One pop-up is just a pop-up, but a group of pop-ups is a market. Photos by Forest County Business Alliance, Austin Moore, CC by Jeffrey Grandy.

When you’re planning to add pop-up businesses or shed businesses to your small or rural community, concentrate them in one area.

Better to have four sheds or pop up businesses together on a single lot, than fourteen vendors spread out all over.

Your goal is to make it feel like a concentrated burst of new activity. If your pop ups are too spread out, people will never notice them. Remember that nothing draws a crowd like a crowd, and put your vendors close together.

Tionesta Pennsylvania clustered 10 sheds into one market village along contiguous empty lots.

Wolfforth Texas clustered a set of sheds to use as a farmers market.

Hyannis Massachusetts spread their sheds within the port area which is popular with tourists. Their artist shanties don’t stand shoulder to shoulder, but they are all within a very small area.

Get more ideas to turn your empty lots into bustling commercial spaces with SaveYour.Town’s video Empty Lot Economic Development.

How Holyoke Hummus stays Idea Friendly through a crisis

One of the first small steps: a used minivan and a tiny food cart. Photo courtesy of Holyoke Hummus Company.

John is the owner of Holyoke Hummus in Massachusetts, along with Dawn and their family. Like a lot of food entrepreneurs, John started by cooking for friends and family. He grew through a series of small steps and experiments, from selling at a folding table at a event, through a tiny food cart, a mobile truck, and pop-ups at more events. Eventually, he opened a cafe in downtown Holyoke across from city hall.

Holyoke isn’t a small town, but you have seen this same type of experimentation by entrepreneurs in small towns that you know.

This was a perfect example of the Idea Friendly Method in business. You start with your big goal. You use that goal to Gather Your Crowd. You turn your crowd into a powerful network by Building Connections. And you and your newly-powerful network accomplish that goal by Taking Small Steps.

Through each step, John was Gathering His Crowd as he built a following. He was Building Connections networking to find resources and answers before taking each step. And of course he was Taking Small Steps.

Business was up and down, mostly good, until COVID hit and closed down the downtown around him.

John didn’t stop. He closed his dining room, of course, but he kept experimenting. As soon as mobile dining was allowed, he converted his cafe to a production base for his food truck. He is also exploring opening it as a shared kitchen for other food businesses needing a base for their mobile operations.

Another small step, the food truck. Before investing in a custom paint job, a small banner held on with bungee straps was good enough to test the market. Photo courtesy of the Holyoke Hummus Company.

Since the downtown location wasn’t working anymore, he wanted to test a new location for his food truck in a nearby community, but there’s a local regulation that doesn’t allow selling from food trucks on the streets. John found the owner of an empty muffler shop building. He asked him for permission to park on his parking lot, and the owner said yes. So he’s setting up shop on the empty parking lot and building a new customer base. Another Small Step.

It’s not easy to keep a business going when a crisis hits, but the Idea Friendly Method makes it possible to move forward without knowing all the answers.

Thanks to our friend Rob Hatch for sharing updates on his friend John and the Holyoke Hummus Company.

Update: 2022 Growing again

Holyoke Hummus is still adapting to changing times. Read how they’re growing without going back to a restaurant.

Idea Friendly means you don’t have to know it all

You don’t have to know all the answers. You just have to be open to new ideas.  

Being open to new ideas requires us to let go of worrying about whether the idea will work. Lots of those ideas will fail. In fact, most ideas will fail. By keeping the tests and trials very small and immediate, we can reduce the cost of failure to almost nothing.

Author Clay Shirky says “Failure is free, high-quality research, offering direct evidence of what works and what doesn’t.”

It will never go back to the way it used to be. You have to start from here and go forward, one small step at a time.

Get the Idea Friendly Method Video

At SaveYour.Town, we’re offering a special video on using the Idea Friendly Method to make your community a better place. Learn more about the Idea Friendly Method video at SaveYour.Town.

By Chris Brogan

As the world starts to ask what’s going to happen when this pandemic is finally over and we can look at what it will take to jumpstart the economy again, one venture capitalist says we have to save Main Street and not bail out banks and hedge funds. Chamath Palihapitiya said in a CNBC interview that the way back requires a different perspective.

