Small Biz Survival

Four ways to beat bigger competitors

2010-02-08T08:02:00.001-06:00

How can your small town business take on the bigger competitors? Whether you're facing the big boxes, the big city shopping, or the online big boys, you can try these four ways to beat them back.

Tell your human story. Your business came from somewhere, was founded by someone, touches real people. When you tell your story, you build relationships.
Your culture and place matter. You have a better connection with what your people want, how they like to be treated, and what touches their emotions than any big company can.
When you have a competitive or better price, hammer on it. You have to overcome people's perception that small town businesses have higher prices. It doesn't have to be on every single thing, but I'll bet you can be competitive on many prices. Plus, you may represent a better value because of what all you add. Make sure you show people.
When you have better quality, tell that story. This is where people's perceptions work in your favor. The general perception about quality at big companies isn't good. Take advantage of it.

You can tell these stories in your ads, in your online presences, in signs and displays, and most importantly by making sure all your people know and share them, too.

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Mistakes: Missing menus

2010-02-07T16:34:00.001-06:00

My friend Chaz French just emailed me from the road:

I'm at a take out falafel place that apparently does delivery but nowhere in here can we find a menu to take and they didn't come up in a web search for delivery in the area.

If you aren't sharing your critical information with your customers, you're missing out on sales.

Solutions:
Take time for a quick information audit. How would a person new in town find your business? Are there basic info pieces, like menus, that you need to share? How is your online presence? Once you think it's in pretty good shape, be brave and ask a friend to check your work.

And as a bonus, do you give customers an easy way to share problems with you? What if the restaurant had offered a way for Chaz to give that feedback immediately?

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DARPA hard

2010-02-05T20:04:00.001-06:00

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, likes big challenges. They don't want to touch projects that are merely hard, or just really difficult. They only want to take on those that are so hard, so seemingly impossible, that no one else could solve them, no one else would ever invest in them. Challenges that big are called "DARPA hard."

Bill Reichert, from Garage Technologies Ventures, told that story at the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds Conference in Oklahoma City.

Look for your own "DARPA hard." Find the problems that are so hard, or so specialized, that you are the only one who can solve them.

Image source: DARPA.

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The basket I forgot to put a title on

2010-02-05T07:57:00.002-06:00

Every week, I open a new Basket. I call it the Brag Basket, but it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself, share some good news about yourself, or congratulate a friend.

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

This particular basket is open from Feb. 5-7, 2010.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post. You tell something great about your week, or you give plaudits to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate a terrific failure. It's not an ad; it's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other!

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Do we even still need business cards

2010-02-04T12:11:00.002-06:00

Are business cards dead?

Every so often, the "business cards are dead" meme goes around. High tech business people are more likely to exchange Twitter addresses than business cards. (@beckymccray, by the way.)

Some people use cards that just say "Google me" or only have their name. The implication is that you can find them so easily through a simple search, that they don't need to give you any contact details. (See an example from Rex Hammock, plus a link to his "real" business card.)

At conferences, we're seeing technology solutions that automatically exchange contact info, like the cute Poken devices or the "bump" application for some smart phones. These things come and go. Remember when Palm Pilots used to be the cool tech solution? They've all but disappeared.

However
In the non-tech savvy world, business cards are very much alive. Here are three ways I'm still using business cards:

My liquor store business cards with drink recipes are popular with customers.
In my consulting business, I find that most people in Northwest Oklahoma still say, "Do you have a card?" Out here, no one asks for my Twitter name.
At conferences full of tech geeks, I still go through a few. I am very selective about handing them out.

Our friend Des Walsh re-examined the design of his business cards, and the discussion is well worth following. And we went through some ideas for great business cards of our own, too.

If we need a moral to this story, it's this:

Order new cards, not too many, and keep them current.

How about you? Are you using business cards? Where do you tend to hand them out?

Photo (cc) by Chris Brogan.

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Annual IRS Small Business Survey

2010-02-03T08:03:00.002-06:00

A small business related announcement from the Internal Revenue Service:

The Small Business/Self-Employed (SB/SE) division of the IRS will begin conducting its annual telephone survey of taxpayers starting January 18, 2010 and running through mid-April, 2010. This survey is targeted to small business and self-employed taxpayers who file certain income tax forms, including: 1120, 1120S, 1065 and 1040 with schedules C, E or F.

