Business Financing

Is There a Tech Bubble? We’ll Know If It Pops

May 2, 2012

Earlier today I posted disruption vs. revenue and the tech bubble on the gust.com blog. I’m suggesting in that post that some special-case web-based startups have to choose between disruption or revenue, because they can’t have both. That may or may not be true, but I’ve been guilty of suggesting it is to a couple [...]

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The Paradox of Profits

April 27, 2012

We take it for granted. One of the main goals of a business is making a profit. Right? Maybe not. Answer this question: What makes a business more valuable? Is it profits, or growth? Or future prospects? And then this question: Don’t you have a straight trade-off between profits and growth? Assume you have money [...]

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Can’t Get Funded? Maybe There Are Better Ways

March 7, 2012

Today I joined Ian Sigalow, Jim Estill, and Mike Edelhart on a free webinar titled “Revolution in Venture Funding.” If you’re interested, here is the link to the permanent archive: http://myventurepad.com/93875/audio-archive-revolution-venture-funding. The sizzle in this one is the idea of crowd funding: specifically, there’s a bill in congress that would loosen up restrictions on small-time [...]

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3 Financial Statements and 3 Angel Investment questions

November 4, 2011

I’ve been busy elsewhere this week, but managed to post two things I’d like to make available to you on this blog, because this is my main blog: My monthly column on entrepreneur.com came out today, summarizing the three financial guestimates every business plan needs. That one gives you a quick summary of the income [...]

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Don’t Give Your Company Away in Pieces

September 22, 2011

Too often people in startups think they’re supposed to give pieces of their company away to people who help them. They aren’t. Or they think it’s clever to pay people for services by giving away pieces of their fledgling company. It isn’t. Reserve the ownership of your company — called equity — for people who [...]

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Use Business Lines to Read Warnings in Numbers

September 15, 2011

Are you minding your business? I’ve found through the years of minding my business that most of the important insight in the numbers comes in lines, not dots. I mean that tracking the change in key indicators over time, with lines, is much more valuable than looking at them at any specific point, as a [...]

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5 Things Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Valuation

August 1, 2011

Valuation is one of those four-syllable business buzzwords you’re going to have to deal with, eventually, if you either want to start a business or own a business. If it doesn’t come up when you start, it will come up later. Here is what I think you need to know, in five short points. The [...]

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Why The Bank Won’t Finance Your Business Plan

July 27, 2011

Over the years I’ve received hundreds of emails from entrepreneurs complaining about banks not lending them money on their business plans. I just got another one this morning, and when I searched this blog I couldn’t find a post to cite as an answer. So here it is, today: Banks can’t lend you money on [...]

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5 Non-Traditional Ways to Get Startup Money

July 26, 2011

So you want to start that company but you don’t have enough of your own money to do it. Most people think you either borrow the money or find investors, but neither of these are always possible.  You won’t get investment if your company isn’t investible.  And banks can’t lend you money on faith, you [...]

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Angels vs. VCs on Business Pitches

June 20, 2011

Over the weekend I caught Business Insider’s Five VCs Explain What They REALLY Think About Your Pitches. It’s a great post, gathering points together from discussions with several high-end VCs. If you’re looking at venture capital, read it. Part of what they said reminded me that angel investors and VCs have a lot in common. [...]

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