Small Town Startup

The approach many small towns take when it comes to downtown revitalization usually depends on small business owners taking enormous personal/financial risks while everyone else gets to celebrate the progress. Gives me the ick.

We ask these folks to invest in buildings they don’t own, extend their hours, participate in every event we think of, donate to every fundraiser, and somehow find the money to do it all again next year and then things aren’t working, we ask them to try harder/do more marketing.

But what are other downtown stakeholders doing to help?Here’s some questions I see the best of the best ask themselves consistently:

Local governments: Are you removing unnecessary barriers, improving infrastructure, and creating policies that make it easier to open and sustain a business? And are you holding folks accountable with either incentives or consequences when they aren’t in line?

Property owners: Are you maintaining your buildings, offering reasonable lease terms, and actively working to fill vacancies? Or are you waiting for everyone else’s investments to increase your property value?

Chambers, Main Street organizations, and economic development teams: Are you measuring business retention, vacancy rates, and economic activity, or are you measuring success by how many people attended the last festival? Festivals/gatherings are important, but should be one tool in our toolkit.

Community members: Are you consistently spending money downtown, or are you expecting someone else to keep your favorite businesses open?

Small business owners: Are you delivering great experiences, adapting to customer needs, managing your numbers, and doing your part to build a stronger business?

Shared accountability means EVERYONE has a responsibility, but it also means those responsibilities need to come with actual commitments, measurable outcomes, and consequences when things aren’t working.

If vacancies are a problem, who owns the solution? If weekday foot traffic is nonexistent, who’s working to change that? If businesses keep closing, who’s truly asking why and doing something with the answers?

We cannot keep calling downtown revitalization a community-wide effort while treating small business survival as an individual responsibility.

One of the biggest misconceptions about making a difference in your small town is that you need to have some kind of title, a seat on a board, a lot of money, or the right connections to make anything happen.

And after years of working with small businesses, serving in local government, and watching communities try to figure out how to grow, I’ve come to believe almost the exact opposite. Some of the most meaningful changes in a small town happen because ordinary people decide to do ordinary things a little more intentionally.

It’s choosing the local restaurant on a Tuesday instead of automatically heading to a chain and posting about the visit to inspire others to check it out, or telling a friend about a business you love. It’s also folks deciding to show up to a community meeting, introducing yourself to someone opening a new shop, volunteering for something that matters, or simply becoming a regular somewhere.

None of those things feels particularly revolutionary on its own, but when you multiply those decisions across a few hundred people, week after week, suddenly you’ve changed the economics of an entire community. 🎉

Now you’re helping folks make payroll, and given someone an opportunity to expand, while also making your downtown a little more active, a little more useful, and a little more attractive to the next person considering taking a chance there.

That’s what makes small towns so extraordinary. The distance between one person’s effort and a meaningful community impact is often much smaller than we realize.

Of course, we still need good leadership, responsible property owners, smart planning, systems that make it easier for businesses to succeed, etc. Individual effort doesn’t replace any of that. But we also can’t underestimate what happens when residents stop thinking of their town as something that happens around them and start recognizing that they’re actively shaping it. You don’t have to change everything about your small town to change something that matters.

If enough of us start there, imagine what we could build.

We sometimes underestimate just how much influence one person can have in a small town.

You don’t need a title, a seat on a board, a big ole bank account or anyone’s permission to make your community a little better than you found it. You can become a regular at a business that’s just getting started. You can introduce two people who might be able to help each other or volunteer a few hours, welcome a new neighbor, show up for someone taking a risk or speak up when something in your community needs attention. The beautiful thing about small towns is that those efforts have a way of rippling outward.

That business owner you supported might hire another employee and that introduction might turn into a partnership. That event you volunteered at might become a tradition families look forward to every year or person you encouraged might finally decide to open the business they’ve been dreaming about.

We spend a lot of time talking about what our small towns need from elected officials, organizations and economic development professionals and while those are important responsibilities, communities are also shaped by the thousands of little decisions their residents make every day.

