There’s a new small business startup boom sweeping across America. It’s not about high-tech, or venture capital, or any of the usual startup suspects we’ve seen in recent decades. This boom is all about “personal businesses” – the one-man or woman shops with no employees that are sprouting at a record rate, and often begin as hobbies.
This boom is about people with a passion for making something – dubbed the “Maker Movement” – armed with the smarts, low-cost startup tools and the drive to turn their hobby into a revenue stream. Today’s passion-driven hobbyists are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs – otherwise known as hobbypreneurs, who successfully combine their passion for a particular hobby or craft with pragmatic business smarts to create new revenue streams for themselves and their families. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Daniel Kehrer
Attention startups and existing small businesses looking to raise money by selling stock. This is huge! You may soon find it easier to attract investors thanks to a largely-overlooked provision in the economic stimulus law that lowers capital gain taxes for individuals who invest in “qualified small business” (QSB) stock. 
Institutions (CDFIs), which focus on lending in low-wealth, low-income communities, could see an eight-fold increase in funding over the next two years through a combination of stimulus law money and the Obama Administration’s budget plan. 
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