This was a fun week! Becky McCray and I share 5 stories relevant to small towns and discuss them on blab. Here are the links along with my short commentaries. You can also watch the blab video below.
The state of South Carolina is using official road signs to help rural businesses thrive: http://buff.ly/1qIOZF5 TODS Tourism Oriented Directional Signs These are such a great idea – and in Iowa, the DOT will come to your community and present about which signs you qualify for you – and you’d be surprised how many places do qualify!
How a small town is saving their theater http://buff.ly/1Mv7tmp Investment in Antioch Theatre is paying off (Antioch, IL) This is personally exciting – my chosen sister lives here and loves her town. I know what they’ve been doing in this town to revitalize Antioch. That and what we did in Webster City re-open our theater – so happy to see this!
Organizations in your small town struggling for volunteers? Try asking for Just One Thing.http://buff.ly/1MocsoQ hat tip Kansas Sampler Foundation Have you noticed it is the same people who always volunteer? It’s because people don’t have time – and if they can do just one thing, they would! I love these suggestions. I might add ask them if they want their donations (the shredder, or work they perform for example) to be anonymous or not.
Who else has your customers? http://buff.ly/1SxmErh Jurek Leon pushes you to dig deeper on this one. Subscribe to his Terrific Tips. Nicely said – now I’m thinking of my chamber members – who can you cross market with that isn’t blatantly obvious?
Go Small or Go Home: 3 links this week on you don’t need to grow big to matter.
- Your business doesn’t have to be globally scalable if you don’t want it to be http://buff.ly/1V2vtjz
- Why your company should stop focusing on growing http://buff.ly/1SJgGUs
- Growth isnt the only goal for small biz, Twitter and Square co-founder Jack Dorsey says, citing his mom’s coffee shop http://buff.ly/1S3jpbJ
This is really interesting – I’m usually only thinking about small towns and small businesses that are one or two person shops, with not much intention of growing larger. In fact, one of the things I’m working on is succession planning for small businesses – what happens when you reach your 60’s and there’s no one to take over?
I’ve totally forgotten that there are businesses who’s total aim is to grow so big they can sell out in 5 years and start another new business! Statistics show us you don’t normally find those businesses in small towns – but that doesn’t mean you won’t.