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DQ News: Small Business Financial Facts

Understanding your small business finances is a huge part of managing your company to success, especially during challenging times. Here at Small Business Trends, we believe small business owners should be empowered, stop worrying about economic forecasts and take control of their own destinies when building their businesses. We hope the resources here help you do just that.

Trends

Dealing with rising costs. Faced with a challenging economy that makes growth a little trickier, small businesses also need to watch the other end of the equation by keeping control of their costs. Easier said than done, this is something at which some entrepreneurs have none the less prevailed and here are some tips that can help you and others. Bloomberg BusinessWeek

What does double dip mean to you? Nothing probably. With all the wailing and hand wringing going around, remember that most of our small businesses don’t depend on the stock market directly. Customers and clients still need to be served. You can expand your market or enter new ones. Keep doing what you’re doing and stop worrying about “the economy.” You’re the Boss

Opportunities

Tax credit for research and development? That’s right, you can get a tax credit for doing something that’s good for your company anyway, researching and developing new products, services and technologies. Here are more details on the tax credit program. Be sure to share this link with others. Bloomberg BusinessWeek

SBA funding continues to roll out. The Small Business Administration continues to roll out funding in an effort to boost small business and with it the economy. A recent initiative targets small businesses seeking capital in Michigan. Federal funding has also flowed to a number of other states recently to help with small business lending. Keep watching for funding your business can take advantage of. Grow Smart Biz

Operations

Want to cut costs in your small business? Check out these suggestions for cutting costs across the board. Reducing cost is a great way to manage your company’s finances no matter how your business is doing. Cutting expenditures improves your company’s financial situation and frees up additional resources to reinvest in your business. Angel Business Advisors

Cash is king so manage it. In fact, managing cash flow within your business ought to be one of your top priorities. But getting a handle on cash flow within your company may not be as easy as it seems. Resolve to take a systematic approach to addressing your small business issues and you may be surprised at the result.  Open Forum

Funding

Mistakes when seeking investors. It seems simple on the face of it. Just go convince someone with money to spend that your idea for a business is clearly awesome . They write you a check and you’re in business! But when it’s time to approach investors, especially sophisticated ones, you’ll find the prospect is anything but easy. Open Forum

There are no shortcuts to raising cash. Be ware of claims that seem too good to be true. They may either be “opportunities” of questionable authenticity or they are meant for a very specific kind of business and not for you. See the example given by Peter Ireland of an “opportunity” for businesses that may clearly be out of the typical small business startup’s league. The Seed & Startup Capital Blog

Crowdfunding

Have you heard of crowdfunding? A way to get the financial boost your business needs to grow, expand or survive harsh economic times, crowdfunding is a new practice often carried out over the Internet. For a more detailed look at the process and what’s involved, check out the story at the link above. Grow Smart Biz

13 online sources for funding your business. As mentioned earlier, crowdfunding is largely an Internet trend and has inspired a variety of Websites and Web communities to serve the market. Here is one list of Websites just to get you started. As with any online resource, we would encourage you to do your own research to determine which crowdfunding option might be best for you. practical ecommerce

From Small Business Trends

Small Business Financial Facts

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