Small business ideas for small towns ebook

Need ideas for a small town small business? We have a new ebook for you.

20 Small Business Ideas for Small Towns is a short ebook detailing 20 different ways you can make a successful business in a small town. It also covers seven ways to generate your own ideas, so you can dream up the small biz idea that best fits you.

This booklet is brought to you by Network Solutions, thanks to Shashi B.


If you want to purchase paper copies in bulk, just send me an email.

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SBA Basics: 504 Loans

Recently Becky asked me to help with some information about US Small Business Administration (SBA) programs. Here are a few basics everyone needs to know; first, SBA does not do direct lending except for disaster assistance. They also do not have grant funding.

What do they do? They offer a guarantee to a lender that helps small businesses qualify for longer term, better interest and they give the lender a degree of comfort on an otherwise risky loan. If your credit is horrible and the project or business idea you are trying to fund is not viable, this program won't help you.

Here, just released from SBA is an excerpt from their latest BankNotes newsletter on the 504 Loan program.

Certified Development Companies can help small business qualify for SBA loans

Growing businesses are often unable to qualify for traditional financing because of the difficulty of coming up with a down payment of 30 percent or more. When a conventional loan is not possible, a 504 loan may be the answer. The SBA 504 Loan Program gives small business owners the following advantages: generally a lower down payment; below- market, fixed rate financing, which avoids the uncertainties or future market fluctuations; and a longer repayment term that brings debt service in line with the cash flow generated by the asset.


Virtually all types of for-profit small businesses are eligible for this program. Loans cannot be made to investment companies, or businesses engaged in speculation or investment in rental real estate.

The loans are for acquiring long-term fixed assets, such as land, build­ings, machinery and equipment. Loans can also be used for building, modernizing, renovating or restoring facilities or purchasing long-term machinery and equipment


The SBA’s 504 lending intermediaries, Certified Development Companies (CDCs),serve your community to finance business expansion needs through the 504. CDCs are nonprofit corporations set up to contribute eco­nomic development in their local communities. CDCs work with the SBA and private sector lenders in a public-private partnership to provide financing to small businesses.

The maximum SBA debenture is: $1.5 million for regular 504 loans meet­ing the job creation criteria or a community development goal; $2.0 million for loans meeting certain public policy goals; $4.0 for manufacturing loans.

Information on all SBA programs can be found on their web site at www.sba.gov

This article is part of the Small Biz 100, a series of 100 practical hands-on posts for small business people and solo entrepreneurs, whether in a small town, the big city, or in between. If you have questions you'd like us to address in this series, leave a comment or send us an email at becky@smallbizsurvival.com. This is a community project!

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Read and Comment Day

Chris Brogan declared a Read and Comment Day, to get out and comment on others' blogs. Here are the interesting finds I thought I'd share with you.

I left my first comment today with @rickmahn, because I love his happiness series, and we're going to meet at SOBCon! http://rickmahn.com/

Interested in travel and tourism industry? Here's THE technology blog on T&T: Travel and Tourism Technology Trends

My third find - global communication tips even if you "can't" learn languages at Location Independent Living.

Finally, I loved finding Preserving Small Towns! (Quite a bit of the local politics, but with some interesting discussion on smart growth.) I found that link at Small Towns.

Next: May Day is Go Chat with a Neighbor Day

On May 1, Barbara K. Baker proposes we revive some real world commenting. Get out and chat with a neighbor. Maybe even make and deliver a little May Day basket. (That's a basket of flowers left for a neighbor. Example here: http://tinyurl.com/5un54d) Share some social love with your real world neighbors.


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Resource: Sparkplugging and a rebranding story

Our friend Wendy Piersall is now CEO of Sparkplugging :: Thinking Big in the New Work at Home Generation. Sparkplugging is a complete rebranding of eMoms at Home. The new brand makes it clear that her site and network of blogs are focused on entrepreneurial content.

Wendy's eMoms at Home started as her personal blog, and over the past year, developed into an independent business including a blog network. As her business changed over time, she realized that the eMoms brand was holding her back.

At SXSW, Wendy and I both stayed with Sheila Scarborough. When we found time to talk, I was surprised by how much eMoms at Home was about entrepreneurship. Hey, we're all about entrepreneurship, but I didn't realize that she was, also. And I'm not the only one too myopic to see past the name. Time and again, Wendy found herself explaining how the name didn't say it all about eMoms.

