Got empty buildings?

Every small town has empty buildings and empty lots. Gowrie is no exception. During my walk around, I took these photos of empty buildings.

My favorite thing to do when you have several empty buildings is to host a Tour of Empty Buildings.

An Empty Buildings Tour is a community event that showcases vacant or underutilized buildings. The goal of the tour is to raise awareness of the issue of vacant buildings and to generate interest in repurposing them. Tours can be organized by local chambers of commerce, economic development agencies, or other community groups. It’s also a great idea for realtors to get together and host a tour!

It can be as simple as adding buildings to a list to be viewed on a given date and time. Create a map and make it available for people to download or pick up. Market it online and offline. I recommend having the owner or realtor on site to answer questions, hand out information and maybe even show them around.

You could have presentations by experts on issues related to vacant buildings, such as real estate development, historic preservation, and economic development. Tours are often followed by networking events or other activities that encourage participants to discuss ways to reuse vacant buildings.

I created and organized the Empty Buildings Tour in Webster City, Iowa. There were 12 buildings on the tour. Ten were filled within 18 months.

SaveYour.Town has created an Empty Buildings Tour Toolkit if you want to host your own tour.

Share Spaces

Coppes Commons, Nappanee, Indiana: An old factory with 100,000 square feet of space had sat empty for years. Made hoover cabinets. There was little chance another big manufacturer would swoop in and fill it all up. So, a local family bought the factory, they’ve opened it up, a little at a time, for smaller uses. There’s retail space, an ice cream shop, all kinds of cool and fun things. They now have 11 businesses, large and small event spaces, and a business center. And they still have a lot more room to grow in the future. Rather than waiting until someone was ready to fill the whole thing, they split it up, and now they have a thriving retail space.

Addison James is a business that sells clothing. They also have a skin care specialist, photographer and graphic designer in their space.

The Drill Barbershop was one of my favorite places to visit. Phil DeCastro is a big fan of disc golf. He’s made it possible for others to participate and provides access to supplies people need. That’s a cool thing about living in a small town, it’s pretty easy to get involved in the things you like to do.

The Picket Fence offered lots of choices in product. They also have a quilter in their space! You can find them often doing Facebook Live at night so you can shop online with them too.

Incubator

When I was the Chamber of Commerce Director in Webster City, I had an idea for an informal incubator project. We had a building owner that had several buildings downtown. I approached them with the incubator project idea. Put your buildings in the program and you offer 3 months free rent and reduced rent the rest of the year. The chamber agreed to help the businesses that went into those buildings with marketing, and the SBDC (Small Business Development Center) came in to help the business with creating a valuable business plan.

Benefits to the owner:

• At the least their utilities were being paid by someone else.
• Every building needs love, and this provided that.
• The business could leave at any time (remember, it’s a way to test out the business idea) or they could stay as long as they wanted!

Did it work? Yes.

Food

The first business was an Italian restaurant. The town loved it! It lasted a year until the husband got a job out of state. No worries though. The Mexican grocery store across the street wanted to open their own restaurant in the back of the store. The owners were saving for a commercial hood. They took advantage of the incubator project and tested their idea out. They tried new recipes and played around with open hours. And got the word out they were going to open a larger spot soon. Which is exactly what they did.

Clothing

Chicago Style rented an incubator spot for a year, then bought a building in the same block and expanded to be 3x times bigger. They’ve also helped three other businesses get started in their new location. Incubators are a great way to test out your idea, build your market, and save money for the next step.

Discussion during my presentation

There are some buildings in Gowrie that would benefit from the shared spaces idea. Take a look at the pictures above from the Empty Buildings Tour Idea. Antiques businesses are often seen sharing space. Another great use is for artists to have studio space and retail space.

The Heartland Community Room at the bank features pictures on their walls of the area, and they are for sale. Shared spaces don’t have to be similar kinds of businesses.

