Financing
There are lots of small business owners out there that are living life on the edge: They have little to no health insurance.
They figure they're pretty healthy, so they can save money by paying doctors for routine visits out of pocket. But what if they get a serious illness?
Most of you out there figure you'll go to the hospital, get the treatment you need to get nursed back to health and then deal with the bills as they come in. Hospitals, especially nonprofits, have to treat people, right?
Think again.
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| Richard Drew / AP |
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It may sound crazy, but one entrepreneurial experts thinks a recession is a great time to launch a new business.
“The one predictable way to achieving financial success is to own a business,” claims Bill Bartmann, the author of "Billionaire Secrets to Success.” “The current economic landscape is a most opportune time to start a new business. It is all about applying basic common sense.”
Is this man just a nutcase or does he know of what he speaks?
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Craigslist is being sued by eBay because it claims it’s management team “unfairly diluting” its holdings in Craigslist.
The online auction site has had a nearly 30 percent stake in the classifed-ad Web site since 2004.
The two companies are essentially competitors, but EBay, with thousands of employees, dwarfs Craigslist, which only has about 20.
And it’s a whole different mentality over at Craigslist.
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If you are a small business owner who wants to land a government contract, you are not allowed to have venture capital dollars pumping into your company.
For some reason, that’s the way it’s been. Perhaps it was supposed to be a way to level the playing field, so small companies weren’t really deep-pocketed big companies in disguise.
But a bill that would eliminate the restriction, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Small Business Committee, was passed by the House this week. And that has some small business advocates up in arms.
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Richard W.C. Lin says he “ain’t Rockefeller, nor Gates, nor Buffet.”
So, when he passes his New York State property casualty exam, which he’s taking this month, he’ll need money to be able to set up his insurance practice.
Since banks are getting tougher when it comes to lending money, especially to budding, new small business owners, he figures his best bet would be a Small Business Administration loan.
Well buddy, it might not be that easy.
SBA lending is down, nearly 14 percent, and the answer for why is different depending on whom you talk to.
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I’m in love with my accountant.
Actually, it’s not a "Pride & Prejudice" kind of love. I really don’t know the guy that well, but he does my taxes. Something I would never want to go solo on.
But I applaud small business owners who are able to go it alone. That’s great. You save lots of money and control your own tax destiny.
I don’t want that kind of responsibility, honestly.
Turns out most business owners are as chicken as I am.
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| Tim Boyle / Getty Images file |
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Beware all you cheating small business tax filers out there.
The IRS has ramped up its technological capabilities and is using it’s gigantic data base to sniff out businesses and individuals trying to pull a fast one on the federal government.
There’s a great story in InfoWorld last week that talks about how the IRS is using its uber data warehouse and is “able to discover areas where tax cheating had become rampant, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, or small-business tax shelters.”
This at a time when IRS audits of small firms that make under $10 million annually is on the rise, up to 20,020 in 2007 from 17,871 the previous year.
So what’s an entrepreneur to do?
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I was shopping at my local fishmonger the other day and my jaw dropped when I saw the price of Rockfish went up nearly $2 a pound.
I didn’t say anything but one of the owners caught my shocked facial expression and rushed over to say two words, “gas prices.”
We both shook our heads in quiet understanding. But I still went on to protest a bit about the size of the jump in fish prices.
It was easy for me to see the prices for all the items at the fish shop. There are only about 20 to 25 products sold at the small bare-bones store, and prices are written on a blackboard.
I realized at that moment I was being a bit unfair. When I walk into a giant supermarket or department store it’s harder to figure out right away whether price tags have been jacked up. And there’s probably no one in power to complain to even if I did notice.
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I live right outside of downtown Wilmington in a suburb that’s overloaded with retail stores because Delaware is the land of tax-free shopping, so folks on the Pennsylvania border flock here.
When I need to buy a book fast this is what I do.
I drive down the main suburban retail drag and go to Borders. When they don’t have what I want – which is typical because none of these big box stores stock variety anymore – I go to the Barnes & Noble a few blocks down and check for the book. When that turns up nothing, I head to my favorite bookstore, the Ninth Street Book Shop, which is right downtown but is the farthest away.
It’s an independent store and tends to have a more eclectic mix of books.
Well, when I heard Borders was putting itself up for sale and that Barnes & Noble is considering buying its competitor, I immediately thought this would be good news for Jack and Gemma Buckley, who own the Ninth Street Book Shop.
I was wrong.
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I got a call last week from a source at the national Better Business Bureau and she wanted to get the word out about how some small firms are getting scammed by Internet loan companies.
With banks tightening credit, small business owners are scrambling to find other sources for loans to build their business or just to keep their heads above water.
The Internet, as usual, is where a lot of you have turned.
Even the Wall Street Journal did a story last week on how entrepreneurs are turning to online networks to get loans. I don’t blame you all. You have to find other sources, and it makes sense to turn to the Web.
But that doesn’t mean you throw all your common sense out of the window and turn into a cyber-space cadet.
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