The old adage about the definition of insanity -- "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" -- has never been more applicable than it is right now with the crisis in our financial markets and our government's response thereto.  The daily, depressing drama of the federal government's frenetic, "bailout flavor of the day" response mechanism would be comical if it wasn't so tragic, frustrating, and anger-inducing.

Sometimes I feel I went to bed one night in the United States of America and woke up in the U.S.S.R. in the midst of a "5-year plan." It is long-overdue time for Main Street America, for Small Business America, for Scientist's and Engineer's America, for Junior Achievement America, for Paper Route America, for Immigrant America, for eBay America, for Mary Kay America, for Franchise America, for Venture Capital America, for Startup America, for Entrepreneurial America to stand up and shout ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Because they built this country.  Because they represent and embody its best and most admirable and most idealistic qualities.  And because if the Washington bureaucrats would just let them be and get out of their way they can and will dig this country out of its current hole far quicker, cheaper, and more fairly than via the banana republic cronyism that masquerades as policy in Washington these days.

The funny thing is, Entrepreneurial America has never been more vibrant, more creative, more productivity-building, more value-creating, than it is right now.  With the collapse of the "Blue Chips," the playing field has never been more level, the competitive arena never more wide open, the cost of key business inputs (labor, rents, technology) never less than it is right now for entrepreneurs.

What these firms need to succeed is not government handouts or "stimulus," but simply good old-fashioned growth capital.  And for this capital, these companies -- in such dynamic growth arenas as alternative & green energy, healthcare & biotechnology, digital media, and software -- are priced at  "end-of-the-world" levels.  In other words, as long as the world does not end, they will make themselves and their investors money.

So my suggestion to all of those in Entrepreneurial America: make yourself heard.  Call and write your congressperson and senator.  Email essays like this to your family, friends, and colleagues.  Support your local small business.  If you see a website of a business you like, write the company and tell them to keep on keeping on.   Blog.  Twitter.  Post on YouTube.  Shout out on Facebook.  Because this is a fight for private enterprise and economic freedom and one that Entrepreneurial America, and the world for that matter, cannot afford to lose.

Read Jay's second article in this series - Entrepreneurial America, Part 2.

Webinar: Keys to Successful Private Company Investing

Please join me on a live, interactive web conference where I will share with you my keys to successful private company investing including:

- How to utilize the Internet to source and research opportunities
- How to conduct data-driven risk analysis on private company deals
- How to exploit the "pricing inefficiency gap" endemic to private equity
- The importance of technology bias (and which technologies to bias) when selecting deals
- How to properly apply "black swan," or "randomness" thinking to private company investing strategy

To register, click here: http://www.growthink.com/livedeals

What does the girl who rejected me at a dance when I was thirteen years old have to do with your ability to raise capital for your business?  Well, it all has to do with psychology, human nature, and how you can leverage the two to attract capital. Watch the 4-minute video below to learn more:

Yesterday, I received an interesting package in the mail. I opened it up and inside was a shoebox. And inside the shoebox was "The Dogball." The Dogball, as I found out, is a new toy for dogs, and the founder, based in France, was trying to get me to distribute it here in the United States.

There are actually several important lessons from The Dogball as it relates to your business plan and raising capital. So, I documented them in a video since I had to make sure each of you could actually see exactly what the Dogball is:

Sometimes things are so obvious as to be hard to see.  

That is certainly the case right now with the incredible flood of federal stimulus pouring into the economy - both in terms of fiscal and monetary policy.   But saying it in this way, as it is often done by the chattering media classes, makes the issue unnecessarily opaque and complex.   We agree with Milton Friedman (and not just because of his long Stanford connection) when he describes inflation as "always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon."

Far too many businesses fail to raise capital because they lack the proper documentation, or because their marketing and offering materials (business plans, private placement memorandum,  investor presentations) are unprofessional, unpersuasive, inadequate or incomplete.

If you are raising capital from multiple private ("angel") investors, a private placement memorandum (PPM) is a necessary part of your documentation.  Unfortunately, however, the vast majority of entrepreneurs and business owners are not familiar with details of preparing a private placement memorandum and marketing a private placement offering.  In too many instances, this lack of knowledge prevents them from raising necessary capital, or -- even worse -- it can create costly liability problems.

To assist entrepreneurs, we created this report - "The Top 10 Private Placement Memorandum Mistakes" - to help answer some of the most frequently asked questions. We hope the report will help prevent many of the common errors we see businesses make during the process of preparing a private placement memorandum, marketing it to investors, and raising (or failing to raise) capital from private investors.

Some common questions answered in the report include:
- When do you need a private placement memorandum to raise capital?
- What types of disclosures must be made in a PPM?
- How can you market a private offering, while retaining a Regulation D exemption?
- What types of intermediaries and "finders" can promote a private offering?
- What types of investors can participate in a private placement?
- What are your options for preparing a private placement memorandum?
- How often should you edit or update a PPM?

Click here to download the report: Private Placement Memorandum Mistakes

If you are seeking professional assistance with your PPM, Growthink offers professional private placement memorandum writing and consulting services.  

Or, if you're writing your PPM yourself, you can use our Sample Private Placement Memorandum Template to finish your PPM quickly and easily, so that you spend less time "preparing," and more time speaking with investors.

As a supplement to our consulting practice, we're pleased to announce the launch of Growthink University, our new membership club dedicated to teaching entrepreneurs and business owners how to raise capital for their businesses.

The club assembles 10 years of capital raising expertise and methodologies developed and refined by Growthink, and gives entrepreneurs an additional "Do-It-Yourself" option to perfect their business plans.

Growthink University covers topics including, but not limited to:

• The biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make when trying to raise capital and how to avoid them.
• How to overcome the capital-raising challenges faced by first-time entrepreneurs.
• The difference between pre-and post-money valuations and making sure you don't get taken by investors.
• The ten biggest mistakes that companies make in their business plans.
• The winning ways to get meetings with investors -- and the most important things to know before sitting down at the table.
• What financial projections need to prove about your business

Go to Growthink University (http://www.growthinkuniversity.com) to learn more.

How many times have you heard someone say, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket"?

When it comes to any kind of investing, this is very good advice.

But, if this is the case, why don’t private equity investors diversify?

Unfortunately, most individual investors in private equity significantly under-diversify their portfolios -- investing in one or only a handful of companies.  By so doing, they both greatly increase their risk profile and greatly decrease their probabilities of seeing investment return.

As the investing month of October mercifully draws to a close, there is now a palpable sense of calm in the financial markets.  While the horrific damage – in both value and psychological terms – is very, very real, and may take years from which to recover, there has been a healthy mindset transition to a “what is to be done” thinking, feeling and acting.