Murals, signs, windows and more

Sign in the local rural telecom building

Signs

In the Webster-Calhoun Cooperative Telephone Association offices they’ve got flipchart size posters that are hand drawn. It’s used to motivate, encourage and to be positive. These are simple and affordable to do. They’re not permanent and can be changed out often. It’s fun too!

Windows

It’s not unusual to see the second story windows boarded over, for a myriad of reasons. I think the owners believe no one is looking at them, and that is not true.

Here’s an idea – paint the boards over the windows. The top part of this building is empty and needs lots and lots of work. The old windows were boarded up and looked awful. The picture below is the building Chicago Style bought.

The community vitality director in Webster City, Iowa found a program involving students at Univ.of Iowa and they created this idea. An artist took large pieces of wood and drew on them, in paint by number style. They were taken out to the fairgrounds and were painted by anyone in town who wanted to help. They feature important people and things in Webster City.

The building on the left is the before, the building on the right is the after.

Murals

The local library in Gowrie has painted a mural on the side of their building. The swimming pool also has a painted mural. Where else could you add art to your community?

Mural on the side of the library

What is that?

There’s a lot right downtown that used to be a car wash. It’s an eyesore, at best. There’s good news for some quick changes you can do! The fence around the lot could be put to good use. Display students’ art, create banners for the area and hang there, have an art contest, and hang the entries there. Loren Ditzler from Warren County, Iowa sent me this picture. Their county courthouse was torn down and left a big empty pit. (They are rebuilding it.) Until it’s finished, they decided to promote their county with banners on their fence.

this used to be a carwash

Warren County banners, photo by Loren Ditzler

Talk to each other.

There are committed people in Gowrie who are excited to make things happen. Lots of people came two nights in a row to hear me talk about their community. It was great to see them talking with each other about their ideas and getting started. Even the County Supervisors came!

Gowrie Annual Dinner folks

Here’s the thing. You want to keep talking, and gathering, and working on your projects. Don’t fall into the trap of meeting to be meeting and not getting work done. You don’t need committees, or big hairy plans, or permission for most of it. You start with your big idea, gather your crowd, the people who think like you and want to see things happen. Then reach out to others that might be able to help, build your connections. Finally, take small steps. Try things out, see if they work. Let everyone participate in small but meaningful ways.

That’s the Idea Friendly Method:

Gather Your Crowd

Build Connections

Take Small Steps

And share your stories, tell folks what you’re doing. Keep the excitement going!

(if no accreditation on the photo, that means Deb Brown took it) 

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Westbrook, Maine, is a Main Street America community. Photo by Becky McCray

Hannah White, Interim President and CEO of Main Street America, dropped this little statistic at the Main Street Now National Conference in Boston in 2023.

Designated Main Street Districts in the US include over 1.1 million jobs, almost as many people as Amazon.

Amazon’s approximately 1.3 million jobs in the US does not include seasonal holiday help, contract workers, or delivery drivers.

Main Street’s 1.1 million doesn’t include all the downtowns in the US that aren’t designated Main Street Districts and also does not include seasonal holiday help, contract workers, and any other non-employee workers in the districts.

So the comparison is pretty reasonable to me.

Let me know if you use this stat in your community!

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Some possible travel trends to blog about via Longwoods International, on a slide during the IITA (International Inbound Travel Association) annual conference in San Diego, California. Photo by Sheila Scarborough.

Tourism Currents, experts on social media for tourism, wrote about 5 travel trends to blog about right now, and there’s a lot for rural communities to latch onto there.

1) Wellness Travel

Sheila says, “where people can go to relax, detox, relieve stress, get a massage and spa treatments, eat healthy food, be more mindful, get some exercise, etc.”

You can promote your clean air and water, and even your small town slow pace of life is part of wellness.

2) Sustainable, Eco-Friendly Travel

Some of the keyword trends include:

• Greener, more local getaways
• Environmentally-friendly travel ideas
• Eco-friendly, eco-conscious vacations

3) Multigenerational and Family Travel

Sheila said there has been a spike in searches for “where to plan a family reunion.” This is a great chance to feature how safe your town is for kids, how many activities are open to everyone in the family.

