saveyour.town
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…
Read MoreTurning a school into apartments in a small town with adaptive reuse project
I talked about adaptive reuse in our Rural Housing webinar. In May of 2019 three young business owners, under the age of 35, bought the abandoned Bowtie School in Homestead PA, population 2800 people. It took them two years to figure out what to do with the building! They finally decided to turn it into 31 apartments. It took…
Read MoreAre you living in a small town?
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…
Read More3 Ways to Make Small Towns Successful: Get the practical steps to Beautification, Good Leaders and Keeping Your Youth
We know that people who are open to new ideas and willing to let newcomers be involved in the decision making help create communities that will thrive. Iowa State University’s 30 year Sigma study conducted over 99 towns told us that. There are a few other things that can make your small town more successful.…
Read MoreChristmas tree lights don’t always have to be matchy matchy in your downtown
I received lots of ideas on how to make my town a better place when I was a chamber director. One was to put up holiday lights in the trees downtown. Putting lights in trees would encourage people to spend time downtown and would be a visible sign of improvement and pride in our community.…
Read MoreDo we rebuild?
In July of 2022 Letcher County, Kentucky had a 100 year flood, that left many businesses having to decide if they should rebuild or not. The devastation was beyond believe. The IGA Grocery store in the small town of Isom was one of the many businesses affected. On a visit to the county one year…
Read MoreThursday with Townsel in Letcher County, KY
Bad roads in Carcassonne, Kentucky I presented the Idea Friendly Method to several groups in Letcher County, KY. The group from Carcassonne talked about bad roads being a problem. By bad roads, I mean they have two lane traffic on a one lane road. In the mountains of Kentucky. There are places to pull over…
Read MoreAdvice to those working in small towns
The International Economic Development Council published my article that includes advice too: Survey of Rural Challenges: Results Show Optimism and Big Disconnects, and what economic developers can do about it. The article was about the results from the Survey of Rural Challenges, and some advice to economic developers and others working in rural communities. You…
Read MoreSmall Towns or Big Cities?
Did you know more people are leaving big cities and moving to small towns? Why is that? There are several easy answers: Lower cost of living Recreational offerings like trails, beaches, and mountains Smaller and better schools Safer streets No traffic and shorter commutes to work What are some of the benefits of moving from…
Read MoreWe tried an idea
The Survey of Rural Challenges had a place to add comments. We were pleasantly surprised to see how many people shared something related to “we tried an idea.” Here’s a few: New idea for a restaurant: Adding a lunch counter and doing things totally different than anyone else in town. People either love it or…
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