Among all the many funding options for small business owners, some types of government and private programs tend to get lost in the mix. One opportunity that is sorely needed in today’s market, and that some eligible entrepreneurs might not know about, is an option for America’s many veterans and military staffers. The Patriot Express Loan Program was created to serve these individuals as they attempt to re-integrate into the economy and build their own contributions to the American small business landscape.

What Is the Patriot Express Loan Program?
The Patriot Express Loan Program is offered through the U.S. Small Business Administration [...]

Small business owners and operators take note: if your business could profit from a new phone system, you may be able to win new technology for your enterprise at no cost, but you’ll need to act quick. The Phone-a-saurus video contest from Toshiba ends in about a week.

 
What is the Phone-a-saurus Contest?
The Toshiba Phone-a-saurus contest is a competition sponsored by laptop and electronics maker Toshiba that’s advertised on the company’s Facebook page and other areas of the Web. The tech company is offering businesses with outdated telecom systems a chance to upgrade for free, asking competitors to send in a [...]

When new entrepreneurs ask experienced business consultants or other seasoned professionals about academic choices, one of their main questions is very often related to how an investment in further education will affect the bottom line of their existing business operations. Business leaders looking to go back to school have to weigh the pros and cons of any given program, where an MBA represents a training choice with a rather long time horizon – that’s time away from the business and money that can be spent toward assets, growth or expansion, or debt reduction. So it makes sense to ask: “will [...]

Some small business owners have been blessed with a financially stable life. They begin their business with a good credit rating and lenders quite willingly hand out large sums of money for investment. However, some business owners have lived working from paycheck to paycheck. These small business owners have amazing ideas, abundant passion and enthusiasm, but are often overlooked. Traditional banks and lenders won’t give business owners in this position the time of day. As well, non-traditional funding sources such as private investment from family and friends may be tapped. If you are a small business owner in this position, [...]

Sometimes, American entrepreneurs can feel like they’re in their struggles all alone. After all, if you’re a small business owner, it’s your name on the loans, your signature on the dotted line, and you are in charge of making the tough decisions about how to go forward. But in an economic environment where the federal government understands that supporting new and emerging enterprises is paramount to the country’s success in climbing back out of a major recession, politicians and government leaders are trying to let startup leaders and small business owners know they’re not alone.

Hearing Small Business Owners and Crafting [...]

Most small business owners have considered the specific differences between hiring an employee and employing an independent contractor to do a job. However, not every startup leader or small enterprise owner thinks about the liabilities of independent contractors as part of the equation. Usually, small business leadership thinks of independent contractors as less risky and less expensive. After all, there’s no desk to fill, no salary to pay, and none of those pesky benefits that have many small business owners delaying actual employee hiring until after the ongoing healthcare reform debacle is finally addressed once and for all by the [...]

It’s not Angie’sList, although at first glance it might look similar. A new kind of social media project called AngelList is renovating the ways that small business leaders can access capital from possible investors .
Babak Nivi and Naval Ravikant partnered a website called Venture Hacks that provided valuable advice to small business owners. What they found was that many of these entrepreneurs had trouble getting money from investors because of rules about who can invest in certain kinds of startups. When interviewed by NPR in recent weeks, Ravikant said that the problem is local access to funding for people who [...]

Many budding entrepreneurs often fail to realize their dreams due to a single formidable obstacle – funding. Starting a business is likely the largest investment of capital you will make in your lifetime. Unlike stocks or mutual funds, which can be purchased with a comparatively small amount of cash, a new business requires a large investment upfront which won’t be recovered until several years later. Even then, there is no guarantee that you will earn back your principal. However, with a disciplined plan, you can carefully project startup costs so you don’t overspend in your initial investment.
Startup costs are categorized [...]

The nation diligently awaits the signing of the new JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act by President Obama. This conglomeration of measures is designed to boost the nation’s dwindling number of startups, small businesses, and entrepreneurs. The good news is it’s the first financial matter thing in a long time that both parties have agreed upon without too much fuss. It still remains to be seen if this is just a seat saving action of an election year or not.
This bill that seems to have escaped news media headlines actually has some pretty strong supporters, including the Small Business and [...]

Importance of Effectively Managing Business Cash Flows
Regardless of the industry your business operates in you’re going to have to effectively manage cash flows if you plan on keeping your business in the black. Generous business or personal savings certainly help. Applying for and receiving enough seed money to cover start-up cost of your business also helps. But these savings won’t keep your business afloat indefinitely.
At some point your business is going to have to start generating a profit, enough money to allow you to continue to operate the business during the lag time between when you receive money for products [...]