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What’s in Small Town Rules
Technology and economics are transforming business in a completely unexpected way: even the largest companies must compete for customers as if they were small, local businesses.
Your customers are talking to their peers everywhere—and listening to each other, not your carefully crafted advertising or branding. Suddenly, communities and personal connections are critical to your success. It’s just like doing business in a small town, where “reputation is forever.”
Great small town and rural entrepreneurs have been successfully overcoming these challenges for centuries. Their solutions have become invaluable to even the largest companies, most dominant brands, and most cosmopolitan businesses.
In Small Town Rules, Barry J. Moltz and Becky McCray show how to adapt proven “rural” and “local” approaches for today’s new “global small town”: one knitted together through the Web, Facebook, and Twitter. You won’t just learn why these techniques are so valuable; you’ll learn how they’re being applied right now by companies including L.L. Bean, Viking Range and Walmart.
- Going local, even when you’re global
A seven-step plan for building crucial connections with culture and place - “Planning for zero”: surviving worst case scenarios that kill your competitors
Questioning hidden assumptions, knowing your “seasons,” and investing for the long term - Sustaining profits and growth with limited resources
“Rural-style” approaches to growth and profitability in resource-constrained environments - Adapting to the new economic realities of self-reliance
Marketing and managing when there won’t be any bailouts or safety nets
Who it’s for
Both large brands and small businesses need these rules, and Small Town Rules includes strategies for both sizes.
- If you are open to bringing back key business ideas like being frugal, connecting with local, keeping small work units, and planning for zero, then this is for you.
- If you want to do business on a human scale, no matter how large (or small) your organization is, then this is for you.
Video Clips
Introducing Small Town Rules
- Barry Moltz introduces Small Town Rules and how all business is like small town business now.
- Becky McCray introduces Small Town Rules and what she has learned as a small town business owner.
- Becky McCray shows how the Small Town Rules come from wheat farming.
- Becky McCray explains how the seasons apply in farming and in business.
The individual rules
- Barry Moltz explains Rule 1 Plan for Zero.
- Barry Moltz explains Rule 2 Too Much Money Makes You Stupid.
- Barry Moltz explains Rule 3 Diversifying Your Risk.
- Becky McCray explains Rule 4 Work Anywhere, Anywhen.
- Barry Moltz explains Rule 5 Treat Customers Like Community.
- Becky McCray explains Rule 6 in Be Small but Grow Big.
- Becky McCray explains Rule 7 in How Brands can Be Local.
Special Features
Small Town Rules contains some things different from most books.
- Between chapters, Powerhouse Small Town Brands are profiled, including L.L. Bean, Walmart, Winnebago Industries, and Viking Range.
- To help readers implement the ideas, an appendix of Resources includes specific tools, references and links for each small town rule.
- An appendix of Business Ideas Inspired by the Small Town Rules profiles more than 20 different business ideas. Businesses of any size can use these ideas for expansion, innovation or to change the game.
About the authors
BARRY J. MOLTZ founded and ran small businesses for more than 15 years. He has since founded angel investor groups and funds and advised the Angel Capital Education Foundation. An Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame member, Moltz’s first book, You Need to Be A Little Crazy, has been translated into four languages worldwide. His second book, Bounce! Failure, Resiliency and the Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success, shows how to come back from failure and develop true business confidence. He is also the author of BAM! Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World. He has appeared on TV and radio programs, including The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, MSNBC’s Your Business and The Tavis Smiley Show, and hosts his own web radio show, Business Insanity Talk Radio, with guests ranging from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh to Guy Kawasaki, Craig Newmark, and Seth Godin.
Becky McCray of Alva owns a cattle ranch, liquor store, and consulting firm with a small town business blog. Nov. 12, 2008, at her ranch in Alva, Okla.
BECKY MCCRAY is a small town entrepreneur, with a cattle ranch, a retail liquor store and other businesses in Woods County, Oklahoma. A recognized small business and social media expert, she has spoken internationally to over 100 conferences on small business, rural issues and social media, including SXSW Interactive, BlogWorld Expo, the International Economic Development Council, 140 Characters Conferences, Revitalize Washington, and the Michigan Small Town and Rural Development Conference. She publishes one of the top 20 small business blogs in the world, Small Biz Survival, focused on small town small business and has been featured in Inc., The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Entrepreneur magazine. In 2011, she was named one of 100 Small Business Influencers, and she is listed as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women on Twitter.
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