“On Main Street today, people are getting wiped out. And right now, rich CEOs are not, boards that had horrible governance are not, hedge funds are not. People are.”

You know that we spend no time here at Small Biz Survival pointing fingers or laying blame, and we’ve been here with you for years helping rural and small town businesses navigate the world, and that’s why this interview might prove interesting to you. It’s an important voice telling the nation that your business is who needs the help.

Don’t Wait for Handouts

As with all things, anything the government intends to do to help your business won’t come quickly enough for most people. It’s your job to rebuild and get your business back to thriving. Don’t wait for the handouts at all, but when they come available, don’t let your pride get in the way of filling out a few forms to get some “wiggle room” on the way to your recovery. You’ve worked hard and deserve that money more than the usual people who get bailed out.

Get to the Core Business

Over the years, maybe you’ve added and added and added to your business. Coming out of this pandemic might be a time where people will want the core of what you do more than anything else. Everyone is dealing with information overload, choice fatigue, and overall world-weary feelings. Make everything easier by offering your core service. If you do people’s taxes, offer your tax time services and monthly/quarterly bookkeeping. That’s it. Don’t get all that heavy into the other offers. Look at what makes your business important and strengthen that, keep the the “extras” and choices to a minimum.

Upgrade Your Payment Methods Now

Make it easier to accept payment from different sources, such as PayPal, Venmo, CashApp. As people struggle to make ends meet, smaller and faster money transfer technologies are used more. It’s worth your time to get your ability to be paid in multiple ways up and running faster than not. Never forget that YouTube has plenty of free videos to walk you through the setup and use of any new app you don’t yet understand. It’s a lot easier than you think (with a little guidance).

Reach Out

When times are tough, we tend to clam up and go inside. We don’t want other people to know we’re going through a bad spot. And it’s fine not to highlight that too loudly, but rest assured. The entire world is in this with you this time. Everyone out there is missing a payment here and there. People are digging into their life savings more often than they want. You’re not alone.

Reach out to your buyers. If someone hasn’t been in lately and you know how to reach them, do it. Ask if you can help. Offer different arrangements, if possible and if that helps. Don’t cut your prices. Everyone has to eat. You’re not a charity (unless you are). But connect with people and make sure they know you’re here to help. Send mail if you have their email address. Call if you’ve got a number. Keep your customer base warm.

You’re Valuable

We’ve said it all along. Small town businesses and rural companies are the backbone of what makes this nation run. Don’t wait for the cavalry. You’re the one who will save your business and you’re the one who will put this country back on its feet. Go get it.

Get ready for a dozen ideas for making a better third place. Pictured is Gathering Grounds coffee shop in Avon, Minnesota. Photo by Deb Brown.

At the Main Street Now conference, I sat in on a session about coffee shops. I wrote down bunches of ideas that the audience shared. I thought you might know a coffee shop person, or you might think of ways to use these with other types of small town businesses.

• Hold trivia nights or allow groups to meet in your space to drive more business
• Start a book club in your place
• Tell your story online. How were you founded? What is your history?
• Leverage your relationships with other businesses to put together a tour of businesses, or an experience that includes more than just your business
• Host readings, where customers can come in and share their writings
• Host adult coloring groups or game nights to bring in more evening customers
• Find out more about the people who work from your space, the people who bring in their laptops and work. What is their business? Is there potential to connect with them?
• Display coffee mugs from all the different businesses in town
• Provide vegetarian and vegan choices on the menu
• Support local causes and share about them
• Promote the chance to make friends, especially for new residents
• Reach out to new residents to make them aware of your place (You can find them through real estate agents.)
• Promote how people can connect with people not necessarily like them, how you play a role in strengthening community ties across groups in town.

Do you have any small town coffee shop ideas to add? When I asked in my newsletter, here are some ideas that readers shared.

