Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

header image
Buy Now

Blog

Your 2020 Attitude: Surviving is Winning

by

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, I’ve written recently about Black Swans, maintaining perspective and anticipating government assistance.

Today, it’s all about attitude.

Not since the convergence of two deadly, cataclysmic events over a century ago – when a World War teamed-up with a Spanish Influenza pandemic – has there been a comparable time of pain, fear, and uncertainty as today. We’ve watched the novel coronavirus expand from a regional outbreak in China to a textbook pandemic, on its way to causing a global economic crisis.

When the Enter key was pushed to send my “Perspective” column exactly three weeks ago, less than 200 Americans had succumbed to COVID-19. In the blink of 21 days, that number is now over 16,000. No one was prepared for the sheer velocity of the human and financial toll as, incredibly, the coronavirus infected the planet. It’s now abundantly clear that this is one mean disease – tough and angry.

[Continue Reading]

The Paycheck Protection Program and your small business

by

The coronavirus pandemic has thrust Main Street America into a very challenging and unprecedented economic period.

Most businesses have been negatively impacted and millions are in peril. Every owner is justified in their concern for the next few months.

But it’s important to remember that we’re dealing with a global pandemic like no living person has ever experienced, which has caused an economic crisis, the abruptness of which no living person has ever seen. As I said last week – this isn’t your fault. And once we “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus, there’s every reason to believe the economy will return to the growth footing we knew only a few weeks ago.

[Continue Reading]

Will government help for small business be fast enough?

by

The national response to the coronavirus pandemic – however necessary – is crushing Main Street.

This economic tsunami wasn’t caused by market animal spirits, irrational exuberance, bad business practices, or bolloxed supply chains. In the span of a month, an invisible Black Swan took us from robust to shut down. It’s not your fault, small business owner. You didn’t cause this.

That’s why you’re going to hear me say something I’ve never said to the government before. Instead of “Get out of our way,” today I’m saying, “You must step up and step in.”

[Continue Reading]

Keeping the coronavirus pandemic – and our response – in perspective

by

Perspective: The capacity to view things in terms of their true and relative importance.

Four stock market crashes, seven recessions, three wars, three pandemics, one global financial collapse, one Y2K – and 9-11. This scary list identifies the varied major crises which have taken place during my long career. In the aggregate, they’ve ground a perspective lens through which I view momentous moments, like the pandemic of COVID-19 disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Of all the things on my list, we’re likely to agree that the two most frightening and destructive are the 9-11 attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. But you might be surprised to learn that the challenge providing me with the best perspective on the coronavirus pandemic is the Y2K event. Not for what happened, but because of what didn’t happen.

[Continue Reading]

Searching for investor capital? Don’t make these mistakes – Part 2

by

This is the second article in a two-part series on how to maximize your chances of success when approaching an investor for your business.

Last time, I pointed out one of the modern marketplace myths mouthed by talking heads and politicians, which is that small businesses don’t have enough access to capital. You could write a book about what these people don’t know about small business and, as it turns out, Andrew Sherman did.

Andrew is my friend and long-time member of the Brain Trust of my radio program, and his important book, Raising Capital, reveals, among many other things, the common mistakes entrepreneurs make when searching for investor capital. So far in this series, I’ve revealed six of the mistakes on Andrew’s handy list. This time we’ll cover the other six, each followed by my commentary. To see the first article, search for this title with “Part 1.”

The good news for seekers of investment capital is that outside sources have become more robust and multi-faceted, whether from venture capital funds, angel investors, and more recently, crowdfunding. The rude news is that, just like getting a loan, you have to have your corn flakes together to score this kind of funding. The bad news is the investor capital process is very complex, and almost always takes longer. And as you have and will continue to learn, there’s more to acquiring investor capital than writing a business plan.

[Continue Reading]

Searching for investor capital? Don’t make these mistakes – Part I

by

This is the first article in a two-part series on how to maximize your chances of success when approaching an investor for your business.
One of the modern marketplace myths mouthed by talking heads and politicians is that small businesses don’t have enough access to capital. You could write a book about what these people don’t know about small business.

It’s true that capitalizing a startup isn’t easy. Here’s some non-breaking news: funding a startup is supposed to be hard. But if you have a viable business model, a performance track record, can justify future performance, and are creditworthy, capital sources will come and play in your backyard. But remember the Marketplace Golden Rule: “He (or she) who has the gold, makes the rules.”

Before we go further, let’s identify the four primary sources of small business capital:

[Continue Reading]

Categories

Archives

Share this page with your friends and followers