As in previous years, the survey is designed to gather opinions about the delivery of SB/SE products and services. Taxpayers selected at random to participate in the survey will receive an advance letter from the survey contractor, Pacific Market Research (PMR), which will also include a letter from SB/SE Commissioner, Christopher Wagner explaining the purpose and importance of the survey. PMR will conduct the actual surveys by telephone, with each interview typically lasting about 15 to 18 minutes.

Completing the survey is strictly voluntary, and all individual responses will remain anonymous to the IRS.

The interviewers from PMR will not ask for any personal or financial information, including Social Security or Employer Identification Numbers, or banking, or credit card information.

Invite your visitors to rehearsals

2010-02-02T08:04:00.007-06:00

When I visited Peru, one highlight was watching a rehearsal parade. It was the day before the Inti Raymi, the Festival of the Sun, in Cusco, Peru. The main festival draws a crowd of thousands and thousands.

But this was the day before. The local bands and performing troops held a rehearsal. The crowd was relatively thin, almost all local people. Everyone was relaxed, casual, and having a good time.

We were able to easily get a space at the rail to watch the performances. (The rest of the tour group went to tour a cathedral instead.) It was an amazing experience. We were, for a moment, part of the locals.

How can you share this kind of experience with your visitors?

See the full set of Inti Raymi photos by Becky McCray.

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Things that scare people about social media

2010-02-01T10:51:00.000-06:00

To get ready for an upcoming presentation, I came up with a list of things about social media that scare small town governments, or roadblocks that keep them from participating in social networks. I think there are lots of similarities to small businesses.

We don't know what to do.
We don't want to lose control (of the message, the conversation).
We might draw negative comments.
We could run into legal issues.
Does this create Open Records Issues?
What will it cost?
Where will we find the time or the staff to do it?
This is not seen as serious business. We have important things to do.
If we spend money to get help, we might face public outcry.
Will there be any return on this investment?
How does this fit with what we do now?
Who will do it, and what are they NOT doing while they are doing it?
What if we mess up?
Why? What for?
People will expect follow up and better performance.
What if it's a failure?
The Mayor, Council, or the Public might not like it, or don't like it.
What if we accidentally reveal too much information?
We don't know the guidelines or rules.
We can't keep up with changing technology.
What would we say?
This might create jealousy when one employee gets to do it, but not others.
We're too small.

What are the Answers?
If you've tried to help people with these issues, what answers have you found effective? Are there some techniques that help get past some of these internal barriers?

I'll do a follow up with some of the best solutions. I'll be speaking on this topic twice in the coming months, so I've been thinking about it quite a bit!

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4 ways to manage multiple businesses

2010-01-30T08:06:00.001-06:00

On the SBBuzz chat this week, we talked about managing multiple businesses. Some great points came out.

I was reminded of this old, old business card I found. It lists more businesses than you can make sense out of! This guy is buying and selling and trading, and running a restaurant, motel and club.... How can we be smart in managing our own multiple businesses? Here's what we came up with in the chat.

sbbuzz: How do we integrate disparate businesses/interests into a manageable effort?
View Tweet

Perspective one: Cut down and focus

lindadessau: In my case, I've had to sometimes put one thing down for awhile to focus my efforts and get some momentum. View Tweet
lindadessau: Also I've had to be really clear with my marketing - which hat do I wear in which setting, etc. View Tweet

Timberry: There's a lot to be said for cutting the disparate lines and focusing on doing better in the most promising. As an option, maybe. View Tweet

r: Chasing too many opportunities can prove costly. View Tweet

Perspective Two: Find common themes or consolidate

ginabee: I think of it as a tangle of yarn and if I just pull the right one in the right direction, it will all straighten out and be cohesive View Tweet [This is my favorite! -Becky]

scoblitz: I'm working on consolidating the similar for now, looking for bigger impact opportunities. Disparate will have to wait. View Tweet

bradfordshimp: For me, it starts by bringing things under one brand, one roof so to speak. View Tweet
bradfordshimp: Working on doing this with my blog and my design/marketing work. Started w/ the blog, but now want it to offshoot from biz. View Tweet

BeckyMcCray: I specifically looked for common themes, areas of overlap. It started to make sense when I thought of the right theme. View Tweet
BeckyMcCray: I did a lot of noodling around on the ideas before I found the central theme. View Tweet
BeckyMcCray: My theme: Small Town Specialist. That pulls together my consulting with small town govs, my blog at Small Biz Survival, etc. View Tweet

Perspective Three: Manage your time

selahsynergy: Blocking out time on my schedule 4 priorities.Plan. Delegate, Dump, Outsource. Always re-assessing time. View Tweet

rogersanchez: The priorities define the schedule, it's a walk, not a race. But when it is a race, coffee is awesome! View Tweet

nrohrbach: I wrote a blog post on @ideaanglers http://bit.ly/96MHYI and I put those same concepts to work 4 week/month/qtr/yearly time mgmt View Tweet

Perspective Four: Build a portfolio

BeckyMcCray: "A portfolio of profit centers": see @joblessmuse's post today: http://is.gd/77wIh View Tweet

Your Perspective

What works for you?

