5 Must-Have Mobile Marketing Tools for Businesses

It seems like every week I read a new set of statistics about the importance of mobile in a company’s marketing strategy. Two of the most recent stand out. The first, from SteamFeed, included the fact that in the United States, 37 percent of internet usage occurs on mobile devices. The second and more interesting [...] Author information Jim Belosic Jim Belosic is the CEO of ShortStack , a self …

Equity Crowdfunding: How to Raise $1 Million through an Initial Crowd Offering

Initial Crowd Offering, Inc. today announced the release of a white paper guide to equity crowdfunding: “How to Raise $1 Million through an Initial Crowd Offering.” This white paper provides insight into equity crowdfunding, the newest capital market in the United States. Readers will learn details regarding the size of the new pool of capital, requirements to participate and access the capital …

Veteran tech entrepreneur Flip Filipowski’s latest venture raises $35M

By Lisa Leiter

SilkRoad, the Chicago-based human resources software company run by veteran tech entrepreneur Flip Filipowski, raised $35 million in a Series C funding round.

New investors include Keating Capital and NTT Finance, joining Intel Capital, Crosslink Capital, Foundation Capital and Tenaya Capital, among others.

SilkRoad plans to use the new funding to further expand worldwide and to launch new products. It’s also planning an initial public offering. That news comes on the heels of rival Workday filing to go public last month.

Since launching in 2005, SilkRoad has raised a total of $129 million.

Crain’s Lisa Leiter spoke with Mr. Filipowski today about SilkRoad and the Chicago tech scene. (For more background on Mr. Filipowski’s recent doings — and his long, tangled history on Chicago’s tech scene as the founder of Divine Interventures — check out this Crain’s piece from 2010 by Senior Reporter John Pletz.)

How big is the market for human capital management software?

It takes a little bit of guesswork . . . $75 billion minimum total annual market opportunity. It makes it about the size of the automobile market.

Why do you see such potential in markets outside the United States?In China, for example, they have to have a very transformational impact in their own businesses so they become design leaders rather than a low-cost labor force. They are already outsourcing to Brazil and chasing the next low-cost labor markets. They know their top talent is being recruited by multinationals and they have to violently oppose that multinational approach and make their companies more progressive and more capable of employee engagement and commitment than they ever have in the past. If you were to ask me 10 years ago, I would have said that was surprising, but today I consider that the center of the human capital management movement.

Are you planning an initial public offering of your stock?

Yes. We think the earliest would be the fourth quarter of this year; otherwise, the first or second quarter of next year.

Why do you think now is a good time to go public?

Human capital management software generally that’s in the cloud has a profile where only so much can be developed under private investment. Private investment is a different kind of capital than public money; it’s much more expensive and it demands a different attention span. It has more emphasis on things like profitability, whereas public money has more emphasis on growth. And to converge on growth for a SAAS (software as a service) company, you have to drive the business on that fundamental need for growth. If you don’t do that, you will perish.

Most of your investors are in Silicon Valley, not Chicago. Why?

The cloud space has been more understood by the VCs on the West Coast. I think most of the investors and VCs in the Midwest do not have a technology software or cloud-based strategy.

How is the Chicago tech startup scene different today than it was during your time at Divine Inc. and the dot-com boom?

I think the Chicago tech scene is very vibrant. I’m very pleased to see that. I certainly know a lot of the folks in the tech scene and I am very enthusiastic for them as they are for us. I see quite a few very good stories coming out of this area. I, for example, love Groupon, and I am probably in the minority. I think their idea of forming an operating system for conventional property — whether that’s restaurant seats, or anything else — of knowing where mobile customers are and giving them reasons to purchase inventory that is going to go obsolete, is a brilliant strategy and will ultimately result in Groupon being extremely valuable.

Do you own the stock?

I own like 1,000 shares. That doesn’t move my mouth to endorse anything.

Follow Lisa Leiter on Twitter: @LisaLeiter.

Veteran tech entrepreneur Flip Filipowski’s latest venture raises $35M

By Lisa Leiter

SilkRoad, the Chicago-based human resources software company run by veteran tech entrepreneur Flip Filipowski, raised $35 million in a Series C funding round.

New investors include Keating Capital and NTT Finance, joining Intel Capital, Crosslink Capital, Foundation Capital and Tenaya Capital, among others.

