It Doesn't Grow on Trees . . . but the PricewaterhouseCoopers Money Tree site can still help you find the venture capital you need.
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In a recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers Money Tree, nearlyevery part of the country set new venture capital records in1999's third quarter. Silicon Valley broke the $3 billion markfor the first time, attracting $3.3 billion. New England rankedsecond with $923 million, while New York Metro, the Southeast andthe DC Metropolitan area rounded out the top five, each capturingmore than $600 million.
Close to $5 billion was invested outside the traditional marketsof Silicon Valley and New England. In all, nine regions attractedmore than $300 million each. Other regions included Colorado,Northwest, Los Angeles/Orange County, Texas and the Midwest.
Some particularly active venture capitalists reported funding 10or more companies, investing $15 million or more in the samequarter.
The Money Tree site includes the latest survey findings in theirentirety, as well as a virtual one-stop shop for anyone interestedin learning more about venture capital funding. Find out who'sinvesting and what kind of companies they're interested inbacking at www.PWCMoneyTree.com.
If you're a VC newbie, don't fret: From the Money Treesite, click over to the Entrepreneurial Resource Center for advice on seekingfunding, and sample business plans, templates and spreadsheets.
How Do You Spell Tax Relief?
Learning how to navigate the tax advantages of running your ownbusiness can be an education-but at least you stand to gainfrom the lessons. Understanding your responsibilities to Uncle Samonce you start hiring is another thing altogether. Fortunately, thegovernment wants to make it easy; hence the Simplified Tax and WageReporting System (STAWRS). Think of it as painting by numbers, onlywith taxes.
STAWRS-a joint effort of the SBA, the Department of Labor,the Treasury Department, the IRS, the Office of Management andBudget, and the Social Security Administration-wasestablished to reduce employers' tax- and wage-reporting burdenthrough improving the current reporting processes. In other words,STAWRS allows you to significantly cut the risk of over- andunderwithholding employees' taxes and social-securitycontributions. An entire section of the site is dedicated tostartups and what new businesses need to know about their taxobligations.
STAWRS' "One-Stop Guide for Businesses" providesgeneral tax information, includes a flowchart depicting basicbusiness events that require tax and wage reporting, offers a listsummarizing your basic responsibilities as an employer and refersto other tax-related publications that contain more detailedinformation. Much of the information in this guide refers to thefederal tax requirements; however, the site also includes links totax- and wage-reporting requirements for each state.