Wendy got brave, and launched a complete rebranding of her business. Darren Rowse outlined more of the story of how that worked in this interview at ProBlogger.

What entrepreneurial resources can you find at Sparkplugging? An expanding network of blogs in small business and lifestyle channels. New blogs are launching each week at the same time as the rebranding. Articles at Sparkplugging cover the full range of small business, work at home, entrepreneurial, and work life balance issues.

Congratulations, Wendy, on the tough business decisions you've been through in the past month. Here's to continued future success, with brand new spark.

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Targeted training opps for small biz with employees

If you've reached the point of having employees in your small biz, I suggest you to pay attention to Winning Workplaces' training webinars.

Any given day, there are great workplace trainings going on in the metros. I get flyers all the time for the terrific events at big city business schools, chambers of commerce, and other places I can't get to easily. But I can get here, online.

Winning Workplaces is all about sharing the best ideas from the best small businesses that care about people. Really. Their webinars for small business give you access to terrific training by real small business people who have built real, successful small businesses that are also wonderful places to work. Their next two topics are developing a customer service culture and building ownership mentality among employees. If you have a small workforce, I'll bet you need to sit down and participate in these two topics!

The cost is much, much less than going to one of the training events you get flyers for. If you sign up far enough in advance, you can sneak into an interactive webinar for $50. Recording of past sessions are discounted to $35, because you lose the interaction. Some of their previous topics were:

• Growing Leaders from Within
• Family-Friendly Workplace Practices
• Making the Flexible Workplace Work
• Open Book Management: 10 Ways Business Succeeds When Employees Have Skin in the Game

While you are at Winning Workplace's website, take a look at their toolkits. Some amazing info around topics like learning and development, teamwork and involvement, and work/life balance.

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Resources: Small Wander and V.Blog

Two new sites for small town small business people:

V.Blog - Another Oklahoma small business blog!

Dan Patino emailed me about his new site:

V.blog is a blog focused primarily on Small Business. Providing information on how to develop,build, and grow a small business. Discussions focus on Supplier Management, Health Insurance, Non-Profit Support, Technology, Financial Planning, Employee Benefits and Leadership

My goal is to assist entrepreneurs with tips and insights that will help them exceed beyond their wildest imaginations.

One of his great articles is called The Rising Cost of Pizza. Who couldn't use some help coping with rising business costs?

Thanks, Dan! Glad to meet you!

Small Wander

Small town tourism gets an upgrade at Small Wander:

Smallwander.com arose from the desire to help travelers find out about all the great things that are happening in nearby small towns. I also wanted to help small towns to work together to network and share information to plan new and unique events across regions. In today’s age, that means forming an interactive website, which would provide detailed information on where to go, what to do, and when to do it. Although travel directories exist, not many are database driven, many don’t break across regions, such as state lines, and few focus on the small-town experience.

What terrific small town and small business resources have you found lately?

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Handy Site on Regulatory Information

Business.gov, the official business link to the U.S. government, has new search features and content to help small business owners find information.

Business owners can now access information on starting and managing a business, including licenses, permits and regulatory information, on more than 9,000 state, territory, county, and city government Web sites.

Carnivals of small business articles

Blog Carnivals can introduce you to many great new writers and resources. A carnival is a roundup of excellent articles that may move to a new host for each issue.

Here are some wonderful carnivals that just happen to feature one of our articles this week:

• Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship
• Working at Home on the Internet Carnival
• 4 entrepreneur Blog Carnival
  

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Small Business Startup TV - Favorite online resources

Online and in-person resources for your small business.


Problem with the player? Watch it at Operator 11.

The big long list of links:

• OSBDC: Oklahoma Small Business Development Centers
  
• ASBDC: America's Small Business Development Center Network
  
• SBA: Small Business Administration
• Startup: Resources to get from Idea to In Business
• Will It Fly?
• Business Owner's Toolkit from CCH
• Inc.com
• Entrepreneur.com
  
• Wall Street Journal Small Business
• IRS: Internal Revenue Service Small Business
  
• Legal Zoom
• Biz Info Library
• Zip Skinny
  

Contributed from the chat room:

• Interactive Business Planner
• Bootstrap Network Blog
  

SeekTV joined us to profile his kids' TV show business, http://www.myavideditor.com

Want free confidential small business counseling before or after the show? Sign up with us at http://urltea.com/1god

This is the last episode in our miniseries, at least this time. Watch for us to be back after the first of the year!


