Why Learn From Small Towns? What Business People Are Saying…
“Only in a small town can you discover the true nature of what it means to be connected and, at the same time, living in a fish bowl.”
--Tim Sanders, NY Times Bestselling Author, Love Is the Killer App
“People say the world is getting smaller; I think the world is getting more connected. It’s all about the relationships--who you know and who knows you. Through the power of the Internet, mobile apps, and online social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn, businesses now have unprecedented ways in which to nurture relationships with everyone in their marketplace. We’re going back to the small town way of doing business where everyone knows your name and genuinely cares about you.”
--Mari Smith, Author, The New Relationship Marketing
“For generations, small town businesses have been responsible for building the American economy, and all entrepreneurs can learn a thing or two from their success.”
--Scott Gerber, Founder, Young Entrepreneur Council; Cofounder, Gen Y Capital Partners; Author, Never Get a “Real” Job
“Small town businesses know their customers. They know their kids’ names, they know their favorite sports teams, and what they buy on a regular basis. This kind of intimate knowledge creates loyalty--the kind of loyalty that creates longevity and success in business.”
--Carol Roth, NY Times Bestselling Author, The Entrepreneur Equation
“Small is the new big, because you can reach everyone with the click of a mouse and anyone can review and critique you. Think you know how to play the game? Think again. The rules have changed. Read Small Town Rules. It’s the rule book for the connected economy. Highly recommended.”
--Michael Port, NY Times Bestselling Author, Book Yourself Solid
“Business should be personal. The ‘who you are’ can play a huge role in the ‘what you offer.’ That’s how small towns have conducted commerce since the get-go, and we’d all be well-served to inject that kind of approach to our businesses--no matter how big in scope or vision.”
--Rich Sloan, Author, StartUp Nation
“There are a lot of traits about small town business that offer insights and opportunities for people to leverage in all businesses. Community matters. Relationships matter. People matter. My observation about conversations in a small town is that people care. And businesses that are smart are learning to listen, connect, share, and engage their customers, too. Big business and businesses in general could learn a lot from how a small town works.”
--Jeff Pulver, Cofounder, Vonage; Founder, 140 Characters Conference, VON Conference
“In a small town, word of mouth is the most powerful force there is. Everyone in town knows about the business. If the quality and service are good--or bad--everyone soon knows. That’s why every business should operate like a small town business, no matter where you’re located or how far away your customers come from. When you and your team run your business as if every potential customer will eventually know everything about your business, you naturally will keep quality and service standards high.”
--Anita Campbell, CEO, Small Business Trends, LLC; Author, Visual Marketing
“It is no surprise that big businesses are coming around to the idea of small town style customer experience and service. As customers, we know we prefer the ‘small town’ way of doing things. We like to be treated as human beings, as individuals. We like our loyalty being rewarded, and we like having a person to talk to when things go wrong. When it comes across as natural, rather than forced in an awkwardly fake ‘PR’ way, then it works all the better. The future of business is one customer at a time, just like in small town businesses.”
--Chris Garrett, Coauthor, ProBlogger: The Book
“Small town businesses, by their nature, are genetically encoded to connect, share, and engage.”
--Alan Weinkrantz, Alan Weinkrantz and Company PR
“With a couple of basic tools, like DropBox, Skype, and Google Apps, a small town business can look like a big business with one killer app: You can stay in a small town with the associated lifestyle benefits and lower cost of doing business. Small town businesses are rewriting the rules on what it means to be competitive with their big company rivals for customers and talented employees.”
--John Warrillow, Author, Built to Sell
“Small town businesses understand this better than most any publicly traded company in the world: You must be cash flow positive or it’s your death. As long as you have positive cash flow, you can keep the doors open, expand as much as your cash flow will let you, and try new things. Big businesses are accustomed to running deficits and issuing stock, but these are stopgap measures that more often than not serve to enrich the shareholders as the ship sinks. If your business, big or small, is cash flow positive, then everyone from shareholders to shop floor sweepers will do well.”
