White House Offers Help to Small Businesses: Some Say Not Enough |  |
- White House Offers Help to Small Businesses: Some Say Not Enough
- Ryan Caldbeck of CircleUp: Investing In Small Business with Crowdfunding
- Sales: They Bounce Like That
- Amazon Rolls Out Same-Day Delivery
| White House Offers Help to Small Businesses: Some Say Not Enough Posted: 13 Jul 2012 11:00 AM PDT President Obama offered some small steps this week that aim to help small businesses access loans and tax credits more easily.
Though this may be a step in the right direction, many have criticized the White House because some of the initiatives included in the new package were part of an executive order that had already been made by the Obama administration. Because of this, the program, formerly known as the Small Loan Advantage, has been dubbed SLA 2.0. The purpose of the re-launched SLA 2.0 is to raise the maximum loan amount to small businesses from $250,000 to $350,000 and to streamline the loan process, making it easier for lenders to offer loans to small businesses. Other parts of the new initiative call for changing the process for businesses looking to obtain surety bond guarantees under $250,000, accelerating payments to subcontractors who deal with the federal government, and cutting down the application process for the SBA's Disaster Loan Program. President Obama has also asked Congress to consider a measure that would allow small businesses to write off up to $250,000 in capital investments, including machinery and equipment, in 2013. This measure is intended to increase productivity and help spur growth. While these steps may greatly help certain businesses, such as construction companies and those who have government contracts, many are worried that they won't offer enough help to the millions of other businesses struggling through the recession. The President and members of Congress have been in a heated debate over middle class tax cuts and those that may affect some small businesses. The President wants to only cut taxes for those Americans making less than $250,000 per year, but some argue that not extending those cuts to more Americans will hurt small businesses and make them unable to create jobs and help the economy recover. However, the White House's announcement reminds Americans of the 18 small business tax cuts and numerous other measures the President has put into place in order to help small businesses. For more information about the Small Loan Advantage program, you can visit the Small Business Association's website. And for information on all of the President's new executive orders pertaining to small businesses, you can view the White House's official announcement. Obama Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Ryan Caldbeck of CircleUp: Investing In Small Business with Crowdfunding Posted: 13 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT There’s good news for small business. If you operate a small business, by now you know how challenging it can be to find investors. The good news is that all of this is about to change. Ryan Caldbeck, CEO and Founder of CircleUp, joins Brent Leary to share his solution, a crowdfunding platform for the small business industry. * * * * *
Ryan Caldbeck: Sure, I spent the last seven years in consumer focused private equity. I was investing in private consumer companies above $10 million in revenue. What I notice is that there are hundreds of investment firms around the county that will invest in larger consumer businesses, but almost none that will invest in smaller ones. We started CircleUp to focus on that smaller end of the market, which is less efficient and a great place for investors to make money. Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a little bit about crowdfunding in general? Ryan Caldbeck: The basic concept of crowdfunding is a lot of individuals coming together to achieve a common goal. That can take the form of individuals donating money to a company or to a cause, which is the most common form of crowdfunding. Or, it can take the place of individuals investing and receiving equity or debt in a company. Small Business Trends: How does CircleUp play in the crowdfunding area? Ryan Caldbeck: CircleUp is the largest equity based crowdfunding site in the county. We have a group of accredited investors, because today the only investors that are allowed to invest in private companies are accredited investors. The investors on our site are excited to invest in small consumer and retail businesses. Companies that have more than a million dollars in revenue, but again are too small for institutional investors. They come on to our site and find an opportunity that they like. We have an investor overview and can sign the legal documents on our site, wire money through our sites and become equity owners in that business. Small Business Trends: Can you take us through some of the other mechanics of how CircleUp works? Ryan Caldbeck: We believe strongly in curating the companies that are on our platform. We think that the investors that come to CircleUp are looking for really high quality investment opportunities, and we want to present those opportunities to the investors after they have passed our own curation as professional investors. The investor comes on to the site and can read an investor presentation and ask questions directly to the CEO. That is one of the features we think is really an important innovation in private investing. Small Business Trends: What makes a good candidate for a company looking for capital on CircleUp? Ryan Caldbeck: The number one criteria is, “Do we think that there is a great opportunity for investors to make money?” We look at:
