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In an economic crisis, spend your brainpower before your dollars

By Becky McCray

Book shelves with divided cardboard boxes filled with wine bottles

Be frugal. One of the Small Town Rules is to spend your brain power before spending dollars. Be creative about how you handle challenges rather than to throw money at the problem. Venture capital vs. Bootstrapped We’ve all heard about startups that have been funded by whatever venture capitalist or angel that has just dropped a […]

November 25, 2020 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, management, rural, survivors Tagged With: economic crisis, economic downturn, entrepreneurship, frugal, good management practices, recession, small business success

Cheap placemaking idea: instant murals

By Becky McCray

2020 has taken a toll on downtown shopping and placemaking. There’s no time to waste on big master plans and no money for expensive consultants. Start taking action now to show life and new activity with small inexpensive steps. Murals add life and color to a downtown and are highly visible even to people driving […]

September 11, 2020 Filed Under: community, rural, shop local, survivors Tagged With: 2020, art, cheap, Climate, downtown, idea friendly, inexpensive, murals, placemaking, recession, shop local, tactical placemaking, tactical urbanism, temporary

Why “Small Town” Might Become the Sexiest Brand In the World

By Chris Brogan

Small Town Buildings

Guest Post by Chris Brogan The COVID-19 quarantine has crushed so many small businesses and the economy at large. It’s truly been the worst financial crisis unfurling in this country since the 1930s. And while some measures are in place to help this not reach that level of despair, many people are finding themselves out […]

August 7, 2020 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, rural, shop local, trends Tagged With: Chris Brogan, coronavirus, COVID, covid-19, COVID19, entrepreneurship, guest post, recession, recovery, recruiting, remote work, rural, rural sourcing, zoom towns

Refilling the rural business pipeline

By Becky McCray

Becky McCray and Deb Brown present Refilling the Business Pipeline

This is a short sample from the SaveYour.Town video “Refilling Your Business Pipeline” featuring Deb Brown and me. Small towns and rural communities will need new business startups to revitalize their local economies, but not many people have the resources today to do a startup the way it’s traditionally been done. Part of what holds […]

July 7, 2020 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, failure, mistakes, rural, success, trends Tagged With: Becky McCray, building a business, Climate, Deb Brown, economic development, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, idea friendly, Idea Friendly Method, Innovative Rural Business Models, recession, rural, SaveYourTown, small business, small business success, starting, startup, startups, take small steps, video

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