When Deb and I were working on our Build Youth Entrepreneurship video, I saw way too many young entrepreneurship programs encouraging them to emulate business people I wouldn’t really want my niece or nephews to emulate. Shark Tanks. Pitch competitions. Billionaires as role models. The real models for young rural entrepreneurs are the successful business people…
Several conversations lately have centered on whether rural communities have something you could call culture. And if we do, how would you describe it? At the Dakota Resources virtual coffee we joined, Judy Larson said something like, “Our culture here in Lemmon affects how we do things, and new people have another culture.” You may…
Pew Research released a major rural vs urban study, and most of the positive trends for rural places are being overlooked in the headlines. I’m going to give you the bullet points here, and you can read more of my thoughts at SmallBizSurvival.com. Way more people prefer rural than prefer urban, and the gap is growing. Way more…
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,…
Whether your town is growing fast or in a decline, keep renewing your core. No one likes a mushy core, in an apple or a small town. Make the most of your existing water and sewer and street. Build more in the center, less on the outside. Draw your community closer together. People who live…
When I spoke to the Oklahoma State University’s rural economic development course again this year, the students had great questions as usual. One student asked how the small town they were studying could stop people from going to the nearby big city to spend money at stores and restaurants. It’s a question I think many…
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