SilkRoad plans to use the new funding to further expand worldwide and to launch new products. It’s also planning an initial public offering. That news comes on the heels of rival Workday filing to go public last month.

Since launching in 2005, SilkRoad has raised a total of $129 million.

Crain’s Lisa Leiter spoke with Mr. Filipowski today about SilkRoad and the Chicago tech scene. (For more background on Mr. Filipowski’s recent doings — and his long, tangled history on Chicago’s tech scene as the founder of Divine Interventures — check out this Crain’s piece from 2010 by Senior Reporter John Pletz.)

How big is the market for human capital management software?

It takes a little bit of guesswork . . . $75 billion minimum total annual market opportunity. It makes it about the size of the automobile market.

Why do you see such potential in markets outside the United States?In China, for example, they have to have a very transformational impact in their own businesses so they become design leaders rather than a low-cost labor force. They are already outsourcing to Brazil and chasing the next low-cost labor markets. They know their top talent is being recruited by multinationals and they have to violently oppose that multinational approach and make their companies more progressive and more capable of employee engagement and commitment than they ever have in the past. If you were to ask me 10 years ago, I would have said that was surprising, but today I consider that the center of the human capital management movement.

Are you planning an initial public offering of your stock?

Yes. We think the earliest would be the fourth quarter of this year; otherwise, the first or second quarter of next year.

Why do you think now is a good time to go public?

Human capital management software generally that’s in the cloud has a profile where only so much can be developed under private investment. Private investment is a different kind of capital than public money; it’s much more expensive and it demands a different attention span. It has more emphasis on things like profitability, whereas public money has more emphasis on growth. And to converge on growth for a SAAS (software as a service) company, you have to drive the business on that fundamental need for growth. If you don’t do that, you will perish.

Most of your investors are in Silicon Valley, not Chicago. Why?

The cloud space has been more understood by the VCs on the West Coast. I think most of the investors and VCs in the Midwest do not have a technology software or cloud-based strategy.

How is the Chicago tech startup scene different today than it was during your time at Divine Inc. and the dot-com boom?

I think the Chicago tech scene is very vibrant. I’m very pleased to see that. I certainly know a lot of the folks in the tech scene and I am very enthusiastic for them as they are for us. I see quite a few very good stories coming out of this area. I, for example, love Groupon, and I am probably in the minority. I think their idea of forming an operating system for conventional property — whether that’s restaurant seats, or anything else — of knowing where mobile customers are and giving them reasons to purchase inventory that is going to go obsolete, is a brilliant strategy and will ultimately result in Groupon being extremely valuable.

Do you own the stock?

I own like 1,000 shares. That doesn’t move my mouth to endorse anything.

Follow Lisa Leiter on Twitter: @LisaLeiter.

PayNet: While small-biz borrowing stalls nationwide, Chicago stands out

By William Phelan

Small businesses propel economic growth. They account for more than 60 percent of new jobs. However, their ability to create new jobs depends heavily on their access to credit. For the past few years, the demand for small business loans has progressively decreased. In the wake of the recent recession, the volume of sales had become less and there was uncertainty in the economic growth. The recession had also affected the lending ability of many banks as they were focusing on correcting existing problems.

Though the future looked bleak in the last few years, the market has picked up and the demand for small business loans has shown an upward curve.

Nationally, the pace of lending to small businesses in the United States continues to be at a standstill, supporting the view that economic growth is headed for a further slowdown. The Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index (SBLI) takes the pulse of the U.S. small business economy, and has proven to be a leading indicator of the GDP between two and five months.

The index shows that small businesses are becoming increasingly concerned about the economy, using investments to replace worn-out equipment or to increase efficiency. PayNet’s analysis shows that lending is up 10 percent from March 2011, but has declined 3 percent from February 2012.

What is surprising about this latest release is that entrepreneurs are shying away from investments. This is particularly striking given the lowest credit risk since 2005 and an outlook for low risk of default through the end of 2012.

Locally, small businesses in the Chicago Federal Reserve Region grew faster than the national average as seen in PayNet’s recent analysis of the SBLI by region. While the rate of expansion on a national basis for all small businesses was 17 percent year over year, those in the Chicago region expanded 19 percent. Only the Minneapolis and Dallas Fed regions expanded at a faster rate, although the Kansas City and New York regions were close behind at 18 percent increases for each.

