By Garrett Sutton, Esq. & Gerri Detweiler How do you bring investors into your business? Not the sympathetic Mom and Dad kind of investors — those who love you anyway — but rather the hard-nosed, serious investors who expect quite a lot. As the author of the book...
by Scott Cooper There are countless services in the marketplace that aim to protect and improve your credit. While many of them can be helpful, some can be dangerous. One of the dangerous, but popular services being offered are credit privacy numbers. These are also...
By Garrett Sutton, Esq. & Gerri Detweiler Angel investors and venture capitalists (VCs) both provide early funding. The similarities end there. VCs, being nicknamed “vulture capitalists,” are some tough birds. They have to be. They take on risks where even angels...
Could a business name affect your personal liability, business credit or even your ability to run your business at all. The answer to all the above is, "yes." Read on to determine if your business name sets you up for success, or trouble down the road. 1. Is the Name...
We’ve warned you about risky investments using retirement monies. We’ve said the courts would come down on them. But the latest case, combined with new Department of Labor regulations, should have scheme promoters thinking about leaving the country to avoid litigation...
Entrepreneurs are typically resourceful when it comes to finding ways to pay the bills or finance growth, but these two sources of small business loans are often overlooked. Borrowing Against Life Insurance Policies If you have a life insurance policy with cash value...
California Does Something Right! Since I am so critical of California’s anti-business policies and bureaucracy, it is only fair that I notice and spread the word when they have gotten something exactly right. So a tip of the hat to California’s legislature for passing...
What the heck is crowdfunding? And why has the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), the government's stock market watchdog, been so cautious about it all? Three years after the SEC was directed to come up with new crowdfunding rules, they finally delivered. As...
Let’s say you need help financing your new business. You’ve put $10,000 of your own money in, and maybe your parents added another $5,000 – yet you find that it still won’t be enough. You run the numbers, and discover you need another $5,000 to pay for this and that...
A couple that I’ll call Jake and Marcia purchased a coffee shop. The business was really Marcia’s dream, not his, but she was persistent and he reluctantly agreed to try to help out. Things went badly from the start and within less than 18 months they were forced to...
By Garrett Sutton, Esq. People in debt should, and often do, explore every option before filing for bankruptcy. One option is to settle your debts for less than owed. The company owed takes a partial payment and forgives the rest of the debt. And that forgiveness of...
Whether you’re a real estate investor, business owner, or just a consumer who has paid bills, you’ve got a credit report. And that report is probably more important to your financial life than any report card you ever received in school. In fact, it plays a key role...
Venture capital firms are a useful component in the business engine of growth. They are also hard-nosed investors who have earned the not so flattering nick name ‘vulture capitalists’. When it comes to ‘VCs’, you need to be knowledgeable and cautious. A venture...