You don’t have to fix every problem or carry the weight of your town’s future on your shoulders. You just have to recognize that you have something valuable to contribute and that contribution can go a whole lot further than you think.

Woke up in a mood and yall are going to hear about it. 😂

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being frustrated by what’s happening in your small town. In fact, I wholeheartedly believe more people should be paying attention, asking difficult questions and holding leaders at EVERY LEVEL accountable. But at some point, the conversation has to move beyond the comment section.

If you’re frustrated by empty storefronts, start asking why those buildings are sitting vacant and who has the power to change that. If you want more small businesses, start spending money with the ones already taking the risk. If you think your local government is making poor decisions, attend a meeting, ask questions and make your voice heard where those decisions are actually being made. Don’t assume they can read your mind. All of the people behind who can change these things are human, too. Get your butt in the room.

And if someone in your community is genuinely trying to make things better, consider offering a hand before offering another critical opinion. I speak on behalf of all business owners trying our hardest in this economy: we are good on critiques from afar for a bit.

None of this means you have to volunteer for every committee, spend money you don’t have (or don’t want to spend) or excuse the people in positions of power who aren’t doing their jobs. Residents have every right to expect competent leadership and meaningful progress.

But I’ve watched small towns develop entire online communities dedicated to discussing everything that’s wrong, while the handful of people actually trying to improve things struggle to find enough volunteers, customers or public support to keep going. That’s a pretty incredible disconnect.

Your frustration and criticism might be completely justified. But being right about what’s wrong doesn’t automatically make you part of what’s making it better - especially if it’s written in a comment section.

If we want stronger small towns, we’re going to need a whole lot more people willing to participate in building them.

We talk a lot about “voting with your dollars,” but that idea gets especially real in a small town.

Every time you choose the local coffee shop again, meet a friend at the locally owned restaurant, buy a gift downtown, book the local service or finally stop into the place you’ve been “meaning to try,” you’re helping shape what your town can actually sustain.

The businesses we say we want don’t survive on just being wanted. They survive on being used, and not just during festivals, holiday shopping weekends or the first few months after a ribbon cutting. They need enough people who make them part of regular life to STAY part of your regular life.

That doesn’t mean you have to spend every dollar locally or feel guilty every time you order something online - that’s unsustainable and unrealistic. It just means recognizing that our everyday choices add up. If enough of us regularly choose the places we’d be genuinely sad to lose, we give those places a much better chance of staying.

It’s also not just about the businesses we can choose from today. Over time, those choices become bigger than a single transaction because they tell the next entrepreneur there’s a market here.

We all have ideas about the kind of towns we want to live in and to really create them, it usually starts with something as simple as becoming a regular in it. ♥️

Behind so much of what makes a downtown feel vibrant, are the people who decided to personally risk something to build it.

Opening a small business is exciting, but it’s also scary as hell. It’s signing the lease before you know if people will show up and putting your savings into an idea. It’s making payroll when you’re worried about your own. It’s lying awake thinking about sales, rent, employees, inventory and whether you made the right call. It’s having a terrible Tuesday and still unlocking the door Wednesday morning because we all have this undying hope it’ll get better.

So if you’re one of the people doing it, I want you to know you’ve found your community here.

We’re going to keep talk long about the hard parts and what our towns can do better. We’re going to talk about what businesses can do better, too. And we’re going to keep reminding people that the downtowns they love don’t just happen. We helped make them happen.

Thank you for filling the storefront, turning on the lights, employing people, giving your community something special and often much more of yourself than you ever intended, creating places for us to gather and giving your community another reason to feel like home.

I’m really freaking glad you’re here. ❤️🚀

A few years ago, a local restaurant owned by a friend announced it was closing, and I made the mistake of peeking at the comments.

I couldn’t get over how many people were saying, “I’ve been meaning to stop by!”

The restaurant had been open for more than a year.

