Turn the Table: What’s an Angel Look Like?

Angel investors, particularly those in organized angel groups, are typically former entrepreneurs who have had successful liquidity events in their pasts, or executives of companies who’ve retired with the funds from their stock options.
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Find Your Champion

If you seek funds from an organized investment group such as an angel fund, venture capital entity, or even an investment club, the first thing you want to do is to find one person to buy into your vision.
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6 Tips for Improving Your Company’s Credit Rating

Small businesses often find themselves at the mercy of creditors, and their view of your company will often be based in no small part on its credit rating. Some of the factors involved in compiling a credit rating might remain outside of your control and depend on external factors but there are ways to help give your company the best chance of achieving and maintaining a valuably solid credit rating.
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Don’t Forget Grants If You Need Early Seed Money

In the US, many entrepreneurs see grants as “free money,” since they are not loans and don’t have to be repaid. A grant is not an equity investment, so the entrepreneur doesn’t have to give up a stake in the company either. Typically they can be used to fund product development and commercialization that would otherwise require outside investors.
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The Rule of Thirds

It is rare when one person starts a company, supplies all the funding, and shares no management tasks or equity with others, and still grows the company to any significant size, worthy of a multi-million dollar opportunity to cash out at exit.
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Reality Check on Crowdfunding

I’m seeing more and more marketing showing up about so-called crowd funding these days. Sorry, but no. Not yet. Reports of crowdfunding in the U.S. are, as of today, just wishful thinking.
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Financing Short Term Assets

One problem I see all the time is businesses financing their short-term assets improperly, which greatly increases the risk to the firm and can potentially even cause it to fail. This is a serious issue, but it can be remedied by choosing an alternative financing method.
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