The Power of Pop-up Shops

A Tool for Rural Business Incubation

The pop-up shop gives start-ups, side-gig entrepreneurs, and existing businesses a place to test markets, build a customer base and increase revenue. Pop-ups are temporary stores, often in vacant storefronts and at events, that provide an important business development steppingstone.

Join us for this free community economic development webinar 1 p.m. Monday Feb. 6, 2023. Our presenters will introduce the pop-up shop as a rural business incubation tool. The webinar will provide examples and guidance for getting these temporary stores popping up for new business and commerce in your town.

Here’s a recording of the webinar: RECORDING

Pop-up Shop in downtown West Plains organized by webinar co-presenter the Ozarks Small Business Incubator.

The webinar is presented by New Growth CDC with the START HERE Business Acceleration Network.

START HERE is a team of resource providers working as consultants in rural Missouri to support aspiring and existing small businesses. We provide training and technical assistance, financing, resource connections, and more. We team up to leave no rural entrepreneur behind.

Our Presenters

Pam Schallhorn has been leading the pop-up shop charge for 20 years in cities and small towns across Illinois. She brings a career in small business development and financing to her role now as a community and economic development advisor.

Heather W. Fisher has been mentoring small businesses for 10 years at the Ozarks Small Business Incubator (OzSBI), where she serves as the CEO. OzSBI recently launched its first Pop-up space to great fanfare. OzSBI serves a seven county region providing startup assistance, business mentoring, microloans, training and office space.