Capital Strategies

There are 168 hours in one week. What are you doing with your time? Are you focusing on things that will move you forward? Or are you just checking things off your to-do list? Time management experts recommend making a list of duties, prioritizing them and completing the most important ones first. There are always multiple things to do, people to call, emails to return, meetings to attend, etc. However, even with my list making and organizational skills, there never seems to be enough time to do it all.  Sometimes at the end of a busy day, I realize that I didn’t make the progress I wanted.  Sound familiar? Recently, the founders of Life is Good , a $100 million clothing company dumped their email accounts.  They no longer send, receive, or read emails.  Wow.  Think of all the time they have to do other things!  And that was entirely the point. They realized that responding to email wasn’t moving their business forward.  It took  time...

A few weeks ago, Chris Blanchard , founder and CEO of Longdrop Cider shared some lessons he learned since launching his cider manufacturing business 18 months ago.     Here are my takeaways from his lively and thought-provoking presentation:   Be solutions focused.   When problems arise, don’t throw up your hands and panic.   Take a deep breath.   Calm down.   Think.   Then come up with solutions for fixing the problems.   Solve one problem at a time and move on.   Too often when there are multiple metaphorical alligators snapping at our heels, we tend to run away screaming.   In business, these alligators don’t usually have teeth and won’t eat you for dinner.   So focus on one problem right now and find the solution.   Then move on to battle the next alligator.   Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis.   For some, doing research and analysis is comforting.   And for others, analysis is painful. ...

Ever wonder how bankers decide whether you can borrow money? Commercial lenders perform due diligence to understand your business, the industry you operate in, and your financial capacity. This is the logical “science” part of the loan decision process. But there is an "art" to the commercial lending process too.   Five general areas that commercial lenders consider when making a loan decision are: • Character: It’s all about you. Your past reputation with vendors, creditors and community. • Capacity: Does your business have cash flow to pay debt? Historical and/or projected income?  • Capital: How much cash have you or others invested into your business? • Collateral: What tangible assets can be pledged to cover your loan request?  • Conditions: What is happening in your industry? Overall economy? What are the risks?  Of these five areas, four represent the logical part of loan decision-making. Determining one’s character comes with pra...