Check out my latest story for BusinessWeek: Five Ways to Cope with Rising Costs. From introducing new products to foreign markets, entrepreneurs in diverse industries share their strategies.
Conventional business planning teaches us how to identify risks, not how to take them. For aspiring entrepreneurs seeking to take a leap, learn from veteran entrepreneurs and the scientists that study them. Check out my latest story in BloombergBusinessWeek on how to take entrepreneurial risks.
Investors and entrepreneurs who won at the fundraising game during and after the Great Recession offer advice on landing equity money
By Monica Mehta
Converts look like equity, but taste like debt. To serial investors they’re brussel sprouts. But to certain entrepreneurs and angels, they’re what’s for dinner.
By Monica Mehta
Small businesses that are rejected by the banking behemoths shouldn’t overlook nonbank lenders, community and regional banks, and community development financial institutions
Bloomberg Businessweek
By Monica Mehta
If you haven’t had luck landing a business loan or credit line from the big banks you’ve approached, don’t expect your odds to improve any time soon. The Basel III guidelines, intended to prevent further financial crisis, will require lenders such as Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Wells Fargo (WFC) to substantially increase the capital they hold against risk-bearing assets—up to five times what they are required to maintain today. In anticipation of the changes, which will start to go into effect in 2013, big banks are making changes to lending practices now. They’re increasingly “terming out” small business lines of credit as they reach maturity, according to several lenders and intermediaries with whom I’ve spoken recently.
Posted in Bank Lending, BusinessWeek, Finance, Print, Small Business
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
By Monica Mehta
Small businesses can benefit from formal and informal partnerships. Both sides should be clear on the terms of the deal from the start
In an environment where capital is scarce, I urge small business owners to consider collaborating with other businesses to reach new customers or broaden their offerings without the cost of developing additional expertise or hiring more employees. Unlike a merger, a joint venture lets two companies maintain separate identities. They can enter into the partnership understanding that it may be short-lived and predicate the steps to unwind it. To give you a sense of how such arrangements work, I spoke recently with two entrepreneurs who described the nuances and offered their advice.
Posted in BusinessWeek, Finance, Partnerships, Print, Small Business
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
By Monica Mehta
The warning signs of a customer’s cash-flow woes are easy to detect. Reduced orders, slowing payments, a change in phone number or business name, and a reluctance to get on the phone are all signs that trouble is brewing. Requests for duplicate invoice documentation or claims that “the check is in the mail” are also obvious stalling techniques. How should you respond to delinquent customers to improve your odds of getting paid? As business bankruptcies near a 16-year high, an informed response and a thorough credit policy are fundamentally necessary.
Posted in Accounting, Bankruptcy, BusinessWeek, Collections, Finance, Print
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
By Monica Mehta
You won’t soon sell your business for an ideal asking price. Here are three strategies to help you get a better offer than you might expect. If you’re looking to sell your company, it’s time to get creative. While the small business mergers and acquisitions market is finally inching forward and deals are … (Read More)
Posted in BusinessWeek, Exits, Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions, Print, Small Business
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
By Monica Mehta
In the not so distant past, when money was cheap and time was tight, a FICO score of 700 and a one-page application was enough to land a $150,000 business loan. (Read More)
Posted in Bank Lending, BusinessWeek, Finance, Print, Small Business
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
By Monica Mehta
Creative financing can help sellers command better prices or close deals. It can also create complications among banks, sellers, and buyers. During the recession, merger and acquisition activity in the lower-middle market (private companies with up to $100 million in annual sales) was anything but active …. Read More
Posted in BusinessWeek, Exits, Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions, Print, Small Business
The Entrepreneurial Instinct (McGraw-Hill, Sept 14 2012)
Monica Mehta is an investor, author and finance expert. She is a frequent contributor for CNN, Fox News, BloombergTV, MSNBC, INC Magazine and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. She is the author of The Entrepreneurial Instinct (McGraw-Hill, Sept 2012)
Monica Mehta 