The Venture Edge

 On Monday, President Obama signed into law the Small Business Jobs Act, hailed by the administration as “a great victory for America’s entrepreneurs,” and promising to provide loans that small businesses have been waiting for. The administration is hoping that doling out taxpayer money to the tune of $30 billion to community banks will ensure that small businesses will rush to increase their debt and grow their businesses, adding new jobs that are desperately needed. But not so fast...unfortunately, this tactic appears to be a solution in search of problem.

 I'm going to deviate from our small business economy posts for one post because I think it will help many of you focus your pitch about your business, whether that's a new business you're designing or one you have up and running.  Last night in my graduate tech feasibility course at USC, my VC in residence, Scott Lenet (DFJ Frontier Fund), brought his partner David Cremin to give the students a lesson in pitching to the needs of the investor.  Needless to say, it was eye-opening for many.

Have you ever wanted to know how to get your small business voice heard by the people who run your state and local governments? Amy H. Handlin PhD is deputy minority leader of the New Jersey General Assembly and associate professor of marketing at Monmouth University in New Jersey. She recently wrote a book -- Be Your Own Lobbyist: How to Give Your Small Business Big Clout with State and Local Government (Praeger, 2010) -- which contains valuable information for how small business owners and executives can get heard by government decision-makers by using the same tactics professionals employ. The following guest post -- 7 Lobbying Mistakes Small Businesses Make (And What to Do Instead) -- was written by Amy Handlin, a woman who has made ethics and open government her top legislative priorities during the course of 20 years in state and local government.  

Whether or not you like Obama's health care reforms, the resulting law is (still) in effect, and it is beginning to have tangible financial impacts on business -- impacts that you should be aware of.  

With only a few weeks until a very important mid-term election, Peter and I decided to focus our next several posts on critical political and regulatory issues impacting entrepreneurs and small businesses for the foreseeable future. We’re not going to take political sides but rather deal with the truth—just the facts, folks. Let me start by saying that uncertainty is clearly the word of the day and the entrepreneurs and business owners I talk to around the country are all singing the same tune—no major commitments until we know where things are going. 

While many retailers have determined that offering shoppers as wide a choice as possible is the best way to get consumers to part with their hard-earned money (a typical grocery store, for example, carries 50,000 different products), some highly successful businesspeople are doing these companies one better. They're doing this by giving customers the ability to customize products to their exact specifications.

There are plenty of articles out there on the biggest mistakes you don't want to make when you start a business.  In fact, I've probably written one or two of them, but at least I can proudly say I actually committed a few of those mistakes so I know for a fact they're mistakes you shouldn't make.  What disappoints me is when a consultant ( an entrepreneur wannabe and professional service provider) who does business plans and financial projections for startups claims to be an expert on the subject and completely misses perhaps two of the biggest reasons new businesses fail.