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"Release Your Inner Entrepreneur" is a featured product, and ryie.com is a member of the jbv.com "Family of Fine Sites." We are publishers, evaluators, and sellers of information products, specializing in entrepreneurship, home business opportunities, and online marketing.

This site presents our hands-on course in Internet marketing, The jbv site highlights the principles and best practices of entrepreneurship, and related news, opinions, and ideas. Our "ryie" site provides information on personal financial planning, for those in ryie or just wishing they were.

Our contributions to the "blogosphere" are "Second Fortune," on Internet marketing, and "NO Bull," the New Orleans Bulletin on politics and culture from the "bayou-dweller" perspective.

Thank you for visiting our site. Just below we have information and excerpts from books and articles written by our Editor, John Vinturella. You can also skip past this to our Contacts section which leads to some cool "end-of-page" features.

Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.

	Raising Entrepreneurial Capital John B. Vinturella, Suzanne M. Erickson Book covers link to Amazon   The Entrepreneur's Fieldbook John B. Vinturella

Quotes in popular periodicals
 

 
Excerpts from: SMART ANSWERS, by Karen E. Klein

February 15, 2001 Finding the Cash for Your Business

August 31, 2000 A Short Course on Raising Capital

August 1, 2000 A Self-Portrait That Can Nab Profits

April 20, 1999 Splitting the Take in a Startup

SMALL TALK, by Karen E. Klein

November 8, 2000 Match Business Plan to Funding Source

August 30, 2000 Company Needs to Focus Talent Search
 

November 10, 1999 Tech Report: Specialists fill cyberspace void
(Box in article) Advice for dreamers and entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship for Everyone. John Vinturella, a New Orleans businessman, offers a reader-friendly look at aspects of entrepreneurship and small-business management.

Quotes, references in professional literature

The Entrepreneurial Family: Refocusing on the Family in Business
Vinturella, J., Elstrott, J. B., & Galiano, A. (1994, July 28-30). University programs for family businesses: Survey and projections. In Director's Manual, Strategies for Growth, Inaugural Conference of the International Family Business Program Association, Portsmouth, New Hampshire..

Curriculum Development for Australian Family Business Education ... PDF/Adobe Acrobat
... time and better facilities in educating family business owners (Vinturella, Elstrott, & Galiano, 1993).
http://www.intent-conference.de/DWD/_621/upload/media_1218.pdf

Presented at the Research at the Marketing / Entrepreneurship Interface Symposium, 1987:
Volume One 1987, p 187 © UIC, Journal of Research in Marketing & Entrepreneurship
Session: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND MARKET OPPORTUNITIES
Is It a Separate Market? Is It Big Enough Yet? John B. Vinturella and Ernest R. Nordtvedt
http://www.uic.edu/cba/ies/contents_all.PDF

Articles

Thinking Like An Entrepreneur
... John Vinturella, author of The Entrepreneur's Fieldbook, writes about the value of focus groups. A struggling company with repeated product failures was being ...
www.thinkinglike.com/Essays/Decision-making-in-small-business.html

What is Entrepreneurship?
... John B. Vinturella, Ph.D., (see www.jbv.com) is the author of "The Entrepreneur's Fieldbook," (Prentice Hall, 1999). John was founder and 20-year CEO of a ...
www.addto.com/article/startup/start1.htm

Applying for a Loan
Applying for a Loan by John Vinturella Jimsun: Reveals concerns of banks when you apply ...
http://www.addto.com/article/finance/finance2.htm

Attachment 1

Finding the Cash for Your Business, Part 2
How to approach investors and learn about alternative sources of financing

(excerpt) Experts suggest that you research different types of investors to learn what rules and criteria apply to each. For instance, banks have a very low risk tolerance and very strict guidelines on making loans. They want to make highly collateralized loans, and they don't want to lose any principal. Individual investors -- especially those who like you and catch a vision for your idea -- may be willing to take more risk in exchange for a lower return up front and a bigger payoff on the back end. The risk they take is substantial, however, and should be acknowledged: On average, 85% of startup and early-stage companies fail within their first five years, and 50% of the remaining outfits will survive while providing little or no return, says John B. Vinturella, a consultant and president of an Internet startup, Infotech-GNO, which is based in New Orleans.

