• Take the 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

Did you find us in the local news?

 

Becky McCray. Photo by Colton Foote (11)b

Welcome to Small Biz Survival, the resource for small town business. I’m Becky McCray, and I started this site in 2006. I have something I’d like to give you.

See, I believe… 

  • Entrepreneurship is the best way to support small towns. When local people start their own businesses and prosper, they help their towns to prosper, too.
  • Small town business people have a lot to teach the rest of the business world. Small town rules of customer service, tenacity, caring and community are long overdue for a come back.

So how about some business ideas?

Small Town Business Ideas booklet cover

Maybe you’re looking for an idea to start or add to your own business, or maybe you know someone who’s thinking of starting a business. 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.

To save it on your computer, right click on this link: 20 Small Business Ideas for Small Towns  and choose Save Target As. For Firefox or Chrome users, choose Save Link As.

Get updates by email

You’ll get the Small Biz Survival articles that you see on this site and you’ll get A Positive View of Rural, our weekly newsletter with practical steps to shape the future of your town and info about products and services to help you and your town. The Positive View of Rural articles never appear on this site. The only way to get them is via email. I will not ever sell or rent your email address to anyone else, because I wouldn’t like that either.

Want to learn more?
Feel free to head to the Front Page and wander around. Or let me take you on the Guided Tour.

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

What is holding us back? Why does every project take so long in small towns?

How any business can be part of downtown events by going mobile

Concert-goers talking and enjoying the evening in downtown Webster City, Iowa.

Why do people say there’s nothing to do here then not come to our concerts?

Retailers: Fill all empty space, floor to ceiling

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2023 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in