Business Insider rounded up the trends reports from LinkedIn, Pinterest and other social-driven sites. They didn’t dig out the best trends for rural businesses and small town entrepreneurs, so I did that for you.

Retail is recycling

Deb Brown browsing in a Galveston, Texas, vintage store. Photo by Becky McCray

Pinterest points to vintage and mixed decor trends. That’s a good trend for rural antiques hunters, thrift stores and auction houses. Especially those who sell online and handle shipping.

LinkedIn says sustainability remains a hot topic, with vintage, secondhand and resale stores seeing a boost for clothing, too.

Related, in-person retail is coming back. Looks like more new stores opened than closed in 2022. Big note for small towns chasing retail, this may not be new construction. There’s “a rise in developers renovating and reimagining existing, outdated properties.” Listen, if anyone has existing outdated retail properties, it’s probably small towns.

Customers have paused in their rush to online shopping. Online sales shot up in 2020 and 2021, but 2022’s online shopping totals declined a bit.

Rural businesses could make more use of social influence to drive sales. You don’t have to be in a big city to use TikTok and other channels with hashtags like #MustHaves and #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt. If you didn’t notice it in your own feed, Instagram turned into a yard sale with friends during 2021, as people redecorated and vintage home decor sellers boomed.

Tourism: trains and fun dates

As interest in train travel grows, small towns that have rail service can vie for more tourist attention. Photo by Becky McCray.

Trains are making a comeback, Pinterest says. That’s pretty cool for small towns with active train service. Make sure you’re playing that up in your tourism.

Also this interesting dating trend: people are searching for experiences. Book store dates, date picnics and more. I’m saying that rural places could host the best date picnics ever, not to mention hiking dates, nature walk dates and stargazing dates.

Manufacturing mushrooms

Local manufacturers can find more business by easing supply chain issues for big customers. They’ll need a strong workforce to tap this trend. Manufacturers in Ponca City, Oklahoma, are reaching out to middle school students to show them possible careers. Photo via Kat Long.

LinkedIn’s report points to eco-friendly materials like those made from mushrooms and plants coming up. Lots of eco-friendly materials innovators are in small towns or rural places.

Shopify’s trends report shows big companies addressing ongoing logistics challenges in part by looking for more local supply sources. For small towns with idle manufacturing space or flexible makers, this is an opportunity.

Entrepreneurship on your side

Self care takes many forms, including physical activity and forming strong social ties. This team participated in the Beer Mile run in Colfax, Washington. Photo by Becky McCray.

Rural people have long had a higher rate of self-employment than urban people do. LinkedIn points to the rise in side-gigs or part-time businesses in addition to a main job. Maybe it’s not surprising that more of the youngest workers do this. Around 25% of Gen Z had a side-hustle, compared to 16% for all older folks.

A trend to tap is self-care, according to TikTok. With social channels as close as your phone, rural people can improve their offerings in “mental-health improvement, fitness, public health, and work-life balance.” Since we know that being in nature is good for you, rural communities are some of the best places to host self care experiences.

This article cited by:

• Ag Journal, Simple low-cost tips for small towns in year ahead, Jan 5, 2023
• Reprinted in the LaJunta Tribune Democrat and Bent County Democrat

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So why do we greet new ideas with “That will never work”?

How to greet an idea respectfully

Picture being introduced to someone you’ve never met. You look them in the eye, and you shake their hand. You want to make a good first impression while you’re also forming your first impression of the other person. Now is not the time to hit them with all the negative thoughts that pop into your head.

You hold your opinions to yourself for now and make time to get to know the person better. You show interest in them, ask questions to learn more about them and listen to their answers.

You don’t necessarily agree with everything they say, but you show respect for them by listening first. 

You can do the same when you greet new ideas.

Practice greeting each new idea with a friendly hello and pause

Listen to the new idea without responding. You don’t have to agree with the idea, or think it’s a good idea. Hold your objections for later.

First show interest in the idea. Ask questions that help you learn more about it, not to help you poke holes in it. Avoid throwing out all the potential problems and reasons not to try it that pop into your head. 

People learn by doing, trying and sometimes by failing. If you stop them from trying, you’re stopping them from learning. But there’s one question you can ask that will help them learn the most while failing the least.

The magic question to ask of all new ideas:

How could you test that idea in a tiny way?

Every idea is good enough to test. It might lead to another idea or a new approach. It might inspire someone else to try another new idea.