“Whenever you get a new coffee, take an air pot around to all the business near you and give samples out.”
George M. Wurtzel

“Invite a well known Barista to run a Barista course at your coffee shop. Funding could be obtained from employment groups etc. Following on from that conduct a series of classes teaching people how to make simple things like vanilla slice and lamingtons. [an Australian cake specialty] This will follow on to your clients asking you to run classes on what they want to learn.”
Graham Reid

“Our trail organization co-hosts a #coffeeoutside gathering in a park each Thursday morning with a local bike shop. It is an opportunity to walk, bike or drive to share a relaxed social hour together. It is a great way to meet neighbors and solve the world’s problems. It could just as easily be set up outside a coffee shop. The point is: get outside, drink coffee, meet neighbors. We always have one type of coffee already made up, but invite roasters, shops and individuals to roast a pot on a camping set-up.”
Beth Nobles

Here’s the Coffee Outside website.

“We are test driving a coffee shop here in downtown Paulding, Ohio as a result of Deb Brown’s visit here a couple of weeks ago. The test is Tuesday and Thursday mornings through the month of May. First two days this week have been phenomenally successful. Using volunteer ‘baristas,’ the community support has been exceptional.
“Thank you Becky & Deb for all the idea sharing and leadership that you provide to our many small communities!
David Burtch

“All these ideas about coffee shops can be modified and apply to wineries. I say ‘modified’ because of the alcohol restrictions. We have been doing many of these practices at our winery in Knoxville, IA. Tonight I am hosting a fashion show with 5 women business owners in my community. It’s the first time doing this and I hope it works well. I reached out to our business owners that had fashions or a tangent business. I know a jewelry designer that will match her product with the clothes from the boutiques. A local photographer will take photos of the models and the event. A fabric designer that makes her own jackets will model her creations. I charged $5 advance tickets (available online or at the shops) and $10 at the door. The first beverage is free, so there is very little ‘risk’ to the guests, but allows me to gauge interest and attendance. You can see our story on our website NearWoodWinery.com. I think I have a pretty good origin story on the About Us page.”

Joann Schissel

Of course, I asked how the fashion show went, and Joann shared more:

“I think the fashion show went well. We had 15 models (includes kids) and friends/relatives were in the audience. I am focused on ‘gathering my tribe’ strategy and catering to established groups of people that have their own tribe. I loved working with the women business owners and promoting their products.
“Thank you for your great advice to help small towns. I think you and Deb fill a real need for our rural communities as mentors, strategists and cheer leaders!”

What other ideas do you have for coffee shops and other community gathering businesses?

New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.

Photo (CC) by Richard Stephenson, on Flickr

Of all the reasons why small-business owners start businesses, two are noted most often. They are a desire to be in control and having more time for family.

Yet once in business, many owners indicate that neither goal has been achieved.

By its nature, control should allow for deciding how much you want to work. Yet realistically, the question of when and how much you work is more often customer driven along with the ability of the business to support hiring additional staff and managers. The bottom line for small-business owners is they struggle to find a balance between work and life.

When small, the owner has few resources to hire additional help to cover some of the required tasks. Days are seen as a treadmill consuming all available time. Opening the doors, ordering stock, working with customers, marketing to potential customers, making sales, handling customer service and looking forward can’t wait.

As such, small-business owners get frustrated with the lack of control and not being able to have a “life.” And home-based business owners feel it even more.

The owner does not need to feel this way, however. With prioritizing and planning, it is possible to run a successful business and to realize the personal goals such as control and family time.

Start with schedules, and then follow what you planned out. Adjustments will be needed, but a simple schedule makes you aware of your priorities and subtly forces you to work on the most important items first.

Another opportunity for small-business owner is to mix family and business. That may mean having family members help in the business, with the trade-off that you spend more time at home. Also understand that the business flow goes up and down, as do family demands. Understand the cycles and plan accordingly.

However, mixing family and business for home-based business owners can be troublesome. Being at home often sends the message to the family that you are available. You need to set boundaries. Even very young children can learn that a closed door means you are at work. Also, set times, such as the morning, when you focus on work.

Organization of your business and work space also lends itself to achieving the work/life balance you want. As with prioritizing, you want to spend your time on those tasks, whether work or family, that provide you with the most value.

For example, having the tools to do a job in one space and doing related tasks all at one time is helpful. Cluster meetings together, do office work at one time and even set aside certain times for handling the influx of communication you receive each day. And cut down on unnecessary communication. Be selective in what you read and handle. The old standard, “Only handle a piece of paper once,” remains true whether it is paper or an email. You can read informational items in those spare moments that come along.

