Blog

Maybe you’ve heard the value of word-or-mouth advertising; according to Nielsen ratings, 92% of customers trust their friends’ and family’s recommendation over traditional advertising. That doesn’t mean you can simply sit back and assume that the quality of your product is so much better than your competition’s that customers will be raving about it toRead more

Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) is celebrating American Heart Month this February by creating awareness on the importance of prevention and early detection. Heart disease takes more lives than all forms of cancer combined. Every 37 seconds, an American dies of heart disease meaning that in this pandemic, heart disease is still a veryRead more

The Acadiana Planning Commission is currently undertaking a baseline survey of broadband internet access and reliability across the region. Today, the fight to bring reliable broadband to Acadiana’s communities has become as important as the fight to bring other rural utilities. Broadband access was once considered a luxury, however, in a post-COVID economy access toRead more

As the nation’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks concentrated in remote rural towns this fall, the geographic isolation once thought to shield them from the pandemic swiftly transitioned into a severe disadvantage. Rural communities and the small businesses and residents within them faced overlapping, systemic challenges entering this crisis. Rural residents—particularly Black, Native American, and Latino orRead more

Shoptimism is a term being used to describe purchases made from home during the pandemic. You are stuck at home and suddenly begin to see every flaw, paint chip and cluttered closet. So, you buy things to fix the situation—or you buy things to make you feel better about it. When consumers buy things theyRead more

The COVID small business crisis and prolonged and uneven, inflicting a disproportionate toll on microbusinesses in underserved communities that are the lifeblood of their local economies. While much attention has been paid to small business closures in urban communities across the country, the same dynamic is unfolding in underserved rural areas, with dire consequences. StillRead more

Louisiana House Speaker Clay Schexnayder recently appointed State Representative John Stefanski (District 42) to chair the influential House and Governmental Affairs Committee. This is the committee which oversees redistricting that will take place during 2021. Stefanski, a Crowley Republican and ally of the Speaker, will replace former State Representative Stephen Dwight, a Republican who wasRead more

Months of dispersion throughout the northeast and southern United States has finally seen the COVID outbreak concentrating in rural areas, surging in remote, sparsely populated towns and inflicting a toll on all communities within them. Alongside this rural surge comes doomsday queries: Will rural America be able to survive this storm? Can rural small businesses-theRead more

The word “rural” has been thrown around the past few years by everyone. As the word is used more and more frequently, misconceptions begin to grow about what it truly means. The current trend of what is used to define rural America is white, dependent on traditional industries, and characterized by stagnation, decline, and despair.Read more

Due to the pandemic, the way businesses have had to conduct themselves and their business has altered dramatically. The digital age has indeed come full force upon us, with Zoom conferences, online classes, and digital marketing being utilized by every industry. Yet even with this emphasis on digital means of connecting, local businesses still relyRead more