“Deep-pocketed investors often set aside money to buy into private equity funds.  Such investments tend to be riskier but can generate higher returns than stocks or bonds.  Here are some of the key players and terms in the world of private equity investments. • Private equity firms: A broad category.  It includes venture capitalists and buyout specialists who raise money from limited partners and use it to help companies develop products and markets. • Limited partners: Investors in venture capital or buyout funds.  These are typically pension funds, foundations, university endowments, insurance companies, or wealthy individuals. • Venture capital firms: Firms that use their investment funds to finance start-ups, often in their early stages and typically in the technology, life sciences, or telecommunications fields. • Buyout firms: They usually raise larger funds and invest them in more mature, later-stage companies of all kinds, often taking controlling interests and sometimes … [Read more...]

If there were any doubt that women owners are an ever-growing force on the independent business scene, new studies of leading female entrepreneurs around the world supplies incontrovertible proof. The National Foundation for Women Business Owners (NFWBO) has been hard at work, researching the small business climate for women and identifying strong trends. Fifty Top Women Show Trends In one study done jointly with IBM, the NFWBO used as its subjects 50 top women business owners (plus 10 more up-and-coming) to compile these findings: These women owners cover a wide range of industry categories, for example: 27 percent in manufacturing, 25 percent in retail trade, and 10 percent in real estate. Slightly less than half (46 percent) of these women inherited their businesses, and more than half began their own: 34 percent by themselves, and 17 percent with others. As a group, the study subjects generate $139 billion in revenue and employ more than 150,000 workers. And, the numbers keep … [Read more...]

The telephone rings, the caller receives a message welcoming them, then she is asked to dial the extension of the person she wants to talk to. Since she doesn’t know the extension, she has to wait and listen to the office directory; then presses the extension number only to discover that the person being called is not there. Most Americans have called a credit card company, their bank or any other large company only to get lost in the maze with no way of talking to an actual person. Then there is the “hold music,” the commercial while you wait, with more “amusements” popping up all the time. Who knows what the future holds in telephone communication. While it used to be that the telephone was a visitor’s first contact with your business, that tradition is changing. Now it is your Web site. Today’s busy buyer now goes to the Internet to look for whatever he or she is considering purchasing. It is even easier for potential clients or customers to find your telephone number from your … [Read more...]

The following appeared in a study, Financial Difficulties of Small Businesses and Reasons for Their Failure, prepared for the Small Business Administration (SBA). They are statements made by individuals whose business was in financial difficulty and subsequently failed. Their comments are listed under the stated reason for failure. Tax Troubles IRS stepped in and took over the bank account. The IRS threatened to repossess [our] tools of trade if [we] did not pay the $20,000 back taxes immediately. When the IRS agent told us that they will put padlocks on our doors if we can't come up with the money in one month. Pressure from IRS. The IRS is "merciless." IRS was attempting to reach the non-debtors wife's income (i.e., levy) for the tax liabilities, which all preceded her marriage to the debtor. The IRS changed the locks on the business, and the business had to declare bankruptcy in order for the owners to be able to even get into the building. Personal Profiles Bank was not … [Read more...]