Work/life balance is possible. It takes effort but many owners will tell you it can be done.

Photo (CC) by Dana, on Flckr

Is your business a family business?

When most people hear that phrase they think in terms of some formal and regular involvement of family members in defined business activities with some payment for such activity.

Yet in the broadest sense, family businesses cover a much broader involvement of family members. The work might include the regular activities of the business or it may be an occasional job or it simply may mean help in planning and development. Taken to its extreme, the involvement may simply mean being there too help cover an emergency.

Also in a family business, payment for such work is not required.

Finally, the “family” connection is not fully defined. It may be blood-relative or an adopted child. It also may be an in-law, someone connected by marriage. Given our wide use of those considered family, there are many others who may be involved in the family business.

As a manager, it’s important to consider this as you operate the business. Your first step should be to determine who is working for your business who considers themselves “family.” Family members often have different ideas of their rights and responsibilities as well as their expected level of compensation. And certainly, they may have ideas about progression “up the ladder” as jobs become available.

Being aware of this can help navigate some of management decisions that will need to be made. Family relations are complex. Business relations are complex. Now mix the two together and you have great opportunities for unhappiness and dissension.

Avoiding, or at least minimizing, these potential negative aspects begins with understanding where everyone is coming from. Open communication is also important as is talking about certain sticky points before they become a problem.

Don’t assume that a one-time conversation, even if everyone seems in agreement, is the end, however. Keep revisiting and checking to see if feelings and desires have changed.

Family businesses can be a great place to work. Your proactive efforts as a manager can make them stay that way long into the future.

Photo (CC) by uberof202ff, on Flickr

Many retailers experience a sales slump during after the holiday season. How do you respond?

The slump comes as no surprise and most small-business owners know they just need to plan for it and ride it out. They think of it as time to work in the business and perhaps to grab a short vacation. Those are good ways to spend your time. Everyone needs a break and spending time restocking, cleaning and reorganizing can add freshness to your visual merchandising.

There are other approaches you can take, however. These range from bringing more people into the store during this slow period to working on business growth in the future.

Bringing more people can be done through directed mailings/emails. It can be a time when you aim for a new audience. Maybe you do a charity event or drive. This may be a time for you to start your own holiday (See our post, “Start Your Own Holiday”) or grab on to an existing one such as Groundhog’s Day or “Winnie the Pooh” day (Jan. 18th). or “International Fun at Work Day” (Jan. 26th).

But for long term growth and success, this may be the time to look forward. To make the most of your time, here are three possible efforts you could pick from:

• Internal efficiency and staff development – Do a deep dive into your data. Examine new technology and trends. Break out the list of consumer complaints looking for common areas of frustration. Include staff in these discussions. Also, plan some staff training and some fun.
• Develop your supply side – Maybe its time to have coffee with your sources of goods and materials. Are there opportunities for you to access additional items at cheaper prices or better terms? Do they have any special programs that you are not taking advantage of? Are you using technology effectively in your ordering and inventory control? Finally, what do they see as upcoming trends in the marketplace? It’s also a time for you to interview new potential suppliers. These may be your primary suppliers or backup suppliers or suppliers of specialty items that may complement what you are already offering.
• Better understand your customer base – Make an appointment with your top 10 customers. How can you get a greater share of their business? What issues have they had with your company? What trends do they see in the future and how will your business need to change to respond? How do they know who might be a new customer (and will they help you approach them)? What type of marketing is most effective in their view? You may also do surveys of your entire customer base or a short survey of customers as they come into the store. Also, some general market surveys to look at name and brand awareness might provide information. Finally, dig into the data. How is the make-up of your community and market changing? Perhaps you want to talk with some elected officials and other community leaders for their thoughts on your business, your market, the community and the future.

Getting this information is a great first step. However, you also need to use it and to do it now. Do some “what if” scenarios, some brainstorming, a SWOT analysis, scenario planning, etc. Include not only management but employees and your mentors/advisers. Even family members may be someone you want to have at the table.

So don’t look at this as your slow time. Make this your GROWTH time!!

Photo (CC) by Quinn Dombrowske, on Flickr

Success for a small business means watching your pennies. Margins are usually small, sales are often weak, and there is little or no cushion available to absorb a mistake.