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Come share in the Basket

2010-01-29T08:45:00.000-06:00

Every week, I open a new Basket. I call it the Brag Basket, but it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself or share some good news about yourself or a friend.

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

This particular basket is open from Jan 29-31, 2010.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post. You tell something great about your week, or you give plaudits to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate a terrific failure. It's not an ad; it's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other!

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6 Tips for managing a distributed workforce

2010-01-27T15:16:00.000-06:00

With all the technology available to us, sometimes we work with people for years before we ever meet in person. That can be terrific, or it can be a headache.

Digging around in my notes from conferences, I found these tips on managing a distributed workforce from a 2008 session at SXSW with Andrew Huff, Editor and Publisher of Gapers Block, and Jeff Robbins CEO of Lullabot.

1. The best system to learn how to manage a distributed workforce: the One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard.

2. Leave time for informal talk during online and phone meetings. Make it feel like in-person interacting.

3. Give clear communications of when to work and when not to. No need to be online all the time.

4. Declare a weekend off.

5. Don't be afraid to ask for increases in output when needed.

6. Write an employee handbook. Include that extra time will be required for daily reporting-in, and the worker will need to allow for it.

What tips can you add?

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Retail Store Industry Benchmarks

2010-01-25T17:02:00.000-06:00

Another great source for business intelligence: the Retail Owners Institute offers industry benchmark data on six key financial ratios.

In a section called Store Benchmarks, they break down industry averages into 51 different retail lines. They give five years of data for these six financial ratios:

Current Ratio
Gross Margin Percentage
Return on Assets Percentage
Debt to Worth
Pre-tax Profit Percentage
Inventory Turnover

How to use this data if you're in retail

Find the classification that best fits your store. Using the Formulas Cheatsheet at the Retail Owners Institute, figure your own store's ratios. Compare your performance to the average. Compare your trends to the industry trends. Are you doing better, or worse than the category? You're looking for areas where you do well, where you do poorly, and where you have a bad trend. For example, if your Current Ratio is headed down, you are less able to pay your debts. You may be in for a cash shortage. If the industry average plummeted last year, but you managed to stay even, then you did good!

If you don't clearly fit a single category, you may need compare a couple of categories that you're close to.

How to use this data if you're considering a retail business
Take a look at the category you are considering. Here are some actual industry averages you can plug into your financial projections. If you're planning to start a store selling custom truck accessories, look at the auto parts and accessories benchmarks. If you have an estimate of how much you think you can sell, multiply that times the average gross margin percentage (36.5%), to get your gross profit. That's your profit after you pay for the merchandise only. That's all that's left to pay salaries, utilities, advertising, and any other expenses. Take your estimated sales times the profit percentage (1.8%) to see what your potential net profit might be.

It may help you find a retail business to avoid. Take a look at new car dealers benchmarks, and click the Profit tab. In 2009, the average dealer suffered a net loss of 2.9% of their sales. Look at lumber and building materials dealers benchmarks. From 2005 to 2009, the percentage shown on the Profit tab dropped from over 3% net profit down to .3%. You might not want to jump into either of these categories right now.

Other sources
Do you have other sources for business intelligence? We'd love to hear about them, and share them with everyone.

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Cool events in Oklahoma and Nebraska

2010-01-23T10:48:00.002-06:00

Nebraska MarketPlace
Joy Marshall, event planner for the Center for Rural Affairs, reminded me that it’s almost time for the Nebraska MarketPlace, held Feb. 23-24, 2010, during National Entrepreneurship Week.

Oklahoma Entrepreneurship Conference
Shelli Todd, director of OKStartup.com for Oklahoma's Department of Commerce, sent details on the 2010 Entrepreneur’s Conference, also Feb. 23-24, 2010. The conference has three "series" or tracks devoted to entrepreneurs in the idea and planning phase, start up and development, and growth. Keynote speakers are our long-time friend Chris Brogan and Ernesto Sirolli. Derrick Parkhurst, Jessica Miller-Merrell, Malena Lott and I are also speaking.

