Finance

While crowdfunding is best known for raising money for non-profits, a growing share of crowdfunding money is going to small businesses and startups. Games and gadgets are the most common type of business funded. The best known of these is Pebble, a maker of smart watches that raised over $10 million on Kickstarter.[read more]

According to the MBO Partners State of Independence study about one third of independent workers do not have health insurance.[read more]

Successful crowdfunding campaigns establish strong emotional connections with donors. People want to feel connected—and crowdfunding is a strong demonstration of that, where communities form to support campaigns that advance their shared beliefs, goals, and aspirations.[read more]

Business identity theft is on the rise. This type of theft is also called commercial or corporate theft, and just like personal identity theft, it occurs when a thief uses a business’ line of credit for himself to open offices or merchant accounts. If business identity theft goes on too long without detection, it can be difficult to recover, and a business could potentially go bankrupt.[read more]

The year's shortest month is here. But there's no shortage of tax moves to make in February. Since we've only got 28 days, it's important to focus. You don't want to turn into a tax-time Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, doing the same tax tasks over and over.[read more]

Getting your small business financially fit is a continuous goal. Here are our favorite articles of the week to help you make the most of your small business’ money. Money on the Mind: Small Biz Financial Stories of the Week 1. Are you a candidate for PO Financing?  “Manufacturing, import-export, distribution, wholesale,...[read more]

If you're just getting your brick-and-mortar business off the ground, chances are that you're already overwhelmed with finances, employees and construction. Before you can open, however, you'll need to be able to pass a safety inspection. In this post, Jay would offer tips for passing that test, from building a proper manual to employee training, so that you can ensure you open your doors on schedule.[read more]

Given that a bad credit history is not all that uncommon, don’t automatically think you are doomed from the start in obtaining a merchant account.[read more]

Due to many different responsibilities, getting payroll done can seem like a burden in some instances, albeit a very important one at that. For the business owner, be they just starting out or in business for a while now that is finding meeting payroll needs to be a challenging task, reaching out to a payroll provider can oftentimes be the right answer.[read more]

Those who have a desire to work for themselves will find that the services of an umbrella company are invaluable.  Business owners who use an umbrella company will be able to carry on with business without having to worry about dealing with administrative tasks such as tax and national insurance, which can be time consuming and...[read more]

Image via eHow.com Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” Many entrepreneurs stumble at this point, losing the deal or most of their ownership, by having no answer, saying “make me an offer,” or quoting an...[read more]

I began studying angel investing returns about 10 years ago as a result of a problem I couldn’t resolve: Are angel investors just unwitting philanthropists or legitimate entrepreneurial investors?[read more]

  If Twitter isn’t driving visits or conversions, why bother? Twitter’s direct impact on sales and traffic is still fairly small for most companies. For retailers, Twitter visits make up 0.02% of the total, with a relatively low 0.5% conversion rate. But most social channels would look similarly pathetic if measured so myopically....[read more]

A conceptual look at three different contractual risk/liability models to get a sense of how they work.[read more]

VC marketing may sound like a contradiction in terms, but trust me it’s not. Sure, as an industry we are a little late to the game, but clever VCs are catching on quick.[read more]

Short and sweet. Each of these characteristics plays a major part in whether you get that investment.[read more]

Most people, when discussing franchise business opportunities of the fitness type, think of 24-hour fitness studios. And, that’s fine. They seem to be doing pretty well. But, is this the time to invest in one?[read more]

Remember the goal is an overview presentation that will pique investor interest enough to ask for the business plan and a follow-on meeting, not close the deal on the spot. If you can’t get the message across in ten minutes, more time and more charts won’t help.[read more]

A U.S. senator kicked off the Olympics no-tax trend by introducing a bill that would exempt the value of Olympic medals and the accompanying prize money from federal taxation. Now some California legislators say the same exclusion from income should apply at their state's level.[read more]

Venture capital attorney Jennifer Hill took a few minutes with me to talk about business owners who are raising capital – and what they need to know so that they avoid making big, costly mistakes.[read more]