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Entrepreneuers, improve your credit

Improving your personal credit history can help your small business borrow at better rates, secure a better merchant account deal, or negotiate a better lease.

So how's your credit? If you are like most people, either you don't know or you only know it's not good. Time for some resources to improve your personal credit.

TransUnion's Credit Learning Center includes five terrific pop-up worksheets:

• Improving your credit
• Fighting identity theft
• Building a credit history
• Reducing your debts
• Creating a spending plan

The Credit Resolutions article gives you 10 actions to improve your finances overall.

The information there is solid, and the advertising is absolutely minimal.

Thanks, Jeanne, for the link.

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Carnival of Small Business

The Carnival of Small Business and Startups #4 is now up at

http://www.logodesignworks.com/businesstips/carnival-of-small-business-and-startups-4

It's full of terrific articles, including

1. A Motivation Secret of Top Performing Managers by Dr. Robert Karlsberg and Dr. Jane Adler.
2. The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires by Susan Velez.

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Join the local Chamber of Commerce and make the most of it

Every small town has a chamber of commerce, but how do you use your chamber of commerce? How do you get the most from it?

Find out what services your chamber of commerce offers.

These are things to ask about when you visit the local chamber of commerce office.

• Almost every chamber of commerce does referrals. When a person asks the chamber about a type of business, the chamber refers them to a member business.
• Many chambers offer some publicity for your business, through a newsletter, website, or brochures.
• Chambers offer local business news and updates, either through their own newsletters and websites, or through the informal connections you make there.
  
• Most chambers are active on legislative issues and give you a chance to advocate in a group for small business issues. State chambers tend to be focused on big business issues, but local chambers vary.
• Some chambers have group membership benefits available, like insurance, discounts, or other services.
• Your chamber may present educational workshops, speakers, trainings and leadership programs.
  
• Good chambers tend to create events to build community and business activity, like festivals, car shows, recruiting fairs and town-wide sales.
  
• Larger chambers may offer business counseling to help you get started in business or solve problems in your existing business.
  

Use your chamber as a connection point.

Even fairly large small town chambers don't do everything. Hopefully, they should know all the other players in your local market and be a hub of connections.

While the size of your chamber depends largely on the size of your town, the quality of your chamber depends largely on the people. If you don't have a great chamber, get involved in improving it. What if you have a really rotten chamber? Try the next bigger neighboring city or see if you have a county or regional chamber.

Treat it as a long term investment. What you put in today in dollars or in time will pay off, but it will probably be far down the road in ways you don't expect.


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IRS Rules for Employment Tax Items

Here's a link to IRS rules concerning employment tax issues and items.

The IRS site is actually a treasure trove of useful information all broken down into fairly small blocks. Check it out.

Resource: The Daily Yonder

A new website focusing on the rural US called The Daily Yonder is a potential resource for small town small businesses.

Publisher Julie Ardery let me know about the new site, and showed off some of the features.

News stories, video and radio focusing on rural issues are consolidated here. A blogroll of rural-focused blog feeds onto the home page. Heck they even feature Small Biz Survival!

They take contributions of all types of rural stories, and they cover topics rural small biz people will find interesting:

• Ag and Trade
• Arts and Culture
• BioFuels and Energy
• Cool Places
• Education
• Environment
• Food
• Growth and Development
• Health
• Immigration
• Main Street Economics
• People to Know
• Politics and Government
• Racing For '08/Archive
• Religion and Faith
• Technology and Media
• Travel/Recreation
• Wildlife

The Daily Yonder is published by Center for Rural Strategies. And I love their tagline:

~Keep It Rural~


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Sharing the best rural small biz news

Each day, I read tons of different sites, looking for interesting small business, economic development and rural community stories. I find far more than I can ever write about. Plus, many of them don't require any comment; I just want to share them!

I've taken some inspiration from David Finch and started using Google Reader's Shared Items. I mark all those great articles and resources, and Google makes a pretty little feed out of them.

You can read them in the sidebar on the Small Biz Survival site. You can read the whole thing as a complete web page, and you can subscribe to the feed.

Let me know if you find any value in this service!


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How to create a disaster recovery plan for your small business

Your small business is susceptible to some form of disaster, probably several. But, of course, you don't have a preparedness plan or a recovery plan. As I'm writing this, more thunderstorms are blowing through, but I don't have any written recovery plans for my business! (I'm not in any danger here, but the thunder is really loud!)

