Is 150 years too much for a white collar criminal?  Not by a long shot.  Bernie got what he deserved.  Heck, he got off easy.

By Steven J. Slater, guest blogger on Pat Lovenhart’s blog

I gave a marketing presentation to Johns Hopkins University business graduate students this past summer, on how only the strong brands will survive rough economic times.  This was before the effects of the economy really hit.  I was not trying to be prophetic, just pragmatic and get the point across the importance of positioning.

There are so many programs dedicated to social media and web technology development in this region, it is hard, if not impossible, to keep up with everything. This includes forums for showcasing new undertakings.

If you are not already on mailing lists (see info below), I suggest you check these out. You may get some new ideas and can also investigate what your competition’s doing. Even if your endeavor is unique, you’re still vying for a fixed pool of capital (and possibly some of the same target markets).

Recently an entrepreneur I know contacted me to help her figure out what many would call a “high class problem.”  She had a potential buyer for her business, and the buyer was asking her the price at which she would be willing to sell her business.  Not surprisingly, valuing her business to sell was not something that she had been spending any particular time working on – she was too busy growing her business – but even if she had taken the time she admitted she really had no place to begin.  Over the next few days we had series of conversations about how to value her business -- the overall themes of which I thought would be of use to other entrepreneurs.  So, with that, here are some thoughts on how you deal with the issue of “what’s your business worth” when an unsolicited buyer comes along.

The downturn in the economy and the dearth of reliable, lucrative exits for venture investors will create unprecedented change in early stage financing for entrepreneurs.