RCAN - Supporting Rural Business

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RCAN - Supporting Rural Business

Free support for rural businesses across the East Midlands. Marketing ideas, grant funding alerts, micro training & a community that gets rural life.

Backed by 100 years of RCAN. Join our free group 👇

28/08/2026

Funding opportunities can move quickly. A little preparation now can make the next application far less stressful.

Keep these five things together in one easy-to-find folder:
1. A 50-word summary of your business
2. A clear description of what the funding would help you do
3. The difference that project would make
4. Recent financial information and key business details
5. Any likely costs, quotations or timescales

Every fund has different rules, so always check the eligibility and guidance before applying. This preparation simply gives you a useful head start.
Inside our free RCAN Rural Business Support group, we share live funding opportunities and point members towards relevant support.
Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rcanruralbusinesssupport

26/08/2026

Can customers find you - and trust the information they see?

Set a timer for 10 minutes and look at your business as if you were a new customer:
✅ Search your exact business name on your phone.
✅ Check that your opening hours, phone number and website are correct.
✅ Look at the map pin and directions.
✅ Add one recent, recognisable photograph.
✅ Read your latest reviews and reply where appropriate.

For rural businesses, small details matter. If a customer is making a special journey, they need confidence that they can find you and that you will be open.
What is the one detail you need to update today?

17/08/2026

What is the hardest part of running your rural business right now?
A. Finding new customers
B. Staying visible online
C. Cash flow or finding funding
D. Finding enough time
E. Feeling isolated
F. Something else

Reply with a letter - or tell us more if you would like to.

We will use your answers to shape future practical posts and support, so this is your chance to tell us what would be genuinely useful.

12/08/2026

🏘️ Could changes be coming to our high streets and rural town centres?

The Government has announced plans that would require v**e shops and adult gaming centres to obtain planning permission. Councils could also receive stronger powers over new betting shops and premises linked to illegal activity.

For independent businesses, these changes could influence the mix of shops, local competition and the future character of our town centres.

The Government has also promised to revisit wider business-rates reform, including Small Business Rates Relief, at the Budget on 28 October. However, no broader reduction has been confirmed yet.

💡 The practical takeaway:

✅ Keep your current business-rates costs in your forecasts for now
✅ Watch for local consultations and updates from your council
✅ Join your traders’ group or business network so your voice is heard when local plans are discussed

What one change would make the biggest difference to your local high street or town centre: lower business rates, better parking and transport, fewer empty premises, or something else?

Tell us in the comments. 👇

06/08/2026

Summer visitors are lovely. Repeat customers are even better.

If your rural business gets a seasonal boost, try these three simple ways to stay connected after a customer's visit:

1. Give them an easy reason to follow you. Mention what they will see next: new products, seasonal menus, local events or behind-the-scenes updates.
2. Give them a reason to return. Try a next-visit card, a seasonal date for their diary or a small bounce-back offer that still protects your margin.
3. Invite them onto your email list. Explain what they will receive and how often, and only add people who have actively agreed.

You do not need a complicated loyalty scheme. You just need a clear next step before they leave.

Which of these could you put in place this week?

31/07/2026

RCAN is a charity with more than 100 years’ experience supporting rural communities. We believe rural businesses are vital to strong, thriving local communities and we want to help them succeed.

Our free Facebook group supports small businesses, start-ups and self-employed people across the East Midlands. Whether you run a village shop, pub, salon, holiday let, food business, trade, farm diversification project or kitchen-table enterprise, you’ll find:

💡 Practical business and marketing tips
💷 Funding and training opportunities
📢 Space to promote your business
🤝 Support from people who understand rural working life
🌱 A friendly community where you can ask questions and share ideas

If you run a rural business, or know someone who does - we’d love to welcome you.

Join the free group here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/rcanruralbusinesssupport

Let’s help rural businesses connect, grow and thrive. 🌿

28/07/2026

Our green spaces do more than make rural places beautiful. They bring people together, give visitors a reason to stay longer and help nearby businesses to be discovered.
For Love Parks Week, we want to celebrate the places that help rural communities thrive.
Which park, walking route, nature reserve or green space brings people to your part of the East Midlands?
Tell us where it is - and tag one nearby independent business that visitors should discover while they are there.
Let us turn the comments into a mini guide to brilliant rural places and businesses.

23/07/2026

Rural business owner? You are in the right place.
Whether you run a village pub, salon, garage, holiday let, food business, trade or kitchen-table start-up, this page has been created with you in mind.
RCAN has spent over 100 years supporting rural communities in Nottinghamshire. We are now bringing practical marketing ideas, funding and training signposting, local business stories and honest support to businesses across the wider East Midlands.
Tell us in the comments:
1. What your business does
2. Where you are based
3. One thing you would welcome support with
For deeper practical help and peer support, join our free Facebook group, RCAN Rural Business Support:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/rcanruralbusinesssupport

22/07/2026

💡 Marketing Minute: Ask for the review while the moment is good.

The best time to ask a customer for a review isn't a week later in an email - it's right after they've said "thank you so much" in person. A quick "That's so kind, would you mind popping that in a Google review?" takes 10 seconds and works far better than any reminder message.

Small habit, big difference over a year. 🌾

16/07/2026

The school gates close in a few days.

And for rural businesses, that means something.

The lanes fill up with people looking for something real. Something that isn’t a shopping centre or a theme park or a motorway service station. They’re looking for fields and farm shops and pubs with beer gardens and bakers who start at 5am and holiday lets where the view from the kitchen window is actually worth photographing.

They’re looking for what you have.

This is your moment.

For the next six weeks, the people who usually rush past towns and villages on their way somewhere else will slow down. They’ll stop. They’ll explore.

And if your business is visible, welcoming and showing up - they’ll find you.

So if there’s ever a week to post on social media, update your Google profile, put a sign outside, or ask a happy customer for a review - it’s this one.

Here’s to the best six weeks of the year. 🌿

What does summer look like at your rural business? Show us in the comments. 👇

Address

ARNOT Hill HOUSE
Arnold
NG56LU

Telephone

+441156975800

Website

http://www.rcan.org.uk/

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