Whenever I find an article about innovative or alternative financing, it's worth sharing. Creative financing has never been more needed as businesses seek to preserve and protect their franchise. While these alternatives may not be applicable to your business, use this information to jumpstart your creative juices to consider different…
The Obama Administration is considering additional assistance for struggling small businesses. A large part of the focus is on creating additional liquidity for small businesses. Among the ideas is a direct underwriting program to support loans to small business. You can read more about it here.
I have written several posts lately about the value of business plans and the nature of the pitch to raise money.The MIT Sloan Management Review weighs in with a new article Why Business Plans Don't Deliver which offers some ideas about how to avoid the common pitfalls.In short, the article…
This month's issue of CFO magazine included an article, Tripped Up, about the many companies that are violating their loan covenants and offers some ideas about how to avoid those pitfalls.
Angels invested more than $19 Billion in 2008 according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. The NY Times published an article today reporting the resuls ... what many of us have been saying all along: THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PREPARATION! Authenticity is more…
Wow! According to a NY Times report, a recent study at the University of Maryland found that business plans really don't matter! Their study found that VC's pay little attention to the business plan and rely upon their instincts, networks and other sources to vet business plans and assess the…
The Wall St. Journal reports today on growing tension at venture-backed companies over whether to save money to reduce risk or invest to take advantage of new opportunities. You can never gain enough perspective on this issue, which represents one of the most pervasive struggles faced by growing businesses, and…
Impressing your bank less important than being able to hit targetsThe Scavenger’s Daughter? Might be the name of a lost Dickens novel … or an indulgent misnomer for a the infamous rack that not only stretched but crushed its victims during the reign of King Henry VIII.
Thumbscrews, pilliwinks, breaks and the tormento de toca were other methods used to punish those that broke their “covenant” with the King.
Fortunately, those punishments are relegated to history’s ash heap … at least I’m pretty sure that banks aren’t using any of these default provisions.
Compliance with financial covenants, however, has never been more important. Today, banks have an arsenal of covenant choices that are used as an early warning system to alert participants to potential problems that may jeopardize their financial well-being.
It’s important to recall that covenants are based upon (more…)
Many of us wonder if the Administration's new Small Business program will work, or be too little too late? It's a wonder that it's taken so long to focus on the source of the largest job creation engine we have, the source of more than 70% of new jobs. $15B…