.png)
Small Town Stories | Local Business Marketing, Small Town Business, Entrepreneurship
Are you trying to grow a small town business while feeling like most entrepreneurship advice was never designed for the reality of local business?
Do you ever wonder why some Main Street businesses become thriving community staples while others struggle to stay visible in a world that’s changing faster than ever?
And are you craving more honest conversations about what it actually takes to build something meaningful in a small town today — from marketing and creativity to reinvention, tourism, leadership, and community?
If that sounds like you, you’re in the right place!
Welcome to Small Town Stories, the podcast exploring the business behind Main Streets across Canada, the U.S., and beyond. Each week, we’re diving into conversations about local business marketing, entrepreneurship, and the realities of building a small town business in today’s modern world.
I’m Jan Ditchfield — top-ranked podcast host, marketer, entrepreneur, and longtime storyteller. After spending years building businesses and working in marketing, media, and online entrepreneurship, I eventually found myself back in the small town where I grew up: Merrickville, Ontario.
And what I realized very quickly is this... small town business works differently.
The relationships are different. The visibility challenges are different. Reputation matters differently. Word of mouth matters differently. And yet most business advice completely ignores the nuance of what it takes to grow a local business in a tight-knit community.
That’s why I created this show!
Inside the podcast, you’ll hear interviews with entrepreneurs, founders, creatives, shop owners, community builders, tourism leaders, and the people shaping modern small town life today. You’ll also hear solo episodes where I break down the marketing strategies, customer experience ideas, local branding lessons, and business insights that help small businesses stand out and grow sustainably.
We talk about everything from local tourism and community-driven growth to small business marketing, creativity, entrepreneurship, customer loyalty, destination businesses, and what it really means to build a business people want to keep coming back to.
So whether you own a storefront, run a service-based business, dream of opening something one day, or simply love the culture and character behind Main Street businesses, I’m so glad you’re here.
Hit follow, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us every Thursday for new conversations about the people, places, and strategies shaping small towns today.
And if you want to connect beyond the podcast, you can visit thesmalltownstoriespodcast.com and follow along on Instagram at @thesmalltownstoriespodcast for guest announcements, behind-the-scenes updates, and more stories from small towns across North America.
Episodes
18 episodes
What Makes a Small Town Feel Like Home? 10 Stories About Business, Community and Belonging (Season One Wrap-Up)
What makes a small town feel like home? Maybe it’s knowing your coffee order before you reach the counter. Maybe it’s waving to the same neighbour for three years, or walking into a store for five minutes and staying for twenty because someone ...
.png)
16: A Community Business Gem: What Keeps People Coming Back to This Small Town Store
What makes a community business become more than a place to shop? Sometimes the answer isn’t what it sells. It’s how deeply it becomes part of the life happening around it.In Athens, Ontario, JoAnne Sytsma owns The Village Store, a loca...
15: Built on a Handshake: The Business of Reputation in a Small Town
What does it mean to build a business in a small town where your reputation follows you everywhere—and a handshake still means something?For more than four decades, carpenter Ron Eagle has built his life and work into the fabric of Merri...
14: The Small Business Website That Was Good Enough... Until It Wasn't
A small business website doesn't always need to be the first thing you build. Sometimes, getting started matters more than getting everything perfectly in place.When I launched Small Town Stories, the show didn't have its own website. I ...
13: Small Town Arts: The Hidden Growth Lever for Rural Entrepreneurship
What role can the arts play in rural entrepreneurship and the economic growth of a small town? In Merrickville, Ontario, artists have spent decades helping shape the identity of a village known for creativity, craftsmanship, and a thriving smal...
12: Rural Leadership Redefined | How a Small Town Girl Became Mayor
What does rural leadership actually look like once the campaign signs come down and the election is over? For Corinna Smith-Gatcke, Mayor of the Township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands, it begins long before public office. It starts with gro...
11: The Small Town Business That Became the Heart of Its Community
Some businesses sell products. Others become part of the story people tell about where they live.When Jess Pasinetti opened Found and Forage in Kemptville, Ontario, she wasn't trying to build the biggest retail store. She was trying to m...
10: How We Tell Local Business Stories | Behind the Scenes of Small Town Stories
Small Town Stories has never really been about making a podcast. It's about earning someone's trust and sharing the local business stories that help define our communities.People often ask how I find my guests, how much planning happens ...
09: Rural Entrepreneurship Reimagined | How One Farmstand Owner Built Her Dream
What if the biggest obstacle to rural entrepreneurship isn't a lack of opportunity—but the belief that small towns can't support big dreams? While many people wait for certainty before they begin, Kirstin Levy, the founder of Rustic Roots Farms...
08: I Thought I Was Making a Small Town Business Podcast. I Was Wrong.
What if the story you thought you were telling was never the story you were actually discovering?When I first started Small Town Stories, I thought I was creating a podcast about small town business. I imagined conversations about entre...
07: The Growth Conversation Every Small Town Is Having
When does growth stop being about building and start becoming about belonging?Every small town eventually reaches a moment when the future begins knocking at its door. New families arrive. New businesses open. New homes are proposed. Cha...
06: The Hidden Reason That Keeps People Coming Back to Small Town Businesses
For most of us, customer service and hospitality probably sound like the same thing. I certainly thought they were. But after hearing one simple idea on another podcast a few weeks ago, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the difference....
05: The Secret Behind a Small Town Business That Connects
When did we stop having places where we simply belonged?Not home. Not work. Just somewhere in between.A place where someone knows your name, asks how your week has been, and notices when you haven't stopped by in a few days.
04: The Small Town Business Lesson Hidden in Community
What if the things we notice first aren't actually the story?A few weeks ago, a simple email about backyard chickens sparked an unexpected conversation. While the chickens may have been the catalyst, what emerged was something much large...
03: Why Some Small Businesses Are Impossible to Forget
What makes certain businesses impossible to forget?Lately, it feels like we're all consuming the same advice, following the same trends, and watching businesses race to keep up with whatever the algorithm rewards next. And somewhere alon...
02: What Nobody Tells You About Starting a Small Town Business
Starting a small town business sounds simple enough until you're actually doing it.The storefront might be ready. The business plan might be finished. But what happens when your customers are also your neighbours, your reputation spreads...
01: What Small Town Businesses Know That the Internet Forgot
There’s something small town businesses understand that the internet seems to have forgotten.Not everything meaningful can be optimized. Not every relationship should move fast. And not every business is meant to scale at the speed the o...
Why Small Town Business Is Different Today | Small Town Stories Trailer
Small town business is different — and after years of working in marketing, entrepreneurship, and online business, it’s something I didn’t fully understand until I moved back to the small village where I grew up.Welcome to Small Town Sto...