idea: tiny business villages
An empty lot, plus some garden sheds, plus some hard work, plus people equals the Tionesta Market Village. Photo courtesy of Forest County IDA/IDC. When you bring together the idea of pop up...
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Art, Heart, and Playing it Smart: The care and feeding of small town...
The story of the revitalization of three towns in New York’s Hudson Valley. Main Street, Beacon, NY. Photo (CC) by Ken on Flickr. Guest Post by Anne Pyburn Craig It happened to cities and towns...
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