Hi, I'm Joan! I'm the owner and creator behind Travel Backroads. Born and raised 'city'; I love and live 'rural'. I've had the best of both possible worlds including living in a community of 35. I have loved every minute.
From selling earthworms, guppies, snails, and babysitting in my youth, to working jobs with tourists in and around the Black Hills, this is why I do what I do at this time of my life.
I got my start as a young entrepreneur and finally own my own business at my age. Because of my experiences, I am FIERCELY LOYAL to small and local business. Mix in my profession in economic development, it was only a matter of time that I would begin this journey.
As fast as Americans and visitors zoom by on our state and county highways, we miss out on some of Midwest’s choicest businesses, whether they are eateries, coffee shops, clothing, ammunition, fishing, homemade, quilt, specialty shops and more. Often times, tourists are missing the local flavor of the communities they are passing. Businesses on or off the beaten path give color to their local communities.
Many private businesses, small or large, struggle to stay afloat while trying to help their communities. Entrepreneurs are risk takers and dreamers. I want to alert travelers to "diamonds in the rough" in South Dakota and the Upper Midwest adding other regional states such as Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and more. Their businesses add to the infrastructure and help drive the economy of their communities; not to mention how creative people are and the wonderful businesses that we are missing everyday. I added maps because we ARE a mobile society. Taking backroads, highways, country roads and downtown city streets is how you'll find your way through their doors.
Working together creates Collaboration:
Collaborative marketing means more businesses are working together. When collaboration happens and businesses work together, the likelihood of pulling traffic off a nearby highway to stop, shop, stay or sip has a greater chance of happening. It's a new way to think about business and creating value in the market and in our local economies. It’s working together for businesses to succeed.
And Co-Opetition:
Business is a duality of both competition and cooperation. The success for most business is dependent on the success of others in this new paradigm, yet a business also has to compete to capture the value that a market creates and therefore protect their own interests. Therefore a duality in a win-win and win-lost interaction. So, let local businesses market each other! Instead of waging war on your neighbor's business why not think of business as both co-operation and competition? All businesses will do better this way. A fabric store can ask their shoppers if they were ready for a meal or some ice-cream, and then recommend a store down the road. Or a business owner could ask a shoppers’ route and then mention another awesome store on their way. .
Please check out and share our online domains with others, and let your businesses know. You will not find anything of this much value and as affordable with my dedication, not to mention my excitement for promoting small local businesses.
Let's Do This!
Joan