Cultivate professionals and experts long before starting a business. They can provide encouragement, information, networking referrals, and capital. Kevin Maloney was a youngster, his mother worked in the super computer division of California Institute of Technology, a world-renowned science university in Pasadena, California. Scientists and engineers were always around Kevin’s house. He even washed their [...]
Late-paying customers cost your company money by tying up capital in what is essentially an interest-free loan. Since 1984, Deborah Brooks has been providing contract and temporary workers for a variety of customers, and since 1989, she has been doing it through her own company, Arose Recruiting Company, Inc. of Newport Beach, California. She specializes [...]
In the purchase of a private company, the seller often provides some of the financing. In the early 1980s, the trucking industry was struggling with the impact of federal deregulation and a poor economy. The owner of a ten-employee repair shop for truck trailers in St. Charles, Missouri, wanted to sell the business, but not [...]
Unexpected or unplanned expenses can drain much-needed capital from even experienced companies. Darrell Stolhand is in an industry where he must sell his products and services before he knows all of his exact costs. Yet the owner of Stolhand Heating & Air Conditioning in Ponca City, Oklahoma, has thrived since 1977 because he systematically monitors [...]