Funding and Building your Business

The Navy is studying the model the CIA has with its venture capital arm In-Q-Tel to see whether it would work with the service. That model could work, although the Navy might do well using several venture firms instead of one, according to one panelist.

In the 1980s and ’90s, "even the best companies were only diverting 60 percent or 65 percent of their waste from landfills," says Wayne Rifer, an associate at the nonprofit Zero Waste Alliance in Portland, Oregon. "In the last five years, we’ve seen a whole new way of thinking about the problem of waste."

An effective business plan has to include at least three important "pro forma" statements (pro forma in this context means projected).

Venture capitalists are leading a push to remake Silicon Valley as a center for a new form of social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy, a place where you can make good money by doing good.

Need help reenergizing your business? Out of creative ideas for reaching your business goals? We’ve compiled a list of the top 100 tips to improve your business. Consider it your checklist for maintaining a successful…

"You don’t have to fit all seven of these categories to be a good candidate for entrepreneurship," Anthony wrote. "But in general, the more you have in common with these characteristics, the closer you probably are to being ready to try going out on your own."

”Don’t just give them the stuff you think they need," Austin proposed. ”Give them extra information and see what they do with it."

Building an advisory board is not a terribly difficult process, but it does carry a tremendous benefit when done with thought and clear structure. As a businessman inclined to seek advice – my employees have chided me for going up to every bum on the street for an opinion – I believe that doing so provides marinade for the brain. The more points of view you have, the more your own thoughts mature.

When I go to a venture forum in the bay area now and hear "entrepreneurs" whining about how they could launch a Billion dollar company "only if we could find an investor…" I want to puke.

Here are five tips to help you get outsourcing right, save your pot of gold, and maybe even avoid a few gray hairs.