4 Ways to Support Your Small Business with Personal Funds
It’s getting tougher for small businesses to find startup capital. Big banks want nothing to do with unproven upstarts—it’s all about “validation.” Conflicting laws make it difficult to raise money from small investors without forgoing public solicitation—a catch-22 for entrepreneurs without deep personal and professional networks. And any funds that do happen to fall into…
Read More7 Referral Marketing Strategies to Boost Your Business
Referral marketing is a new twist on word of mouth marketing—one of the oldest and most effective means of promoting practically any type of product or service. According to a recent study of small business owners conducted by Verizon and Small Business Trends, 85 percent of small businesses credit word of mouth as the number…
Read MoreLeadership Skills: 5 Key Ingredients of Courageous Leaders
A great leader knows how to get the best out of their people. Through strong, clear guidance, they enable others to walk tall and achieve success in many ways. Courageous leaders are inspirational. That isn’t their ambition. It’s simply a positive by-product of their character and powerful work ethic. By following the example a good…
Read More10 Reasons Angel Investors Don’t Like Your Plan
Once again, for the eighth year in a row, I’m involved as an angel investor with the Willamette Angel Conference and screening investments. We’ll announce a decision in May, and between now and then, we’re looking at startups. About a fourth of them get what we call due diligence, and about half of those become finalists,…
Read More4 Times a Short-Term Business Loan is Right for You
Every business owner has run into cash flow challenges, whether you need more money to grow your business or to meet the operational day-to-day expenses that pop up. If your customer income isn’t covering your business’s financial needs for a period of time, a short-term business loan may be one option to consider. Here’s a…
Read MoreThe Secret to Putting Your Best Foot Forward
How do you perform at your best? How do you start and finish your day with an attitude that looks forward to the next thing? The following secret is used by top executives around the world as a means to keep a clear vision while staying in check with who they are and when they…
Read MoreHow Are You Sharpening Your Saw?
Are you consciously sharpening your saw every day? Maybe it’s just because I’m living through it, but I truly believe that there’s never been an era that has experienced the rate of change that we’re enjoying/enduring now. It presents us with some remarkable opportunities to explore new tactics and tools but it also presents us…
Read MoreA Note to the Small Businesses Still Not Mobile Optimized
Believe me, I get it. An inveterate slacker who tends to view any sort of change with a wary eye, I understand how difficult it can be to embrace new technologies, especially as a small business with limited resources. But we’re halfway through 2016 and the world has clearly gone mobile, yet almost half of…
Read MoreHow Large and Small Businesses Can Overcome the Innovation Paradox
“We need to act more like entrepreneurs, but those guys are nuts.” —a real quote from a Fortune 100 CEO In 2007, a friend and client at a Fortune 100 company asked me if I knew of an entrepreneur who could come in and present to her executive leadership team. She wanted them to experience first-hand how…
Read MoreBranding as a Catalyst for Succession Financing
As your brand moves into the next phase of its existence, the prospect of succession comes into play. When you’re prepared to retire, what will the future hold for the fine company you’ve built over the years? If you have children, have any of them shown any interest in taking over? Can they afford it?…
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