You can see this post on my website: https://secondstagegrowth.com/support-small-businesses-in-small-towns/ or check it out below.

Support Small Businesses in Small Towns

Commuting is hell

Way back in the dark ages, before the Internet was invented, my husband and I decided to leave our horrific commute in New Jersey for the great unknown – Wisconsin. And since there was no Google (or Zillow), we had absolutely no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

Fast forward 30-ish (!) years later, and I don’t regret our decision at all. I am a small-town devotee. I am glad we didn’t raise our kids in the shadow of New York City, constantly fighting traffic no matter the day or time.

We certainly do not miss our 15-mile, 75-minute commute to work, the crazy pace of life, the overpriced housing, and the total anonymity of living in the Country’s most dense state. But we also had no idea what we were in for when we moved to (what I considered to be) the tiny little town of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I would be lying if I said that the move didn’t come with some adjustments to small town life.

Big vs Small Towns

Everyone seemed to know everyone else, so we stood out when we first moved in. Still, people greeted us on the street and in the shopping mall – even though we were strangers. Very different from New Jersey where you keep your head down and stick to yourself.

At my first job in our new town, I was considered the most diverse person my co-workers knew, because I wasn’t born and raised in the area. I sorely missed the wide variety of giant shopping malls, ethnic food, good pizza, a nice warm bagel and a schmear. And the job market was (not surprisingly) severely limited in this region as compared to our previous location (NYC metro area).

After my first Wisconsin job at a manufacturing plant, I left to teach in the College of Business at University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, and then eventually struck out to start my own consulting business. My business partner, a classmate from my MBA program, was a more typical Western-Wisconsin-ite, with multiple generations of her family and her husband’s family all from the same small area.

When we started meeting with clients in some of the smaller towns surrounding Eau Claire, I learned how difficult it would have been for me to find consulting work on my own. It wasn’t enough to have the experience and the degree – you had to have some sort of connection.

Who are your people?

Each meeting essentially started with the same question – “Who are your people?” – meaning who are you related to? How would I know you? Did you go to school with my cousin? Do our parents bowl together? Which church did your family attend? Surely there must be at least one if not multiple connections we could establish before we started talking business.

Sadly, I had no “people” in the area to create the sense of comfort and connection to the community that these clients were looking for. Fortunately, my business partner could offer that advantage to lend to our credibility.

I discovered that the “tiny town” of Eau Claire (population around 70k) was considered “the city” to residents of the smaller outlying towns. When we worked with a client in Ladysmith WI (population 3216), the town was just coming to terms with their very first traffic light. We consulted with the local mayor/B&B owner/plumber on the project, teaching me the need for innovation and creativity when it comes to making a living in a small town.

Now that much of my business is working with small businesses in small towns in Wisconsin and across the Country, I have an even greater appreciation for the challenges that come along with building a business in a small community. How can you find qualified employees as you grow your business when there are so few people in the area? And does your distance to the nearest airport or major highway impact your ability to deliver your product? Don’t even get me started on the challenges of sketchy or non-existent Internet (and even cell service!) in some of these areas, yes even in 2026.

However, when there is challenge there is also opportunity.

Benefits of Small Businesses in Small Towns

I know I’m not the only one who grew weary of a long commute and expensive housing in a highly populated area. (Side note, I just looked up my NJ home on Zillow. The price is 3x higher than when we lived there!)

It turns out that rural areas can be very pleasant places to work and live. And I can tell you from personal experience that a one-hour drive where you go 15 miles in dense traffic is very different than a one-hour drive where you go 60 miles through the countryside!

As access to broadband has slowly improved, and COVID helped make remote work more acceptable, rural areas are becoming more desirable for remote workers, startups, and small businesses. Research shows that rural areas with high broadband utilization have business growth rates 213% higher than low broadband areas, higher self-employment growth, and more new business startups. Not to mention higher GDP growth and higher per-capital income growth.

As employers and entrepreneurs start to recognize the value of picking your location first, then perhaps these rural areas will become even more appealing. And if those employees are then inspired to start their own business, we can create a movement of new entrepreneurs in rural areas, which can help create jobs and sustain and grow these small towns.

Consider this analogy, which is attributed to Chris Gibbons, the founder of the National Center for Economic Gardening, where I work as a contractor. The health of these small towns can be likened to a bathtub.

How a Small Town is Like a Bathtub

The water in the bathtub represents the money that stays in the community. Businesses like the local grocery store, the bar, and the locally owned stores and restaurants make up that bathwater in the tub. The same dollars are circulated around among the residents, using their paychecks to spend locally.

The water being drained out of the bathtub represents the money that leaves the community, when residents chose to order their groceries or home goods from Amazon instead of the local grocer, or when they opt to eat at a giant restaurant chain rather than the independent restaurant. These are dollars leaving the community. And the more local residents spend outside of the community, the more the water in the tub drains, the more challenging it is for the local businesses that support the local residents to stay in business. Glug glug.

The faucet, adding water into the tub, represents local business owners who do business with customers outside of the community. These businesses hire locally but sell outside of the community. They are bringing fresh dollars into the town to raise the level of the bathwater. The more successful these businesses are, the more they are able to hire locally and bring more money into the community as they sell their goods and services all over the country or the world.

For a rural community to survive, there needs to be more water being added into the tub than is being drained out of the tub. Think about that when you make your purchase decisions!

How to Make a Difference?

How can we support more rural entrepreneurship, so that these communities can continue to grow, and so that fewer people are facing a market with million-dollar homes and hour-long commutes in the big cities?

Here are some suggestions:

• Support independent local businesses. Branch offices of large companies in small towns can displace the jobs of smaller independent stores or businesses. Locally owned businesses generate value in the community with a focus on hiring and purchasing locally. One study showed that local restaurants returned 79 percent of their revenue locally, compared to just 30 percent for chain eateries.
• Support the Job Creators: Businesses with 50+ employees. Adding just a couple new companies that have the ability to scale beyond 50 employees can significantly reduce unemployment in rural counties. This can also help raise the median income.
• Focus on “return migration”. Young adults who grew up in a rural area and leave should be encouraged to return. Many rural residents leave the community because there aren’t many job opportunities. But “returnees” are more likely to start businesses and more interested in supporting the community they grew up in. Help the younger generation help your own community by encouraging their entrepreneurial spirit.
• Create an Entrepreneurship Ecosystem. Invest in local support organizations, facilitate strong relationships among entrepreneurs, lenders, employers, and economic development organizations. Ensure rural employers have access to capital – and technology – that can help them grow.

After twenty years of working with rural business owners, I’ve seen firsthand how powerful small towns can be when entrepreneurship is supported. These communities are filled with grit, creativity, and people who wear multiple hats to make things work. When small businesses grow, they don’t just change their own future, they strengthen the entire town.

How can I help you?

That’s why I am introducing rural virtual business owner peer groups. Running a business in a small town can feel isolating, even with a supportive community. It can be challenging to comfortably share difficult situations about cash flow or employee concerns, when anything that affects your business could affect the community as well.

A virtual roundtable group connects you with business owners in similar situations to yours, but in different geographic locations. Focus on your business growth alongside peers who truly understand your challenges. Hop on my calendar to see if you’re a good fit for the founding virtual group, or check out my quiz to see if you are ready for a peer group to help you grow.