A rural cabin rented via HipCamp. Photo CC by Myles Tan

4) An Appreciation for Nature & The Outdoors

“Smaller towns, rural areas, scenic byways – they all have an advantage right now, in that travelers still very much want the natural beauty they can offer,” Sheila said.

Hello, nature! See our pair of articles on Harvest Host, Boondockers Welcome and also HipCamp.

5) Unique, Local Experiences

Sheila said travelers want to “Learn about and support local culture. Do something hands-on, like a cooking or craft class, that teaches you about that local culture.”

Look to your local artists, crafters, musicians, makers and other fun creatives. Do they offer short term or one-day classes? Are there longer retreats in your area? All these are smart things to share about your community.

Is this just a fad? No.

“There has been a big uprise in traveling to smaller towns that have some quirky and regional appeal,” said Arabella Bowen, executive editorial director of Fodor’s Travel. “There is a want for a local, authentic, mom-and-pop experience.”

That’s from 2013. And it could just as well be from 2023.

All the themes from 2013’s Changing travel motivations favor small towns are still true. People want to explore, visit local artists, and get off the beaten path.

Make your “What to do in…” Pinterest Board today!

What to do: action steps

Of course blog about any of these topics, as Sheila suggests.

Share anything from your town that fits into these trends on your social channels.

Promote these destinations on your “What to do in [town]” Pinterest board. We’ve said it before, but this is still a great tip!

Play up your quirky businesses, mention your local characters, and share the things that some folks find embarrassing but that make your town unique.

Full disclosure: I helped co-found Tourism Currents along with Sheila Scarborough.

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Paula Jensen, The Community Coach

Living in a small town, we are often inclined to see change in our community as a threat to ourselves and our way of life. When we feel threatened by change, uncertainty rears its ugly head and our negativity often takes over. We say things like

“What’s wrong with the way we’ve always done it?”

or “Why do we need something new? The old one’s just fine.”

or “We can’t afford that.”

or “That will never work, we’ve tried it before.”

And, sometimes we just outright disguise our negativity as facts, experience, or helpful guidance.

Every day as a community coach I work with rural changemakers to develop their thriving small towns. These passionate people explore what’s possible and create local vision. They work diligently to engage more people in the process and listen with curiosity to make ideas stronger. They seek outside resources and partnerships to fund projects. But along the way, these rural changemakers always encounter one common denominator – negativity.

One rural changemaker stated this:

When the negative voices in our community start to make noise, it pulls us away from our purpose and each other… pretty soon people start believing what’s the loudest rather than searching for what’s possible.”

How to change the negativity habit

So, the overarching question is, how might a community change its negativity habit? James Clear, author of Atomic Habits writes:

The root of behavior change and building better habits is your identity. Each action you perform is driven by the fundamental belief that it is possible. So, if you change your identity (what you believe you are), then it is easier to change your actions.”

If you agree with James Clear that building better habits starts with changing your identity, then the answer to the question above is to create a new community identity. What if you became known as a thriving community of rural changemakers?

It can start with one. One rural changemaker – YOU – can master your own mindset and manage the negativity habit that exists around you. Then ask other rural changemakers to join you on this quest for a thriving community.

Practical steps to take

As you gather your crowd of rural changemakers and engage with others who are stuck in the negativity habit take these conscious actions to constructively engage

1. Show confidence in your skills, abilities, and your new identity as a rural changemaker.
2. Listen to others intently and with curiosity to shift from problem mode to solution mode.
3. Say, “I don’t have the answer right now.” Diffuse negativity by tactfully supplying a well-thought-out response later.
4. Redirect conversations by talking about what’s possible.
5. Ask for solutions that could resolve problems from the past.
6. Turn complaints into opportunities by brainstorming ideas.
7. Focus on what is within your control, not things you cannot control.
8. Test innovative ideas by implementing short 30-day action plans.
9. Celebrate your successes to create a community buzz.
10. Become stronger together by recognizing all the good things going on in the community and share those stories publicly.