Small Business Trends: How long would it take for them to go from being a good candidate to potentially getting some investment money? Ryan Caldbeck: When we launched, we anticipated it would take 90 days or so to raise money. In the offline world these companies typically take 12 to 18 months. On CircleUp what we found is so far is it's actually taking more like 4 to 5 weeks, which has been surprising how quickly these companies have gotten funding. Small Business Trends: How much on average can a company expect to get in an investment capital? Ryan Caldbeck: Our target right now is to help companies that are raising somewhere between $250,000 and a million, maybe a million and a half. We can raise more if we want to. But one of the things that we are cautious of is if there is a company that's raising, let's say $5 million dollars, or $10 million dollars, on the consumer product space what we know as former investors is that if the company only has a million dollars in revenue and it is raising 10 million bucks, that is a very bad situation for a consumer products company. It might work for technology companies, but it doesn't work for a food business. Small Business Trends: Can you talk a little bit about how you make sure you get the right investors? Ryan Caldbeck: Number one, the SEC requires all investors and private companies are accredited investors. An accredited investor is someone who makes more than $200,000 dollars a year as an individual, $300,000 dollars a year as a couple, or a million dollars in assets, excluding their homes. We also recruit individual investors that are excited about consumer companies. We think we're building a platform that brings more to the table than just capital. Now the company has investors that aren't just writing a check, but can also add value. Small Business Trends: On average, only about 2% of the companies who are looking to get up on CircleUp are accepted. Do give the others advice on how they can make it in the future? Ryan Caldbeck: We spend a lot of time doing that. It is not just because we hope they come back to CircleUp. We just think it is the right thing to do. Small Business Trends: How significant will crowdfunding be in the future? Ryan Caldbeck: My view is that crowdfunding will be really important in some industries, but not in all. A good example is technology companies. If you are in an early stage, tech startup, especially in Silicon Valley, and you can't raise money from Angels or VC firms, that is a very bad sign. But there are other industries, and consumers is just one of them. Where there is no kind of efficient fund raising community, I think crowdfunding will help those companies and will allow investors to invest in the best companies. This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.
From Small Business Trends This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 13 Jul 2012 05:00 AM PDT
I conceived this cartoon while inking another with a precipitous sales drop. After drawing the line for the steep decline, I thought it might be fun if it had picked up some momentum. I drew the three little bounces and a quick approximation of this caption on the side of the paper and finished up the original cartoon I’d been working on. It’s not often that one of your own pieces inspires another, but I’ve learned to never look a gift cartoon in the caption. From Small Business Trends |
| Amazon Rolls Out Same-Day Delivery Posted: 13 Jul 2012 02:30 AM PDT A push for same-day delivery by the online mega-retailer may hurt local brick and mortar stores, worrying some in the small business community. However, there’s another side of the story. The trend toward online retail will also benefit small online merchants, and not all the local brick and mortar businesses at risk are moms and pops. Up the AmazonOut WalMarting WalMart. Buy a $1,000 laptop at a big box store, and you’ll pay sales tax, bringing the cost up to $1,100 at checkout. So Amazon, which collects no sales tax in most states, already has the biggest brick and mortar retailer beat. But the online retailer seems willing to give all of that up for an even bigger advantage. Slate Instant gratification. Amazon is introducing same-day delivery and here are the details from the company’s main site. Some are concerned the development may be a final nail in the coffin for local brick and mortar retail as e-commerce success grows. Amazon.com Liquidating local. The change could easily devastate physical retailers. Same-day delivery has been a Holy Grail of sorts for online retailers because it is the last advantage physical stores have against encroaching e-commerce. Up until now, if a customer needed a product or service immediately they had little choice but to buy it locally. Gizmodo The Biggest LoserBreaking the chains. But as it turns out, the local stores that may be most affected by the acceleration of e-commerce may not be small mom and pop businesses at all. In fact, the businesses most threatened by the surge in e-commerce including small online merchants may be the very big boxes that put small local businesses on the defensive in the first place. All Things Digital Retail RevolutionE-commerce expansion. While the explosion of retail on the Web is spelling trouble for some brands, others are seeing greater reach than ever before. Take beach-themed outfitter Tommy Bahama. The company’s global e-commerce platform will capture markets previously out of reach.Your business might discover similar opportunities. Chicago Tribune Google searches for your store. The search engine company is doing its part to help online merchants large and small with a pilot “Search as You Type” program. For more on how the new search feature will help online merchants, read the full post from Google and watch the video. Google Commerce Delivering the details. Amazon and the US Post Office are making it even easier for shoppers seeking to overcome one of the larger barriers to shopping online: having packages sit on the front door step all day. Both organizations have programs designating deliveries to a lock box with a special PIN number that allows shoppers to open the box upon delivery. Better Business Bureau From Small Business Trends |
Small Business Trends: Ryan can you tell us a bit about your background before we jump into crowdfunding?
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