The smaller the test, the smaller the possible failure.

That’s the Idea Friendly way.

Bottom line

Greet a new idea like you would greet a new person: with your respect, not your opinion.

Get more Idea Friendly Implementation tips in the video Idea Friendly Next Steps from SaveYour.Town.

Thanks to Jurek Leon for sharing this concept in his newsletter several years ago, inspired by Paul Hellman, author of You’ve Got 8 Seconds.

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By Paula Jensen

Have you ever experienced a time when you could envision what needs to happen but had no idea what to stop doing in order to reach the point of success?

Here is a simple example: This year at Santa Day in my community someone asked, “Why do we give away turkeys to families during this event – it seems like a waste of funds and fundraising time?” My immediate thought was – it’s a long-standing tradition. In my community we have always collected money from local businesses to give away turkeys on Santa Day. Over the decades the number of volunteers hosting Santa Day has decreased along with the number of businesses, so now businesses and individuals generously donate to our local community group to provide turkey donations for Santa Day. The truth is raising money isn’t hard in our community, but no one has ever asked the question, “Do people really want a turkey for Christmas?” How do we continue the tradition of generosity, but do it without the turkey?

Sometimes we get stuck in a cycle that loses the real purpose of why we started something. Communities often just do what they’ve always done and honestly, it is frequently good work. But when that good work stops having a purpose or producing results because our world has shifted, people really can’t understand why. This is where conflict can begin. A good question to ask each other at times like this is — What should our community stop doing to reach our fullest potential? 

The Stop Doing List can be an important conversation for any community, and it should include its companion the Do Differently List. Together they offer an innovative path toward your fullest potential. What could your community stop doing in 2020 that would brighten your future?

Below is my short list of things communities could stop doing and replace with new ways of leading and doing.

1. Stop having meetings. So often we sit in unproductive meetings that go off track, last too long and never produce results. It really makes people not want to be involved. Try setting a purpose for your meeting in advance, ask people to co-create the agenda and then set time limits for each agenda item to keep you on track.
2. Stop saying “rural is dying”. The truth is, if you’re not trying, you’re dying! In the past decade, the communities who are collaborating regionally and actively working on housing, community and economic development will likely see an uptick in population in the 2020 Census. They are trying! You can check https://factfinder.census.gov/ for population estimates in your town or county.
3. Stop relying on elected leaders. While many communities have excellent leaders, others struggle to fill important community positions, contributing to a wide divergence of capacity. Believe in yourself and cultivate the leader within you. Then cultivate leadership in those around you to develop local vision, community approaches to problem solving and generate funding for projects. We all can contribute to local success.
4. Stop believing more jobs is the answer. Entrepreneurship is the key to creating jobs and retaining young residents in small towns. Creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem strengthens communities and regions by building partnerships among education, industry, and financial sectors.

Now it’s your turn — What else would you add to your community’s Stop Doing List that could help reach its fullest potential? 

Photo (CC) by Boegh, on Flickr

Innovation for the sake of innovation might not be the answer to building your business.

And yet today as we scan the business world, it would seem that the opposite is true – innovate or disappear.

So what’s the truth?

The truth about successful innovation is “it depends.” And it depends on your current customer and the potential consumer base.

Your business strategy needs to build on what the consumer desires. The consumer in question though is not only today’s but the person who has not yet shopped at your store as well as the consumer of tomorrow.  It must balance existing customers with consumers at large.

Successful innovation also includes lead time and a crystal ball.

Innovation doesn’t just happen. Even if you have a great idea, it will take several tries to get it right. So you need time to plan, develop and successfully integrate new ideas into your strategy.

And because time is moving forward, you also need your crystal ball to help select an innovation strategy that matches the forward path your consumer base will probably take.

A recent example of an attempted innovation that didn’t keep the customer in mind was the J. C. Penny focus on changing its business model from one of regular sales to one of fewer sales, lower regular prices, and a different product mix.

The idea failed as the new idea was not what existing customers desired nor did was it attractive to people who were not regular shoppers at the stores. It may have been a workable idea but perhaps the marketing effort didn’t connect. Reuters wrote about the experience, “Innovation is great for any business, but when that innovation upsets your customers, it’s time to put customer experience first.”

Bottom line, innovation is required for a business to remain sustainable. But the innovation must enhance your customer’s experience with your business. Fail to do that and you will fail.