What you need to do is approach possible investors with a solid business plan that shows you've done your market research, analyzed the competition, crunched the numbers, and -- perhaps most important of all -- come up with both a realistic exit strategy and a scenario that lays out how the investor will be paid back, with a nice return, in a specified time. "Few business plans include rate-of-return projections. You should include realistic annual earnings growth, and realistic gross and net operating margins. The annual return should be two to three times what the investor would realize in safer investments," Vinturella says.

Attachment 2

A Short Course on Raising Capital
Tips on getting started on the road to venture funding

Q: Can you give me information and resources on the steps involved in getting VC, interim, and eventual IPO financing, including how to deal with investment bankers?
--Asad I. Khan, Clackamas, Oregon

A: (excerpt) Many funds invest between $4 million to $8 million in any one venture over a three- to five-year period and look for companies with market potential of $75 million to $200 million, says John B. Vinturella, an New Orleans-based entrepreneurial consultant and author of The Entrepreneur's Fieldbook, (Prentice Hall, 1999). "Investors usually look for an annual return of 45% to 60% over three to five years," Vinturella says. "For riskier startups, they lean toward 60%. For later-stage investments, 45% is not unusual."

While those return rates might seem excessive, entrepreneurs must keep in mind that VC firms are basically making unsecured loans, he says. "Experience has shown that even ventures deemed promising enough to get outside funding only succeed about 20% of the time," Vinturella says. "Thus the expected rate of return is only 20% of 60%, or about 12%, which is a very reasonable expectation." After funding negotiations close, venture capitalists are likely to become involved as advisers to management, usually as members of the company's board of directors.

Attachment 3

A Self-Portrait That Can Nab Profits
Draw up a company profile that can help secure long-term business

Q: I have a small printing business, and I want to get accredited by a large food chain. They are asking me to provide them with a company profile. What should I put in it, and how do I present it so as to project a professional look?
--T.D., Quezon City, Philippines

A: (excerpt) It sounds as if the food company is considering putting you on its list of approved vendors, which could be a very important step for your company. Before you create a company profile, check back with them first and see whether the food chain has a standard process or form that they expect you to follow.

In the U.S., experts say, a company profile can run the gamut from simple ownership information, number of years in business, and a few references to much more exhaustive data, including a current profit-and-loss statement, bank references, a credit report, and lengthy ownership records. Assuming the food chain does not have any specific guidelines, you might start with a minimum amount of information, such as a description of your business, how long it has been in existence, specific information about its size (including yearly billings), current customer references, and ownership information. Sending along relevant samples of your work might also be in order.

If you want to put together a more thorough profile, for use in this instance and also as a reference for future contracts, New Orleans-based entrepreneurial consultant John B. Vinturella suggests that you include the following categories:

• General -- listing your corporate status, officers, address, years in business, and references.

• Financial Health -- including your Dun & Bradstreet rating or its equivalent, and possibly your sales volume. "Provide financial statements and tax returns only if asked but volunteer information on outstanding liens and pending legal action," Vinturella advises. • Capacity -- a category in which you would show that the proposed relationship is within your capabilities for on-time delivery and that you have the necessary equipment, technical skills, and productive capacity to meet or exceed the potential client's requirements.

• Performance -- a record showing that you have adequate production controls and quality assurance methods, perhaps including customer references as to quality and timeliness.

The profile should highlight your company's strengths, says Vinturella, and downplay -- but not hide -- any limitations that might affect your ability to satisfy this client. If the client's requirements are a reach for your company, ask if you may start with a segment of their business -- one that you know you can do well -- and grow into the whole job. Don't make any promises you can't keep.