I Started a Business in a Town of 3,500 People - Here's What I Wish I Knew

When people find out I manufacture and ship a patented product from Yuma, Colorado, the reaction is usually some version of the same face. Eyebrows up. A small pause. And then: "Oh wow — how does that work?"

Which is a polite way of saying: that seems hard. Are you sure you're in the right place?

And honestly? I get it. Yuma is a small agricultural town on the eastern plains of Colorado. We are not exactly a hotbed of e-commerce startups and venture capital. There is no co-working space with exposed brick and a cold brew on tap. There is no business incubator three blocks away. There is a lot of sky, a lot of farmland, a deep sense of community, and — it turns out — everything I actually needed to build something real.

I grew up here. I left, lived in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, built a career in public relations and commercial photography, and then came back. SWAY Headbands is what happened when I combined everything I learned out there with everything I love about being from here.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. Would I do some things differently? Also absolutely. Here's what I wish someone had told me before I started.

The Internet Changed Everything — and Rural Entrepreneurs Are Still Underselling That

The biggest mental shift I had to make early on was letting go of the idea that my location was a limitation. It is not 1987. I do not need to be in a city to reach customers. I do not need a showroom on a busy street. I do not need proximity to a fashion district or a manufacturing hub or a trade show floor to build a brand that people across the country can find, trust, and buy from.

I ship SWAY Headbands to customers in New York, California, Texas, Florida — everywhere. My Shopify store doesn't have a zip code. My product doesn't care that it was made in a town most people have never heard of. And increasingly, the fact that it was made in a small American town by a woman who employs other women in her community is not a liability — it's part of what makes the brand worth caring about.

If you are a rural entrepreneur sitting on a product idea and waiting until you can move somewhere "real" to launch it — stop waiting. The infrastructure for building a product business from anywhere has never been better. Use it.

"My Shopify store doesn't have a zip code. The internet doesn't know I'm in a town of 3,500 people — and neither do my customers."

Small Town Is Actually a Superpower — If You Use It Right

Here is what nobody tells you about starting a business in a small town: the community investment is real, and it is remarkable.

In a city, you are one of thousands of businesses fighting for local attention. In Yuma, when SWAY Headbands does something — wins a grant, ships a big order, gets mentioned in the news — people here genuinely celebrate it. Local businesses carry our products. Local women wear them. Local pride becomes part of the brand story in a way that feels authentic because it is authentic.

My manufacturing space is in Yuma. The women who help me make SWAY Headbands are from this community. The rent on my 2,750 square foot space — which would cost a staggering amount in Denver or Dallas — is manageable here in a way that meaningfully changes the math of what I can build. Lower overhead is not a small thing when you are bootstrapping a product business. It is, in many cases, the thing that makes it possible at all.

Small towns also move at a human pace. I know my landlord. I know the people at the post office. I know who to call when something breaks and who will actually show up. That kind of local relationship-building sounds small but it compounds over time into a support system that a lot of city-based entrepreneurs are genuinely trying to replicate and cannot.

What Nobody Warns You About

The talent pool is smaller — and that requires creativity.

Finding people to hire in a small town is a different challenge than it is in a city. The pool is smaller. Specialized skills are harder to find locally. When I needed someone who could do the detailed handwork that my patented six-clip system requires, I could not post a job listing and expect a hundred applicants. I had to build relationships, train people, and create flexible schedules that worked for the women in my community — which, by the way, turned into one of the things I'm most proud of about SWAY. But it required me to think about hiring completely differently than a city-based business would.

You will be the only one doing what you do — and that can feel lonely.

There is no one down the street who is also running an e-commerce product business from a rural town and wants to grab coffee and compare notes. There is no local entrepreneurship community to walk into on a Tuesday morning. The isolation — not geographic, but professional — is real, and it is something rural entrepreneurs do not talk about enough. I found my people online, in small business communities, in women entrepreneur groups, and eventually through events like the Colorado SBDC Small Business Summit. But I had to go looking. They were not going to find me in Yuma.

Local resources exist but you have to hunt for them.

I won a 2024 Logan County Startup Colorado Pitch Grant. I have been invited to speak at state business events. There are resources for rural small business owners in Colorado — and I suspect in most states — but they are not always easy to find and they are not going to come knocking. You have to research, apply, show up, and ask. The resources are there. The discoverability is the problem.

Shipping logistics are just harder.

This one is practical and unsexy but worth saying: when you are not near a major distribution hub, shipping costs more and takes longer. I have worked hard to make SWAY's fulfillment as fast and affordable as possible for my customers, but I would be dishonest if I said location has zero impact on the logistics side of the business. It does. You plan for it, you build it into your operations, and you move on — but know it going in.

What I Know Now That I Really Wish I Had Known Then

If I could sit down with myself on the day I decided to turn SWAY from a prototype into a real business, here is what I would say:

Your location is part of your story, not an obstacle to it. Lean into it earlier than feels comfortable. The made-in-rural-Colorado, woman-owned, flexible-jobs-for-women angle is not a footnote — it is a differentiator. Customers care about where things come from and who made them. Tell that story loudly and tell it often.

Build your online presence like your business depends on it — because it does. For a rural product business, your website, your SEO, your email list, and your social media are your storefront, your foot traffic, and your word of mouth all rolled into one. Invest in them early. Do not treat them as things you will get to later.

Find your community outside your zip code. Other women entrepreneurs, other small product businesses, other rural founders — they exist and they are generous and they are often just as hungry for connection as you are. Seek them out online. Join the groups. Show up to the events even when it means driving two hours. It is worth it every single time.

The overhead advantage is real — use it strategically. Lower rent and lower cost of living give you a runway that city-based competitors do not have. Do not fritter that advantage away. Use it to reinvest in the business, to keep prices competitive, to weather slow seasons, and to take calculated risks you could not afford otherwise.

Apply for everything. Grants, pitch competitions, small business awards, press features, speaking opportunities — apply for all of it. The worst that happens is a no, and small towns and rural businesses are genuinely underrepresented in these spaces. Show up and take up space.

"Building something big from a small place is not a contradiction. It's a statement. And the statement gets louder every time you ship another order."

Yuma, Colorado is a small town. SWAY Headbands is a big idea. Those two things have never been in conflict — not for a single day. And if you are out there somewhere, sitting in your own small town with your own big idea, wondering if where you are is going to hold you back: it is not. Get started.

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