Twenty years ago today, I hit “publish” on the first post here at SmallBizSurvival.com. I was sitting in the backroom of my liquor store in Alva, Oklahoma, population at the time of just under 5,000 and dropping. That very first post asked: ‘Can you build a growing small business in a declining small town?’ I’ve […]

Twenty years ago today, I hit “publish” on the first post here at SmallBizSurvival.com.

I was sitting in the backroom of my liquor store in Alva, Oklahoma, population at the time of just under 5,000 and dropping.

That very first post asked: ‘Can you build a growing small business in a declining small town?’ I’ve spent twenty years proving the answer is yes.

I started this blog because I’m a small town entrepreneur, and I believed then (still do) that small town entrepreneurs have a lot to teach other businesses. When local entrepreneurs prosper, they help their small town prosper, too.

That was January 14, 2006. A lot has changed since then. A lot of other blogs have come and gone. But we’re still here.

The People Who Made This Possible

I can’t talk about twenty years without talking about the people who’ve contributed their knowledge, their stories, and their time to this rural corner of the internet.

My mom, Glenna Mae Hendricks (Maesz), shared tax tips and accounting wisdom that helped so many small business owners sleep better at night. She’s since passed on, leaving a real legacy.

Jeanne Cole was one of our earliest contributors, a friend from long before I started the blog who showed up when it mattered.

Glenn Muske brought decades of Extension service experience and true expertise on micro-businesses.

Deb Brown, my co-founder at SaveYour.Town, has contributed her retail knowledge and real-world small town business experience.

And there have been so many guest contributors over the years: Jon Swanson, H.E. James, Zane Safrit, Barry Moltz, Sheila Scarborough, Marci Penner, John Warrillow, Shannon Ehlers and Scott Meyer.

What Blogging Brought Me

Here’s what I didn’t expect when I started: blogging was the step that made everything on my career goal list possible. (Of course I had a career goal list! If you know me, then you know.)

Chris Brogan was my first blog friend. He got me involved in his early podcasting projects starting with Grasshopper New Media in 2006. Then other media ventures like Owner Magazine. He’s the one who convinced me to join Twitter in 2006 when it was brand new (my user number was 10,318), back before hashtags or even @ names existed. Chris is really the biggest reason blogging turned into more for me over the years. In 2020, he came back to guest post here. Thanks, Chris!

Then there was Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog.com. She handed out Successful Outstanding Blogger awards and called us SOBs, which was hilarious. Liz connected me with so many other people. At her SOBCon event, I met Barry Moltz, who became my co-author for our award-winning book Small Town Rules. Liz got me early speaking roles at BlogWorld Expo in 2008 and ’09. We spoke together as a duo at SXSW in 2010. Rest in peace, Liz.

Those connections led to more connections. Speaking opportunities. My work with Sheila Scarborough creating Tourism Currents. Eventually, the work Deb Brown and I do at SaveYour.Town. The Survey of Rural Challenges that started as a topic survey for this blog and has now reached over 2,200 rural folks. My second book The Idea Friendly Guide. Speaking engagements from local community centers to Harvard Kennedy School and international stages.

None of that would have happened without me hitting publish on January 14, 2006.

What We’ve Built Together

The recognition has been humbling. Top 10 Best Small Business Blogs by Feedly and FeedSpot, as of today. Top 25 by Technorati for a brief moment during the height of the blog competition. Selected for syndication through LexisNexis, Thomson Business Intelligence, MyVenturePad. Named a Small Business Influencer multiple years running and a Power Player in Technology Business Media.

Look how SmallBizSurvival had grown by 2008!

Our long-running Brag Basket, where people shared their own successes. The podcasts, video streams and experiments. The thousands of posts from the practical to the fun.

Guest columns at US News and World Report, SmallBusiness.com and SmallBizTrends.com. (SmallBizTrends also still plugging along after 20 years!) Getting to judge small business grant entries for Intuit. Attending conferences like the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds on a media pass.

The emails from business owners who tried something they read here and it worked. The small town entrepreneurs who found practical advice they could actually use. The rural communities that discovered they weren’t alone.

