The Enchanted Highway

By Deb Brown | July 13, 2015 |

Gary Greff because the process of building the world’s largest sculptures in 1989.  He came home to Regent, ND to save his community.  Gary had no idea how to do that but then thought “what if I create something that everyone will remember?”  That’s what he did – built 7 sculptures made of scrap metal…

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What’s in store for retail?

By Deb Brown | June 22, 2015

McKenzie reports that by 2020 1/3 of the worlds markets will be emerging. Retail stores will need to be leaner, denser and more in touch with their digital channels.  When it’s so easy to shop online, it’s obviously affected the brick and mortar stores.  Did you know 44% of those surveyed actually do product research…

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Millennials as Entrepreneurs

By Deb Brown | March 11, 2015 |

The Kauffman report was recently released and it talked about Entrepreneurs and the Millennials and Baby Boomers.  Jack Schulz from Agracel first shared the news with us.  Today we’re reprinting the section on Millennials (Friday – Boomers).  What are your thoughts/? Millennials (born from 1981–1997) have created fewer and fewer businesses since they entered the…

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Are Rural Needs Being Met?

By Deb Brown | January 7, 2015 |

36% of Iowa is rural.  51% of Hamilton County is rural. I found these numbers on a newsletter I get from SmallBizSurvival.com  (click here to subscribe, email me at deb at debworks dot come and I’ll forward you the newsletter article that prompted this blog post.)  Becky McCray talked about how state and city conferences are…

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Rural Philanthropy in Michigan

By Deb Brown | November 19, 2014

Rural Partners in Michigan, of the Michigan Rural Conference, gives out Rural Grants.  Every year they host the Small Town and Rural Development Conference.  I’ve been asked to keynote in April and I’m very excited to be a part of this conference.  Because these guys get it. This program offers grants of up to $800…

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Karma

By Deb Brown | October 19, 2014 |

I had a great meeting with our local Super 8 owner, Bhavik (Bobby) Shah last week.  It was your standard check in meeting: how are you, what’s working, what’s new, how can we help kind of meeting.  We got to talk about becoming more involved in the community.  We talked about participating in events, attending meetings,…

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Think Global, Buy Local

By Deb Brown | October 8, 2014

It’s been repeated a lot — buy local.  The holidays are coming and your local businesses count on you to shop where you live.  Why should you?  Here’s a good infographic that might help answer that question.     by daSantosh.

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Four iPhone Apps

By Deb Brown | September 6, 2014

I’m really blown away by the amount of things I can accomplish on my iPhone.  It truly is a mini computer and aids in making my life easier.  Here’s just four apps I’ve started using.  What are some of your favorites? How many different weather apps are there?  How many just tell you the current…

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