Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times Mitch Jacobs, founder and chief executive of On Deck Capital: “There is a misperception about the risk.”

In a small-business conversation we’ve just published, Mitch Jacobs, founder and chief executive of On Deck Capital, talks about what he hopes will be a revolutionary new  approach to getting credit to small businesses. Among those who believe in the approach are James D. Robinson III, former chairman and chief executive of American Express, and Alan Blinder, an economist and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, both of whom serve on On Deck’s board.

In return for its loans, On Deck charges rates that are “consistently below 30 percent,” and it collects its payment through daily, automatic withdrawals from the business’s checking account. It also collects information about its borrowers that allow it to serve as a “virtual director of finance” for these companies.

Would you be interested in obtaining a loan from On Deck with these terms?

There are many variables to consider before you join a business group. The harsh reality is that whether you spend $100 per year or $13,000, business groups can provide a mediocre experience. If you’ve read my other posts, you know I’m a veteran (and a dropout) of four groups, which I think leaves me well positioned to suggest some questions you should ask yourself and the group before you decide to join:

1. Why exactly are you joining? There are no good or bad groups — just the right or wrong groups depending on your goals and your needs. Are you looking for people to compare notes with, to do some networking with, to commiserate with occasionally? If so, a Chamber of Commerce group might do the trick. But please don’t think this is the same as a professionally run group that spends an entire day examining all aspects of a business from its financials to its sales plans. There is also a huge difference between running a $1 million business and running a $1 million business that you want to turn into a $10 million business. Try to be honest with yourself about whether you will be comfortable spilling your business guts to a group of strangers. Do you really want input? Or do you just think you want input?

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Note to readers: My five posts this week chronicle the events of the week of Feb. 15. I’m publishing them with some misgivings, as one might get the impression that my business is days from failure at all times. Fortunately, this is not so. That week was especially dramatic because of the timing of the payments in and out. Also, it marked the beginning of an uptick in sales. From where I sit today, the recovery has begun. We now have a normal backlog of work and sufficient cash on hand to complete it.

2 p.m.: I need someone to place an order. I wish that urgent business problems could only be solved with the purchase of an expensive conference table. Or that I could treat my clients as if I were a doctor: “I have bad news. If you don’t buy a new videoconferencing table immediately, you will die.” Instead, I make a discretionary item whose purchase is tied closely to corporate expansion. Sigh. It’s been a tough recession.

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Courtesy of Southfork Kitchen.

April Fool’s Day has come and gone.

I am aware of that.

Writers and restaurateurs never make their deadlines.

I am aware of that, too.

So, you’re gonna be really late, huh?

Not necessarily.

When’s the opening?

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Note to readers: My five posts this week chronicle the events of the week of Feb. 15. I’m publishing them with some misgivings, as one might get the impression that my business is days from failure at all times. Fortunately, this is not so. That week was especially dramatic because of the timing of the payments in and out. Also, it marked the beginning of an uptick in sales. From where I sit today, the recovery has begun. We now have a normal backlog of work and sufficient cash on hand to complete it.

9 a.m: Bad news. We’re doing a job for Company C, a local manufacturer. It would have kept the shop busy for three weeks. Now they tell us that the schedule has slipped a month.

This is a large problem for two reasons: One, I was supposed to get a progress payment of $19,888.40 this week so that we could start production, and two, we would have been able to collect another payment of $26,518.40 prior to delivery next month. These two payments amount to half my cash needs for the next month — not to mention that I now have a three-week hole in my schedule. I had been planning to hire back one of my laid-off workers to make sure we finished this job in time. Now that won’t happen.

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Joseph Jamal Melanie Moore and Susanne Greenfield of ToVieFor.

The Stern School at New York University held the finals of its 11th annual business plan competition on Friday, with a cash prize of $75,000 for best new venture going to a “fashion 2.0” company, ToVieFor, which was co-founded by Melanie Moore and Susanne Greenfield.

ToVieFor sells current season luxury handbags and women’s fashion accessories at 40 percent to 70 percent off retail prices, primarily through a dutch-auction process online. To place a bid, shoppers must become site members and pay $1 to $5 for each session. ToVieFor will work directly with the brands — not distributors — to obtain the luxury goods it sells.

While the start-up has conducted sales of Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs handbags through its test site, it plans to begin in beta this summer and to be fully operational by the next New York Fashion Week (in September).

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Note to readers: My five posts this week chronicle the events of the week of Feb. 15. I’m publishing them with some misgivings, as one might get the impression that my business is days from failure at all times. Fortunately, this is not so. That week was especially dramatic because of the timing of the payments in and out. Also, it marked the beginning of an uptick in sales. From where I sit today, the recovery has begun. We now have a normal backlog of work and sufficient cash on hand to complete it.

9 a.m.: Monday greets me with a stack of overdue bills on my desk totaling $7,926.82. I have to pay our health insurance bill this week: $7,239.49. I have budgeted $4,500 for a week’s worth of materials, $2,000 for our AdWords campaign, and $1,000 for freight. That’s a total of $22,666.31 heading out the door.

My bank balance: $355. I deposited another $7,009 on Friday, which is waiting to clear. Total available: $7,364.

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Courtesy of the Gephardt Group Since leaving Congress, Representative Gephardt has been a proponent of open-book management.

When we sent out the agenda for our annual gathering of open-book practitioners that will be held next week in St. Louis, we caused a bit of surprise and confusion with our choice for a keynote speaker. People keep calling us and asking, “Why Dick Gephardt?”

Over the years, open-book management has certainly attracted interest from a variety of folks, from the anonymous director of a not-for-profit community theater to the likes of Warren Buffet. But I’ll admit that we have rarely drawn interest from the world of politics, which is a shame. So, I understand why people might be asking that question.

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The conventional wisdom is that Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, up for re-election this fall, is one of several Democrats in danger of losing her seat. But right now, a Republican opponent is the least of her worries. Ms. Lincoln, one of the most conservative members of her caucus, is facing a tough primary challenge from the left, in the person of Lt. Governor Bill Halter. And on Tuesday, Salon’s Mike Madden reported that she was receiving help from an unexpected quarter: the United States Chamber of Commerce, in the name of small business.

A Chamber 30-second spot declares that “for years, small businesses have counted on Senator Blanche Lincoln” — for tax cuts, incentives for homegrown manufacturing and research and development, and for rewriting “unfair” tax laws. The commercial is unexpected, given that the Chamber has pledged to spend, according to the Washington Post, $50 million to “target vulnerable Democrats in up to two dozen states with ads, get-out-the-vote operations and other grass-roots efforts.” But a Chamber spokesman, J.P. Fielder, pointed out that the organization endorsed Ms. Lincoln in 2004, when she last ran for re-election. He described the current ad as “a significant buy” that “will run for an extended period.”

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Lionel Nicolau Cortical Concepts, winners at Wharton’s business plan competition.

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania held its 12th annual business plan competition on Wednesday. Eight finalists were selected from the 231 teams that applied.

Cortical Concepts took the grand prize of $20,000 cash, and $10,000 worth of in-kind accounting and legal services, for its plan to sell a device that would make spine surgery safer for patients with osteoporosis or weak bones.

Stephanie Huang, a first-year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, described the so-called Cortical Anchor device as a kind of “drywall anchor” for the spine. She and her teammate Jason Hsu came up with the concept as undergraduate bioengineering students at Johns Hopkins University.

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