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Boost your rural retail business with this trick

By Deb Brown

Shoppers at a furniture store find temporary displays of jewelry and skin care products.

By Deb Brown The old way of doing business is one building, one business. What if you could test an idea and have a business inside a business? Anyone of us either knows or can find someone who is making things from their home and selling it. What if you encouraged already existing home-based businesses […]

November 5, 2021 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, ideas, rural Tagged With: building community, Deb Brown, economic development, entrepreneurs, guest post, pop ups, retail, rural, store

Zoom Towns: attracting and supporting remote workers in rural small towns

By Becky McCray

Zoom Towns: Remote Work Ready from SaveYour.Town

People have been saying for years that they would prefer to live in rural areas. Trulia research in 2014 showed 7% more people wanted to live in rural places than did then. In 2018, Gallup asked people where they preferred to live. Rural came out on top for all age groups except for 18-29 year olds. With the 18-29 […]

December 10, 2020 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, rural, trends, workforce Tagged With: attraction, economic development, entrepreneurs, remote work, rural, rural sourcing, zoom towns

Business plans are not worth the paper they’re written on

By Deb Brown

Small Steps with kettle corn

by Deb Brown At least, the old way of doing them Writing a business plan is an intense project that takes up a lot of your time. You spend weeks and weeks on it, and you’re not even sure everything in it is correct. Your financial projections are just wild guesses. You’re not even open […]

February 6, 2020 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, family business, planning, rural, success Tagged With: Building Possibility, business plans, Deb Brown, entrepreneurs, guest post, idea friendly, pop ups, small business, small steps, small town

Communities Need All Types of Businesses

By Glenn Muske

Small communities often are looking for ways to enhance and expand their local economies. A commonly used tool in this effort is encouraging the building and expansion of local businesses. Communities want jobs and dollars, and they usually want them relatively quickly. Often development plans look towards high-fliers and/or large firms. Yet, the local business […]

November 12, 2015 Filed Under: community, rural, Small Biz 100 Tagged With: building community, economic development, entrepreneurs, small business

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Holyoke Hummus Company cart

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