Blue Collar Career Fair

Creating a new workforce solution You’ve told us you’d like your kids to either stay in the community or come back after being in the world a little bit. Here’s one way to get them interested in your businesses and community. Let them experience your business. Don’t just preach at a one-day event and discuss…

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Attracting Remote Workers

You have what they want As young families come home to small towns, they are often remote workers. Mainstreet.Org says at the end of the day, the strength of this trend will be determined by how communities position themselves to leverage this growing interest in rural and small towns. What can you do to position…

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Tourism as Economic Development

Tourism as economic development makes sense.  Get people from outside of your community to come visit your natural resources, your events, and your community.  Have them shop in town, eat at the restaurants, get gas in town, and stay overnight in your hotels, and that will stimulate your economy.  We can all see that picture…

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Downtown placemaking can be simple and cheap

How often do you go somewhere and realize you didn’t even ‘see’ much along the route? Until something changes. Then everyone sees it. Candee Brossman from the Woodward Arts and Theatre Council shared this story with us. She attended Becky’s presentation at the Oklahoma Arts Council Conference, where Becky talked about the value of cleaning…

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Lessons from an Idea Friendly Gift Shop in a Small Town

One of the chapters in my upcoming workbook  is about using crafters as your next set of entrepreneurs. Stephanie from Canada shared her crafter entrepreneurial story with us!  You don’t have to go it alone.  Fourteen years ago Stephanie and her sister moved to a small town that had lots of summer tourists but no…

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Turn your crafters into entrepreneurs and a new choice for shopping during the holidays

I’m writing a workbook. About ways to save your small town. Here’s one chapter from the book. Crafters can be your new entrepreneurs  You can boost creativity while building community with co-crafting events such as “crafternoons,” hacker or maker days. These are events where crafters/makers/or hackers gather together and do their thing. Sometimes they are…

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Entrepreneurship in small villages in Portugal – Speaking about small businesses, entrepreneurship and sharing rural stories

inside the NOW beato coworking location in lisbon with high ceilings, hardwood floors, lots of big windows for great light and people working

In today’s global economy, entrepreneurs are always looking for new opportunities to innovate and create value. Small towns and villages are often overlooked and also can be a rich source of local knowledge and expertise. However, engaging with these communities can be challenging for people outside them, especially in areas with low population density and…

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Are you living in a small town?

two story brick building with empty 2nd story and bunting on the railing

Are you living in a small town? That’s a tricky question! According to a Reddit thread, a small town is around 10,000 people, while the U.S. Census Bureau defines small cities and towns as having populations of less than 5,000 people. However, a post on Newgeography.com states that the average local jurisdiction population in the…

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