Startup Blog
The keys to the state.
One of the biggest advantages of joining the Department of Commerce has been gleefully learning about the state's lesser-known resources. These smaller, inaudible humming engines do great things to empower and incentivize businesses owned by minorities, women and...
Small business, big funding opportunity.
Unless you’re to the manor born, the biggest challenge your small business can face is access to capital. Seed money, dough to grow, pump-priming startup funds. Banks typically don’t like to fund entrepreneurs needing less than $50,000. No one should ever use a credit...
Calling all creatives!
It was an unlikely pairing, Big Tech and me. She’s a steely loud behemoth, I’m a sensitive writer. I knew from the beginning she probably wasn’t the one, but we looked good on paper. My friends and family liked the life she afforded us. Over the decades we built a...
A pirate’s guide to business.
Before I came to Commerce almost a decade ago, I had a secret life. If you’ve read these Startup Blogs for any length of time, you know that I was an entrepreneur and small business owner before joining the state. But as you can see by the headline, I am also a...
It just doesn’t add up.
When I started my business, oh, so long ago, I knew virtually nothing about managing a company’s finances. About four years into it, I famously had a ton of money in the bank to brag about, but it’s only because I didn’t pay my taxes. The feds found out, and that big...
The Dickens, you say.
I have always wondered when I would reach my limit on Hallmark holiday movies and their very predictable happily ever afters. It turned out to be Dec. 23, about 7:35 in the evening. I could take no more. So I turned the channel and happened upon the Cornley...
And around and around we go!
The long and winding road to start a business used to be a familiar one. Come up with an idea, find a place to sell your wares, market to the community at large, gain loyal customers, put your competitors on the defensive and rake in some dough. If only it were still...
Kicking entrepreneurship into high gear.
One of the hardest things about working for the state is that I can’t run off and start a business at the drop of a hat. After almost 10 years at the Department of Commerce, I still have this burning desire to be an entrepreneur. I just can’t help myself. It’s in my...
Recover, restart, rebuild.
Most of us hoped that with the arrival of vaccines, the pandemic would become something they teach in history class someday. What we have found instead is that it will be with us for a long time. The word “endemic” is starting to creep into our lexicon even as I write...