Since start-up funding and growth financing for small- and medium-sized businesses has been in such short supply these past couple years, I thought posting about this CNNMoney.com / Fortune Small Business article on finding novel local investment would be a welcome change.

The article, originally published earlier in September, is about owners of several types of small businesses which opened, recovered, or expanded during the current economic crunch because local patrons were willing to invest in their favorite local businesses. Several types of money raising programs are discussed, including VIP cards/treatment for shareholders, $600 store and restaurant certificates sold for $500 (20% is a pretty good ROI), as well as “shares”.

Businesses showcased include restaurants, bookstores, pub/bar, and a fair-trade retail gift store. The focus of these financing efforts is on encouraging customers to become patrons or shareholders. And shareholders are a loyal customer base. Local shareholders feel vested in the company and want you to succeed.

Look to your customer base and your community. Including them as participants in your business and fostering a buy-local awareness could bring you that shot-in-the-arm financial boost to success.

Read the entire Love a local business? Buy a share article.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software

Tags: community, existing business, financing, funding, investment, new business, news, patronage, shareholders
Posted on September 29th, 2009 | No Comments »

On their Small Business page CNN.Money.com has published some interesting stories on small businesses in the U.S. who are feeling the credit crunch and how they are responding.

One page has a series of vignettes of small business efforts to cope. Business owners discuss many problems and solutions from moving their business locations, late accounts receivables, stunted growth, evaporating markets, to loss of lines-of-credit.

A longer article also discusses the problems businesses are facing in the current credit freeze. One family business was forced to close, another small business found local funding when big banks balked, and still another has had to turn away sales because no bank will fund their facilities expansion.

For many years home equity provided start-up and working capital for millions of U.S. businesses. In Hurdle: The Book on Business Planning, President and Founder of Palo Alto Software Tim Berry says:

Why do we say that banks are the most likely source of small-business financing? Because small-business owners borrow from banks. A great deal of small-business financing is accomplished through bank loans based on the business owner’s personal collateral, such as home ownership. Some would say that home equity is the greatest source of small-business financing.

However, this may no longer be the case as another article on CNN Money discusses how home equity as a source of small-business financing has recently changed.

All of this points out how absolutely necessary it is for business owners to focus on their planning processes every single month in managing their companies’ cash flow.

Steve Lange
Senior Editor
Palo Alto Software

Tags: , Cash Flow, credit, financing, loans
Posted on October 27th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Good, solid, well-thought-through cash-flow planning just became all the more important. The New York Times reported in a 28 July 2008 article, Worried Banks Sharply Reduce Business Loans, how banks nationwide have clamped down on loans and lines of credit to businesses.

“Financial industry executives say tighter credit from major banks represents a swing back to a realistic assessment of risk, after years of handing out money with abandon,” says the NYT. This new aversion to lending to businesses is putting a damper on the expansion and growth of business and industry alike.

Here’s where realistic cash-flow planning proves its worth. With it, businesses can moderate their yearly goals, adjust their accounts receivable and payables, keep tighter inventory control (such as just-in-time ordering), and weather the current financial storm without having to borrow money.

With a history of well-documented planning, correct accounting, and plan vs. actual analysis, coupled with well-considered course adjustments, a business which does need to borrow can overcome the reticence of newly risk-averse banks.

Without realistic cash-flow planning, you can be a profitable, successful business and still be bankrupt.

Business Plan Pro, published by Palo Alto Software, is the tool for planning and managing your business’ cash-flow. Use it to sail the stormy waters of this tempestuous economy. And if your planning process shows you will need to borrow money, Business Plan Pro can produce the plan and report documents you need to successfully navigate the reefs and shoals of bank financing. Show them that this is a planned part of the voyage, not just a desperate cash-dash to any port in the storm.

Steve Lange
Senior Editor
Palo Alto Software

Tags: , banking, business planning, Cash Flow, financing, loans
Posted on August 19th, 2008 | No Comments »