Letters

Readers react to articles from the March 1999 issue of Inc., including Jill Andresky Fraser's "How to Finance Anything," Harriet Rubin's "Solo Diaries," and Norm Brodsky's "Parting Company."

Tweet

Summer's here, but our readers are hardly dancing in the streets over March's " How to Finance Anything" features. Others were a bit hot under the collar about the third installment of "The Solo Diaries."

Show me the money

In our cover story, " How to Finance Anything," Jill Andresky Fraser gave the lowdown on the capital markets and offered 20 tips "for finding money now." These readers wish we'd included 21 tips.

Your 20 tips did not include this convenient source of working capital for small businesses: financing annual insurance premiums. Rather than pay $2,500 to $100,000 up front for a commercial insurance policy, companies can ask their insurance agents to arrange financing that allows monthly installments. This easy-to-arrange source of funds can be part of the financing mix for every business, from restaurants to contractors to high-tech companies.

Kurt Huffman
President
Universal Premium Acceptance Corp.
Lenexa, Kans.

"How to Finance Anything" was informative and worthwhile. However, you failed to mention an outstanding way for all types of businesses to obtain money: financing domestic accounts receivable. You talked about financing international accounts receivable, but the two things are not the same. I have worked with banks on accounts-receivable issues for some time, and I have yet to find one that is enthusiastic about financing international receivables. Simply put, the risk is very high and the accounts-receivable turnover is typically more than 60 days--even with a contract. I'm not saying that there aren't banks available to do this, but they are few and far between.

Rob Quillen
Business Development Associate
Private Business Inc.
Brentwood, Tenn.

The Solipsist Diaries?

The third installment of Harriet Rubin's "Solo Diaries," like the previous two, drew rounds of fire from those in the trenches.

We have a saying up here in Western Canada: "Big hat, no cattle." Anyone self-centered enough to sit around for a year thinking about herself isn't going anywhere. In the same issue that has Harriet Rubin's diaries, you featured Bob Lutz stating, "Sometimes I talk to people who have the urge to become entrepreneurs, and they're casting around for the right idea. That isn't going to work. You have to start with this great idea, along with a burning desire to make it happen. You have to have a sense of mission." I agree. You can print them, but I won't be reading any more self-absorbed diaries.

Kevin Menshik
Media Director
Mediactive
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

I must compliment Harriet Rubin's publicist for getting yet another installment of his client's search for greater meaning into your magazine. Come on, enough is enough! These articles may be suitable for a personal-development periodical, but none has had any information 'for growing companies.' Please do your readership a favor: save the updates on Peter Drucker wanna-bes for another magazine.

Gregory D. Hostelley
CPA
Northfield, Ohio

I humbly suggest that Harriet Rubin's navel-gazing journals be retitled "The Vacation Diaries" to alert new readers of their breathtaking irrelevance. Against my better judgment I found myself reading the third installment of this seemingly never-ending saga in a futile attempt to divine the reason behind its publication in a business magazine. Yet again I found no answer to this great mystery. Out of desperation I logged on to the Web to check out the site Rubin began planning more than six months ago; it still wasn't up. Somehow that did not surprise me at all.

Peter Ireland
Principal
Peter Ireland, P.S.
Seattle

Chips ahoy

In " The World's Oldest Start-up," John Grossman profiled Ritz Foods International and its 68-year-old president, Gerald Ritthaler. The company, Grossman reported, took 10 years to bring its Tropic's Yuca Chips to market. Readers responded with praise and advice.

Hats off to Gerald Ritthaler for finding a great product, sticking with his vision, and fighting off the big boys. Having been raised in Guyana, a neighboring country of Venezuela, I grew up thinking that the yuca root was one of the best vegetables ever served. I have lived in the United States for more than 20 years now, the last 15 of those in Houston. Given the city's many residents from Central and South America, the grocery stores are importing more and more tropical fruits and vegetables. I would suggest to Ritthaler that grocery chains such as Fiesta Mart, a regional chain that caters to Hispanic customers and is always busy, and the more upscale but very consumer-oriented Randalls Food Markets are perfect places to introduce his product. I like to see a unique idea such as Ritthaler's break through the stereotypical barriers to become a huge success story.