Speaking about small businesses, entrepreneurship and sharing rural stories

Story and photos by Deb Brown

I was invited to speak in Portugal by my friend and business associate Frederico Lucas. My first night in Lisbon I spoke at this event hosted at the coworking space NOW Beato and broadcast live on Facebook. Focused on rural entrepreneurship, the panel had a lively conversation about the possibilities for their rural areas. And meeting the challenges their depopulated communities have.

In today’s global economy, entrepreneurs are always looking for new opportunities to innovate and create value. Small towns and villages are often overlooked and also can be a rich source of local knowledge and expertise. However, engaging with these communities can be challenging for people outside them, especially in areas with low population density and depopulation.

41 Small Villages Network Project in Rural Portugal

Ana Linares, from Novos Povoadores (“New Settlers”), and her team work with a group of small villages, 41 of them. There are very few people living there and few children, so the schools are closed. One town has 17 residents. Low density population is a problem. In the US we would call them ghost towns, in Portugal they call them depopulated.

Ana told us about this project. These 41 villages have created a network to develop tourism, but also to develop the community, and the social aspect of their economics. Because they are very small, if they were alone in trying to implement projects, it would be even more difficult. They started to organize and work together and use their synergies.

If one village has a festival, and another village has a walking trail, they can work together to offer a tourist experience that is more complete. Some towns have places to eat or sleep that can be added to the experience. Once the team connects with some of the few older people still living there, they find the community has great pride in their villages and is very open to innovation and doing new projects.

This initiative comes from the people in the community, not the municipality. As is the case in many small towns, they must start with what they have. The local government will not be the ones to begin the initiative. And the town is depopulated and doesn’t have the resources or people to get started. At least that is their belief. Often, there is no single group that wants to be responsible to start the project. Like in the United States, I’ve heard many people say, “The city ought to fix that.” And the people forget they ARE the city.

Christmas and community made this idea work

A successful example of this kind of project is the Christmas Village that asked for support and started with their own facilities and resources. Eventually the municipality joined in, but it was not quick.

This village is Cabeça, the first eco-sustainable Christmas village in Portugal. Supported by eco-design experts, local communities have engaged in the task of developing Christmas décor by using natural elements, agricultural and forest surplus, as well as wool from the Serra da Estrela Mountain area.

All the streets are ornamented with natural materials, and the town comes together a month or two before and works on all the ornaments and decorations. No plastic, only natural material. There is a large warehouse where all the ladies go to make the ornaments.

Capturing the stories

One inspiring example Ana talked about is the Museum of the Future, a new project in Portugal that captures the stories of people in small villages in video format. These stories have cultural, social, personal, and human dimensions, and can be used to inspire new ideas and products.

Places to work, meet, and celebrate for free

Another project Ana and her team worked on was reinventing and redesigning some small spaces for a handful of artists to work for free. They used circular economy design – where everything was designed and made with the local artisans in mind. Each artisan also has a retail space.

It’s also a space that is open to everyone in the village where you can have meetings and parties. It is a place to bring new people from out of the village. They can have the experience of what it is to live in a place that is open to artisans and community. There are many advantages to living in a place like this!

What does it take to be successful?

Engaging with small communities requires patience, empathy, and a willingness to listen and learn. It also requires a recognition that successful projects are not just about achieving technical goals, but also about building relationships and empowering communities.

One solution they use in Portugal is to adopt a co-creative and collaborative approach. By bringing the community along in every project, entrepreneurs can ensure that their initiatives are relevant, sustainable, and impactful. This approach also recognizes the value of people’s local stories and cultural heritage, which can be turned into resources for younger people to create new products or services, or to reinvent old ways of doing things.

Is this a utopian vision?

No. I don’t think so. Ana and the team at Novos Povoadores shared this remark on their website:

The globalized society is increasingly based on an economy without geography, a fact that allows us to look at the territory in a more inclusive way. In this context, it is possible to reduce the gap of regional disparities with advantages for new residents and for low-density territories. On the one hand, an undeniable increase in the quality of life, and on the other hand, the breaking of a cycle of territorial bleeding.