Cutting out every bit of negativity is unrealistic, but we can learn to live responsively instead of reactively, being positive when others are negative. If we simply ensure our attitude as a rural changemaker aligns with our community’s vision, together we can and will thrive into the next generation.

These upper floor murals were painted by the community members of Webster City, Iowa. It’s part of the bonus trend from this article. Photo by Michael Hansen, used by permission.

Who knows what trends will affect small and rural communities in 2022 and beyond?

Not many trends pieces cover rural places. These trends are specifically about rural and small towns.

I’ve been following rural trends and writing about them since 2009. My trends reports have been commissioned or quoted by Main Street America, Emergent Research, the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky, Farm Bureau’s Rural Community Building, Small Business Trends and the George H.W. Bush Points of Light Foundation.

There’s a lot of uncertainty right now. These are larger scale trends that will be in play for years, not super micro trends that are already obvious or so small they’re subject to change next week.

Top 5 Rural and Small Town Trends for 2022 and beyond

1. New residents arriving.

After saying for years that remote work would bring more people to choose a rural residence, here we are: Zoom Towns!

The real trend isn’t an explosive exodus from major tech and population centers, but the more subtle diffusion of opportunities to a broader swath of places.

We’re seeing the convergence of multiple factors:

• a pandemic that forced a major adoption of remote work
• pent up demand for rural living
• improving rural broadband
• the great resignation and re-evaluation of life choices
• climate and disasters shifting relocation decisions
• increased rural tourism through the boom in road trips

Bonus trend: People are eager to belong.

With more people relocating, expect an increase in deliberate community building, reaching across polarizing divides.

Watch for projects in:

• Neighboring
• Beautification
• Belonging

2. Natural environment regenerating.

The shift from simple awareness or protection of the environment to deliberately trying to make things around you better.

Innovative farmers and ranchers are being better stewards, improving the land and environment with each successive season.

Indigenous People and Native Tribes are gaining control of more of their traditional lands, fostering regeneration and advocating environmental policy improvements.

Natural resources are changing, and new sustainable natural resources booms are coming that make sense in rural places including:

• timber and lignin
• mushroom and other natural fiber materials
• dirt, clay and earthen buildings
• renewable and greener energy

3. Leadership and power shifting.

Much like the surge in new residents, the shift in leadership started a long time ago. In 2015, we developed our Idea Friendly Method to help you understand and adapt to the shift from the formal to informal, from centralized to community, from control to chaos.

Awareness of the change is finally percolating up, even to the World Economic Forum. And it’s also percolating down, to the level of local organizations and officials in small towns.

Watch for:

• Less emphasis on joining boards or committees to talk about change
• More emphasis on joining activities you enjoy to take action

4. Rural healthcare reimagined.

Pressured by financial crises, closures and staff shortages before the pandemic, rural health care is due for reimagining. Between improving telemedicine and rapid advances in smart everything, will we still need general hospitals in small towns in 10 years? Do we really need them now? We’re already seeing rural communities come up with innovative answers that improve health care without focusing so much on the building.

Keep an eye on:

• Community involvement in health care facilities and futures
• Smart use of technology to improve people’s health

5. Economic barriers falling.

Equitable economic development is the buzzword of the moment in grants, programs and planning. For small towns, it’s really about making entrepreneurship easier for more people and creating a fairer economy.

Small towns are the testing grounds for the future, and rural people innovate. Want to be resilient in the next big crisis? Tap our innovative spirit.

Focus now on developing:

• Local supply chain
• Small makers
• Artisans
• Tiny manufacturers

Free video report:

Watch Deb Brown and me present these trends more in depth at SaveYour.Town: 2022 Rural Trends.

