• Survey of Rural Challenges results
  • Small Town Speaker Becky McCray
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

Alternative small business loans: Local loan funds

By Becky McCray

Many small businesses can’t qualify for a small business loan from a traditional local bank. A bad credit record disqualifies many. Lending standards have tightened. Some small towns are limited by local banks that don’t support small business; others don’t have locally-owned banks any more. The good news is that alternatives are available. We’ll be […]

February 27, 2012 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, finance

Alternatives to small business loans

By Becky McCray

Many small businesses can’t qualify for a small business loan from a traditional local bank. A bad credit record disqualifies many. Lending standards have tightened. Some small towns are limited by local banks that don’t support small business; others don’t have locally-owned banks any more. The good news is that alternatives are available. We’ll be […]

February 6, 2012 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, finance

Converting to Square for credit card processing

By Becky McCray

I have a bricks and mortar liquor store. We have used traditional credit card merchant processing for five years, and we just switched over to Square. I’ll tell you why we converted and how we did it. Our Old “Traditional” Merchant Processing Yes, I really do have a liquor store. Our traditional merchant was Retriever […]

December 12, 2011 Filed Under: Best of, entrepreneurship, finance Tagged With: review

Local investing could solve several rural business problems

By Becky McCray

What if we could change investing from a gamble in the stock market into a local development tool? That’s the basic question behind Amy Cortese’s book “Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From It.” This book does a great job of explaining the problems in the current financial system, and laying […]

October 31, 2011 Filed Under: economic development, finance, rural Tagged With: review

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Partners

We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses. Logo with "Shop Indie Local"Move Your Money, bank local, invest localMulticolor logo with text that says "Global Entrepreneurship Week"Save Your Town logotype

Best of Small Biz Survival

A shopkeeper and a customer share a laugh in a small store packed full of interesting home wares.

How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores

Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors

Wide view of a prairie landscape with a walk-through gate in a fence

Tourism: Make the most of scant remains and “not much to see” sites with a look-through sign

Holyoke Hummus Company cart

How one food business keeps adapting, from table to cart to truck, to restaurant and back again

Make extra money from extra workspace: co-working and 3rd workplaces in small towns

Newspaper story headline says, "Made in Dorrigo Markets a bustling success"

Boost your maker economy with a “Made in” day

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2023 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in