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Shared retail spaces and sheds: smart business ideas in small towns

By Becky McCray

Small retail spaces like retail collectives and shed markets generate prosperity for rural areas and small towns when they: give small business ideas an affordable foothold create experiences that draw customers in build on the element of discovery for customers test promising retail concepts shelter businesses too small to survive on their own fill gaps […]

October 17, 2022 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, ideas, marketing, rural, trends Tagged With: farmers markets, retail, shed businesses, tiny businesses

Metaverse business idea: virtual world tour guide

By Becky McCray

Screenshot from the Metaverse Festival captioned "A POAP token is being sent to your wallet"

  Are you a proficient online gamer or metaworld master based in a rural community? You could make a small business out of being a virtual world tour guide. Years ago, a now-defunct business ideas site profiled Synthtravels, a business that offered guided tours of online virtual worlds. If you’ve heard of the metaverse or […]

April 15, 2022 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, ideas, rural, trends Tagged With: business ideas, metaverse, rural, virtual worlds, VR

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

By Becky McCray

  With more people working remotely, more people are working from places that are neither their offices or their homes. Cue the rise of the Third Workplace. You may remember “third places” as places you hangout that aren’t home and aren’t work. Coffee shops, bars and places like that. “Third workplaces” are places you work […]

March 28, 2022 Filed Under: Best of, economic development, entrepreneurship, ideas, rural, trends Tagged With: coworking, remote work, rural sourcing, third places, workshifting, zoom towns

Small town business idea: cat grooming

By Becky McCray

This was a new idea to me. Alyssa McCleery from Newkirk, Oklahoma, brought this up. She has local dog grooming but had to drive hours to find a place to get her cat groomed. I was skeptical at first, but why not cat grooming as a service? Just trimming cat claws can be a challenge. […]

November 15, 2021 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, ideas, rural Tagged With: business idea, cat grooming, entrepreneurship, ideas, pet grooming, rural, service businesses, small business

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