To find out what rural people felt were their biggest challenges, SaveYour.Town and SmallBizSurvival.com surveyed 315 rural people from the US, Canada and Australia between November 2022 and January 2023. The results make up this fifth edition of the Survey of Rural Challenges. Download the PDF Report Survey of Rural Challenges 2023 by debworks Top conclusions…

With the rise of remote work, more people move to small towns even temporarily to work remotely. Small town businesses have the opportunity to tap remote workers as new customers. Why remote workers are hard to market to New residents who work remotely can be hard to find: they aren’t all working at the same…

Guest post by Jeremy Zeller Do your homework – WHO WILL BE ATTENDING the event? Cater to that audience. Families, College students, Car enthusiasts, Cosplay…yes, even them. If you do not want to keep your store open, set up a SIDEWALK STAND or TABLE and sell there. An assortment of products and swag to just…

Starting a laundromat involves a lot of up front expenses, unless you do it the Idea Friendly Way   Lots of small towns have no self-service laundry facilities, so it’s a smart business to start. It also adds a valuable service and amenity to build your community. Laundromats are notoriously expensive to get started, and…

This fall, we will be participating in Global Entrepreneurship Week. Here’s your preview of what to expect from Nov 13-19, 2023.   The challenge of rural entrepreneurship Rural entrepreneurs and small town businesses face extra challenges including online competition, limited workforce and even finding a usable building. Today, creative entrepreneurs are using new innovative business…

I attended the Folklife in the South Conference in Lake Guntersville, Alabama in June 2023.  It was a gathering of community leaders, folklorists, traditional artists, educators, documentarians, and other cultural workers. We came together to hear the stories of work in the field, explore different avenues of folklife in the South and to meet and…

Main Street districts employ almost as many people as Amazon Hannah White, Interim President and CEO of Main Street America, dropped this little statistic at the Main Street Now National Conference in Boston in 2023. Designated Main Street Districts in the US include over 1.1 million jobs, almost as many people as Amazon. Amazon’s approximately…

A standing-room-only crowd participated with rural speaker Becky McCray sharing ways to tap the popularity of small businesses to Pull Your Town Together: Overcoming Divisiveness at the Main Street Now National Conference by Main Street America in Boston in 2023.     Small businesses are trusted – tap that trust For rural communities with struggling…

I attended the Chamber Dinner in Gowrie, Iowa and talked about small town ideas they could use. It was my pleasure to spend a couple of days there. This article talks about small town ideas for the community and by the community. Got empty buildings? Every small town has empty buildings and empty lots. Gowrie…