Photos from the coworking space NOW Beato in Lisbon, Portugal

Where the panel discussion was hosted.

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Rural business people are trying a variety of different business models today, including pop-ups, shared buildings, businesses inside of other businesses and more. Entrepreneurs are using these smaller-scale experiments and tests to learn what works before making a huge investments. Learn how these Innovative Rural Business Models are being used right now in small towns in this video from the RuralRISE speaker series, featuring Becky McCray and Deb Brown, co-founders of SaveYour.Town

Innovative Rural Business Models, Becky McCray and Deb Brown, RuralRISE Virtual Speaker Series, 2023 (59 minutes)

Download the slides (PDF)

Download the sample lease agreement (PDF)

The sample lease agreement for a shared building is one that we were given permission to share with others. Please have your own legal representative make a specific lease for your situation.

Would you like a presentation on the Innovative Rural Business Models?

Invite Deb and Becky to your town or event for a presentation or workshop.

Starting a business the old way is hard

On an Idea Friendly visit to Jackson County, Kentucky, I visited with a group of artists/entrepreneurs. This group had created a loose organization called the Jackson County KY Creative Community. They wanted to start businesses, but were not ready to get a building and go through the extensive process of starting a business. Some needed to see if their work had a market and value to the customer. They felt stuck. Product and excitement, but no money to get their businesses off the ground.

Smaller steps to try first

We had gathered in an art studio in McKee, KY. There was lots of discussion around taking smaller steps to start your business.

• You could sell online in places like Etsy or eBay.
• You could ask a local business if you could have just one shelf to sell your product on.
• Or showcase your artwork on an empty wall in a place like the bank, or the insurance agents office.
• You could set up a card table at an event and sell from there.

Downtown McKee, KY, car show photo by Anthony Jackson

Try using an empty lot

The group shared there was a car show coming to town soon. How could they piggyback on that event? There was an empty lot right downtown on the main highway, right across from where the cars would be parked. It wasn’t the best looking lot, it needed some attention. There was kudzu climbing the walls of buildings next to it, graffiti on the same buildings and the weeds needed some major whacking.

Ask

Kathy Spurlock owned the empty lot. I had already visited with her. I knew her time was already stretched thin, and her funds were being used for other community projects. Still, there was this empty lot waiting to be filled.

I asked her if the artists in the Jackson County KY Creative Community could possibly use it for a popup.

She said yes

The empty lot pop up was created! One artist’s husband took his weedwhacker and cleaned out an area just big enough for pop-ups. Everyone in the group spread the word a pop up was coming through social media and word of mouth. Other artists were invited. Signs were posted around the county. No one person was in charge, everyone participated as best they could.

Empty Lot Pop Up photo by Greg Lakes

It worked!

There were many entrepreneurs set up with their works displayed. Folks came and bought from them, enjoyed the car show, and ate some food from local vendors. The Jackson County Creative Community added more artists as members too. There were lessons learned.

• You can pop up anywhere.
• It’s a good idea to join in another event and promote them both for more attendees.
• People are looking for something new and unique to do. Your excitement brings them in.
• Entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes and offering this kind of small step helps create more businesses in your community.
• Business can be conducted in unusual locations and empty lots are great testing grounds.
• It’s a small step. If it doesn’t work, you haven’t lost anything.

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Got empty buildings?

Every small town has empty buildings and empty lots. Gowrie is no exception. During my walk around, I took these photos of empty buildings.

My favorite thing to do when you have several empty buildings is to host a Tour of Empty Buildings.

An Empty Buildings Tour is a community event that showcases vacant or underutilized buildings. The goal of the tour is to raise awareness of the issue of vacant buildings and to generate interest in repurposing them. Tours can be organized by local chambers of commerce, economic development agencies, or other community groups. It’s also a great idea for realtors to get together and host a tour!

