THE RURBAN FRINGE

To Grow Small Businesses, Doing What Local Governments Do Best Is Best

Preliminary findings presented by the National League of Cities suggest that local municipal policies that have the greatest impact on small business growth are those that offer regulatory assistance (i.e. ‘one-stop shops’ and streamlined permitting/zoning processes) and those that create a supportive culture between the local public and private sectors.
It’s not rocket science … and it’s [...]

Are Rural Grocery Stores Facing Extinction?

Rural grocery stores are hot. 
Late in 2010, two new briefs by the Centre for Rural Affairs highlighted the importance of local grocery stores to rural communities, the challenges faced by rural grocery stores, and how communities can respond to those challenges; you can visit their main grocery store page here.
At the same time (as noted by the Daily [...]

Cooperatives a Rising Trend

Becky McCray over at Small Biz Survival drafted a recent post about using cooperatives as an alternative business model.  Once thought to be strictly the domain of agricultural producers, the cooperative model is enjoying a slow revival, with 2012 already declared the International Year of Cooperatives by the United Nations.  Basically, cooperatives are owned and operated by a group [...]

Tips ‘o the Economic Development Trade

Dennis Twomey, City of Camrose Economic Development Officer, has probably forgotten more about economic development than I’ll ever know … and he generously shared some of his ‘tricks of the trade’ with local business owners during a regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon I was able to attend this past week.
Most importantly, he stressed, was growth. 
“While [...]

Exploring Rural Development: Using the Arts as an Economic Driver

Second in The ‘Fringe’s limited online series on rural/rurban development is Becky McCray, author of Small Biz Survival.  Not only has Becky created a great rural and small town business resource, she’s also an entrepreneur, social media consultant, and small biz speaker.  I was fortunate to connect with Becky last year, contributed a guest post to her [...]

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