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With today’s fast-paced, ever-evolving and competitive market, a lot of companies decide to create a board of advisers that can give them fresh ideas and recommendations to keep up with today’s world.

For small companies, creating a well-run advisory board can give them an edge over their rivals. An advisory board that is composed of experienced people can help a company increase sales and flourish in their chosen industry. Seems pretty straightforward, right? But not a lot of companies do this or, if they do, do it right.

The Basics: What is an Advisory Board?

An advisory board is a group of consultants who provide advice and give support to the management of a company. They have no authority or power to arbitrate in corporate matters. The...

We all know what it means to give equity away. But what does it take to get it back?

There are a few different methods we can use to begin clawing back some of our hard-lost equity, but all of them require quite a bit of effort — and aren't nearly as easy as giving it away!

Will investors incentivize us with additional stock?

When we look at future funding rounds, if things are going well, we may be able to negotiate some additional stock awards based on the next financing.

This is only an option if the company is doing well and we can point to a significant track record that we've demonstrated to get it there. It doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen.

Oh, and if we don't negotiate hard for it, no one is ever going to suggest it for u...

The SBA helps small businesses that may not be eligible for traditional bank loans by guaranteeing large portions of the loan on the entrepreneur’s behalf.

These loans are generally available through your local bank who relies on the SBA to back the loan in order to make it easier for them to take the risk of lending a new business without a significant amount of collateral.

Who’s eligible for a SBA loan?

Although the loans are backed by the SBA, they still require some basic underwriting by the bank to make sure the borrower can manage the loan similar to a standard bank loan.

What about poor credit?

The SBA may be underwriting the loan, but they still want to make sure it can be paid back. Standard credit risk factors (such as your score)...

When beginning a crowdfunding campaign, it’s important to evaluate your network and establish exactly who will make up your base of support. The success of your crowdfunding campaign will largely rest on how effectively you communicate your launch within your various networks. Once you’ve identified a group of potential backers, take into account what is most interesting to your group and structure your rewards tiers in the most compelling way possible.

Your network can be divided into five main groups: friends, family, customers, professional contacts, and audience.

Friends

Your friends include those you see on a regular basis. You can reach out to this group in a variety of ways. Try a combination of social media updates, emails, and pers...

Crowdfunding is an incredible tool for entrepreneurs seeking capital at any stage of their business. Startup businesses can validate their idea through a rewards crowdfund, giving them great traction to share with potential investors through a follow-on equity crowdfund.

A successful rewards crowdfunding raise (typically offering pre-orders of a product), is becoming a common precursor to raising equity investments from prominent angel investors seeking an equity stake in the company.

Angel Investors and Equity Crowdfunding

Before crowdfunding, angel investments were often found within an entrepreneur’s own network. Family, friends, and close business associates were all pivotal in an entrepreneur’s search for capital, due to a ban on the p...

Crowdfunding has become the go-to resource for entrepreneurs looking to launch new products and businesses. It’s an incredible tool to gather support and test ideas on a smaller scale, before moving ahead full-force on a business. That said, it also requires entrepreneurs to put in plenty of work in order to be successful.

Recently, there has been a lot of buzz surrounding rewards crowdfunding projects that are failing to make good on their promises – delivering rewards late, if at all, and unable to detail their plan to supply the products pre-ordered by backers. Some would say that it is crowdfunding’s biggest problem to solve, and has led to heated discussion over who is to blame when a backer is left high and dry without the rewards the...

Entrepreneurs have quite a few options available when raising capital that generally fall into three categories — bootstrapping, debt and equity.

Investors want to find the right fit. They want the right location, market size, and traction, among other things.

Funding your business isn’t as easy as saying, “I want to speak to investors who will give me a big check for my great idea!”

Even the best ideas often require a long period of proving themselves before any investor is willing to support them with a check. Along the way, there are several forms of capital that entrepreneurs use to address their needs.

How Most Businesses Get Funded

The most common way companies get funded is to start with their own capital, known as bootstrapping. The...

It was recently reported that the co-Founder of WeWork Adam Neumann took over $700 million off the table from investors long before the company had gone public.

How do these Founders go about getting cash out of their startups long before the startups ever cash out themselves?

Why would investors let me take money off the table?

Investors will often dangle the option of providing some Founder liquidity only when the deal they are trying to get into feels incredibly competitive.

This happens only rarely, and only amongst investors who are open to providing some Founder liquidity (some are very against it!).

Generally speaking, it only helps the investor by allowing them to get into the deal but provides very little upside to the company a...

Marketing for a crowdfunding campaign isn’t exactly the same as traditional marketing.

Let’s say that marketing is cake. Traditional marketing is a standard cake you’d whip up from a box or simple recipe. Crowdfunding marketing campaigns, however, are their own kind of cake. They’re like a souffle. A souffle — when done right — delivers a kind of magical combination of lightness and richness. When done wrong, it just falls into a heap.

Souffles and crowdfunding can yield incredible results. But in both cases, you have to take a more nuanced approach to reach that outcome.

Baking Up Crowdfunding Success

A crowdfunding marketing campaign is different from traditional advertising efforts, and it needs to hit a specific sweet spot. The tone ca...

Venture capital funding is both the most commonly referenced and yet commonly misunderstood form of investor capital available.

Unlike banks or more traditional investment sources, venture capital funding is all about big risks and big rewards.

Simply put, venture capital funding involves a venture capital firm investing a large sum of money (typically starting at $2 million or more) in exchange for an equity stake in your company.

Venture Capital Funding Risks and Rewards

Unlike banks or more traditional investment sources, venture capital funding is all about big risks and big rewards.

Venture capital firms specifically look for companies that offer an exceptionally large growth opportunity, which you can think of as the type of company t...