Still Here, Still Rural

A lot has changed in twenty years of blogging and twenty years of rural entrepreneurship. But the core truth remains: small towns can thrive when their local businesses prosper.

Alva’s population made a resurgence in the mid 2010s (just one more oil boom), before dropping back below 5,000. I don’t have the liquor store anymore, but I’m still writing from real experience, my own successes and failures as a lifelong entrepreneur. Still focused on practical steps you can put into action right away. Still believing that when you take care of your business, you’re taking care of your community.

Here’s to the next twenty years of small biz survival.

Thanks for being part of this journey.

How the Roofer Nailed Marketing Guest Post by Chris Brogan Let me tell you about an experience I had in a little diner in Lewiston, Maine. I sat at the counter of a busy Maine diner slinging breakfast to a crowd of mostly locals, it seemed. One guy a few seats away from me did […]

How the Roofer Nailed Marketing

Photo by Becky McCray.

Guest Post by Chris Brogan

Let me tell you about an experience I had in a little diner in Lewiston, Maine.

I sat at the counter of a busy Maine diner slinging breakfast to a crowd of mostly locals, it seemed. One guy a few seats away from me did roof work. I know this because over the course of my meal, maybe eight different people interrupted him to ask him to check out a job they had in mind for him.

I couldn’t ignore any of this, so I asked, “I don’t want to interrupt, but you sure are getting a lot of business just sitting here at the counter. You don’t advertise or anything, do you?”

“Nope,” he said, pushing some eggs into his mouth and chewing for a little. “I come here for breakfast and lunch every single day they’re open. And every day, someone asks me if I can look at a job. Easy as that.”

Jim Katzman wrote a great article on Medium about creating swag that customers actually want. One of his tips was “Leverage Local Pride.” That got me thinking: Local products would make the best swag. Local products are easier Instead of designing a batch of custom pens or ordering another lot of logo coffee mugs, walk […]

Jim Katzman wrote a great article on Medium about creating swag that customers actually want. One of his tips was “Leverage Local Pride.”

That got me thinking: Local products would make the best swag.

Local products are easier

Instead of designing a batch of custom pens or ordering another lot of logo coffee mugs, walk into a local shop and buy what they’ve got. Local honey. Locally made soap. Beef jerky from a nearby producer. A small art or craft piece.

You skip the minimum order quantities and the wait time. You support another local business. And you hand people something they’ll actually use and remember.

Whether you’re at a trade show, conference or heading to a special event, you can share your local flavor rather than “yet another water bottle.”

People love local products

A tasty sample from Head Country sauces in Ponca City that is easy to take home.

I often give visitors Shawnee Mills cornbread mix packets when they come through Oklahoma or I visit them. Cornbread is an important cultural food to me. Even though I live a few hours from Shawnee, it’s local enough. And people love it when I share stories about my grandmother making cornbread.

That’s what local products do. At their best, they tell a story about your place.

Head Country BBQ Sauce in Ponca City, Oklahoma, once made mini 3-ounce bottles specifically as swag. Small enough to meet TSA liquid rules, so visitors could take it home even when flying.

Make it yours and theirs

You can co-brand if you want: add your sticker or tag to local sauces, seasoning mix, or whatever fits your business. Or just hand it over as-is with your business card (or your loyalty card).

Those Head Country sample bottles included some promotional text about Ponca City, done in cooperation with their economic development team. (Go, Ponca!)

Shawnee Mills actually does custom mixes, and that would be so much cooler than a generic water bottle with your logo.

When I managed a liquor store and was participating in social media conferences, I took mini 50ml bottles of liquor, added a little card from Moo printers, and used that as my calling card. People would fight over them!

My liquor store business cards for social media events. Photo by Crystal Storm.

It’s better marketing

When you give someone local products, you’re not just promoting your business. You’re showing that you support other local businesses. That’s good marketing for you and good for your community.

Next time you need swag, look local first

Walk around your downtown. Check out local makers and producers. See what’s already on the shelves at local shops. Look regionally and check out “made in your state” products.

You’ll find something better than another notebook, and you’ll be supporting the businesses around you at the same time.

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