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Bet On Small Business, Not Big BoxesNearly four years ago I wrote about a study called "Where Our Jobs Come From." The author, Don Macke of the Center for Rural Entrepreneu...
Communities Grow Faster by Not CompetingI have driven through enough small towns sitting fifteen minutes apart to notice the same thing every time. Each one has its own downtow...
Change Has Already Arrived. Will You Manage It?Over the years, I've written more columns than I can count about the need to accept change, I guess that is my area of greatest concern ...
Voting Turnout Impacts Community WealthLet me start by saying that voter engagement impacts the vibrancy, poverty levels, and wealth of your community in a big way. Only one i...
Communities, Not Companies, Decide Which Dreams SurviveI still think about a sign I noticed in a small retail shop while traveling. It read, "When you support a local small business, you're s...
Most owners never built a businessIn 1972, a 24-year-old bass fisherman named Johnny Morris cleared out eight square feet of floor space in the back of his father's liquo...
Small Communities Win Bigger When Working TogetherA scenic rail line running between St. Louis and Kansas City used to be, in tourism terms, just a way to get from one big city to the ot...
Potential Tourism's Headaches Are Worth the Money!On any given summer weekend, one can stand on the banks of their local stretch of river or lakes and watch a line of coolers, canoes and...
AI Is Already Reshaping Rural Business CompetitionLove it or hate it, AI is here and facing that reality can assist your business greatly. There are three things quietly reshaping how sm...
Data Centers Deserve Facts, Not FearMost conversations I have had about data centers follows the same script. Someone comments on social media or raises a hand at a plannin...
Small Communities Die Holding Onto Yesteryear!A good friend called me not long ago, frustrated. His town had a real shot at something big, a project that could have changed the traje...
Sell the Experience, Not Just the AddressI remember driving through Lanesboro years ago, it is a small town of 724 people tucked into the limestone bluffs of southeastern Minnes...