Becky’s email newsletter

Patrysha Korchinski with Community Futures Yellowhead East (Alberta, Canada) asked my advice for rural people who want to startup businesses. I said try small experiments and test as soon as possible.  I want you to test your business startup quickly because you’ll be more likely to succeed. You’ll save money over building a full-scale business…

Russ was telling me about his dad, how he had been one of the small group of guys who improved his small town in the 1950s and 1960s. They served on the chamber of commerce board together, belonged to the Kiwanis Club together, and went to the country club together. These were the people who…

Lots of towns have a history video. What I want to see is your “now” video, and then I want to see your “future” video.  You know the kind of town history videos I mean. The ones with an announcer narrating the story while historical photos show your town the way it used to be….

“Easy levels” are those first few minutes of a video game where you learn how to play. Tetris starts slow while you learn how to move shapes around. Angry Birds gives you easy lessons in hitting pigs with birds, to borrow an idea Chris Brogan shared in a recent issue of his newsletter.  Where are the…

Business people want to know why they ought to pay dues to a business association that doesn’t appear to help them directly. The association wants to know why businesses that don’t pay should reap any benefits. When an association helps produce events, advertises, puts up signs, produces brochures or maps, all the businesses profit from…

One of the best things that Deb Brown and I do for communities is called a walk-through.  One of us will come to your town, and we walk down the main street with you. Doesn’t sound like much, does it?  But it’s more than a tour for us as visitors or a chance for you…

Rural people are innovative. We have to be. Limited resources, limited choices means we get creative to find ways to make lives better.  Tech-related companies dominated the Farm Bureau Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative contest this year.  The 15 important innovations for 2015 from Missouri S&T (that’s  Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla) include cool…

Twice recently, the question has come up: who is going to buy the stores in my town when their owners retire in a few years? In small towns, this is a pressing question. If you lose a key business because the owner can’t sell it, it’s probably gone for good.  Buying an existing business is…

I’ve lived around Alva, Oklahoma, since 1984. Naturally, I know all about every business in town, right? No, apparently I don’t. I went around to local businesses while organizing for Small Business Saturday. In every store, I found something I didn’t realize that they carried. Every single store. I’m not making that up!  I knew…

Do you ever feel like I’m talking directly to you? That maybe I’ve had a peek inside your town, and somehow I got inside info on your people?  I do always think of you individually when I write, so I am writing directly to you as much as possible. But about that inside info, it’s…

A new reader named Diane wrote in to tell me about her small town. She just retired and moved back to the town where she graduated high school. She wants to be near family. That’s good. Except the town hasn’t made any progress between when she graduated and when she retired. 40 years, no apparent…

When you think of small town business, you probably think about a downtown retail storefront. But businesses in small towns are testing out a wide variety of new business models, far beyond the traditional storefront.  Here are six innovative ways of building a business in a small town. As you read through these, take time…