Registration is now open online, and is only $99. You'll find the list of speakers, etc., in the PDF brochure.

I loved this video that Commerce put out to promote the event:

2010 Entrepreneur Conference from Brian Bendele on Vimeo.

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Should we call it the Sharing Basket

2010-01-22T08:02:00.002-06:00

Every week, I open a new Brag Basket. It's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself or share some good news about yourself or a friend.

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

This particular basket is open from Jan 22-24, 2010.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post. You tell something great about your week, or you give plaudits to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate a terrific failure. It's not an ad; it's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other!

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How to write an interesting town history

2010-01-21T08:01:00.001-06:00

What makes for an interesting town history? It's not names and dates. It's stories. You're trying to attract visitors, and the best way to do that is pull them into the story.

We don't care about a list of names of prominent town founders. We do care about the story of the woman who won 160 acres of land in the lottery, and had it surveyed out into lots for the town's settlement. Who was she? Why did she choose to make a town, and not a farm? (Read the story of Mattie Beal, and the founding of Lawton, Oklahoma.)

We aren't impressed that agriculture was a key industry. Tell us the story of a particular farmer. Or how specific crops were brought in and why. Did immigrants bring crops or farming techniques to the area? Did one crop fail, and lead to the introduction of something new? (Read how corn failed and wheat took over in Kansas. And notice, while you are there, how they use quotes from real people to give the story some life.)

The list of businesses by itself doesn't mean much. You know the type of list I mean, "a feed mill, three saloons, two hotels and one doctor." Find something interesting. I've heard all my life that early-day Alva, Oklahoma Territory, had something like 23 saloons on the downtown square alone. Surely out of all those saloons, we can find one interesting story! (Read how the saloon keepers subsidized the baseball players who made Alva's early reputation.)

I'm telling you, there are interesting stories in your town's history! Go find them, and write up a town history that draws people in.

Photo of Surveyor C.N. Gould near Lawton, O.T.
by US Geological Survey, 1901.

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Kim Tinkham makes a difference in Decatur

2010-01-20T07:55:00.001-06:00

We love to share small town success stories. Deborah Reynolds sent us this one after our most recent newsletter. (If you missed our newsletter, you can read it here.)

I want to share a story with you about one woman who is making a difference in our small town of Decatur, Texas, actually in our entire county. Kim Tinkham has been distributing a county magazine for the last six years entitled Wise Family Today. This magazine is about inspring parents, motivating kids and celebrating life. She offers it as a free publication and makes it available online. Kim is very well-known, highly motivated, and an amazing businesswoman.

Kim truly enjoys helping others and her passion is to help locally. From this passion and her incredible business experience, she founded Wise Merchants Association in 2009 to help our local businesses weather the recession. The goal of this Association is to allow merchants to share ideas, problems and solutions with other merchants. The Association meetings are structured to provide information, education, and motivation for business owners, as well as networking opportunities. It is open to any merchant in our county at no cost. Our meetings have included training for business owners in marketing, networking, social media, and business goal setting. Kim even arranged sales training with a speaker from Brian Tracy! And, last November she provided members free tickets to the Get Motivated event, which featured Colin Powell, Rudy Guiliani, Zig Ziglar, Robert Schuller, and George W. Bush.

Kim Tinkham is consistently providing invaluable information to our local business owners through the Wise Merchants Association. The Association has grown tremendously and the members are very supportive. You can read more about it and its members at www.meetup.com/wisemerchants.

In addition to the Wise Merchants Association, Kim recently launched Wise Woman magazine to educate women business owners in our county on various topics. She has local writers, as well as nationally known writers Dave Ramsey and Bob Burg contributing to the magazine.

Kim Tinkham's passion has really made a difference to local businesses in our small town and county!

Deborah Reynolds
Owner and Virtual Assistant
DediKated Resource Virtual Administrative Solutions
www.dedikatedresource.com

Downtown Decatur, Texas, photo by stevesheriw on flickr,
used under a Creative Commons License.

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Small town business book reviews

2010-01-19T14:47:00.001-06:00

Inspired by the challenge from Julien Smith, I'm reading much more consistently this year. Here are some of my recent reads.

Small Town Sexy by Kim Huston. It's a whirlwind tour of Kim's romance with small towns. From her window on the world in small town Kentucky, she offers up a sample of small town living, festivals, economic development, and the ever present town characters. It's fun. Share it with some small town skeptics, just to see their reaction. I just got word that Kim will be speaking at the Michigan Small Town Conference in 2010, and I know she will be outstanding! Kim has a blog on Small Town Sexy, and is also on Twitter.