Chicago stands out as the second-highest region in terms of absolute rates of investment by small businesses. With the National Average of the Index at 95, Chicago-area businesses invest at a 24 percent higher rate.

What’s striking about this latest release is how the businesses in the Chicago region jumped ahead. In our last report, Chicago-area businesses were investing at about the same rate as St. Louis-based businesses. This time, Chicago businesses doubled their rate of investment over St. Louis based businesses which expanded at an 8 percent rate.

Chicago-based businesses are also far less risky compared with the national average. The data shows moderate loan delinquencies — loans more than 30 days past due — stood at 0.76 percent for Chicago region small businesses. This is about one-half of the 1.39 percent national average. However, Chicago businesses have a higher credit risk than Minneapolis-based businesses; the latter show loan delinquencies of only 0.51 percent, about one-third of the national average.

Reasons for these better results are found in the diverse economic make-up of businesses in the Chicago region. Chicago’s status as a manufacturing and transportation center yields a business composition with higher-paying wages and the ability to generate a larger share of add-on activity.

William Phelan is president and co-founder of PayNet Inc., a Chicago-based provider of risk management tools and market insight to the commercial credit industry.

Cash is king

By Gini Dietrich

Last night I had dinner with a friend who said to me, “I drank your Kool-Aid. I thought you were doing exceptionally well. And then I saw you almost went out of business last year and I was shocked. What happened?”

When I blogged about it earlier this year, I used the word “bankrupt,” and that got everyone’s attention. Yes, we nearly went bankrupt.

You see, we had plenty of accounts receivables to accommodate our expenses and even make a little bit of money last year. But, when the debt ceiling crisis debate ensued last July, all of our clients retracted and went into hiding.

No one knew what it was going to mean for the United States and, in particular, businesses. And, because we’d just had three years of really rocky times, everyone was skittish.

We didn’t get paid from a single client for nearly 90 days. Sure, we’ve done all the things you’re supposed to do: require deposits upfront, make calls before A/R is late, even stop work when clients were late. But it didn’t help when push came to shove. We still had bills to pay and nothing to pay them with, except signed contracts that showed the money was coming.

I don’t blame our clients. We did the same thing to our vendors and partners. I blame myself.

I forgot one really important thing: Cash is king. And we didn’t have any cash.

We did everything we could. I stopped taking a salary. We got out of our office lease, which also meant no utilities, no copier/printer/server costs, no paper costs, no DSL costs, and no phone costs.

We cut significantly. To the bare bones.

And that’s what got us through. But we did it almost too late. I was taking any kind of speaking engagement I could get, because those pay upfront, just to make payroll and not bounce those checks. I had come to terms with the idea that I was going to have to close the doors, after six years of being in business.

Then checks came in, we got caught up with our past due bills, and 2012 became the year of growth. Almost overnight.

I’d heard “cash is king” in my Vistage meetings and in everything I’d read about running a business. Deep down, I knew we had to start saving. But the economy was terrible, and we had enough to live payroll to payroll. So I wasn’t worried. We’d make it.

We did make it, but not without a level of stress I’ve never experienced (and never want to experience again).

You can hear cash is king over and over and over again, and perhaps you’ll think of it the same way I did. Instead, I hope you create a cash account that has a minimum of 90 days’ expenses in it. This goes for both your business and your personal lives. And, sometimes, it’s not enough to grow revenues or ask for a raise. Sometimes you have to cut expenses – a lot – in order to get yourself in a cash positive range.

We’re back to cash-flow positive this year, and you can imagine what that does for morale and motivation throughout the office. Always, always make sure cash is king in your business.

Gini Dietrich is founder and chief executive officer of Arment Dietrich Inc., a Chicago-based firm that uses nontraditional marketing in a digital world. Her column appears on Crain’s blog for Chicago entrepreneurs every Friday.

Follow Gini on Twitter: @ginidietrich.

Join Crain’s LinkedIn group for Chicago entrepreneurs. And stay on top of Chicago business with Crain’s free daily e-newsletters.

Crain’s small-business editor Ann Dwyer is on Google+.

AtoZdatabases’ Mobile App ‘Brings the Library to the Patron’

OMAHA, Neb., Dec. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-iReach/ — AtoZdatabases, a leading provider of reference and marketing databases to Libraries and Government Agencies across the United States, is pleased to announce the launch of their mobile application which will be available at the end of…