What struck me was how casually people said it, almost as if they were disappointed the restaurant couldn’t have held on a little longer so they could finally get around to visiting.

I get most people meant well, but imagine spending more than a year paying rent, buying inventory, making payroll and hoping enough people would walk through the door, only to announce you can’t afford to stay open and hear how many people had been planning to come…but didn’t.

Now to be fair, nobody owes a business their money. People have budgets and preferences, and small businesses still have to give people a reason to come back. But if we genuinely want thriving downtowns, we have to do more than admire the idea of small businesses downtown. Just like family and friendships, we have to be there even when it’s a bit inconvenient.

Try the new restaurant while it’s still new and go back if you like it. Make plans to meet a friend at a local business instead of defaulting to the same places and be an advocate for the places you love before they announce they’re closing.

And our downtown organizations can help by creating reasons to visit on an ordinary Tuesday, not just during a big event. Give people a reason to come, stay a while and discover another business.

At the end of the day, I don’t want a small business owner’s last few weeks to be their busiest because everyone suddenly realized they were running out of time.

So here’s my homework for you this week: If you’ve been meaning to stop by a small business, do so by Friday. 📝 Let’s start a small movement in our small towns.

SEPTEMBER BOOST ANNOUNCEMENT!

There is something pretty special about being a small business in a small town. You get to know the people behind the businesses. You see the kids on the sidelines and you hear about the cultural experiences people work so hard to preserve. You watch young people start figuring out what they want to do with their lives (and get really excited when they choose business).

And then, every once in a while, you get the chance to help.

In September, we were able to throw a few boosts into the community. Here’s how we did it:

Gave $200 plus special items to a local Mom's Night Out Event by Common Thread - Robertson County! 💖

Knocked out a good portion of the Robertson County Sports Alliance Amazon Wishlist (And there are still items left if you want to help!) 🏈

Added a $50 gift card to the prize basket supporting the The Bell Witch Fall Festival. 👻

And donated $500 to Springfield High School FBLA because we are pretty excited about the next generation of business owners, leaders and entrepreneurs coming out of our community. 😍

The dollar amount is not really the point, it’s more about getting to be part of a community where people keep showing up for each other because that is why we love small towns. And we get to do that because the small businesses who put trust in us to connect them with their communities. So really, all the thanks goes to our clients on this one.

Now, let’s see what we can do in October! Any suggestions?

We’re BACK, baby!

For now, Small Town Startup has a new little home for our team inside Willow Oak Center for Arts and Learning while we think intentionally about what the future of our physical space could look like.

And somehow, while we were figuring that out…everything exploded.

In just three weeks, our content has reached more than 1 million organic views on Instagram. Nearly 7,000 new people have joined us on that platform in the last 20 days, and we’ve received countless messages, calls and emails from people asking how we can help their small towns through our workshops, consulting, policy messaging and more.

Small Town Startup is still committed to being one of the best marketing agencies built specifically for small-town businesses. But we’re also paying close attention to what our neighbors, both here and across the country, are telling us they need.

We are incredibly grateful for this moment. 40 days ago, we were packing the last boxes out of Small Town Startup with absolutely no idea what was waiting for us on the other side for anything other than marketing.

God truly works in mysterious ways, and apparently letting go of the coworking space was the plan all along. It was the beginning of something much bigger. ♥️

WE got this! 🚀

We underestimate how different it is to build a business from absolutely nothing.

When you’re the one who started with the idea, the empty bank account, the first customer, the first mistake, the first hire and the first “oh crap, I guess I have to figure this out myself...” moment, that business becomes INCREDIBLY personal.

There was no handbook. There wasn’t an existing reputation to protect or a system to step into. You built the systems and you screwed up along the way, then you learned what worked because you first learned about 88 things that absolutely did not.

It’s years of figuring it out when nobody was coming to figure it out for you.

If you’re in the middle of building yours right now, don’t forget how big that actually is.