Startup Blog

Get Ready, Get Set, Go Global

Get Ready, Get Set, Go Global

Are you a small business owner in need of some jet fuel to boost your website? A new Commerce program may have up to $4,000 worth of free jet fuel for you. Whether you need an e-commerce site built from scratch, are already selling online locally or nationally, or...

Working Washington Round 5 Opens August 17

Working Washington Round 5 Opens August 17

Working Washington Grants: Round 5 (WWR5) Program offers one-time grants to small for-profit and non-profit businesses that have experienced financial hardship due to Covid-19 and related public health measures.

Protect the value of your intellectual property.

Protect the value of your intellectual property.

Most creatives are in the idea business and our currency is often naivety in our own worth. We tend to think we can’t possibly be the first person to come up with an original thought, recipe, tattoo, line of code, slogan, illustration or music hook. Surely it’s all...

The keys to the state.

The keys to the state.

One of the biggest advantages of joining the Department of Commerce has been gleefully learning about the state's lesser-known resources. These smaller, inaudible humming engines do great things to empower and incentivize businesses owned by minorities, women and...

Small business, big funding opportunity.

Small business, big funding opportunity.

Unless you’re to the manor born, the biggest challenge your small business can face is access to capital. Seed money, dough to grow, pump-priming startup funds. Banks typically don’t like to fund entrepreneurs needing less than $50,000. No one should ever use a credit...

Calling all creatives!

Calling all creatives!

It was an unlikely pairing, Big Tech and me. She’s a steely loud behemoth, I’m a sensitive writer.  I knew from the beginning she probably wasn’t the one, but we looked good on paper. My friends and family liked the life she afforded us. Over the decades we built a...

A pirate’s guide to business.

A pirate’s guide to business.

Before I came to Commerce almost a decade ago, I had a secret life. If you’ve read these Startup Blogs for any length of time, you know that I was an entrepreneur and small business owner before joining the state. But as you can see by the headline, I am also a...

It just doesn’t add up.

It just doesn’t add up.

When I started my business, oh, so long ago, I knew virtually nothing about managing a company’s finances. About four years into it, I famously had a ton of money in the bank to brag about, but it’s only because I didn’t pay my taxes. The feds found out, and that big...

The Dickens, you say.

The Dickens, you say.

I have always wondered when I would reach my limit on Hallmark holiday movies and their very predictable happily ever afters. It turned out to be Dec. 23, about 7:35 in the evening. I could take no more. So I turned the channel and happened upon the Cornley...