Rural Small Business

Rural Business The Way Google Sees It

January 19, 2009

This weekend a customer mentioned how lucky I was that Google ranked our business so high in its listings. She said she typed in ‘handmade soap North Carolina’ as the search terms and we came up ‘Number 1’ on Google. Of course I was happy that our customer was able to find us so easily! [...]

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Entrepreneurship: No Wonder We’re In Trouble

January 18, 2009

I found an ‘Entrepreneur Quiz’ at CNN this week, a short eight question survey called ‘’Do You Have What it Takes?“ The purpose of the quiz is to help you determine what your natural aptitude at entrepreneurship might be. It is based on the research of a Harvard professor, successful corporate executives and management consultants. [...]

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Rural Business Weekly News 01/17/09

January 17, 2009

Here are a few interesting blogs and online articles published this week that relate to Rural Business, ending January 17, 2009: Handmade toy makers, doll makers, fiber artists and seamstresses need to keep careful watch over the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act becoming law next month. Here’s a little bit of news specifically about the [...]

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Rural Business as a Work of Art

January 15, 2009

There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.  Henry Ford In my experience, rural business owners seem to be more observant of their environment. Perhaps that’s partly because they live closer to nature and observe the seasons and daily changes with a closer eye. But rural business owners also seem [...]

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Rural Microbusiness in 2009

January 13, 2009

The stories of gloom and doom are everywhere. Surprisingly enough, I ran across an article in the Wall Street Journal that discussed what was happening in North Carolina. It even focused on the town of Hickory, located just one hour away from me. “North Carolina’s widely lauded economic transformation of the last three decades — [...]

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Rural Business Weekly News 01/10/09

January 10, 2009

Here are a few interesting blogs and online articles published this week that relate to Rural Business, ending January 10, 2009: Who isn’t interested in figuring out ways to cut costs this year? How about 100 resources for cost cutting ideas? Here’s a list of 100 blogs that help small businesses examine their annual expenses [...]

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For Every Tourist Business There is a Season

January 8, 2009

I guess all businesses have a seasonal ‘ebb and flow’ to their year, some kind of fluctuation in sales or activity that can be tied to the different times and seasons of the year. For those of us with tourism-based rural businesses located along the Blue Ridge Parkway, Winter is generally our ‘down time’, our [...]

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