Speak with Your Investors, It's Tough Out There

We are in a rough time for all small businesses, but especially for relatively new or start-up businesses. The medical device market is one of them. In this excellent New York Times article the writer describes an innovative company that is suffering from current market conditions.

I went through a similar situation early in this decade when the company went from 120 people to less than 80 after a new round of money from investors. That was just after the bottom fell out from the Tech bubble (remember April 2001 - kind of gets lost because of 9/11 that year, but it was bad for the market for sure). New products get the first shaft, for sure.

In addition, professional investors are again starting to focus on under-performing companies, witness a little fight/fray going on in the Chicago suburbs as described in a recent article by Greg Burns in the Chicago Tribune. The dispute revolves around a hedge fund manager who holds a small company's stock, and it disappointed with the market performance relative its peers and focuses the complaint on overhead and related costs in the corporate suite.

These are nervous times my friends, keep hold of your cash and find ways to survive. Keep in close contact with your investors (keep those friends close, and enemies closer), make them feel special, else they might pounce and end your run.