Last Week In Entrepreneur News: 4/5/09 - 4/11/09

Fox Valley's small business owners hope credit markets loosen up - The Post-Crescent
April 9, 2009
New business owner Cindy Veit doesn't think she's asking banks to take on too much of a risk as she applies for a loan of at least $10,000.
But after a few rejections, she's still peddling around to lenders her business plan, one that involves maintaining flagpoles and replacing tattered flags at commercial sites from the Fox Cities to Oshkosh. Read More...

Recession Start-Up Snags And Solutions - Forbes
April 8, 2009
Lessons from entrepreneurs who have launched businesses in the last 18 months.
Launching a business is hard enough--doing it during a recession takes major guts, a heck of a value proposition and a serious threshold for disappointment. Read More...

Venture Capitalists’ Confidence Creeps Back - NYTimes
April 8, 2009
Venture capitalists, who have been uncharacteristically pessimistic for the past year, are seeing signs of hope, according to the latest quarterly Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index. Read More...

Alumni association seeks grads to return to Wisconsin companies - WisBusiness
April 7, 2009
The Wisconsin Alumni Association's Paula Bonner says a cooperative effort to match UW-alumni execs around the country with Wisconsin companies is progressing well.
Bonner told the monthly WisBusiness.com luncheon Monday at the Madison Club that the idea is to serve as a "matchmaker'' between alumni looking to get back to Wisconsin and growing companies such as Epic and Covance. Surveys indicate some 60 percent of alums have an interest in coming back. Read More...

Survey: Wisconsin 10th in financial 'happiness' - The Business Journal of Milwaukee
April 6, 2009
Wisconsin ranks 10th in a new “Happiness Index” based on economic well-being in the United States.
The survey, from personal finance site MainStreet.com, found that the Midwest was one of the most financially content parts of the country. Read More...