Becky McCray and Deb Brown continue our new series of news and commentaries as part of A Positive View of Rural. Each week, we get together by online video to bring you five news stories or articles you can use in your small town business or revitalization projects. We add our comments and ideas, and always share the links.
I post the audio version here. You can hear it with the audio player above or by clicking this audio link. Deb cross-posts the video version at needalittleadvice.com. You can catch us recording them live, usually on Sundays at 3pm Central on Blab.im; Deb shares the links in advance from @DebWorks on Twitter. (Next week is an exception. Not sure yet when we’ll record on Easter weekend.)
This week’s stories include a bit of government complexity, retail trends, and one of our favorite sites for small business:
- Merging small towns or counties rarely works; history, politics and pride get in the way http://buff.ly/1YTqnVC With ongoing budget issues, discussions of efficiency, it’s good to keep up with the research on consolidating levels of government.
- The 11 retail chains closing the most stores in the US http://buff.ly/1UbtY2k Evidence of big shifts in retail just keep coming.
- “The 7 Day Makeover helps ordinary people work together to deliver extraordinary places, in just seven days, without endless talk, and using only the available resources.” http://buff.ly/1Qs8qNG Who wouldn’t want one?
- A Mental Trick to Help with Challenging Conversations http://buff.ly/1prLvX2 Use with the Old Guard or the gossips down at the coffee shop.
- Have you paid attention to SmallBusiness.com lately? Tons of useful small business information, insight and resources. Full disclosure: I occasionally post articles there.
Our next webinar on Rural Jobs Creation Strategies will be April 20, 2016, at 6pm Central time. You’ll find details at http://saveyour.town/webinar
