Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Finance / Accounting / Taxes

What Your Bankability Says About Your Business’s Sustainability

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Not that long ago, there was a lot of noise and some clarity about the concept of crowdfunding, which is using technology to aggregate the funds of donors/lenders/investors for a specific recipient/business.

During that period, I tried to be part of the clarity by writing several articles about the three different kinds of crowdfunding, which are: contribution fundraising, business lending, and investment acquisition. Today I want to revisit the lending model, with some new information. [Continue Reading]

Blasingame’s 3 Laws of Small Business Capital

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The first sentence in the job description of every CEO should be, “Secure and manage the capital your company needs.”

Webster defines business capital as, “any asset, tangible or intangible, including cash and hard assets held by the company.” Capital blended with operating cash flow becomes the financial fuel your company’s engine uses to operate with and fund growth.

A small business has three primary sources of capital: [Continue Reading]

Can Your Business Survive Accelerating Inflation?

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The current inflation rate is 7.5% and trending the wrong way. Since you probably already don’t charge enough, what’s your plan now?

You might think that a rude and presumptuous opener, but it’s intended as a tough-love reality check for which you’ll thank me later. Because no business owner has experienced such a spike in inflation since Carter tossed the White House keys to Reagan and “The Jeffersons” replaced “All in the Family” on TV. That was more than 40 years ago when inflation was double today’s rate.

Those facts are why we’re going to discuss the impact of inflation on your pricing strategy. Wait! What? You do have one of those, don’t you? I’ll give you a minute. [Continue Reading]

It’s Never Smart To Raise Taxes On Small Businesses

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During the 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden regularly promised to raise taxes. Here are quotes candidate Biden made between his convention acceptance speech and election day on how and why he would raise taxes if he became president.

“I will raise taxes for anybody making over $400,000,” Biden said. “It’s about time the very wealthy should pay a fair share … corporations should pay a fair share.”

He continued, “It’s smart to tax businesses … making excessive amounts of money … and paying no taxes.”

And when asked about taxing small businesses and individuals, without any sense of shame for being so obtuse about the sector representing half of the U.S. economy and signing the front of 100 million paychecks, Biden said: “No one would have a tax increase who earns less than $400,000 annually.”

When Joe Biden made those promises last year, small business owners believed him. Three days before the election, our November 3, 2020 survey of Main Street operators revealed more than three-fourths of our respondents were not going to vote for Biden. And now, barely two months into his first term, the new president is making plans to make good on his “tax the rich” promise. 

But there’s a giant defect in Biden’s plan: His metric for where to start taxing the very wealthy and corporations lands hard on small business families.

[Continue Reading]

The New Regular: PPP Update #4 – New Money And Rules

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This is the 23rd edition of my New Regular series, which didn’t begin as a series because no one on the planet imagined Main Street would still be getting hammered by two very dangerous forces: a deadly virus and state/local politicians. So, welcome to 2021 when, apparently, Normal has checked-out for another year.

Since last February, your humble correspondent has been reporting on what I’ve named the “Three U’s of the Apocalypse”: an Unprecedented coronavirus pandemic, precipitating an Unprecedented economic shutdown, necessitating Unprecedented direct government assistance. Now, in my fourth report in this series to focus on that last “U,” let’s bring you up to date on the “Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act’’, or PPP2, for short – which is at least five months late.

This is essentially the availability of another round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds, with new money and new rules that update the original CARES Act of March 27, 2020. The new law also delivers some excellent new provisions that you’re going to like.

Here’s the essence of this new PPP cupcake with new sprinkles.

[Continue Reading]

The Presidential Candidates’ Record on Small Business, Part I

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As a leading voice for the small business sector, part of my advocacy is to track and report on public policy that impacts the Main Street economy. In that role, I vociferously support those issues that benefit small business and pugnaciously oppose those that don’t, regardless of political party paternity.

Since 1997, I’ve stuck my finger in the eye of Presidents and Congresses of both parties for policies that hurt – or didn’t do enough to help – the heroes who create half of the U.S. GDP and sign half of the paychecks that support over 100 million Americans.

Prior to every presidential race since 2000, I’ve compared the policies and performance of the two major party presidential candidates based on the top concerns that keep small business owners up at night. This is the first of a two-part series on my 2020 analysis of seven issues that currently find their way to the top of every small business survey. Part I covers the economy, taxes, and regulations. Part II will cover healthcare, entrepreneurship, energy, and the pandemic.

[Continue Reading]

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