It's been "shock and awe" for the financial system over the past few months. Even seemingly invincible companies like GE (NYSE: GE) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) have not been immune. As a result, there has been a tremendous deflation of equity values across the globe.

Unfortunately, the game has also changed for your business. It's much more difficult to get debt or equity financing, and it may even be impossible, at least for now. Customers are having difficulties paying invoices. And, as for finding new customers, this is particularly tough.

So, in light of everything, what is the value of your business? Well, keep in mind that, for the most part, the value of a business is dependent on its cash flow. So long as this remains strong and long-lasting, you are likely to weather the storm. If anything, you could be in a nice position to capitalize on the situation, such as by buying companies, hiring employees and in making new investments.

But this is the rare exception. In fact, even some of the growth darlings are having issues. For example, the data service, VCExperts.com, has recently launched a new offering – called the Valuation Ticker – that provides valuations of venture-backed companies. Essentially, the system compares private companies to public indexes, such as the NASDAQ and S&P 500. Here's a look at a sample, with valuations over the last ten months:

• Facebook: $12.4B (12/31/2007), $6.9B (10/31/08) -- 44%
• Slide: $545.2M (12/31/07), $376.6M (10/31/08) -- 31%
• Yardbarker: $18.1M (03/03/2008), $14.2M (10/31/08) -- 22%
• Going: $21.9M (5/07/08), $15.2M (10/31/08) -- 31%

Max Levchin was in his 20's when he sold PayPal to eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) for $1.5 billion and his latest project, slide.com, is progressing swimmingly. According to an Associated Press piece, Slide is the number 1 widget maker. For the social networking uninitiated, widgets are those little applications people can put on their MySpace/Facebook pages.

Starting today, consumers will have the option of adding advertising to their widgets. This might seem bizarre, but Levchin is betting that customers will want to promote brands they love or hot new movies on their pages. As a social networker (albeit one who was late to the party), I've noticed that many people already do this on their pages: Abercrombie (NYSE: ANF) logos and pictures of Grey Goose bottles, to name 2 of the more common ones.

According to the AP piece:

If Slide's advertising ambitions pay off, Levchin hinted that the company might be in a position to sell its stock in an initial public offering as early as next year.

"Widgets aren't just about fun and games," Levchin said. "This is a big step toward maturity for us."

Given Levchin's track record and Slide's early leadership in the widget space, that could be an interesting IPO.

I began using PowerPoint, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)'s iconic presentation software, a good dozen years ago. I took to it like a duck to water, never (I thought) overusing the animation tools, eventually learning that axiom of all presentations: don't put too many words on each slide. I made countless presentations over the years, to pitch loans to other banks, to pitch deals to potential clients, to explain the 401(k) program to employees, to explain a product to PR agents, to beg for money from venture capital firms. I'm a little in love with PowerPoint. Let's be honest.

Yet PowerPoint is roundly hated by the world, says Jared Sandberg in the Wall Street Journal today. Naturally, despite this abhorrence, it's roundly used 'round the world. One expert he quotes says PowerPoint presentations cost companies $252 million each day in wasted time. The anecdotal PowerPoint-haters he quotes say it's "soul-sapping," a "crutch," "it stinks."

Come on guys! It's not that bad. And if it is: it's hardly the fault of the program.

I think it's meetings that suck. Not all meetings, mind you, but the ones for which overly-animated PowerPoint presentations are prepared. I think it's presenters who suck. Not all presenters, of course, but the ones who use PowerPoint as an overly-wordy crutch. I think it's the state of public discourse that sucks; so many people today don't properly prepare really compelling things to say to one another. It's writing that sucks; so few people today are properly trained in how to craft a few sentences to make them sing around their sparse and lovely bullet points.

Don't hate the game, Jared! Hate the players. And Microsoft's laughing at both of us, all the way to its cash position on its prodigious balance sheet. I wonder how much Microsoft makes each day in this love-hate relationship?