It can be as simple as adding buildings to a list to be viewed on a given date and time. Create a map and make it available for people to download or pick up. Market it online and offline. I recommend having the owner or realtor on site to answer questions, hand out information and maybe even show them around.

You could have presentations by experts on issues related to vacant buildings, such as real estate development, historic preservation, and economic development. Tours are often followed by networking events or other activities that encourage participants to discuss ways to reuse vacant buildings.

I created and organized the Empty Buildings Tour in Webster City, Iowa. There were 12 buildings on the tour. Ten were filled within 18 months.

SaveYour.Town has created an Empty Buildings Tour Toolkit if you want to host your own tour.

Share Spaces

Coppes Commons, Nappanee, Indiana: An old factory with 100,000 square feet of space had sat empty for years. Made hoover cabinets. There was little chance another big manufacturer would swoop in and fill it all up. So, a local family bought the factory, they’ve opened it up, a little at a time, for smaller uses. There’s retail space, an ice cream shop, all kinds of cool and fun things. They now have 11 businesses, large and small event spaces, and a business center. And they still have a lot more room to grow in the future. Rather than waiting until someone was ready to fill the whole thing, they split it up, and now they have a thriving retail space.

Addison James is a business that sells clothing. They also have a skin care specialist, photographer and graphic designer in their space.

The Drill Barbershop was one of my favorite places to visit. Phil DeCastro is a big fan of disc golf. He’s made it possible for others to participate and provides access to supplies people need. That’s a cool thing about living in a small town, it’s pretty easy to get involved in the things you like to do.

The Picket Fence offered lots of choices in product. They also have a quilter in their space! You can find them often doing Facebook Live at night so you can shop online with them too.

Incubator

When I was the Chamber of Commerce Director in Webster City, I had an idea for an informal incubator project. We had a building owner that had several buildings downtown. I approached them with the incubator project idea. Put your buildings in the program and you offer 3 months free rent and reduced rent the rest of the year. The chamber agreed to help the businesses that went into those buildings with marketing, and the SBDC (Small Business Development Center) came in to help the business with creating a valuable business plan.

Benefits to the owner:

• At the least their utilities were being paid by someone else.
• Every building needs love, and this provided that.
• The business could leave at any time (remember, it’s a way to test out the business idea) or they could stay as long as they wanted!

Did it work? Yes.

Food

The first business was an Italian restaurant. The town loved it! It lasted a year until the husband got a job out of state. No worries though. The Mexican grocery store across the street wanted to open their own restaurant in the back of the store. The owners were saving for a commercial hood. They took advantage of the incubator project and tested their idea out. They tried new recipes and played around with open hours. And got the word out they were going to open a larger spot soon. Which is exactly what they did.

Clothing

Chicago Style rented an incubator spot for a year, then bought a building in the same block and expanded to be 3x times bigger. They’ve also helped three other businesses get started in their new location. Incubators are a great way to test out your idea, build your market, and save money for the next step.

Discussion during my presentation

There are some buildings in Gowrie that would benefit from the shared spaces idea. Take a look at the pictures above from the Empty Buildings Tour Idea. Antiques businesses are often seen sharing space. Another great use is for artists to have studio space and retail space.

The Heartland Community Room at the bank features pictures on their walls of the area, and they are for sale. Shared spaces don’t have to be similar kinds of businesses.

Murals, signs, windows and more

Sign in the local rural telecom building

Signs

In the Webster-Calhoun Cooperative Telephone Association offices they’ve got flipchart size posters that are hand drawn. It’s used to motivate, encourage and to be positive. These are simple and affordable to do. They’re not permanent and can be changed out often. It’s fun too!

Windows

It’s not unusual to see the second story windows boarded over, for a myriad of reasons. I think the owners believe no one is looking at them, and that is not true.

Here’s an idea – paint the boards over the windows. The top part of this building is empty and needs lots and lots of work. The old windows were boarded up and looked awful. The picture below is the building Chicago Style bought.