--Christopher S. Penn, Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Blue Sky Factory Email Marketing
“A key to success for any small business is to be actively involved in their community. That feeling of ‘community’ is what drives the web and social media. Now, it’s just about mandatory that businesses of all sizes be active in their respective communities--both online and off. It’s the interaction, the connection with those who support you, that helps make businesses successful today.”
--Leslie McLellan, All Things Social
“During the past four decades, big has gotten the attention in my industry sector. Economies of scale, resources for impressive events. But, what’s becoming clear is that the relationships, the personal attention, the value of doing life together is what matters. I know. I’m a pastor, not a business owner. But, the ideas that Becky and Barry are talking about for what small businesses can teach all business is true in our ‘business.’ While big churches get the press, the number of house churches, of communities of faith, is growing, too. Small, done well, can teach all of us how to live and work better.”
--Jon Swanson, Social Media Chaplain
“Small town business has to do with the basics. Those simpler times that city-dwellers dream about when they’re sitting in a 2-hour traffic jam, listening to their satellite radio, while pounding out meaningless emails and texts on heavily used Blackberrys. Small town businesses are a lot more about handshakes than they are about 14-page contracts that Harvard Law School graduates write…and that no one ever seems to understand. All business owners can learn a lot by watching how business gets done in America’s small towns.”
--Joel Libava, The Franchise King®; Author, Become a Franchise Owner!
“Although the competitiveness of large population areas (between individual businesses) might be tougher, it does not compare to the daily fight for survival in a small town or remote area. This fight for survival brings out the best of entrepreneurial spirit in many small town businesses with innovation, service, and quality. The real treasure of small town business is the heart! Small town businesses are not just serving strangers, but their neighbors, friends, family, or someone who knows these people who are important to them. This natural sincerity that comes from living in small communities can be duplicated in practice by all business, and I believe it is the most valuable asset small business has to share.”
--Laura Girty, NW Field Representative, Rural Enterprises of Oklahoma, Inc.
“Small town business can teach all businesses about efficiency. Small businesses don’t have the luxury of compartmentalizing roles. It’s all hands on deck, working as quickly and seamlessly as possible, to ensure the greatest profit.”
--Alexandra Levit, Author, Blind Spots: The 10 Business Myths You Can’t Afford to Believe on Your New Path to Success
“Small town business teaches us that it’s easier to continue to sell to the customer we already know. It’s easy--just provide great value and consistent quality, and you’ll make customers for life.”
--Jim F. Kukral, DigitalBookLaunch.com; Author, Attention: This Book Will Make You Money
“There are more successful small town businesses than there are large corporations. They aren’t a fluke or an accident or an anomaly. They grow from need, vision, risk, and response. The information small town business owners offer is practical, tested, and shared generously. Small town business can be easily underestimated but should never be ignored.”
--Andrea Springer, Springer Coaching and Consulting
“Transparency is the over-used buzzword in the customer-service world of today, thanks to the communication onslaught brought on by the Internet and specifically social media. Due to the ‘everyone knows everyone’ effect of small towns, small town businesses were forced to become masters of transparency a hundred years earlier than the rest of the world.”
--Cody Heitschmidt, Small Town Business Owner
“Small town businesses are lean and mean, which means they have to be creative and innovative to compete and turn a profit. Businesses of all sizes can watch and learn in order to do the same.”
--Gini Dietrich, CEO, Arment-Dietrich; SpinSucks.com; Coauthor, Marketing in the Round: Multichannel Approaches in the Post-Social Media Era
“Small town business teaches us about community, trust, and relationship--all the current buzzwords that have been the backbone of small town business for more than 100 years.”
--Sarah Robinson, Escaping Mediocrity
“A small town business owner knows that every customer is important and that every customer, employee, vendor, partner, friend, and family member contributes to what makes the business grow. Small town businesses know that relationships and being part of the community are at the heart of every successful business and that a business without a heart won’t survive.”
--Liz Strauss, International Business Strategist; Author, The Secret to Writing a Successful Outstanding Blog; Successful-Blog.com