It is also true that small business owners must not get so caught up in watching pennies that they miss the holes that are leaking dollars. Harry Barnes, in 1942, referenced this as “penny wise and pound foolish.” And I have discussed this idea in two previous columns, Follow the Money and Chasing Bright Shiny New Things.

Yet a recent experience suggest that you also need to consider customer perception of your efforts to minimize costs. This may sound funny but here is my story. Consider this picture.

Our refrigerator has a mechanical issue. When the service rep came out, he diagnosed the problem (we hope but that’s another story). The parts weren’t available locally s0 he ordered them to be shipped to us. He will be coming later this week to install them. What we received are the three envelopes shown along with the items you see. As near as my wife and I can tell, all three mailings came from the same location. Two came one day and the third a day later. Each envelope had postage for a pound but all the items weighed only about 7 ounces.

This may have been an effective and efficient way for the company to handle this. But to me, the customer, I’m asking “REALLY?”

Effectiveness and efficiency form part of your business image. We applaud companies that portray, through words and actions, a mission of customer service. Think of the places where you do business. This concept is probably part of why you go where you do.

I might even go further and suggest  we may pay a slightly higher price for a company that demonstrates efficiency than one where we get the cheapest price but its operation is somewhat helter skelter. My rationale would be that the well organized company can probably find a way to bring their costs down while the second company may offer a bargain today but we can’t see how they will be there tomorrow when we need service or want more.

I don’t know where the balance point is between being efficient and your company’s rating on customer service.  My purpose is to remind you that these concepts, efficient, effective and perception, are intertwined.

Developing an on-going sustainable business means finding that balance for your business.

Photo (CC) by Ron Mader, on Flickr

Small Business Saturday has come and gone.

What worked? What did you do? And what do you wish you would have done?

Now is the time to answer those questions. Yes, I know that for many of you it is also the holiday shopping season and you have just run the gauntlet of getting the decorations up, putting out the first sale flyers out and participating in Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And staring you in the face are the remaining 19 days until Christmas.

But it’s crucial to examined what worked and to keep doing it throughout the season (Actually, you want to keep doing it until Small Business Saturday 2018 when you can up your game even more).

2017 Small Business Saturday was bigger and better than ever. You can find lots of articles addressing the results. The National Retail Federation reported that 55 million shoppers visited small businesses that Saturday.

That was a look at the national scene. My colleagues, Tait and Kate, addressed why your success is so important at a more local level, your community, in “Small Towns and ‘Shop Local’ Do Matter.”

And we can take it down even further to your own store. A successful Small Business Saturday promotion meant money in the till. Just as important, though, it meant more awareness of your store, more foot traffic, and more coffee-time conversation about what you have going on.

Those last items are crucial for long-term sustainability and success.

Small Business Saturday

So ask yourself and your customers, what worked? Then do more of it.

It is much more effective if you continue something that worked then to let it sit for several months, or until next year, and try to resume the activity. Customers will remember know what you did and respond if you continue it.

So reboot your Small Business Saturday successes. Make them a regular part of your effort.

Small Business matters on more than just one day.

What event will we celebrate on Nov. 25th?

Pat yourself on the back if you said “Small Business Saturday.”

No, there isn’t any cake (well, there could be) and no one is getting any presents (at least not on that day, although we hope lots of them are purchased from your local businesses that day). Streamers and decorations also probably will be missing.

So why a celebration?

The celebration, which began in 2010, is an effort to promote and encourage shoppers to buy from local small businesses, a central core of our economic sector.

Small Business Saturday occurs between two other major shopping days: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And while both of these days include small businesses, those who launched Small Business Saturday felt that this one day would be a good reminder.

Small Business Saturday is an awareness campaign. The hope is this one-day focus will encourage you to shop small and shop local throughout the year.

Small businesses represent more than 90 percent of all U.S. businesses. They provide a substantial part of our gross domestic product and employ more than 50 percent of all employees. They also are the starting point for nearly all firms that are now the major companies we know.

The small businesses are key contributors to a community’s quality of life.

So get ready to celebrate. Encourage local events and publicity for your local businesses. And most importantly, shop small.

Small is big!!