Raising Equity and Venture Capital on Main Street

One of my favorite small-business bloggers, Anita Campbell, wrote recently that the key to being successful in your small business start-up is to be very careful with how you spend money, even if it means growing very slowly. She has some no-lose advice, including being picky about adding products and features, partnerships and employees; acting like the small company you are without faking the accouterments that go with being big; looking for discounts before you buy so much as a box of paper clips; and of course focusing on growing sales.
It's hard to argue with motherhood and apple pie, and I can think of plenty of examples that prove her point. One business I know quite a bit about, a promotional products company, grew very fast with venture capital backing but quickly found itself in trouble when expenses got too high and sales didn't grow fast enough. Fortunately, the owner was […]

These days, there are more and more "mom.com" businesses popping up. An exceptional one is MitzvahMarket.com. Co-founder Sheri Lapidus is former a public relations executive who has worked at NBC-TV, CBS-TV, In Style and ELLE magazine. She answered our questions about her mission to shake up the bar mitzvah planning market.
What is MitzvahMarket.com all about and why did you start it?
MitzvahMarket.com is a free resource for bar and bat mitzvah planning families. We deliver clever, useful and entertaining ideas in a mom-to-mom tone via a twice weekly e-newsletter to hopefully make mitzvah planning more fun and less stressful. Our website houses all our unique mitzvah ideas and mitzvah project profiles, bringing inspiration to other families and awareness to the organizations that benefit. We have a vendor directory for one-stop shopping and fun mitzvah videos. My idea for MitzvahMarket.com began when I started planning for my daughter's 2010 bat mitzvah. It […]

<p>If you think that, because your business is small, you can advertise without having a defined marketing strategy, Ed Yeaker disagrees with you.</p>
<p>"In the acting business, there are no small parts, only small actors, and there is no small advertising plan, either," says Yeaker, president of Ed Yeaker Associates, Inc. Advertising and Marketing Services in White Plains, N.Y."No matter the size of the business, ad budget or extent of activity, the advertising investment is always huge."</p>
<p>Yeaker, a former adjunct marketing instructor at Pace University, offers five tips for small businesses that want to get more <i>ka-ching</i> out of their advertising.</p>
<p><b>1. Have a Clear Marketing Direction — and Stick to It.</b> "Advertising helter skelter just because of aggressive media sales reps, friends' suggestions, status and emotional appeals usually has little or no value, or even hurts the business," Yeaker says. "Every business, no matter the size, needs a planned approach to […]

Have you raised capital for your business? Whether you've done the bootstrapping route, friends and family, credit cards, angel funding or venture capital, About.com wants to hear from you. Why did you choose the capital-raising methods you did, and what were the trade-offs? What does the future of your capital raising plans look like? Share your story with About.com's community here.
Share Your Story: Strategies for Small Business Financing originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 10:17:26.
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How many of your customers have your logo tattooed on their bodies? Or camp out in front of your store for a week to get a limited edition product?
If you've figured out how to turn branding into an art form like Johnny Earle has done for his brand, Johnny Cupcakes, your customers are probably out of their minds for you, too. Listen to About.com's conversation with Earle on branding and entrepreneurship here.
A bit of background: Johnny Cupcakes sells t-shirts and other gear at three stores, two in Boston and one in Los Angeles, as well as online on the company's website and on eBay, where, by the way, the company has a 100% rating.
Johnny Cupcakes has been around since 2001 and last year rang up more than $3 million in sales. When you visit the flagship story on tony Newbury Street in Boston, you can't see the store from the […]

Jeff Morin is a Classic Small-Business Entrepreneur (CSBE). Here's how I define CSBE: someone who has deep knowledge of a market segment that is inefficient or poorly served and develops a way to correct the inefficiency — preferably without too many competitors even noticing — thus assuring higher-than-normal profit margins. That's Jeff and his Stafford, Va.-based business, Coins for Anything.
A brief background: Jeff is a 27-year-old former Marine sargeant who, at age 19, became interested in something called "challenge coins." If you're in the military, you know what challenge coins are. But most people don't. A challenge coin is a collectible coin that commemorates service in a particular military unit or mission. Jeff noticed that most of these coins were poorly designed and made and so he did what anyone would do at age 19 — not! He borrowed $500 from his mother to start a business to design and […]

I was introduced to Keith Simmons from B2Bcfo.com by my CPA. I don't often get together for a cup of coffee with a stranger, but because my accountant is someone I really trust, I decided to do it. We had no particular agenda except to see if there might be some common interests, and indeed there were. Keith is a partner in a fascinating business that helps small firms have access to expert chief financial officers on a temporary basis. His focus is Long Island and the New York metro area, but his company has partners nationwide. He answers some of my entrepreneur-focused questions here.
What are the biggest mistakes new business owners make when it comes to managing the financial side of their business?
I find fewer than 10% of all businesses-new and established-take the time to create a plan. Lack […]

Here's a book that is probably not on any entrepreneur's top 10 or even top 100 business books list, but it's one I keep on my desk just about all the time: The Portable Coach: 28 Sure Fire Strategies For Business And Personal Success by Thomas Leonard. Before his untimely death six years ago at the age of 48, Leonard was the founder of Coach University (where I received my coach training). His book is not a tool just for coaches. It's for everyone in business who wants to be happier.
Recently, I spoke at a chamber of commerce monthly meeting. In preparation I sent them a survey to see where these mostly small business owners' heads were at. Like most small business owners, this group was optimistic about the future despite the current economy, but was feeling challenged by a lack of time to think about their businesses strategically, to […]

How adept is your small business at using technology to reduce costs, increase customer relationships and grow revenue? One answer might be how familiar you are with this year's winners of TechCrunch's 2010 "Crunchies Awards." TechCrunch is one of the major sites on the web covering new Internet products. Man of the products that are recognized are in the game and social media space with little discernable application for business. But there are a number that are very cool and useful.
So test yourself on these sample award winners and honorees. Score yourself at home: each company and application you've heard of earns you a point. If you're actually using the application, give yourself five points. No cheating, please.
Here are some of the notable award winners that have application for entrepreneurs and small business.

Dropbox: "a software product that makes it easy to securely share files with other people, sync […]

How are you using technology to be more efficient, more entrepreneurial and more profitable in your business? Share your favorite innovative uses of gadgets, gizmos, applications and anything else tech with the About.com community.
Share Your Tech Story originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Saturday, January 9th, 2010 at 21:41:03.
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