No matter where you are, disaster can occur. Fires, floods, even being near a road means you could be affected by a toxic spill on the roadway. Are you prepared to evacuate, at a moment's notice, and possibly for several days? That's just one example. Every area has its own set of potential problems. Planning and preparation would seem to be obviously required.

Yet two-thirds of small business owners said they didn't need a plan, in a survey commissioned by Office Depot. But do we realize that almost half of business that experience a disaster without a plan never reopen?

So how do we get started? Office Depot is offering a free planning resource for disaster preparedness. It's a good resource for walking through the process of developing simple and inexpensive plans that can make a real difference in a disaster. Hat tip to Our Friend Anita Campbell, who wrote a great post on this resource.

Look around for local resources. You might get some help from your local emergency management group. Woodward (Oklahoma) City/County Emergency Management Director Matt Lehenbauer discussed small business preparedness in the Woodward News.

And as businesses make emergency plans, Lehenbauer said one of the major concerns should be how to get the business back up and running as soon as possible.

He suggested that business owners and managers take simple steps such as storing data off-site so they would still be able to access it if something happened. Keeping good records is also important in order to apply for assistance.

Lehenbauer said it is important to develop a disaster plan.

Start making your plans today.


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Three very different blog carnivals

Three new carnivals included my articles, so I want to mention them here.

Carnival of Anecdotes

Hosted at The Engaging Brand is the Carnival of Anecdotes. Why do we care about Anecdotes?

As a leader you need an array of stories and anecdotes to share with people, to improve your communication skills, to help translate the company's vision and objectives to your team.

I think that explanation is also really applicable to community leadership. You must tell the story to sell the vision.

I especially liked this Point of View story:

Craig Harper presents Creating Something (spectacular) from Nothing posted at Renovate your life with Craig, saying, "In 1988 I had the idea of setting up a Personal Training centre in Melbourne. There were no commercial PT facilities in this country at the time. It would be Australia's first appointment-only gym. I was young, had no business experience, no tertiary qualification and not much money. Clearly, a perfect plan."

Success and Abundant Mindset Carnival

The Success and Abundant Mindset Carnival is hosted at Creating Abundant Lifestyles.

If you are exploring what you really want, I recommend:

Edith Yeung - How to Identify What You Really Want? posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act.

And get some great productivity ideas from:

Almomento - 10 Steps to Better Efficiency in Your Day to Day Life posted at BurstCreativity.

And Now....

Personal Growth Carnival

Bryan C. Fleming presents the Personal Growth Carnival.

One article struck me so much that I am going to be writing a post derived from it:

David Weliver presents Checklists for a Successful Life posted at Money Under 30.

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More resources in the Carnivals

Carnivals round up some of the best posts and articles from all over, and exhibit them like a midway!

Carnival of the Capitalists

This week, the Carnival of the Capitalists is at Spooky Action. Covers all sorts of business and capitalistic articles and topics. Some favorites for rural small business are:

• Pamela Slim at Escape From Cubicle Nation posts Obsession with the competition is a luxury of the over-funded. While the title really says it all, Pam has some great advice about keeping the proper perspective regarding competition.
• Michelle Cramer at GreatFX Business Cards write about Rules for Networking on MySpace.

Last week, the Carnival of the Capitalists was at Marketing Whore. (no, really.) The best entries for small town entrepreneurs include:

• Charles H. Green of Trusted Advisor says Far too many people are calling themselves "Trusted Advisors", and he's got some advice for you if you're considering joining them:
  

  The two most trust-destroying words you can say are, "trust me." Never say you're someone's trusted advisor, much less say you want to be, much less build an ad campaign around it. It is inherently non-credible and insincere.

• Businesspundit wrote What Tiger Woods Can Teach You About Running a Business. Even the non-golfers can follow the lessons. And we need them.
  

  In business, I think we often know the things we should do, but instead we try to do the things we want to do. We like the random fun things. We want to plan, brainstorm, hold meetings, all the stuff that doesn't require any discipline or focus.

Carnival of Entrepreneurs

The Carnival of Entrepreneurs is always at Startup Spark. Some of the best from the latest edition are:

• Barbra Sundquist presents Creating a Stable Email Address - No Matter What Google Does posted at HomeBusinessWiz.
• Praveen presents The Key to Online Business: Do Something Small posted at My Simple Trading System.
• Carolyn Manning presents . . . And The Wisdom To Know The Difference posted at ProductivityGoal, saying, “Everyone has weaknesses. What’s the better use of time? Strengthening them or outsourcing them?”
• edithyeung presents How to Identify What You Really Want? posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..
• Theda K. Rogers presents Marketing your copywriting business posted at Crayon Writer, saying, “Starting a business? These tips, though written with freelance copywriters in mind, will help any starting business. Visit the site for other ideas. Enjoy!”

