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Rural trends are kind of my thing. Seems like everyone has a “top trends” article for 2022, but not many of them cover rural trends and small towns. We focus only on trends for rural and small towns. Want to skip ahead and see my trends for 2022? Watch the rural trends video here. Where do…
If you set up entrepreneur training, you want to reach as many potential entrepreneurs as you can. When only a handful sign up and even fewer show up and some drop out before the end, it’s discouraging. It’s just possible that some of the problem is in how the training is delivered. For formal training events like conferences, there are certain accessibility…
I’ve been thinking lately how many large challenges we face as a society that come down to not thinking from other people’s perspectives. Our communities could use more empathy. Doing business with each other can help us build empathy. Selling something requires us to think about other people. We have to think about what other people…
It’s possible to get so attached to the plan, that you can’t do anything else. Deb told me about a town that decided to rehab some old cabins in their park. They formed a committee that reported to the Parks and Recs committee that reported to the City Council, who made the final approvals. So…
When I toured the picopolitan small town of Rosalia, Washington, I met a painter who had a big corner building downtown. She said that she had moved to town anticipating that an arts scene would develop, and then she could be part of it. Since the arts scene hadn’t really developed, she felt fairly lonely as an…
Your town has some crafters, makers, artisans or small manufacturers. The perfect time to celebrate them is during October for MFG Day, aka Manufacturing Day: Creators Wanted! Officially MFG Day is October 1 this year, but you can celebrate anytime in October. The goal is to build our workforce of future creators. Here’s how even the smallest of…
Let’s make one, #IdeaFriendly style Howdy I think every small town wishes they had a public food market or food hall. You know the kind: a big building with lots of small food related businesses from cafes to farm stands to bakeries to jams and jellies. We’ve visited them in big towns, and we…
Convincing other people to try your ideas is hard. It’s easier to entice people instead. I’m not sure what kind of ideas you have, but there’s some way to do a tiny or temporary version of that idea that entices others to join you. There’s a woman in Elkhart, Kansas, who told me she dreams…
The Idea Friendly Method sounds easy, but what’s the next step? How do I actually use it? Well, Deb and I have been working on the answer to that for 5 years. So we boiled it down into a 30 minute video for you. We called it “Idea Friendly Next Steps” and we just released…
We interrupt this newsletter for breaking news!I’ll be on AARP Live on RFD-TV tonight (US)7pm Pacific, 8pm Mountain, 9pm Central, 10pm Eastern Check your streaming or cable line up for RFD-TV or catch it on AARP Live or Sirius XM Channel 147. Bonus: They’re giving Yeti coolers to 5 people who call in. Secretly, I’m hoping you’ll…
The very first time I ran the Survey of Rural Challenges, I was only asking people what topics they wanted me to write about on my site Small Biz Survival. I never expected to share the results as a public report. Once I read what people told me about their towns, the challenges they were…
Each town I visit that has had any success with housing has it’s own special way they did it. Some places have special resources. South Dakota has a governor’s houses program. Kansas just changed their state housing bond initiative to make second story lofts eligible. But that doesn’t help you if you’re not in those states. Tionesta,…
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