The community vitality director in Webster City, Iowa found a program involving students at Univ.of Iowa and they created this idea. An artist took large pieces of wood and drew on them, in paint by number style. They were taken out to the fairgrounds and were painted by anyone in town who wanted to help. They feature important people and things in Webster City.

The building on the left is the before, the building on the right is the after.

Murals

The local library in Gowrie has painted a mural on the side of their building. The swimming pool also has a painted mural. Where else could you add art to your community?

Mural on the side of the library

What is that?

There’s a lot right downtown that used to be a car wash. It’s an eyesore, at best. There’s good news for some quick changes you can do! The fence around the lot could be put to good use. Display students’ art, create banners for the area and hang there, have an art contest, and hang the entries there. Loren Ditzler from Warren County, Iowa sent me this picture. Their county courthouse was torn down and left a big empty pit. (They are rebuilding it.) Until it’s finished, they decided to promote their county with banners on their fence.

this used to be a carwash

Warren County banners, photo by Loren Ditzler

Talk to each other.

There are committed people in Gowrie who are excited to make things happen. Lots of people came two nights in a row to hear me talk about their community. It was great to see them talking with each other about their ideas and getting started. Even the County Supervisors came!

Gowrie Annual Dinner folks

Here’s the thing. You want to keep talking, and gathering, and working on your projects. Don’t fall into the trap of meeting to be meeting and not getting work done. You don’t need committees, or big hairy plans, or permission for most of it. You start with your big idea, gather your crowd, the people who think like you and want to see things happen. Then reach out to others that might be able to help, build your connections. Finally, take small steps. Try things out, see if they work. Let everyone participate in small but meaningful ways.

That’s the Idea Friendly Method:

Gather Your Crowd

Build Connections

Take Small Steps

And share your stories, tell folks what you’re doing. Keep the excitement going!

(if no accreditation on the photo, that means Deb Brown took it) 

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A local furniture store hosts two temporary businesses for a special shopping event, combining business-in-a-business and pop-ups to benefit everyone. Photo by Becky McCray.

By Deb Brown

The old way of doing business is one building, one business. What if you could test an idea and have a business inside a business?

Anyone of us either knows or can find someone who is making things from their home and selling it.

What if you encouraged already existing home-based businesses to host a trial popup in your store?

These small popups can be short term, over a season or if it works out a permanent addition. Perhaps you’ll let them try their idea out for free for a short time. If it works, you can determine together if they pay rent to you or a commission.

Who do you know that is a:

• Quilt maker
• Artist
• Artisan
• Painter
• Sculptor
• Widget maker
• Baker
• Crafter

Look for those that are doing business from their homes. Maybe they are just beginning to think about making some money with their products.

How can you help them, and your business at the same time?

Invite them to set up in a corner of your shop, as a pop up.

Then try these ideas:

• Meet the artist event
• Have a party announcing your new acquisition
• Create a Facebook event and do something special to announce their arrival

Why does all of this matter?

1. You will be bringing in new people to your store to meet these crafters. Cross promotion is good for business.
2. You’re giving a hand up and not a hand out to a new business person.
3. You’re enlivening your community using local resources.
4. You’re making your store a place where people come for an experience.
5. You’re building community and that strengthens the town for everyone.

More rural economic development tricks

Find out more rural economic development tricks in our latest SaveYour.Town video.

This is a short sample from the SaveYour.Town video “Refilling Your Business Pipeline” featuring Deb Brown and me.

Small towns and rural communities will need new business startups to revitalize their local economies, but not many people have the resources today to do a startup the way it’s traditionally been done.

Part of what holds your potential new entrepreneurs back is thinking that going into business has to be a big and difficult and long project.

Imagine all the work that “everyone knows” is part of starting a new business:

If you decided to open a retail store, you have decide on your specialty and what kind of merchandise to carry, deciding or guessing whether your town will support it, finding a location and remodeling it or even bringing it up to code, decorating, finding suppliers and getting started with them, getting your local banking established, securing financing, hiring staff, advertising and marketing, and all that before you even know whether your initial concept is actually sound.

