With the rise of remote work, more people move to small towns even temporarily to work remotely. Small town businesses have the opportunity to tap remote workers as new customers. Why remote workers are hard to market to New residents who work remotely can be hard to find: they aren’t all working at the same […]
Survey of Rural Challenges 2023 results
To find out what rural people felt were their biggest challenges, SaveYour.Town and SmallBizSurvival.com surveyed 315 rural people from the US, Canada and Australia between November 2022 and January 2023. The results make up this fifth edition of the Survey of Rural Challenges. Download the PDF Report Survey of Rural Challenges 2023 by debworks Top conclusions […]
Rural and small town ideas from the OU Placemaking Conference IQC 2023
Recently I attended the OU (University of Oklahoma) Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) Placemaking Conference This was the 10th annual event. There were 600 people attending from 40 counties in Oklahoma and 6 surrounding states. I attended the 2017 event along with my colleague Deb Brown. The focus was inevitably on big cities, but I […]
Local leaders: Start with intuition about your community then add data
How do decisions about your town’s future get made? Do government officials and volunteer leaders rely on what they already know, or do they rely on data generated by outside experts? Or might it be both? By Paula Jensen Intuitive decision making is based on gut feelings, past experiences, and personal judgment. It involves using […]
Rural tourism trends say small towns are still cool
But you already knew that Tourism Currents, experts on social media for tourism, wrote about 5 travel trends to blog about right now, and there’s a lot for rural communities to latch onto there. 1) Wellness Travel Sheila says, “where people can go to relax, detox, relieve stress, get a massage and spa treatments, eat […]
Move Your Money and Bank Local
April is traditionally Move Your Money Month in the shop local community. Bank Local and Invest Local are the financial parts of the shop local movement. In 2023, the timing couldn’t be more noticeable. High profile bank failures, lots of talk about other banks in trouble, and a serious debate about the financial system (AGAIN!) […]
Using a building as a warehouse or storage in a small town? Put up a sign
Repurposing empty buildings as business storage or a warehouse is a common small business practice in small towns. Putting up a sign is a good idea for at least two reasons. Retail businesses may be storing extra merchandise. Manufacturers might have extra materials or finished product ready to ship. Service and repair companies have to […]
How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores
If you have a retail store in a small town, you know how difficult it can be to attract customers in the door. With so much online competition and limited resources, it is hard to get people in the store and buying your products. In this article, we’ll share some of our best ways […]
Check your small business website for outdated pandemic changes, missing info
My friend Rob just told me he was checking out a local fitness place. He was interested until he saw their website included some pandemic-related changes that probably aren’t still true, like canceled classes and limited hours. Since he doesn’t know for sure, he moved on to looking into a different place. This is a […]
Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors
Electric vehicle chargers are a perfect place for tourism wayfinding signs. EV charging stations are popping up in lots of rural places, especially along interstate highways and along the coasts in the US. They’ve become relatively common at some motels as well. Chargers are also popping up globally in rural places. Deb Brown reported seeing […]