Making a Living Without a Job by Barbara J. Winter. This is the book for those people who really want to start a business but don't know what business to start. It's good for helping people make the shift in thinking from employee to entrepreneur. If I was charged with counseling potential small business owners, I would keep a copy of this on my desk to loan out. You'll find Barbara at Joyfully Jobless, and also on Twitter as @JoblessMuse.

The Mom and Pop Store by Robert Spector. Starting with his own family story, Robert tells us about hundreds of small family run businesses all over the world. While most of them are in big cities, a few are small towns and all of the lessons apply equally. He's a great story teller, and he selected excellent stories to share. I found myself re-telling stories from this book to my husband. You'll find more about the book at Robert's website.

Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun. I speak quite a bit, and I've set a goal to speak more this year. Scott's book was perfect for me. He chose to fill it with his own experiences, good and bad. I had such fun reading it, I didn't think about the lessons, until I got my next speaking request. Then I ran back to re-read things I remembered, and I created a better presentation because of it. Learn more at Speaker Confessions or Scott's blog. Scott is also on Twitter, @berkun.

If you have a book relating to small town business you want to share, feel free to send me a copy, at PO Box 8, Hopeton, OK 73746. If I read a book every week, eventually I'm going to run out of the ones already stacked on my nightstand!

Book cover photos by Becky McCray.

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Share some good news

2010-01-15T07:53:00.000-06:00

Every week, I open a new Brag Basket. It's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself or share some good news about yourself or a friend.

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

This particular basket is open from Jan 15-17, 2010.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post. You tell something great about your week, or you give plaudits to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate a terrific failure. It's not an ad; it's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other!

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Beyond shop local is bank local

2010-01-14T07:50:00.002-06:00

Shop local is a popular topic here, but this week I've watched a new trend pop up: bank local.

Move Your Money is encouraging people to shift their money to locally owned banks. The site includes bank rankings by Institutional Risk Analytics. All of my local banks scored B+ or higher.

The project was dreamed up at a pre-Christmas dinner party of political activists. And the campaign is seemingly everywhere. It has spread by social networks, and while I was in Dallas this week, I saw it on the local news.

Your local banks are important your community. The people who work there volunteer in your community. You see them in the homecoming parade. (When was the last time you saw your international mega-bank in your small town parade?)

Jack Schultz has reminded us that "too big to fail" should come with additional capital reserve requirements. I listen to Jack on banking issues because he serves on his local bank's board of directors. He also points out, in an Sept 30, 2008 issue of the AgUrban newsletter, that the big problem for local banks is the huge burden of regulation that is out-scale for small banks. Also read the Nov. 18, 2008 issue, and the reader reactions in the Oct. 7, 2008 issue.

So, what's your take on the bank local initiative?

Photo by Becky McCray.

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How did this happen? I'm in business!

2010-01-13T17:05:00.000-06:00

Hi, this is Becky McCray of SmallBizSurvival.com, and along with Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog.com, we're going to answer your questions in a Core Conversation at South By Southwest Interactive, called "How did this happen? I'm in business!"

Is this your life? You have a few beers with friends, come up with a good idea, and now you have to keep track of miles on business trips!

A thousand questions swirl in your head when you start a new business:

How do I "become" a business?
How much financial record keeping will I have to do?
What expenses are tax deductible?
How do I deal with miles I drive for business?
Why do I need to keep a business calendar?
How do I reach customers?
What are the differences between sales, marketing, and just talking with your customers?
What are my options for structuring my business?
Are some structures better for interactive and new media creators?
Do I need to file for a business license?
What IRS tax filings are required?
Where can I get answers to more business questions?

Well, sit down with Liz Strauss and me, the left brain and right brain of business. Liz turned a blog post into a successful conference series, and took a small publishing firm international. I started my first business in junior high, and today I manage a cattle ranch and a liquor store.

Whether you're a business of one or 100. Whether you're in business yet, or still thinking about it. ...Join the discussion. You'll find us under the title, "How did this happen? I'm in business!"

To get a preview of the simplified business and marketing plans, the checklist for going into business, and the difference between a freelancer and an entrepreneur, stop by Successful-blog.com and SmallBizSurvival.com. And bring your questions to Austin!

We're tentatively scheduled for Sunday, March 14, 2010. We'll let you know as soon as the time is confirmed.

