Seasonal Business

Climate Change in Appalachia

March 3, 2009

As some of you may already know, my handmade craft business is very much seasonal and tourist-based, particularly from May through October when travel on the Blue Ridge Parkway is heaviest. For those of us with tourism businesses, nature and our mountain climate can be our best friends ….or our adversaries. We watch our regional [...]

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The Mom and Pop Business Advantage

February 24, 2009

Here are two articles that address how mom and pop businesses may have an advantage over the big boys. In Customer Service is No 1 specialty shops find little things, like a friendly hello, can inspire loyalty and sales. The unique relationships that a ‘mom & pop’ or small business owner is able to build [...]

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Just One Little Mistake

February 13, 2009

In yesterday’s post I discussed that the different customer groups a small business serves, seem to influence whether or not it has a website. If it’s a tourist business or one that hopes to attract visitors, that business is more likely to have a website or blog. If their business focuses on local customers, they [...]

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Seasonal Business Rent and Space?

January 9, 2009

In July of 2008, a visitor to CNN’s Small Business Forum asked a very basic question any seasonal business owner would have an interest in seeing answered: How should a seasonal business rent retail space for only a few months? Believe it or not, there has never been a single comment or answer to that [...]

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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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An Advantage for Rural Home Businesses

January 6, 2009

Home based rural businesses are uniquely positioned for a positive year in 2009.

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Measuring Rurality: What is Rural?

January 4, 2009

Sometimes it’s difficult to define what constitutes ‘rural life’ or a ‘rural business’. According to official U.S. Census Bureau definitions, rural areas comprise open country and populations or ‘settlements’ with fewer than 2,500 residents.