• Survey of Rural Challenges
  • Small Town Speaker Becky McCray
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

Introduce Yourself – Caroline Jordan from tiny Waterford, Maine

By Becky McCray

If you’re a rural small business person, I want you to introduce yourself. Our first proud rural entrepreneur is Caroline Jordan, from CashFlowRollerCoaster.com. 
——————————————
The sun peeks over Rice Hill shining into the bank of windows in my home office in Waterford, Maine (pop. 1450). My cats wander by and birds flit past the windows on their way to the bounty in the birdfeeders. The only sound is the tap-tap-tap of my keyboard as I write an article or a blog post. Later on today I’ll teach a class, work on a new product, and consult with a client by phone. Tomorrow may find me two hours away in Augusta, our state capitol, working on cash flow and startup issues with a client.

As a child, I dreamed of living in the woods and being a writer. Today I do live that dream. My office looks out over a little frog pond. In the spring, the frogs congregate there as soon as the frost is out of the ground. Each evening in my office during “frog season”, I hear them tuning up for an evening of singing and frivolity and I know it’s time to push back from my desk for the day. The singing and frivolity leads to the laying of copious amounts of frog eggs, cloudy and mysterious bundles of potential. The eggs give way to thousands of tadpoles whose progress through life I am able to follow each day when I take my “tadpole break.” I watch their little bodies change as they grow first legs and gradually lose their tails. Eventually, they travel on down stream to the big beaver pond and live out their frog lives, returning again the following spring in a grand circle of froggy life.

In winter, I see wild turkeys at my birdfeeders, consuming mass quantities of seeds and corn. They leave wandering tracks through the snow and startle easily when they see a face in the window. Deer, moose, coyotes and bears share the encircling forest. Living in the woods means that sometimes a grown woman can throw herself down in the snow to make snow angels without any human neighbors to see. And if they did see, well, I’ve decided they can chalk it up to the following explanation, “She writes.” That provides a great cover for a multitude of oddities. And here in Maine, we value our characters, those who don’t quite fit the mold. Those who wander a bit from the beaten path. And those who are “a little tetched in the head.”

Caroline Jordan has been called one of the foremost experts on small business cash flow and finances. She is the owner of The Jordan Result, a company that creates and provides real world, practical resources to help small business owners overcome cash flow problems, create sustainable businesses, and increase profits. She is the author Stop the Cash Flow Roller Coaster, I Want to Get Off! and Strength in Numbers.
————————————

Rural small business people, want to introduce yourself? Send me up to 500 words and two photos, max. Tell us about your business, yourself, your small town. I’ll share them on Wednesdays.

New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
  • How small town businesses can market to remote workers and turn them into new customers - May 15, 2023
  • Survey of Rural Challenges 2023 results - May 8, 2023
  • Rural and small town ideas from the OU Placemaking Conference IQC 2023 - April 5, 2023
  • Rural tourism trends say small towns are still cool - March 27, 2023
  • Move Your Money and Bank Local - March 22, 2023
  • Using a building as a warehouse or storage in a small town? Put up a sign - March 13, 2023
  • How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores - February 19, 2023
  • Check your small business website for outdated pandemic changes, missing info - January 31, 2023
  • Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors - January 15, 2023
  • 2023 trends for rural and small town businesses - December 26, 2022

January 28, 2009 Filed Under: POV, rural

Wondering what is and is not allowed in the comments?
Or how to get a nifty photo beside your name?
Check our commenting policy.
Use your real name, not a business name.


Don't see the comment form?
Comments are automatically closed on older posts, but you can send me your comment via this contact form and I'll add it manually for you. Thanks!

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Partners

We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses. Logo with "Shop Indie Local" Move Your Money, bank local, invest local Multicolor logo with text that says "Global Entrepreneurship Week" Save Your Town logotype

Best of Small Biz Survival

A shopkeeper and a customer share a laugh in a small store packed full of interesting home wares.

How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores

Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors

Wide view of a prairie landscape with a walk-through gate in a fence

Tourism: Make the most of scant remains and “not much to see” sites with a look-through sign

Holyoke Hummus Company cart

How one food business keeps adapting, from table to cart to truck, to restaurant and back again

Make extra money from extra workspace: co-working and 3rd workplaces in small towns

Newspaper story headline says, "Made in Dorrigo Markets a bustling success"

Boost your maker economy with a “Made in” day

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2023 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in