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How $5 and a bowl of soup can rebuild your community

By Becky McCray

A list of project pitches: 1. Upper floor tours. 2. Bike rentals. 3. Permanent info booth. 4. Food truck festival. 5. Jazz equipment.

  Have you heard of “soup” events? People pay a small amount, say $5, to attend a local pitch event. Local groups pitch their ideas, everyone votes, and the winner gets the money. The real winner is the community, of course. It boosts activity, gets people talking to each other, builds momentum and rewards people […]

June 3, 2019 Filed Under: community, economic development, entrepreneurship, finance, rural Tagged With: catalyst, Detroit, Enid, events, food for thought, idea friendly, networking, rural, show of hands, soup, Wheeling

Book review: Celebrity CEO by Ramon Ray

By Becky McCray

The Celebrity CEO by Ramon Ray Summary: Community building in a way small town entrepreneurs can identify with. Good section on tools, and lots of timeless techniques.  The title sounds a bit grandiose to small town ears, but the way Ramon Ray talks about building community will sound very familiar. You are the face of […]

May 6, 2019 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, marketing Tagged With: book review, branding, Celebrity CEO, effective marketing, networking, Ramon Ray, small business, social media

How do you start a microbrewery? With micro-steps

By Deb Brown

  Guest Post by Deb Brown When I visited Decatur County, Iowa, several people said that wanted a brewery. They talked about the big barriers in their way: finding the right building, the right funding, the right people. The big idea seems really hard this way. Why not start smaller? Start by using the Idea […]

March 11, 2019 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, rural Tagged With: building a business, Deb Brown, economic development, entrepreneurship, guest post, idea friendly, networking, startup, video

Networking Isn’t a One-Time Event

By Glenn Muske

Want to have a successful small business? Then build your network. Comments like this are not uncommon. Good networking is one factor in building a successful, sustainable small-business. Both anecdotal information and research supports such claims. We have written about it previously in this blog when discussing “Networking for Business Success.” Most articles, like this […]

August 23, 2017 Filed Under: rural, Small Biz 100, success Tagged With: business success, business tools, effective management, networking, small business success, success

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