GoHuman Blog

Launching a business requires knowing the cost and expenses associated with startup operations. Business owners planning to expand an existing business usually need additional financing. Being undercapitalized is one of the most common mistakes business owners make. Attempting to work on a financial shoe string is not only stressful but can impede the growth of the business for years.

The first step most companies take when seeking private capital is the creation of an executive summary and/or a business plan. Executive summaries and business plans typically provide general information about the company, its business model, goals, etc. While this information is important to investors, it does not provide a basis or structure for accepting capital investments, especially from multiple investors. Business plans are important, especially for start-up companies, but should not be relied upon as investment documents.

Here is the “Best Kept Secret in Funding.” The Regulation D series of funding allows you to efficiently raise the funds necessary for your business, in legal compliance with Security & Exchange Commissions laws. Whether it’s $50,000 or millions, there is a Reg D to answer your requirements.

Offering equity in a privately held company, such as a corporation or limited liability company, without proper exemption from the Securities & Exchange Commission, is in violation of offering securities. The Reg D series of private placement offerings are the exemptions. A Reg D 504 Private Placement Offering is ideal for raising $1 million or less. It’s cost effective, has few restrictions, and is easy to comply with.

Ken Hollowell, CEO/President of Profran Consultants, Inc., is sponsoring this issue by offering a free Reg D 504, a $10,000 value. To apply, provide a one or two paragraph description of your business with the amount you wish to raise, up to $1M. Ken will select the business he feels is the best candidate to generate investor interest, from among the first 20 responses. The other 19 candidates will receive a personal counseling session on how to improve their pitch. GoHuman.com will also upgrade your subscription to our $9 Enhanced Subscription Level for 6 months, free of charge.

You owe it to yourself to learn about methods of raising funds for literally any type of business. Respond today to increase your understanding of funding options to chart your path toward business growth and expansion.

All this speculation about Google buying Yelp for half a billion dollars starts to sound suspiciously like some of the other high finance deals that led to the current economic crisis. But at the end of the day, these are two corporations beholden to shareholders and investors with wealth aggregated at the top and controlled from the top. Worse still, that wealth is still leaving your community.

Where’s the little guy in all this? The independent local professional or small business who just needs to get more customers in the door, no matter who happens to own the search traffic or content at that particular moment.

Google was supposed to be in the business of objectively aggregating the world’s information, not owning it. Buying Yelp ensures a degree of control over the content that is created. And remember who’s creating all that content? You and me.

Yelp was a directory created to give consumers a democratic voice in recommending brick and mortar businesses. I believe their motives were pure, but they leaned so far in favor of the consumer as to alienate businesses who now tell extortion-like tales. The review system is limited and features such as business responses and custom business info are afterthoughts at best.

There is a better way.

What if the website that contained all the customer feedback alllowed businesses to express themselves and interact in a more natural, independent way?

Better yet, what if the people who contribute to the website community end up owning it?

GoHuman.com represents something completely different — 1000’s of sustainable localized business communities connected through the Web yet protected from the rampant evaporation of local wealth. We’re building a unique collaborative economic structure that directly rewards those who contribute to its growth. It’s a revolutionary concept that takes a bit of faith to absorb, but we truly believe it will transform local communities from the inside out, equalizing the gap between the big guys and the little guys.

I’ve written about Goldman Sachs and Piggies before, but my daughter inspired me today, feeding change to her pig.

Goldman’s is a story of greed, power and collusion. They fueled an enormous Real Estate bubble by creating  toxic assets from doomed mortgages.  They called them safe and sold them to trusting people.  Mountains of money from whitewashing risk wasn’t enough, it gets much worse.

Using AIG, they bet against their own products, cashing in on their customer’s misfortune.  Outraged yet?

Next, former Goldman CEO Henry Paulson fed them the Fed bailout.  After defrauding a billion people with the free market lie, they use our taxes to post record profits of $3.44 billion, while 10% (or 17%) are unemployed.

Read Matt Taibbi’s article to learn more.

When my 18 month-old saw daddy empty the bank from the bottom, she tried, but couldn’t.  She quickly got fed up feeding an unfair pig. Game over!

We can feed a different kind of change to rich pigs.  Stop giving them your allowance. Don’t let them enslave us with their free market.

Reason #3 Why GoHuman.com? A marketplace with change for everyone.

Teaching Zoe that Pigs eat your money!

Reason #1; Reason #2;

Reason #4; Reason #5; Reason #6; Reason #7; Reason #8; Reason #9; Reason #10; Reason #11; Reason #12

As we watch the fallout of Capitalism gone wild, and what it does to those who indulge their greed and lust for power, it’s important to remember that the little choices we make along the way are determinate of big choices we would make if we were in those positions.

In this light I read an interesting article in the May, 2009 Ode (the magazine for intelligent optimists). You have to love the tag-line, as the editors are aware that they are at risk of being called naive. You can check out the article “Getting to the Heart of Money” online.

Two choice examples used are an Israeli day care that implemented late fees and found parents were more motivated by common courtesy and perception than money, and volunteers collecting more for charities than those paid to canvas. Bruno Frey, economist at the University of Zurich maintains “People are much more altruistic than standard economics claims,” and lays down the following gauntlet: “The challenge is for economists to nurture this intrinsic motivation instead of crowding it out.”

At GoHuman.com we’re working to attract people to the vision of a better marketplace, that not only helps small businesses reduce marketing costs, improve branding, and grow their customer base, but ensures those who care about making things better are also rewarded for their contributions and the value they create.

We thank those of you who are already on board, and hope to continue this dialogue as a reality check on how we’re doing in maintaining this delicate balance. We view our members, customers, supporters and co-owners as mirrors that keep the operators honest, to ensure that the small choices we make today are in line with the philosophy of creating a transparent market that rewards all contributors in an equitable fashion, no matter when they joined or what positions they hold.

Let us know how we’re doing!

As Web development evolves with an increased number of technologies and skilled people, new companies such as Mashery.com are coming online to help companies tap into the teams of independent developers out there that have ideas about how to leverage their products. Most companies simply don’t have the resources or vision to recognize or capitalize on all the opportunities that exist within their networks, products, and technology. Companies that are willing to open themselves up to outside partnerships with shared revenue potential are paving the way for new ways to do business online.

According to Mashery.com, “By publishing your API, you give potential and existing partners the ability to create applications that use your data and engage customers in new ways.”

The trend is clear. Consider the benefits of developing an open platform to which many people can contribute or keep your secrets and watch the Web pass you by. Security and secrecy are, of course, important for any company with proprietary interests, and boundaries must be set. But businesses that have successfully employed open models such as eBay and Apple are reaping the rewards and even seeing a majority of their business created through alternative channels.

Right in time for our Million Dollar Video Contest, YouTube has added a feature that allows any popular video to become monetized with the creator’s permission. The ad revenues are shared between the video creator and YouTube, which is a great idea. GoHuman.com offers generous referral bonuses for those who help build our community.