How Do You Rate - For Funding?

You've heard of Match.com.

Now there's Boefly.com, an online matching service that connects small business borrowers with lenders, using a compatibility tool similar to the online dating sites.

Boefly has recently put out a "fundability wizard" that gives you a ballpark idea of how "fundable" your business idea or company truly is.

An interesting innovation - one of many tools the Internet is offering up to help small business owners. The problem, of course, is that so few small business loans are actually being made these days.

There's still a chronic shortage of credit, and as a source of mine told me recently, it's a seller's market. So banks can require all sorts of extras from small companies looking to get funding, and they have little recourse but to comply or scuttle their applications.

I'll be writing more about that problem in the column shortly. Stay tuned.

A Picture Is Worth

I'm a word person, not particularly a graphics person.

But I have to admit that I find the infographics that have been cropping up really help explain tough concepts and lay out complexities with a punch. They don't replace good reporting, which is based on words, but they put the results into a format that can have a big impact.

Here's one that shows - in graphic detail - how difficult it is for small companies to get the cash or credit they need to run their companies.