Carnival of Small Business Issues

This is another "non-traveling" carnival. The Carnival of Small Business Issues comes from Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog. Here are some gems from Edition 5:

• I doubt if anyone needs an introduction to Scott Allen. For those who do, he is currently the Entrepreneurs Guide at About.com. His passion is helping people build business relationships online. With over twenty years of experience, he would definitely know a thing or two about Borrowing to Build Your Business. "Many small business owners think of debt as a 4-letter word. OK, it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s only a last resort. In many cases, [if you are a responsible money manager] borrowing money makes better business sense than bootstrapping or equity financing … borrowed money is cheaper than invested money … don’t be afraid of debt financing … "
  

  Comment: In a society that borrows to exist, I thought small business borrowing was a norm, Scott. Of course, as you rightly pointed out, often times the business owner must be the guarantor or a co-signor. I would, however, caution entrepreneurs to stay out of long term debt (especially when they are the guarantor/co-signor) and be prepared to quit (if things do not go too well).

• Bill Sheridan provides short, concise and motivational articles for small business owners. He is also a guest writer at The Freestyle Entrepreneur. In Thirty Words that Sell, he suggests making power words like "benefits, proven, trust " a part of your vocabulary. " one such idea was a list of words that are powerful and help his clients and prospects take action on his recommendations "
  Comment: A useful word-set, Bill. It takes dedicated effort to make such power words part of one’s day-to-day vocabulary. Some of the power words I use are: "please, thank you, yes, uncover, secret, offer." These are just a few words that I have collected over the years.

As a bonus, Bill Sheridan's Thirty Words that Sell is a great business card story! (I love great business cards!)

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Make the most of your human resources

In a small town, Human Resources Management takes on all new meaning, as you labor to find people to work with you, train them, keep them, and so on, while starting from a tiny talent pool. Making the most of each staff person is a constant issue. So here are two items to help you make more of your employees.

First, what is the best way to pay people? Is it more effective to give raises or give bonuses? Guy Kawasaki has dug up some research that addresses whether giving employees a pay-for-performance bonus or a merit raise fosters greater productivity. In fact, the difference is 10 to one in favor of bonuses. That's a significant difference! So think of ways to invest in your people with bonuses.

Second, how can you find employees for small town small businesses? One tactic is to take advantage of partnerships with your local nonprofits. They can provide you with special training, testing, a steady supply of applicants for your staff, and more. The trick is to make these partnerships pay off for you, especially as a small business. Hitachi Foundation has produced a terrific pocket guide to alliances with nonprofits on HR. It really is written for small businesses. I've worked in workforce development, so I know that nonprofit organizations really do offer training, testing, etc. You may find it easier if you are located in the same town as a local workforce office, but anyone with enough persistence can access these alliances.

Share your secrets. How do you make the most of your human resources in a small town?

[Photo: Finding and keeping terrific employees is a special challenge for small town small businesses. from my Flickr.]

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A quick guide to signs

Lots of small town small businesses rely on good signs. Tourist-focused business, for example, depend on clear and effective signs. But look around your small town and you'll see lots of really bad signs!

That brings up lots of questions for us. How do you design a good sign? How big should the typeface be? What color combinations are most readable?

The New York State Small Business Development Center worked with the International Sign Association (ISA) to create a free online resource on signs. It's called What's Your Signage?

Besides answering those questions about design, the site also shows examples of common small business signs and labels them with the industry names. That way you know whether you want to talk about channel letters or a pylon.

Darrin Conroy, with the SBDC, said:

If you owned a business, would you want something that:

• worked day and night as an instrumental marketing tool, including weekends and holidays, for less than $20 a day?
• can help boost your sales in the first year by 10% to 100%?
• could attract new customers, brand your business identity, and create impulse shoppers in your community?

Of course you would. That's what the right sign can do for your clients.

For additional information on "What's Your Signage?" (the book or the website) contact Darrin Conroy.

And thanks to Jeanne (OkieJ) for contributing this item. She can't type much right now, so I posted this for her.

[Photo by Becky: The sign for Sage and Saddle Bed and Breakfast, Freedom, Oklahoma.]

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