Posted Mar 1, 2012 4:20 AM CST By Deborah L. Cohen iStockphoto One of the few bright spots for small businesses struggling to raise capital in the down economy is something called crowdfunding. Websites such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo—where filmmakers, food truck owners and more tell their stories in hopes of raising funds—have popularized the process. And President Barack Obama even endorsed crowdfunding in his September jobs speech last year. The largely Internet-based fundraising practice allows individuals, small businesses and others to raise capital from a variety of sources, including donations, sponsorships and the sale of products or services, with no expected financial return such as equity. As the funding form has grown in popularity, a diverse group of backers ranging from grassroots community activists ... Continue reading →

New Venture Challenge sees surge of applicants March 02, 2012 By John Pletz Would-be entrepreneurs eager to create the next big thing are flooding into the University of Chicago's business-plan competition.The New Venture Challenge, the business-plan competition at University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, received a record number of applications this year.There were 119 entries, up from 89 a year ago, says Steve Kaplan, professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance who runs the New Venture Challenge.The program has seen a surge in interest as more students come to Booth looking to start their own companies. The success of past participants, including GrubHub Inc., FeeFighters and Power2Switch, in raising venture capital also has helped. Last year, Booth-related startups raised a record $85 million in venture funding.John ... Continue reading →

Posted Mar 1, 2012 2:30 AM CST By Deborah L. Cohen Photo of Stephen Furnari by Len Irish. Stephen Furnari never set out to be a property manager. But a search to find a suitable setting for his expanding solo practice eventually led to oversight of a Manhattan commercial space that has morphed into a collaborative workspace for fellow lawyers. “The strength of what we do here is all based on our clients participating in and believing in the community,” says Furnari, who splits his time between running his Law Firm Suites business and maintaining a legal practice handling nursing home litigation. “We really are operating as a team.” Law Firm Suites is home to about 75 solo and small-firm lawyers from a variety of ... Continue reading →

The Petition We, the members of the Irving Park Concerned Neighbors Association (IPCNA), and friends, wish to express our deep disappointment and concern about a new policy undertaken by city officials to handle the removal of gang graffiti using a ward-based grid system. It is our understanding that this new policy, which we became aware of the week of Feb. 20, allows the defacement of buildings in our neighborhood by gang graffiti to stand without removal for up to 12 days in some instances. Our association’s boundaries of Irving Park to Montrose and Lawndale to Bernard are part of the 17th police district’s Beat 1723, an area that has been experiencing a significant increase in crime and violence in recent months. We find the new ... Continue reading →

Tue Feb 14, 2012 3:56pm EST By Deborah L. CohenCHICAGO Feb 14 (Reuters) - For Jeff Chimenti, a rock keyboardist who plays with offshoots of the Grateful Dead, it has been anything but a "long strange trip" getting his medical product to market.Chimenti's resume includes stints with Furthur - the band founded by former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh - as well as Weir's band, RatDog, and the Dead - the band that evolved from the surviving members of the Grateful Dead after Jerry Garcia's death in 1995.The musician never planned to invent a device to help people suffering from sleep apnea, but stranger things have happened in the world of rock 'n roll.When Chimenti's mother faced a medical setback a few ... Continue reading →

By Richard Leong NEW YORK | Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:46pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc once again rewarded shareholders richly as its shares surged to new highs above $500 on Monday. There is, though, one part of the iPhone and iPad company's business that is not exactly humming: Its management of a pile of money now probably exceeding $100 billion. While Main Street U.S. investors are bombarded with offers from banks, such as Capital One Financial Corp, offering bank account yields of as much as 1 percent, Apple may be settling for about that or less for its stash, which is bigger than the gross domestic product of many smaller nations.And comparisons with fellow hoarders in the tech world, such as Microsoft ... Continue reading →

By Deborah L. Cohen CHICAGO | Thu Feb 2, 2012 4:03pm EST CHICAGO (Reuters) - Babson College and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor recently released the results of a comprehensive 2010 study about women's entrepreneurship around the world. The 2010 Women's Report examined the attitudes of women in 59 economies.In 2010, 104 million women representing more than half the world's population and 84 percent of world gross domestic product started and managed new business ventures. Reuters asked Donna J. Kelley, a Babson associate professor of entrepreneurship and one of the report's lead authors, for a bit of insight about U.S. women and small business.Q: How do American women view opportunities for entrepreneurship?A: Women in general have lower perceptions than men about their capabilities for starting a ... Continue reading →

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a keynote address at the company's annual conference in San Francisco, July 23, 2008. Credit: Reuters/Kimberly White Continue reading →