Kevin Rubash started at Interior Spaces as an apprentice. Now he owns the business. Photo by Deb Brown

Any rural business owner can offer an apprenticeship

Kevin Rubash is now the owner and designer at Interior Spaces which is a interior home design business in Webster City, Iowa (population 8,000). Kevin designs interiors for homes and business and sells everything from bedding to furniture to flooring and curtains.

He got his first chance at doing work he loves when the previous owner came to career day in the local high school. The owner asked who would like to apprentice with her. Kevin said yes and started as her apprentice 20 years ago. Since then, he continued to work with her at Interior Spaces. Two years ago Kevin bought the business from her.

This year Kevin continued the tradition and hired a young man to apprentice with him.

Any small business owner in a small town could make a similar offer to their youth. “Who would like to come apprentice with us?”

More ideas for retaining young people in small towns

This is just one of the stories that Deb Brown and I share in our latest webinar at SaveYour.Town, Attracting and Retaining Youth. We know this matters to you because in our Survey of Rural Challenges, you ranked retaining youth as one of the top two challenges.

The lesson on Attracting and Retaining Youth is available on-demand starting Tuesday July 17, 2018, and it is only available for two weeks. If you sign up now, you can also participate in the live Q&A session July 24. We welcome your questions, stories and examples from your own town.

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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 own a retail liquor store in Alva, Oklahoma, and a small cattle ranch nearby. Becky is an international speaker on small business.