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Want to know how social media will help you grow your business? Amazingly, many small business owners continue to doubt the effectiveness of social media sites as a marketing or better yet a sales tool. Here we look at some of the ways social media achieves the same results we might expect from more traditional techniques aimed at building your business's sales Read More

Want to understand your business from an investor's point of view? Than read this post from Fred Wilson about risk and return. Seeing how investors view the world, and more importantly how they see the concept of risk and return, may help you see your business in a different light and understand how to create a situation investors feel more comfortable with allowing you to raise the funding you need. Read More

You know the power of social media. But can you use it wisely? Dishonesty, deception, unethical behavior and tactics. The dark side are they. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Enter the most unlikely character to teach us the importance of using the social media correctly for PR and marketing. Listen, young Jedi, and learn... Read More

Are investors like produce suppliers to the restaurant that is your business? Think about this for a moment and then read the post by Venture Capital investor Brad Feld relating this interesting metaphor. I'm not sure I really agree with it completely. Though this may be because my brain keeps getting tangled around the idea that a restaurant as a business would pay for its produce. But what Brad is suggesting here is that we forget the idea of the restaurant as a business and look at it as a metaphor for your business. Just as your business can't make products or create services at a certain level without capital so a restaurant couldn't make dishes without ingredients brought by produce suppliers Read More

Whether it's here at BizSugar or on any other social media community, commitment is key and passionate users will always get more out of the experience. Just ask our own BizSugar "groupie" Heidi Kalman whose great posts inspired this one Read More

While 41 percent of private companies in the U.S. are owned by women, only 3to 5 percent receive Venture Capital, the high profile funding often associated with major startups especially in the technology industry. Nick Leiber makes the case for more women partners for Venture Capital firms as one possible remedy Read More

Raising venture capital may not be something every small business owner or entrepreneur would consider. But for those who need financing for their next venture, this article from the Wall Street Journal can serve as a partial check list to prepare for the process of seeking VC investment. Not surprisingly, perhaps, is the need to target the right VC to approach with your idea Read More

Just like produce at your favorite supermarket or farmer’s market, content and information introducing you and your expertise to members of your social media community, whether BizSugar or any other, must be tantalizing enough to make visitors want to return again and again and of sufficient quality to inspire trust on the part of potential clients and customers about the quality you offer.
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When raising capital for your next business venture, think about the shorter term early exit strategy as a possible approach. Ben Yoskovitz explains this strategy involving a lower initial capital investment and an exit by the founder in 3 to 5 as opposed to 7 to 10 years owning a considerably bigger piece of the company. Ben says early exits are more popular with angels and founders than with VCs, who prefer to invest larger amounts over a longer period. Still, Ben adds, the early exit venture offers the opportunity for a founding entrepreneur to get out early with what he calls "life changing money" and the chance for an angel investor to see a rapid and excellent return Read More

We're seeing from sources that the massive financial reform package passed recently by the U.S. Senate will not negatively impact investment in the small business and entrepreneurship community. Time will tell. Tighter regulation might certainly tend to further tighten bank lending but perhaps this isn't the best source of business financing anyway ... Read More