Atlanta's BIP Capital has just released their annual report, The State of Startups in the Southeast, for 2020. Download the full report here. Of course, this year's report looks a little different after 8+ months of an economy burdened by government induced safety precautions over the COVID19 pandemic, but the … Keep reading >>>
SBA PPP Program Exposes Weaknesses of “Banking Relationships”
As part of our federal government's effort to keep the U.S. economy from completely collapsing, Congress passed, and the President signed the $2.1 trillion CARES Act. Part of that legislation was the SBA Payroll Protection Program, or PPP. The PPP provided $349,000,000,000 in forgivable loans to "small businesses." The entirety … Keep reading >>>
The Corona Effect: It’s OK to be a little scared
I posted the following earlier today on Twitter & Linkedin: LOTS of people are scared of what could be a large scale economic meltdown. Some suggestions that may help you through this crisis, mentally and financially. 1. If you've been RIF'd / laid off because of the #coronavirus crisis, … Keep reading >>>
Ask Questions as You Deal with the #Coronavirus Effect
As the business owner or CEO, what do you do when it all hits the fan, and you have to make hard decisions in the wake of the corona effect? Do you close up? Layoff everyone? Layoff some, half, most? Who? In 2009, the financial sector had vaporized, and the … Keep reading >>>
Where Were You During Coronavirus?
"The Greatest Generation" saw the greatest war. Their children saw (and protested) two "conflicts" that nobody won. I grew up doing tornado drills and preparing for Russia to launch a nuclear missile at the U.S. A Fraternity brother of mine has a piece of the Berlin Wall. Czechoslovakia doesn't exist … Keep reading >>>
The Corona Effect: It will end. What will change?
First, travel from China to the US was halted. Then schools closed. Then some businesses went 100% remote. Yesterday, travel from Europe to the U.S. was halted. Then the NBA cancelled the rest of its season and the NCAA Basketball tournament announced they'd play without fans at the games. Still, … Keep reading >>>
New CMO: You Grow What You Focus On
Back around 2007-2008, just before the great recession started, I was running CWNP, and we were loving life. We had found our focus - WiFi Certification & Training - and we had grown to over $1M in revenue. It was about that same time that we realized we had a … Keep reading >>>
How I Choose to Serve My Community
A few years ago, I got the itch to serve my community. There was a flood here, a tornado there, a hurricane on the coast. Through each of those events, I had the urge to just get in the car, drive down there and help. What I learned was that, … Keep reading >>>
New CMO: EVERYTHING is a Campaign
Everyone has their own methodology for getting stuff done. As the CMO (barely 5 weeks in!) at FINSYNC, one of the first things I had to get my head around was how things flow, how stuff is getting done today. Then I had to organize it. By the way, that's … Keep reading >>>
New CMO: How Should We Make Decisions?
I took a different route to becoming a Chief Marketing Officer. I started my career in sales, then project management, then business development. In those positions, I was an employee of two small (<60 employees) companies and then one very large (>40,000 employees) company. My next position was Founder & … Keep reading >>>