Rural Business HQ

In the latest episode of the Rural Business Show, we head to King, North Carolina—a small bedroom community just outside of Winston-Salem—to speak with a veteran of the horticultural industry - Judy Mitchell, co-founder and CEO of Mitchell's Nursery and Greenhouse. Judy and her husband, Jim, founded the business in 1979, as a necessity after Jim lost his job due to severe health challenges . Judy...

While rural communities contribute so much to our nation, they receive a disproportionately small share of philanthropic dollars. The numbers are stark: rural areas make up 20% of the US population, yet they only receive around 7% of the nation's philanthropic giving. This disparity has real consequences for these vital communities. We're not just talking about a lack of volunteer hours – which ru...

It's been a while since we've recorded an episode of The Rural Business Show. It's been a year of change for our business, Nevada Central Media, as we went from publishing one rural weekly newspaper to four . This episode of the Rural Business Show focuses on the business of small-town news. The challenging environment has seen thousands of rural newspapers close their doors in the last decade. Ho...

Housing continues to be a difficult challenge for rural communities. Often, jobs are unfilled because of a lack of adequate and affordable housing. Attracting builders is a challenge as is an increasing number of units being used as vacation properties. Community Rebuilds based in Moab, Utah addresses these challenges by building energy-efficient, affordable homes. The organization has created an...

The Rural Voice series , hosted by Minnesota Public Radio's Kerri Miller, captures imaginative and illuminating town hall conversations about the rewards and challenges of making a home in rural America. The town hall meetings are lively, engaging and enlightening as the host nudges rural Minnesotans to open up on important issues including entrepreneurship, housing, workforce development, and hea...

Amidst the busy life of running a rural business, it's often hard to find opportunities to network and connect with useful resources. Throughout the country, organizations are trying to help by putting on events that bring rural business professionals together through regional conferences. The Northwest Arkansas Rural Business Development Conference is a perfect example. The event brings rural bus...

Since 1987, the NC Rural Center in North Carolina has worked to improve the quality of life for the state's rural people and places. It operates with the core belief that rural communities have inherent cultural value and are vital to the overall economic health of the state. Patrick Woodie is a life-long rural North Carolina resident and President & CEO of the NC Rural Center. He has dedicated hi...

Trevor Bruan of the Elmore Community Trust shares a remarkable story of how the small town of Elmore, Vermont, which has about 850 residents and no stoplight, rallied to save its only General Store and preserve the town's identity. The Elmore Community Trust also found innovative ways to fund the project and has a hopeful vision for the future. Find out more about the Elmore Store Project by visit...

Kalee Olson is a policy associate for the Center for Rural Affairs and joins Ben Rowley in this episode of The Rural Business Show to discuss some of the Center's top priorities for the 2023 farm bill and how it will impact rural communities. The Farm Bill comes up in Congress every five years for renewal and is a comprehensive package of laws that provides funding for agriculture, food, nutrition...

The American Rescue Plan set aside $7.5 Billion in relief funds for rural healthcare providers. Even as the money was made available, however, many towns across the U.S. were rejecting this and other Federal Relief Funds, "because they couldn't think of a way to spend it." Others knew how they wanted to spend it, but had to give it back because they didn't have the resources to put that money to u...

Scott McReynolds is the executive director of the Housing Development Alliance (HDA) in Hazard, Ky. The HDA's programs have helped more than 2,900 low-income people in rural southeastern Kentucky become new homeowners, make home-improving repairs, and break free of debt. The organization builds homes, provides housing counseling to prepare people for homeownership, offers home repair, manages rent...

Meredith Gernigin is an independent lead generation strategist focused on building small and mid-cap businesses into legacy assets. How? She creates demand with curated, done-for-you marketing tailored to each client's geographical needs. Her goal? To make businesses worth selling (or passing down) by increasing project leads so they can book and charge more. In the last five years, she's: Organiz...

The Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship provides the space, tools and connections that innovative entrepreneurs need to build strong businesses, thriving local economies and vibrant communities. Julianna Dodson is the organization's Radically Rural Director, and she has gained a wide array of knowledge in some of the struggles that exist in rural communities as well as many of the intricacie...

Brad Fourby is the Founder of Leafy Green Farms based in Pittsburg, Kansas. The farm uses shipping containers and vertical hydroponics to deliver hyperlocal vegetables and herbs to area businesses and residents. The farm grows and harvests weekly all year long. Climate does not affect the farm as it grows many specialty herbs and vegetables not normally available to this region of Kansas. In this...

Elizabeth Philbrick co-owns EsoTerra Cider with her husband Jared Scott in Dolores, Colorado, population 825. The business crafts hard cider using apples from historic local orchards. Just two years old, the company is finding a foothold reviving what they say was once rural America's drink of choice. Like with many small businesses, the pandemic created difficult headwinds, but EsoTerra Cider is...

A rural developer is building a town square from scratch in the small town of Mapleton, North Dakota. Justin Forde recently completed the first building in the Maple River Town Square development. The six-acre project is selling commercial space to businesses looking to serve the town, which has seen its population double over the last decade, according to Inforum.com. In this episode of the Rural...

Community Heart & Soul is a resident-driven process that engages the entire population of a town in identifying what they love most about their community, what future they want for it, and how to achieve it. Developed and field-tested over a decade in partnership with more than 90 small cities and towns across America, Community Heart & Soul is a proven process for engaging a community in shaping...

In 2006, Kansas State held listening sessions across the state aimed at identifying challenges facing rural communities.  During these sessions, the need to support rural grocery stores rose to the top.  Supporting rural grocery stores is important because they: Provide jobs and contribute to the local tax base. Act as community hubs for residents to gather and connect. Serve as essential sources...

Matt Dunne is the Founder and Executive Director of the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) . The Center is bringing together a network of innovation hubs across rural America through a team of experts. The organization focuses on digital economic development, rural opportunity zones, entrepreneurial investment, and broadband expansion. Dunne has an extensive background in rural economic development...

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 image of rural America,...

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 kinds of rural communities a...

Michelle Rathman is the founder of Impact! Communications based in Geneva, Illinois. She started her business in 1989 as a Chicago-area public relations, advertising, and marketing firm. The company represented clients from a variety of industries and provided high-level PR services. This included booking published authors on national television shows, like the Oprah Winfrey Show. A stage 3 cancer...

Nisan Trotter is an entrepreneur, public speaker, author and owner of TROTFITNESS in Lewisburg, Penn. (population: 5,730). Trotter grew up in Silverhill, Ala. (population: 997), where he was brought up by a loving support group of family and friends. He said he cut his teeth on the pews of the local church and learned about hard work early on, citing his mother and grandfather as two important exa...

Duivenvoorden Farms is a third-generation family-owned dairy farm in northern California. Originally started by partners Jerry and Rita Duivenvoorden, and John and Nel DeJong, Duivenvoorden Farms has been operating for over 50 years. Owners Marc and Lori Duivenvoorden took over the farm in 1993 - doing everything from custom farming, running a beef herd, raising calves, and shipping milk to a loca...

Heath Guinn is an entrepreneur, community advocate and strategist based in Northeast Tennessee. Guinn has launched multiple successful companies and his most recent project is Sync. Space , an entrepreneur center with accelerator programs geared toward startups considering Northeast Tennessee as a place to grow or expand their business. The idea is to connect innovative companies with opportunitie...