Good question.

In the old days, banks took the risk of lending money on themselves and ensured that borrowers would be able to pay it back over time. The recent fad for the securitization of risk meant that they can lend to any Tom, Dick or Harriet, then package up the debts into large parcels of small slices from many borrowers, and sell them onto other banks and finance houses.

These financial instruments, for example : collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), are the financial equivalent of supermarket sausages — nobody knows what’s in them, and many prefer not to.

How will the demise of CDOs affect the small business borrower? In the sense that many startups are categorized as sub-prime, since they don’t have a year or three’s accounts to back up their case, the situation is probably being reassessed.

The policy of reckless securitization is starting to be reversed, according to many accounts. If you have not been caught up in the debt trap created by the sub-prime fiasco, you may just be a better risk than the trailer-park poor, especially as many governments give tax breaks to banks which lend to small businesses.

Let us keep our fingers crossed.

If you run, or are thinking of starting, a business that depends for its income on selling advertising for websites or blogs, you may be missing out on a great source of revenue close to hand.

You probably spend a lot of time chasing up advertising on the internet. You may also use an agency or two which take 40-50pc of the income they generate.

Maybe it’s getting a bit harder out there now, with PageRank depressed and an almighty credit funk hanging in the air like a bad smell.

Here’s an alternative. Depending on the topic(s) of your site(s), try placing small display ads in the business section of your local newspaper or trade press.

Ask readers to consider internet advertising. You might remind them that it’s very competitive with comparable colour display stuff in magazines, or text lines in the small ads.

I stumbled on this field while following up our plans for a local West Country subNetwork. While assessing the potential for local ads, I saw how many national and international companies are present here in Devon. There are also lots of small businesses that trade internationally, often selling produce online, and also bags of computer and tech SMEs, some on the new technology park set up by the university.

It occurred to me that this was a treasure trove of potential advertisers for the Syntagma network, let alone a dedicated local one. As a source of text-link ads and 125s — which we haven’t picked up on yet, but intend to — it’s a veritable goldmine.

Advertisers don’t have to be based in the U.S. — a common assumption online, mainly because volume-wise it’s such an enormous market. But, for a middling sized digital network, there is literally huge potential in your local area.