Katrina Frey just wanted to make a little extra money so she started cooking up some jellies and syrups. By selling them out of the back of her van at the local farmers market she managed to make $5,000 that year reports ABC News.
Today, after taking her venture online and moving to a building on Main Street in the small town of Stapleton, the mother of three whose husband is a farmer now grosses $50,000 a year.
John Marquis started his entrepreneurial journey four years ago in the basement of his Ogallala, Neb., home, recreating a vintage men’s fragrance. Today, six online vendors sell his Ogallala Bay Rum aftershave and cologne to customers in 50 states and 31 countries.
Marquis and Frey are rural entrepreneurs who have created thriving businesses despite the bleak economy and their out-of-the-way locations. They’re not the only ones.
In 2009, business startups in the U.S. reached their highest level in 14 years, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City organization that helps entrepreneurs. E.J. Reedy, a manager in research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation, said small businesses are up, and entrepreneurship in rural areas has been spiking too.
“Places like Nebraska, Iowa … there’s a lot of growth in that area,” he told ABCNews.com.
Photo from Swami Stream