The secret to surviving this Great Recession may turn out to be how you manage working capital--the difference between the money you've been paid and the cash you owe.

The good news is that clever startups are coming to market with big new ideas intended not only to change the way small businesses handle money, but in some cases to also cut out big, bad, TARP-grabbing traditional banks altogether.

"The market is beginning to understand how much value there is in unlocking what is not working in the financial infrastructure," says Aaron Patzer, vice president of the Personal Finance Group at Intuit and founder of Mint.com, the online personal finance site Intuit purchased last year.