StartupNation Blogs

Tory Johnson, frequent reporter on ABC’s Good Morning America show and anchor of the ABC NewsNow series focusing on careers asked for a little StartupNation love recently. One of her faithful fans, Natalie, of ChicSweets, asked for ideas about how to move her business forward on a variety of levels, especially in the transition from part-time [...]

The recent CIT Group news hit the franchise community late last week. One of the larger small business lenders announced, CIT Group announced it needed additional money from the government to stay affloat. The government denied their request but CIT was able to cut a deal with its creditors giving them a little more time [...]

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has now added a 100% interest free SBA backed loan with no fees attached. With so many businesses (big and small) crumbling in the current economic climate, the new loan program is an attempt by the SBA to reach [...]

Given the global recession, real estate presents new challenges and opportunities for business owners. Businesses especially are affected by the pressures of reduced demand and tighter lending criteria. The fact is, you’re challenged to do more with less.
I just moderated an expert panel on video as part of the Wells Fargo Webcast Series on this very topic [...]

It’s no secret that running a business in this economy is a challenge. But with the right smarts, you can get through the storm.
To survive you’ll have to make the most of your time (which you likely have more of as a result of less customer activity) and take into account the impact of your [...]

On a recent appearance on The Big Idea with Donny, I was one of three people on a panel. It was our role to help people fed into the show via satellite and phone.
It’s a huge challenge to be in the hot seat and be ready to fire away with valuable advice. But it’s thrilling, [...]

For those of you who run a business or are trying to get one off the ground, I bet you’ve had a run-in or two with a crisis of some kind.
It may have taken the shape of a loss of data, or a short-fall in needed cash. Perhaps it was a lawsuit or a personal [...]

As if we didn’t know it, the New York Times wrote today,
“Banks struggling to recover from multibillion-dollar losses on real estate are curtailing loans to American businesses, depriving even healthy companies of money for expansion and hiring.”
Yep, tough times. We all are well aware of the fact that everyone’s getting more conservative including customers, vendors [...]

I made a public promise on this week’s telechat with Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. The promise was to use the techniques that Dan recommends at a very high-powered sales presentation that I was to give yesterday to a big potential partner.
Well, I did [...]

Huh?
I subscribe to a daily ‘Word of the Day’ email from Merriam-Webster and the other day the word was grubstake.
grubstake \GRUB-stayk\ verb :
to provide with material assistance (as a loan) for launching an enterprise or for a person in difficult circumstances
Apparently, the word gained footing during the California gold rush, and yes it’s actually [...]