Finance
Denial About Financials Leads to Failure
The husband-and-wife team behind a struggling ice cream manufacturer enjoy the perks of being owners but won’t apply that enthusiasm to managing their finances.
A private-label ice cream manufacturer on the Texas Riviera—Lucky Licks—had a solid few years of sales, but its profits are rapidly melting away. The $5 million business is no Ben & Jerry’s, [...]
Innovative Ways to Reel in Cash
As the credit crunch makes raising financing more difficult, small business owners are finding innovative ways to reel in extra cash.
Just ask day-spa owner Eva Sztupka-Kerschbaumer, who says she recently raised $30,000 in a single day. Her Pittsburgh,-Pa. spa, ESSpa Kozmetika Organic SkinCare, needed a quick cash infusion when a $12,000 microdermabrasion machine and two [...]
9 Ways to Decrease a Company’s Employee Benefits Cost
Given the current state of the economy it is more important than ever for businesses to carefully evaluate their employee benefit programs to find ways to manage cost. Double-digit health insurance renewal increases should not be an automatic annual ritual, as there are many options available that can save your company money without sparing the [...]
Do your homework before applying for federal business loan
The federal government continues to free up millions of dollars for small business. But businesses that want to take advantage of the bounty need to do their homework and come prepared when they apply for a federal loan.
The government’s SBA program introduced the America’s Recovery Capital, or ARC, loan designed to give small businesses suffering [...]
SBA Offers Aid to Cash-Strapped
The emergency loan program launched in the past week by the Small Business Administration is designed to give established businesses some breathing room to pay principal and interest payments on existing debt.
Borrowers, however, may find it difficult to find a bank that is providing the “America’s Recovery Capital” interest-free loans.
Some big lenders including Bank of [...]
Turning Nonprofits into For-Profits
New hybrid corporate structures allow nonprofits to accept private investment without diluting their missions
The nonprofit Bikestation reached a crossroads in late 2007. Founded in Long Beach, Calif., in 1996 to design, build, and manage bike transit centers, the 10-employee organization couldn’t handle all the calls coming in on its $300,000 budget, funded mostly through [...]
Entrepreneurs Take Second Jobs to Stay Afloat
Small-business owners who are struggling to keep their companies afloat are doing anything they can to ride the recession, even taking on second jobs.
For Darren Hammond, co-owner of Chile Blossoms, a Concord, Calif., importer of peonies from Chile, the winter was particularly harsh as clients stopped paying or fell behind in payments. Sales are down [...]