In small towns, those problems can be magnified where you may face a shortage of usable buildings, long distances to suppliers who don’t pay attention to small accounts like yours, few local banks, no chance of local financing, few choices for potential workers, and a smaller potential market. It seems like it takes a lot of time, money and work just to get into business.

You have to get all your ducks in a row.

What if I told you there was a much easier way to get into business?

Just get one duck and go from there. 

Imagine building some steps in between. If you could buy just a few products and test them by running a temporary business inside another business for a month or two, you’d learn a lot about what sells in your local market right now. If that works, maybe you could rent a small booth in a shared retail building. If something doesn’t work, you can fix it and try again.

From there, jumping up to starting a traditional store doesn’t seem as hard. You’ve learned what people want to buy. You’ve established relationships with suppliers. You’ve gained a loyal following. All those smaller steps lift you up closer to jumping over that hurdle of starting a traditional business. And if you miss a jump at a smaller step, it’s easier to recover and try something new.

Why this works

That’s the purpose of the innovative rural business models. They put people in a much better position to succeed, or to fail in a manageable way. It cuts time and money off the process of getting into business. 

For economic developers, these give you an easy way to add entrepreneurship promotion to existing projects and activities. It’s not about starting new things from scratch. It’s about finding and building on the small steps that already exist in your area.

Get the full video

The entire 30 minute is available for purchase at SaveYour.Town: Refilling Your Business Pipeline.

Learn more

Before you write that plan, why not try a pop-up of your business idea? Even in your own front yard you can learn more than you will staring at a computer screen. Photo courtesy of Shawn’s Kettle Corn, Webster City, Iowa. 

by Deb Brown

At least, the old way of doing them

Writing a business plan is an intense project that takes up a lot of your time. You spend weeks and weeks on it, and you’re not even sure everything in it is correct. Your financial projections are just wild guesses. You’re not even open and they want you to guess how much money you’ll make! You can find out the amount of traffic that goes by your proposed location. But just because 10,000 people travel down that road doesn’t mean any certain percentage of them will be guaranteed to stop. 

What if you waited and wrote your business plan after you’ve run a few tests? 

How do you test out your products and market without having a brick and mortar business? 

Participate in a pop up event or two

Small towns have these kind of events. Car shows, town fairs, three day events for fun, goat eating contests, celebrations and many other kinds of parties. You can set up a table and a covering and sell your product. 

Do track your sales! It’s as easy as counting inventory at the beginning and at the end. Write down if you had to drop the price. Write down suggestions people give you for similar products they’d like. You’ll begin to get an idea of what products people like.

Try a longer pop up.

Does your town do seasonal popups in empty buildings? It’s worth asking the building owner to do that! You could partner with other entrepreneurs and give it a try.  

Again, track sales, price drops and suggestions. If possible, track the  number of people who came in the building. 

Let’s not forget online selling

Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Poshmark, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, eBid, and Ruby Lane are a few places. Be sure to choose the right site(s) for your type of product.

Many of these sites will do the tracking for you! If not, track them yourself.

Shared spaces

Is there a place in your area that has more than one vendor in the location? See if you could join them. This is a shared space, and they are operated in different ways. Some have one cash register, some have each vendor with a cash register. Both have been known to work. Get the details and see if they work for you. 

As you track results, don’t forget to write down your market

Who is buying your product? 

As you are trying these ideas (and making money) pay attention to the people who shop with you. Do they fall into a certain age category? Are they male or female? Of a certain social strata? This is all research for the kind of people who make up your market. 

Where do these people live? What do they look like? How old are they? What gender are they? Are they different nationalities? Where are they shopping for similar products? Are you satisfying a need in the marketplace? 

After this time of tracking sales, places, and people you’re really ready to begin writing a plan.

The difference is you’ll have actual figures and not made up ones. You’ll also want to write about your products, competition and staffing. You’ve already got the answers for these topics too.

