Friday nights in Floyd Virginia are a celebration of country music, and on the first Friday of every month the artists of Floyd join in with art exhibits and receptions all over town. Art lovers and artists flocked to the Art Under the Sun Gallery to see the latest offerings from Flame Bilyue, Karen...

Jeff Jarvis recently wrote an interesting article "The Great Restructuring" in which he said, " Large-scale retail will shrink and consolidate and then be transformed by a search-and-buy economy." I think he may be on to something. It certainly applies to our family. It takes too...

Are we moving toward a cash and carry economy? I see friends emptying 401Ks to pay off credit cards and others who are seriously discussing bankruptcy after extended periods of being unemployed. Their confidence levels mirror the downward path of the stock market. I know at least one person who stil...

POLL RESULTS If you were watching ABC the other night, you may have seen Charlie Gibson smugly announcing the results of an ABC poll which showed 68% of Americans approved Obama's job performance to date. He was obviously very pleased by this. That didn't agree with my personal observations,...

This homely expression aptly describes the state of mind of many of us in this region as we contemplate the spectre of a recession, rising local unemployment and disturbing moves by a new administration in Washington. We are no longer feeling expansive. We reserve our personal optimism for local eff...

Thanks to Andrea Marshall, Floyd County artist, jeweler, and musician, we have the gift of these fantastic Christmas ornaments made from dried okra and a little bit of fairy dust. It is truly amazing how artists create beauty from humble elements.   Andrea's ornaments and jewelry can be fo...

Answering that question correctly can spell the difference between surviving this recession or disappearing into history. Tom Asacker cuts right to the chase with a recent article, "Cut the fat, not the meat". Smart organizations that focus relentlessly on what matters most to customers, w...

Seth Godin always has some useful advice. Recently he wrote about what people tell themselves when they go to buy something . If you want to avoid being stuck with inventory or downtime during a recession, you might profit from realizing that people tell themselves a different story when they go to ...

Continuing to do the same old things and expecting new results is not a winning proposition, whether we are discussing a small business, a large corporation, or the nation as a whole. This even applies to those who work for others in a well-defined job. In good times or bad, there is a basic rule th...

When general economic conditions get worse, which businesses get stranded? More importantly, how does a small business owner survive when large businesses are struggling? I think there is a lesson to be learned from observing the struggling Ukrops store in Roanoke, VA. Ukrops store is a beautiful hi...