Writing last month’s Chalkboard article, "Five Disciplines of our Most Profitable Clients," inevitably got me thinking about the darker days of being a CEDF business advisor. It doesn’t happen often, but I’ve been the sad witness to a handful of business failures over the past five years. One might conclude that this is unavoidable for an organization with a mission of lending to small businesses that cannot obtain traditional bank financing. After all, banks have failed bo...
