There are already a number of VC blogs but here's the first VC Wiki I've come across. <i>VentureWiki</i> aims to be
"a resource for entrepreneurs to capitalize on the collective experience, opinions, and judgement of the venture capital community."
Could be worth watching. Via <a href="http://www.tjacobi.com/">TJ</a>.
BusinessPundit points to a cautionary tale about using credit-card debt to fund your business. Yes, it can work out great but it can also be catastrophic. Not every business in like ours but thankfully we've never had to veer from the pure bootstrap - funding through profits.
It was only a few weeks ago that I first noted the online accounting and payroll services offered Teamwork.ie so its interesting to read a profile [on SiliconRepublic.com] of one small business (a dental practice) using the service -
And so on 1 January of this year, Boyle switched the practice accounts over to Teamwork.ie. “For 2003 I did the accounts the traditional way and then I started putting our bank statements, Visa statements and cash book all on the system. All the expenses are coded as I put them in. “I find it very easy to use. I had an hour of training and since we got the broadband connection it has been even better.”The big benefit, she says, will come in a few weeks when it comes time to prepare the year-end accounts. “I won’t have to do a big paper chase. Obviously, I still have to keep all of the invoices. But because I have downloaded all of the bank statements directly, it shows up everything that was paid during the year. It’s a lot less paper and less time consuming every year.”
There's a very informative discussion going on over at boards.ie entitled Self-employed person claiming expenses on tax returns. I've been self-employed now for almost 5 years (gulp!) and I'm still learning alot from discussion threads like this.
By the way, when does vBulletin get RSS support? I want a boards.ie Busines / Finance / Economy forum feed in my aggregator!I must start taking more notice of the AdSense advertisements over there on the left hand side - I just noticed one for Teamwork Accounting - 'Online Accounting for a fixed fee per month'
Teamwork Accounting introduces service accounting to Ireland. An all-inclusive online service whereby internet technology is used to truly collaborate with clients.Similar to Internet banking, Teamwork Accounting allows you to process all of your accounting and tax records in a simple, secure and efficient way over the internet. The information entered by you is immediately available to your designated Teamwork accountant, who can validate and if necessary correct the transactions. Based on the information entered, we will automatically process your VAT returns, year end accounts, tax return and any other relevant accounting and tax obligations which you might have.
QUICKLINK: ElectricNews.net: Massana founder presides over Tech Tour - "Veteran entrepreneur Paul Costigan is encouraging Irish technology firms to pursue VC funding, despite the bruising he received during the tech downturn."
Well it looks like Paypal is at long last ready to facilitate our withdrawl of funds to an Irish bank account. We've used Paypal along with 2CheckOut.com for the last few years as an alternative payment method for our subscribers and advertisers, but it was always a nuisance when it came to tax time and accounting for this fuzzy virtual electronic money vault. My accountant could never quite get his head around it!
So this morning I setup my AIB current account as a withdrawl option in Paypal and it went very smoothly, in fact a little too smoothly I thought as I was expecting there to be at least some kind of background check or verification process before it would be usable. But no - apparently I can withdraw funds to it right away, directly after setting it up.
I think after our recently Worldpay saga, and with the numerous phishing scams doing the rounds, I was just a little taken aback at the speed of the process. In any case I'll be withdrawing funds in a day or two and will let you know how long it takes for them to arrive in AIB.
And speaking of boards.ie it's great to read that we should be able to withdraw our Paypal funds to our Irish bank accounts from August 6th. That should simplify the company accounts somewhat - I had a terrible time trying to explain where this portion of our revenue was to my accountant last year ;-)
No, I'm not going to go into the numerous ways in which to value a company but I found this story in the San Francisco Business Times about the merger of movie reviews Rotten Tomatoes with game site IGN.com, very interesting.
Rotten Tomatoes may not be quite a microbusiness but it's not far off is some ways -
"Despite running a bare bones operation with just 10 employees and competing with larger, better-funded corporations, Rotten Tomatoes was the 12th most popular movie site in the United States, with 2.2 million unique visitors in May, according to Internet market research firm, Nielsen/NetRatings."
On revenues of $2 million the sale is thought to be worth $10 million. That's an interesting multiple. Of course they target a rather elusive and coveted demographic - the 18-to-24 aged youth market - (and there are many other factors involved) so it might be a larger multiple than you or I could expect for our content business but it's still an interesting indicator.
A member of Boards.ie asks why are banks so slow and antiquated in Ireland?. I can sympathise.
On wednesday last week I went to my local AIB to finish my Worldpay Merchant account application. I handed the bank official a form the likes of which she's apparently never seen before and she informed me that she'd have to 'ask someone' about it and then process it on Thursday. On Friday she phoned me to say she was off on holidays and requested that I come in on Monday with my company registration certificate and Memorandum and Articles of Association.
I protested that they should have already had copies of the same since they were required when setting up my company bank account. She acknowledged that and apologised that they had somehow been mislaid. So, rather grumpily, I drove back to the bank yesterday and submitted the required documents for further photocopying. With any luck we'll actually have our new merchant account setup by next week :-(
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