Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops

A small town apprenticeship

By

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.

 

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.

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.

Shop Local

Buy local buttonReady to set up a shop local campaign in your small town? You'll need a guide who understands how we're different and what really works: Shop Local Campaigns for Small Towns.

Best of Small Biz Survival

More of the best of Small Biz Survival