These guys are hot
Posted on November 20, 2009 at 7:31 am
I’ve been remiss in not yet linking to this year’s list of the Hot 100 compiled by my colleagues at BusinessTN. More than 50 Nashville-area companies — names as diverse as OHL, American Music Channel and TrackPoint Systems — are on this year’s list of Tennessee ventures that are “fast-growing, emerging and brimming with promise.”
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Staying ahead of the inflation threat
Posted on November 19, 2009 at 12:29 pmJeff Cornwall says entrepreneurs shouldn’t be afraid to implement frequent small price increases. Playing it safe now and trying to catch up later won’t work.
There is never a smooth and orderly increase in prices for every business in the economy and small businesses often suffer the most. If you have big suppliers and/or customers they can tie your hands. Your costs go up, but you are unable to pass along these costs with higher prices. One of the added costs we now have to worry about is increased taxes. This is a real cost to entrepreneurs and cannot be ignored as a part of inflationary costs.
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Global Entrepreneurship Week in Nashville
Posted on November 16, 2009 at 1:49 pmNashville loves its entrepreneurs. For Global Entrepreneurship Week, the new Nashville Entrepreneur Center is releasing a new I Am Music City video every day on its site, starting today with Mark Montgomery. For a full listing of GEW events this week, check out the Entrepreneur Center’s calendar.
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Red tape worries
Posted on November 12, 2009 at 11:18 am
Jeff Cornwall relays a study about small business owners’ top worries which shows that — despite the crummy economy, the credit crunch and all the other fallout from the housing bust — dealing with government regulations is by easily entrepreneurs’ biggest headache. And to think government spending has risen by 76 percent this decade…
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A lack of regulation? Phooey
Posted on November 11, 2009 at 10:10 amJeff Cornwall passes along a link to the latest Regulators’ Budget Report, which looks into the rise in spending on government regulation, a trend that started during the Bush administration and shows little sign of slowing — or of promoting entrepreneurship and job creation.
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Small biz expectations rising, but precious little else is
Posted on November 10, 2009 at 10:00 amThe latest NFIB small-business optimism survey shows a glimmer of optimism about where the economy is headed, but not much in the way of rising sales or better access to credit.
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TNInvestco finalists to be announced
Posted on November 4, 2009 at 1:56 pmFrom the State of Tennessee:
Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber and Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr have scheduled Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. Central time to announce the six venture capital fund finalists and two alternates for the TNInvestco program. The TNInvestco program was created by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2009 and the commissioners of ECD and Revenue were charged with allocating $120 million dollars in gross premiums tax credits to the successful applicants in order to leverage private investment in early stage and mid stage capital investment programs. The aim of the program is to attract capital to Tennessee companies and create jobs in the process.
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Another franchisor targets Nashville
Posted on October 19, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Glass Doctor, which markets various residential and commercial glass services from almost 400 stores around the country, says Nashville is on its wish list for franchising. The average franchised store rings up about $850,000 in annual revenues.
SEE ALSO: A snapshot of other franchisors who have cast their eye on Music City
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Banks are hurting small biz’s growth potential
Posted on October 12, 2009 at 9:38 am
Two related bits of info and analysis on the scope and repercussions of banks’ continued tightening of credit. The latest Fed numbers show outstanding commercial and industrial loans have dropped by some $250 billion in the past year. That has been most painful for small businesses, which can’t hit up the bond market to raise capital and create the jobs they have traditionally created coming out of a recession. Or in econospeak:
It’s not clear whether small businesses will continue to play their traditional role in hiring staff and helping to fuel an employment recovery. However, if [...] financial constraints are a major contributor to the disproportionately large employment contractions for very small firms, then the post-recession employment boost these firms typically provide may be less robust than in previous recoveries.
SEE ALSO: Via Milt Capps, a potential solution that would vacuum up leftover TARP cash.
Where the jobs will have to come from
Posted on October 5, 2009 at 9:52 amBelmont professor Jeff Cornwall says entrepreneurs will — as they have before — be the driving force behind a true recovery, one that really makes a dent in our painfully high unemployment rate.
So all we need is government to do more, and we will be OK? Sorry, neither big government nor big corporations feeding at the government trough have ever brought us out of a recession and into a sustainable recovery.
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Angels in the TNInvestco mix
Posted on September 23, 2009 at 7:27 am
Milt Capps reports that the angel investors that last year helped launched a Nashville Capital Network sidecar fund are now also backing Tennessee Angel Fund, a statewide investment vehicle that is angling for a share of the TNInvestco funds the state will dole out.
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The recovery needs small biz, but small biz needs help
Posted on September 22, 2009 at 8:01 amForbes publisher Rich Karlgaard reminds us that small companies are the backbone of a normal economic recovery. But he adds that the Obama administration must pretty much throw overboard its economic platform for that to happen this time.
We now have reached the inflection point — e.g., the recession is ending, but the recovery is embryonic — where small businesses historically jump to the lead and pull the American economy along. It is precisely now when small businesses ought to be coming out of hibernation, leasing or buying cheap commercial property, and gearing up for growth.
…
When the bi-coastal Obama administration thinks of small business, it undoubtedly dreams of promising start-ups churning out solar panels or turbine blades for windmills. Well, that’s fine, but America will never get back to 5% unemployment and defuse the commercial property bomb with windmills.
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America’s most promising company is in Brentwood
Posted on September 17, 2009 at 8:27 am
A Brentwood-based trio of veteran engineers and business development execs top Forbes‘ list of America’s Most Promising Companies. Pictured above are Robert Tryon, left, Loren Nasser and Animesh Dey, who founded Vextec nine years ago and have in recent years begun building a strong base of commercial customers for their modeling software business.
Their aim: to hasten the design of everything from engine parts to medical devices–all while slashing research-and-development expenses and even opening doors for new competitors.
Belmont an entrepreneurial hotbed
Posted on July 30, 2009 at 12:35 pmThe entrepreneurship students at Belmont’s business school are more than holding their own in The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards.
“I continue to be amazed by the entrepreneurial spirit of our students. We need this generation of entrepreneurs to help us revitalize our economy.”
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The perfect health care pitch
Posted on July 27, 2009 at 10:54 amThat’s what a group of finance and VC folks will discuss with seasoned industry exec Marty Rash and Owen Dean Jim Bradford next week. Our brethren at the Nashville Medical News are co-sponsoring the roundtable.
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