Watch the free video

This article cited by:

• Forbes – Research and Insights on Why Millennials and Gen Z Will Drive Small Town Entrepreneurship by Bernhard Schroeder
• Mendimi – Pse Millennials dhe Gen Z do të nxisin sipërmarrjen e qyteteve të vogla? Albania
• Bank of I.D.E.A.S. by Peter Kenyon, Community and Economic Development Matters Newsletter, April 13, 2022, Australia
• Wetzel-Tyler Chamber of Commerce newsletter

To find out what rural people felt were their biggest challenges, SaveYour.Town and SmallBizSurvival.com surveyed over 280 rural people in the fourth quarter of 2020. The results make up this fourth edition of the Survey of Rural Challenges.

Challenges stemming from the pandemic and economic crisis were ranked as less important than long-existing rural challenges.

Continuing challenges with losses in housing, business and population ranked as the highest rural community challenges. The ongoing lack of workers, stiff competition from online businesses, and marketing ranked as the highest challenge to rural small businesses.

Other preconception-changing results

Defying stereotyped media profiles of poverty, crime and drug abuse as the primary rural challenges, rural people ranked these lowest of all community challenges.

Although rural economic development often centers around jobs, it was one of the least-mentioned challenges in this survey.

For all the concern over small business lending, rural people say usable buildings are as hard or harder to find than loans.

Rural small business owners show little interest in business plan assistance, yet it remains a popular type of assistance offered to rural businesses.

More rural people said they needed an idea for a business to start than said they were worried their business would fail.

Rural Community Challenges ranked

The pandemic and economic crisis not only did not dominate the responses, but it also did not rank in the top ten challenges.

Housing, business and population losses continue to rank as the highest rural community challenges.

The top five rural community challenges in 2021 were:

1. Not enough good housing
2. Downtown is dead
3. Losing young people
4. Need new residents
5. Not enough volunteers

Small-town Business Challenges ranked

The lack of workers and difficulties with marketing continue to challenge rural small businesses.

Online competition continued to increase pressure on rural small businesses, climbing to the second-highest ranking challenge.

Despite the pandemic and economic crisis, rural business owners ranked the likelihood of business failure and the inability to find a business loan as some of the lowest of all listed challenges.

Crisis relief loan packages may have played a role in supporting small businesses in late 2020 as this survey was being conducted. On previous surveys, inability to find a business loan scored from the middle to low: ranging from sixth to ninth of the eleven listed challenges, before dropping to eleventh this time.

The top five challenges ranked by rural small businesses were:

1. Can’t find good employees
2. Online competition
3. Tried later hours without success
4. Marketing isn’t working
5. Need to sell my business

Get the in-depth report on the 2021 results of the Survey

See analysis of all four rounds of the Survey of Rural Challenges

Many towns have hidden parking areas that could be connected to their downtown with hallways like this one. Kendrick, Idaho, photo by Becky McCray.

There’s not enough parking downtown!

Doesn’t every city have that problem? You’re about to learn a new way to get more parking for your Main Street without having to pave, stripe or get a permit. It doesn’t work in every town, but it very well might work in yours.

Finding hidden parking

There is only so much parking on the main street in front of businesses. If you look behind businesses, along alleys and on the neighboring blocks, you’ll find hidden lots and spaces. Sometimes business owners and staff use them, sometimes they’re not used very much at all.

If you don’t know of any, try walking up the alleys. You might be surprised by the lots and spaces you discover.

The problem is they’re not easily accessible.

There’s no easy footpath from those hidden spaces to the main street. And some alleys and back lots (well, most) look a bit dodgy or even unsafe. Even if businesses have back doors, they may not welcome people just cutting through to get to a different business. And most people probably feel reluctant to just charge through a business’s backdoor anyway.

Cafe Alley in Ardmore, Oklahoma, can only be entered from the large parking lot in the alley. Photo by Becky McCray.

Creating hallways people will use

Here’s how to create safe and interesting ways for people to walk from the hidden parking to the front of the businesses.

