James E. Mitchell, Jr., Charlotte City Council member and Past President of the National League of Cities, and Donald J. Borut, Executive Director, of the National League of Cities, are attending April 5th’s signing of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act.

NLC issued the following statement thanking President Obama, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and members of both political parties for their efforts to pass this Act:

While the economy is showing signs of improvement, it is still at a critical juncture. The JOBS Act creates a much needed source of capital for small businesses and entrepreneurs in communities across the country who have been stymied in their ability to participate in the economic recovery.

This is especially true for smaller, innovative companies that reside outside the traditional geographic regions for venture capital.  The JOBS Act will allow more communities to take part in the recovery by encouraging local companies to gain access to capital in order to grow businesses and expand employment.

Small businesses are the heart of Main Street.  In addition to employing local residents, they create a sense of place and support a city in developing its own talent and resources. This Act will help small and new entrepreneurs who want to take the chance to start their own business and create their own future.  It is this spirit of innovation that will drive a full national recovery in all of our communities.

Local governments regularly work across party lines, and this Act is a great example of what can happen when partisan rancor is set aside in an effort to rebuild our hometown economies. We hope it serves as an example for future bipartisan policy making, such as with the Marketplace Fairness Act, to help economic recovery in cities and towns across the nation.

The National League of Cities is dedicated to helping city leaders build better communities. NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities, towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans.

www.nlc.org 
www.nlctv.org 
www.citiesspeak.org 
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What can we learn from Apple, Groupon, and Facebook? That it pays more than a billion dollars to be the first team off the starting block. They have been rewarded with billion dollar IPOs by successfully predicting market behavior. Three years ago, WealthForge began developing their own prediction model focused on the idea that “crowdfund investing” would be legalized in the U.S. and only moments ago, their prediction came true.

President Obama just signed the JOBS act into law, signifying new legislation that will lift several SEC restrictions on soliciting investors, while permitting “crowdfunding” the ability for entrepreneurs to raise equity capital from larger groups of small investors.

Investments must be made through an SEC registered “funding portal” or website and investors may be limited in their total crowdfunding investments based on their net worth. (For detailed JOBS act information) click here.

Mat Dellorso and Fred Bryant co-founders of WealthForge are glad to see this day come, but neither are surprised about the overwhelming approval of the JOBS act. The two former University of Richmondstudents founded WealthForge in 2009 with the idea that smaller businesses should have greater chances of raising capital.

“Being a startup ourselves, we experienced the challenges of fundraising,” says Dellorso. “Our goal was to create a more efficient and simplified marketplace where entrepreneurs and investors could locate funding opportunities and complete the fundraising transactions in one place.”

It took almost 3 years for WealthForge to prove the model and register with the SEC. However, it appears their due diligence has paid off. While the JOBS act awaits the SEC’s 270 day review period, WealthForge stands ready to handle “crowdfund investing” NOW.

At WealthForge, entrepreneurs create a business profile and outline their funding objectives in a secure environment. Once the business is ready to fundraise they can use the platform to expose their business and funding objectives with a community of potential investors. This isn’t your typical Kickstarter project where entrepreneurs seek donations, rather where entrepreneurs raise equity capital for their business.

“WealthForge vets company profiles for strong investment opportunities,” Dellorso remarks, “we also vet investors to ensure they are a good fit for the company who is seeking capital and guidance.”

A new marketplace for small business fundraising has emerged and WealthForge is armed and ready. Create your profile at http://wealthforgeonline.com.

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Always wondered how to write a press release? Well, in order to write a proper press release, it is important to understand the basic components that go into writing one. The six components appear below in the order they appear in a press release:

• Headline
• Summary
• Dateline and Lead
• Body
• About the Company
• Contact Information

Companies will write a press release when they want to share news about their business. Writing a press release is a great way to reach other markets, improve SEO, garner media attention, and have their news published.

Some topics covered in a press release are for the announcement of a new product or feature, winning an award, hosting a fundraiser, announcing an employee change, launching a new partnership, sharing survey results and spreading news of an event, a start-up business or sports game.

Include “For Immediate Release” at the top of the page, then a headline. It is crucial to have an eye-catching headline, to incite the reader to keep reading, otherwise you will lose the chance of getting your press released published.

The summary will cover the main focus for writing the press release. It is important to name your company in the beginning to make the connection between the news and your company. The summary should be brief, but enough to give the reader an understanding of what you will be covering later in the press release.

The date and lead paragraph will cover the announcement the company is trying to make. It will answer the five w’s: who, what, when, where, and why. The dateline will cover the where and when. The dateline should look like this: NEW YORK, NY. – October 1, 2011. The lead paragraph will answer the who, what, and why.

Next is the body, which will further elaborate on the news. This is where most of details for the press release will be written. In this instance, it is good to include quotes from top employees, experts on the topic, statistics, or anything relevant to the release. It is important not to write this as an advertisement, and to not address the audience directly.

The “About the Company” should be towards the end of the press release after the body copy. Here, include the contact information so readers know who and how to contact that person. It is also useful to include contact information at the top of the page so readers can have access to that information from the very beginning.
Losevsky Pavel / Shutterstock.com

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