You have everything you need for a simple business plan. You can show the banker, if you need one, exactly what you’ve been doing as you build your business. You’re not putting your dreams and wishes on paper. You’re putting facts and figures and proof that your business is working. 

Our next video is Before You Write Your Next Plan and you’ll hear about real people in real towns who are not writing business plans the old way anymore. 

How one town got the city council to change the rules and enabled a great new event to bloom. Photo via Deb Brown.

By Deb Brown

When I was Chamber of Commerce Director in Webster City, Iowa, one of our big events was Junquefest, a three day event where vendors come to town and sell all kinds of junque.

We wanted to close the streets and let the vendors park their trailers by their booths. That was illegal, but we went before the city council and asked could we do that just for this event. The prior two years we held this event in the park and with no trailers allowed. We did have some vendors build a set up on site so it looked like a little store. Now we had an example of how they did it before and how having trailers onsite would make sense. The council said yes. 

Our pilot was still officially against the rules, but by allowing this small step, the council got good information about how it could work if they did change the rules. 

Get people on your side in advance

In another example, our Farmer’s Market is now downtown on a side street just off the main drag. They wanted to close the streets Saturdays from 7:30 to 11 a.m. Again, that’s against the rules. The Farmer’s Market people got their ducks in a row first, then went to the city to suspend the rules. 

There are two businesses on the street they wanted to close. The farmer’s market people talked to the coffee shop people, and they thought it was a good idea. It was, too. More people buy coffee. The other place on the street is a hair salon that has clients to serve on Saturday mornings. The salon owner worked with another business that has a parking lot nearby to allow her clients to park there are Saturday morning. 

Since both businesses involved had already agreed, it was easier for the council to say yes to a rule change.

How to do this in your town

Come up with a small pilot project as a test, before you ask for a big rule change. Then you have some evidence to take back to the council.

When you do your real-world test, be sure the council is invited. There’s nothing like the practical experience of being there to help them make a positive decision!

Go in advance and talk to anyone who will be affected by your plans. Don’t let them be surprised by a news story or a post on Facebook.

New video: Against the Rules

We’ve partnered with SaveYour.Town to bring you a video with 8+ practical ways to get your idea done no matter what the “rule enthusiasts” say. Learn more about it at: SaveYour.Town Against the Rules

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What’s the right way to get a microbrewery going? Start small.

Guest Post by Deb Brown

When I visited Decatur County, Iowa, several people said that wanted a brewery. They talked about the big barriers in their way: finding the right building, the right funding, the right people. The big idea seems really hard this way. Why not start smaller? Start by using the Idea Friendly Method: Gather Your Crowd, Build Connections, Take Small Steps.

Here are some of the questions I suggested they ask themselves and each other to help them start small.

Gather Your Crowd

• Who in the county already makes home brew?
• Who wants to talk about finding a place for adults to hang out?
• Who is interested in finding a way to bring a new business to town?

Invite them to come together, over a beer, and talk about the big idea of having a microbrewery. Talk to each other, think about all the ideas.

Build Connections

• Who knows who that already started a brewery? Go visit them. Find out what they had to do to get there.
• Start finding out the things you need to know: licensing, manufacturing laws, etc.
• What resources does your local community already have that you could use? Who do you talk to get access to those resources?
• Who knows other home brew clubs you could visit?

Take Small Steps

• Have your home brewers do a sampling. See if people really are interested in having a brewery.
• Maybe form a home brew club.
• Try things out. Test your market and your product.
• Could you offer free samples in an empty building downtown and then visit about some ways to use that building to bring adults together?
• Could you set up at a local event in a beer tent environment? Maybe use monies collected to support that event?

Again, bring people together, over a beer, to talk about the possibilities!

Apply this Idea Friendly Method to your own big idea

Any idea to make your town a better place can follow the Idea Friendly method. If you’d like some help to see how that would work in your town, check out the SaveYour.Town video Big Ideas? Small Steps!