1. Find a physical space where people can walk
2. Make it obvious they’re supposed to walk there
3. Make it attractive and fun to walk there

You can use plantings, grasses, gravel, stones or sidewalks to make the surface more appealing and practical. Think of how you can add some art while you’re there, whether it’s paint, chalk or maybe fabric arts.

Define a path with painted rocks

Sheila Scarborough spotted this hallway in Lockhart, Texas. The plants and painted rocks make the path of travel obvious and help move people from the alley to the front street.

Even a narrow walkway can work

This narrow space in Beaver, Oklahoma, isn’t ideal, but it is clean and easy to walk.

Photo by Becky McCray.

Wide open potential

This wide lot in Ardmore, Oklahoma, offers a direct path from a downhill parking lot up to the main shopping area. The lot is wide enough for multiple uses. The planting areas could be restored. A few chairs around the little built-in table could serve as a resting point for people with mobility challenges. This pathway is so large, it could even host vendors at tables or booths along one side. That would give people added incentive to use the lower parking.

Photo by Becky McCray.

Turn a pocket park into a hallway

Beaver, Oklahoma, also has this pocket park downtown. The brick path effectively connects the alley parking to the front of the block. The benches, plantings and sculpture make it an appealing place to linger.

Photo by Becky McCray.

New video: Empty Lot Economic Development

We’ve partnered with SaveYour.Town to bring you a video with more practical ways to use empty lots to spur economic development and support commerce in your downtown. Learn more about it at: SaveYour.Town Empty Lot Economic Development.

New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.

By Paula Jensen

Have you ever experienced a time when you could envision what needs to happen but had no idea what to stop doing in order to reach the point of success?

Here is a simple example: This year at Santa Day in my community someone asked, “Why do we give away turkeys to families during this event – it seems like a waste of funds and fundraising time?” My immediate thought was – it’s a long-standing tradition. In my community we have always collected money from local businesses to give away turkeys on Santa Day. Over the decades the number of volunteers hosting Santa Day has decreased along with the number of businesses, so now businesses and individuals generously donate to our local community group to provide turkey donations for Santa Day. The truth is raising money isn’t hard in our community, but no one has ever asked the question, “Do people really want a turkey for Christmas?” How do we continue the tradition of generosity, but do it without the turkey?

Sometimes we get stuck in a cycle that loses the real purpose of why we started something. Communities often just do what they’ve always done and honestly, it is frequently good work. But when that good work stops having a purpose or producing results because our world has shifted, people really can’t understand why. This is where conflict can begin. A good question to ask each other at times like this is — What should our community stop doing to reach our fullest potential? 

The Stop Doing List can be an important conversation for any community, and it should include its companion the Do Differently List. Together they offer an innovative path toward your fullest potential. What could your community stop doing in 2020 that would brighten your future?

Below is my short list of things communities could stop doing and replace with new ways of leading and doing.

1. Stop having meetings. So often we sit in unproductive meetings that go off track, last too long and never produce results. It really makes people not want to be involved. Try setting a purpose for your meeting in advance, ask people to co-create the agenda and then set time limits for each agenda item to keep you on track.
2. Stop saying “rural is dying”. The truth is, if you’re not trying, you’re dying! In the past decade, the communities who are collaborating regionally and actively working on housing, community and economic development will likely see an uptick in population in the 2020 Census. They are trying! You can check https://factfinder.census.gov/ for population estimates in your town or county.
3. Stop relying on elected leaders. While many communities have excellent leaders, others struggle to fill important community positions, contributing to a wide divergence of capacity. Believe in yourself and cultivate the leader within you. Then cultivate leadership in those around you to develop local vision, community approaches to problem solving and generate funding for projects. We all can contribute to local success.
4. Stop believing more jobs is the answer. Entrepreneurship is the key to creating jobs and retaining young residents in small towns. Creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem strengthens communities and regions by building partnerships among education, industry, and financial sectors.

Now it’s your turn — What else would you add to your community’s Stop Doing List that could help reach its fullest potential?