If you'd rather listen than read, here's the audio version:

Photo of Liz and Becky at SXSW '09 (Liz is the tall one; Becky is the one standing on a step.) (cc) Shashi Bellamkonda Social Media Swami (cc) Network Solutions

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Meet the locals in rural tourism

2010-01-12T07:50:00.001-06:00

Rural and small town tourism is all about experiences. That is why you should steal this idea for your local tourism: Meet the locals in Jamaica.

[There are] about 300 ambassadors who volunteer with the Jamaica Tourist Board's Meet the People program. Launched nearly 41 years ago, it arranges meetings between visitors and residents, basing the matches on shared occupations and interests.

Any small town, any small rural tourism business, any regional tourism association could adapt this idea. Here are ideas off the top of my head:

Hold a picnic "mixer" with locals and visitors.
Connect visitors with local rodeo-ers for a riding or roping lesson.
Recruit local boaters to take visitors out sailing.
Introduce visiting business people to your local entrepreneurs.
Turn a museum visit into a chance to talk with local history buffs.
Connect visiting photographers with local hobbyists for a photo walk.
Pair visiting teachers with local teachers.
Recruit local traditional artists to give lessons to visitors.
Invite visitors into local events. Let them participate and role play.
Bring visitors out to the harvest fields.

Help your visitors remember their connection. Take lots of photos and videos for them to share.

Brainstorm ways to involve visitors in your community. How can you help them connect?

Photo of visitors mixing with locals at a watermelon social in Burlington, Oklahoma.

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Upstairs Downtown

2010-01-11T09:09:00.001-06:00

Many small towns have un-used space in their downtown. A local resident in Buffalo, Oklahoma, has used some of that space to create short-term lodging for hunters.

Julia Hinther runs a salon and gift shop. The space upstairs used to be an apartment for her sons. When one of her sons tried his luck with guided hunts, they used it to lodge the hunters. Her son is no longer guiding, but Julia is still renting the upstairs space to hunters.

She markets it only by word of mouth, and has it booked up for hunting season every year. The rest of the time, she just rents it nightly to people needing a night's lodging in town.

Interestingly, the nightly renters cause less damage to the property than when they rented it out monthly. And the pay back has been better, too.

Credit Dan Carmody, fellow speaker at the Michigan Small Town Conference, for teaching me about this issue. Dan's presentation Using the Spaces in Our Places is available for download.

What unused assets do you have in your business, or your town?

Photo: Traverse City Upstairs for Lease, by Becky McCray

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While you were out

2010-01-09T07:40:00.000-06:00

Erratic or limited hours are a frequent complaint about small town businesses. But how can you convince small business owners to expand their hours?

My friend Charles French sent me this very neat tool: "while you were out" notes for businesses. Here's how it works. Customers use them to let businesses know when and how often they would likely drop in, if only the businesses were open then.

I can see a really brave local chamber of commerce handing these out. Or a smart downtown business district. You have to be brave, because some businesses won't want to hear from customers!

Thanks to Visualingual for the idea, and the photo I have borrowed here. You can also find a ready-to-use PDF of the cards at Visualingual's post, "While You Were Out."

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The Brag Basket is really a conversation

2010-01-08T06:57:00.002-06:00

Every week, I open a new Brag Basket. It's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself or share some good news.

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

This particular basket is open from Jan 8-10, 2010.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post. You tell something great about your week, or you give plaudits to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate a terrific failure. It's not an ad; it's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other!

This week, I also want to share an note I just received via email:

Becky,

I am Dominique, French and I run a blog about and for freelancers.

Recently Chris Brogan mentioned your brag basket.

Curious, I went to have a look and just found in love with the idea. Today, I wrote a note about it, asking my reader if they would like a "brag basket" on my blog as well. So far, they enjoy the idea, because it's a positive, engaging and I'm sure it will give them ideas and opportunity to share.

Here is the link to the note:
http://blog.freelance.com/mon_weblog/2010/01/une-belle-rubrique-pour-saluer-les-initiatives-dautres-freelances-.html

Thank you for your blog, very inspiring.

Merci,
Dominique

Now, how cool is that?

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New Online Small Business Tax Workshop

2010-01-07T07:48:00.001-06:00

New business owners always have questions about taxes. I visited this IRS-made site. It is remarkably "user friendly" and intuitive. The video is of an excellent quality and there are many features that make it very easy to use.

You should, at least, go watch/listen to the Introduction. Then you can chose whichever area is of interest to you. You do not have to stay from the first to the last. You can pick and chose.

The revised Virtual Small Business Tax Workshop offers updated content with interactive features and a new reference section.