Is the common view of rural America outdated? Are the strategies needed to build today’s rural economies actually being implemented? Hanna Love, with the Brookings Institution and Mike Powe, with the National Main Street Center, recently collaborated on a five-part research series on rural revitalization. They argue that our attention should not be focused on an inaccurate … [Read more...]
A common-sense approach to reinvigorating small-town America
As a small town revitalization expert, Deb Brown is filling vacant storefronts in small towns across America. Her recipe for success is simple: Involve locals, break the rules, talk about ideas, and no matter what, do not form another committee. “Kill the committees! What do you need a committee for? Kill them all. Just go do the work,” Brown told Ben Rowley on the Rural … [Read more...]
This rural hospital survival advice can help any rural business owner
It was the mid-90s and Michelle Rathman felt like she’d made it. She had successfully launched her own business, Impact! Communications, growing it from a small outfit (think: a card table in the kitchen) to a firm that represented hundreds of clients on national platforms like The Oprah Winfrey Show. Then, in 1996, a cancer diagnosis turned her world upside down. Rathman … [Read more...]
Episode 34: Building Possibility
Deb Brown offers programs on various small-town challenges and has traveled extensively through rural America helping communities on their path to vitality. Her keynotes, webinars and workshops help small towns figure out what to do with empty buildings, improve marketing and economic development, and overall become more innovative and idea-friendly. She has helped all … [Read more...]
A minority, within a minority: A journey to becoming a Black business owner in rural America
TROTFITNESS, a boutique fitness studio in rural Pennsylvania, has made it against all odds. In a pandemic expected to permanently shutter hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the United States, TROTFITNESS remains open. In an industry that crushes 80 percent of fitness studios in their first year, TROTFITNESS counts nearly a decade of successful boot camps. And, … [Read more...]