Financing Your Business: A Case for Using Some of Your IRA, SEP, or 401(k)
Tap into your retirement kitty to fund your business venture. Read more
Start-up
Recent Start-up Articles
Grand Plans
Shoestring start-ups: seven fast-growing companies that were started for $1,000 or less, and tactics to borrow for your own start-up. Read more
The Best Business Plan on the Planet
Go behind the scenes with one of the judges at Moot Corp., a world-renowned business-plan contest hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. Read more
The Annals of Bootstrapping
Inc.'s editor explains why bootstrapping is the purest form of entrepreneurism, why Garden.com is the quintessential Internet business, and how to deal with ... Read more
CEO's Notebook
CEOs give advice on: boning up on employment law; making the most of customer feedback; finding big-time IT for your small company; and streamlining the due ... Read more
Hot Tip: Trademark Registration
International companies can sometimes offer good prices on services. Case in point: Rider McDowell of Knight-McDowell Labs, in Carmel, Calif., wanted to t... Read more
Master of Your Domain
Like any real-world business, the key to a successful Web-based business is getting customers in the door or, more... Read more
Fiscal Therapy
At a two-day "boot camp" for high-tech start-ups, CEOs thought they'd be learning how to attract Silicon Valley investors. What they got was even more import... Read more
Business for Sale: Not a Sure Thing
Conventional wisdom holds that only one-quarter to one-third of small companies on the market areever sold. At first glance, it's hard to fathom why the r... Read more
The 1999 Business Brokers' Dog List
Although the market has generally been strong for small-business sales, certain types of companiesare languishing. Some examples: f... Read more
What Do Buyers Really Want?
A buyer is usually looking for a company whose cash flow can cover its current operating expenses plusthree other numbers: 1) the
Go Glossy: How to Create a Beautiful Branding Tool on a Budget
Custom publishing, once considered the marketing wave of the future, has not lived up to its early promise. The problem is often the heavy cost of produci... Read more
Upstarts: The Russian Connection
Entrepreneurs who've emigrated from the former Soviet Union are shrewdly benefiting from the crumbling economy of that once-mighty empire. And they aren't th... Read more
Loose Lips Sink You
Even casual public chit-chat among employees can give competitors confidential information about your business. Here's what you need to know to keep your com... Read more
Who Can Help Out with a Business Plan?
Without a credible business plan, an entrepreneur has little hope of landing capital. Here's what investors will want to see in your plan, and where you can ... Read more
Business for Sale: Packager and Distributor of Safe-Sex Products
An overview of a packager and distributor of safe-sex products offered for sale. Includes the price, how the business was valued, the outlook of future sales... Read more
The Exit Strategy: Cashing Out and Other Premeditated Escapes
It was probably Jehovah who conceived the first one, and then some time later he charged Moseswith its execution. Churchill had one at Dunkirk. Westmorela... Read more
A Birth Legend We Love
Inc.'s executive editor tells both the official and unofficial story of why Bernie Goldhirsh decided to launch our small-business magazine 20 years ago. Read more
It Was 20 Years Ago Today
A look at the cultural, economic, and political climate during 1979, the year that Inc. was founded, and the entrepreneurs and trends that shaped business ov... Read more
The Entrepreneur in My Bed
A veteran business writer confronts the metamorphic power of company building as his wife starts her own career- and leadership-development business. Read more
The True and Only Heaven
Sometimes entrepreneurship can transform an entire geographic region. Here's how Seattle has changed since the rise of Microsoft, Starbucks, and other hot Pa... Read more
Founder King
Apple Computer made Steve Jobs famous, but it was how he started it that made him a legend. Read more
The Quotable Entreprenuer: Andrew Sather
"I call it virus marketing ... when you find out about one company through the layers of another company's Web site." --Andrew Sather, CEO of A... Read more
Hot Tip: Protecting Intellectual Property
Firstuse.com , a start-up based in Westlake Village, Calif., has launched an Internet site that instantly time-stamps... Read more
Local Area Network
By opting to keep her high-tech start-up, Thermagon Inc., in Cleveland, founder Carol Latham was able to leverage her local ties to build a sophisticated net... Read more
Profiled Web Site: Garden Escape
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Business 101: Capitalization Plans
Guidlines for projecting your company's capital needs Some business owners conduct their capital searches along the philosop... Read more
Ticket to the Show
Here's how Professional Sports Authenticator, a Newport Beach, Calif., company, aims to cash in on both the Internet-auction boom and the surging market for ... Read more
Hot Tip: Make it Quick
It pays to be brief and clear. Entrepreneurs hoping to raise money had better be able to describe a proposed venture within 45 seconds or risk losing thei... Read more
The Fast Track to Face Time
It's the eternal question asked by every entrepreneur who ever tried to raise capital: What do venture capitalists want? The answer, according to the Web ... Read more
How to Get Rich in America
A look at how companies like Palo Alto's Lunar Design are seeking the long-term payoff by taking equity instead of cash for their services. Read more
The Just-Right Business Plan
Business planning is a favorite subject of mine. In the seven years since founding Net Daemons Associates, I've learned a lot about planning. In the same ... Read more
Honest Expectations
"The problem with many small companies' business plans is that they don't actually meet their projections." -- Fred Marcusa... Read more
A Business Plan with Heart
A decade ago, when I was employed as a chartered surveyor for a major British insurance company, I realized that I was doing something that was making my ... Read more
