Lou Katz quoted in CFO Magazine

Lou Katz quoted in the article entitled Failure to Launch? written by Kate O'Sullivan:

Dialing for Dollars
By all accounts, raising funds for a new business today is harder than it has been in decades. "There are no bank loans right now," says Louis Katz, a partner with law firm Ruberto, Israel & Weiner and a former CPA who works with small and midsize businesses. "The SBA is starting to free up some money for new businesses, but that's about the only place you see it. Private-equity firms are shoring up their existing companies rather than going out to find new businesses to finance,"

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Many of those who are currently jobless are highly educated, highly skilled workers: the professional and business-services sector, which includes accountants, lawyers, and consultants of all stripes, has lost 1.5 million jobs since the recession began, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "When accounting firm or law firm lays off 20% of its workforce, those are very well-trained people they are letting go. They're either going to get another job or open up their own business," says Louis Katz

Service businesses also require little start-up capital beyond the cost of a phone line and a laptop, making them well suited to today's market. Katz has noticed start-up activity in the financial-services sector, as newly unemployed investment bankers launch financial-advisory businesses.

The article focuses on the question "Conventional wisdom holds that recessions are hotbeds of entrepreneurial activity, but will this time be different?" It was published in the October 2009 issue of CFO Magazine.