I completely agree with Steve King of Small Business Labs, in Is the Venture Capital Industry Broken? He says:
The news here isnt that the VC industry is broken. This has been actively discussed for years. The news is whos saying its broken.
Which is, in the flap this month, the Kauffman Foundation.
The Kauffman Foundation has long been a close friend of the VC industry. I
Various exchange traded funds (ETFs) offer investors the opportunity to gain exposure to hedge funds, and ETF providers are submitting proposals to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in an attempt to obtain approval for similar funds.
The first ETF to offer investors with exposure to hedge funds recently celebrated its third anniversary, according to a statement released by custom investment solutions provider IndexIQ.
IndexIQ created the financial instrument with the intention of providing retail investors with access to investment strategies utilized by hedge funds.
The ETF has the investment objective of the tracking the IQ® Hedge Multi-Strategy Index, before fees and expenses. T Read more…
This question was posted on my ask me page on my timberry.com site. I cant promise to answer all the questions I get, but I try, and Im particularly happy when I get one whose answer might be useful to other people. So heres a question:
Do you have any idea how to value a SaaS business? Do we use our users, growth in users, revenues, margins, or what? What do investors like to see?
My answer: Im probably a bit biased on this one because of my position in Palo Alto Software, which publishes our LivePlan SaaS offering for online business planning. But I cant say I havent thought about it. Heres what I can do to help:
Investors who are just starting out with their retirement planning efforts should seriously consider utilizing buy and hold strategies. This will help prevent them from not saving enough to retire comfortably.
Data that was recently compiled by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) indicates that only 0.2 percent of individuals who are saving for their retirements have accumulated more than $1 million in their 401(k)s, according to SmartMoney.
EBRI research director Jack VanDerhei told the news source that only 2 percent of people who are 55 or older and have been putting money into the same 401(k) plan for 20 years have accumulated more than $1 million in their retirement plan.
The equity markets have displayed substantial volatility over the last few years, but investing in the stock market still provides better average annual returns in the long run than putting the same funds into “safe” assets such as cash, bonds and cash equivalents.
Substantial evidence suggests that active management generally provides lower returns than employing buy and hold strategies. Read more…
Small, locally-owned businesses across the country are getting a boost from a new phenomenon called cash mobs. The economic counterpart to flash mobs, cash mobs are mass runs on a local business for the purpose of buying products and generating income.
The novel concept is the brain child of Buffalo blogger and engineer Christ Smith, who says the cash mob idea is like a reverse Groupon. Instead of the business giving deals to consumers, consumers show up to pay regular price and help a locally owned business. Importantly, cash mobs target struggling locally-owned businesses that give back to the surrounding community. And as a social event, cash mobs also connect goodwill shoppers and cultivate long-term relationships between businesses and their customers. In these ways, Smith believes cash mobs can bring communities together during tough economic times.
According to a recent PRI report, Smith launched the first cash mob for a Buffalo wine shop in August 2011.
Is this you? When asked if you have a business plan, would you scoff slightly, roll your eyes maybe a bit, and dismiss the idea as something only startups do. Would you say were not a startup, or maybe, were not seeking investment, as if this makes it obvious that you dont have a business plan.
If so, youre not alone. And I say, emphatically in fact, that its a damn shame youre not using planning, and planning process, to manage better. The myth of the business plan gets in the way of the benefits of real business planning.
Whats the myth? You already guessed it. They think of a business plan as a document, done once, surmounted like a hurdle, that some business need to produce to get a loan or get investment. They say its for startups.