Idea of the Day®
June 15, 2025
Father’s Day 2025
Today is a day to honor dads. The National Retail Federation says that spending for Father’s Day this year is expected to be $24 billion (up from last year’s $22.4 billion). Spending is expected to average $199.38 (about $10 more than last year). While greeting cards are the most popular gift (58% of shoppers), clothing (55%), a special outing (53%), and gift cards (50%). (You can see that some will buy multiple things for dads this year.). Subscription boxes and gifts of experiences continue to rise in popularity. Online remains consumers’ primary shopping destination, with 41% shopping online for Father’s Day. This is followed by 35% shopping at department stores, discount stores (23%), specialty stores (22%), and local/small businesses (19%). Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! #IdeaoftheDay
Big Ideas for Your Business
Resources For Your Business
June 12, 2025
By Barbara Weltman
Father’s Day, the third Sunday in June, is a time to honor dads. While Mother’s Day became an official national holiday in 1914, Father’s Day wasn’t recognized until 1966 and didn’t become a permanent national holiday until 1972. Most children inherit their father’s name, traits, and behaviors. All children—natural, adopted, IVF’d—hopefully receive love. Children of […]
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June 11, 2025
By Brenda Wanjiku
Many small business owners are too busy juggling inventory, customers, and payroll to worry about framing a college diploma on the wall. From the bakery owner who learned to balance the books on the fly, to the tech startup founder who dropped out to pursue an idea, there’s a lingering question: does higher education make […]
June 10, 2025
By Barbara Weltman
Today’s economic climate has many moving parts—tariffs, interest rates, pending tax changes, changing consumer preferences. They combine to create a period of uncertainty. What are small businesses supposed to do? Here are some ideas to be proactive despite this uncertainty. Strengthen your financial resilience To best withstand whatever happens, put your financial house in order: […]
June 5, 2025
By Barbara Weltman
On May 22, 2025, the House passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) (referred to here as “the bill”), which is a reconciliation bill including legislation from 11 House Committees…including the Ways and Means Committee for taxation. The Senate now has to address the measure, with a target date for enactment by Congress set […]
June 3, 2025
By Barbara Weltman
Becoming penniless doesn’t always mean becoming poor; here signifies operating without pennies. The Treasury announced that it had placed its last order for blank pennies and would not be minting any more one-cent pieces after the last of these blanks had been used. It costs the government 3.7¢ to produce a penny. It said that ceasing […]
May 29, 2025
By Barbara Weltman
“Intellectual property is a key aspect for economic development.” Craig Venteer, scientist known for leading one of the first draft sequences of the human genome and led the first team to transfect a cell with a synthetic chromosome IP—intellectual property—may be the most valuable things owned by your business. IP can be ways to help […]
May 27, 2025
By Barbara Weltman
As a Florida resident, I’m acutely aware of hurricane season, which begins in the Atlantic on June 1 and runs through November 30. The Pacific hurricane season for the eastern Pacific basin began May 15 and also runs through November 30. May is National Wildfire Month. While the calendar may specify when certain disasters are […]
May 26, 2025
By James Thompson
Running a small business is exciting but not entirely painless or quick. It feels like juggling multiple tasks—talking to customers, assigning tasks, tracking deadlines, etc. And while all this is happening, you come face-to-face with machine breakdown and downtime. Nerve-wracking, isn’t it? But what if there’s a way to keep things running and organized without […]
May 22, 2025
By Barbara Weltman
In this Small Business Month, it’s great to see that the number of sole proprietorships in the U.S. has increased. Recent IRS statistics on sole proprietorships for 2022 show that the number of these businesses is up by 5.7%. These statistics are derived from Schedule C of Form 1040 or 1040-SR and show the contrast to […]
May 20, 2025
By Barbara Weltman
If you’re launching a new business or developing a new project for an existing business, you probably need money to do it right. Instead of using conventional methods, such as getting a bank loan or finding a person willing to invest, you may be able to raise cash through crowdfunding. According to the dictionary, “crowdfunding […]
May 19, 2025
Let’s be honest. Estimating projects the old-fashioned way can feel like trying to win a race with one foot tied to the floor. You’re juggling spreadsheets, flipping through paper plans, and triple-checking numbers that somehow still go missing. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. But here’s the thing: sticking with outdated methods isn’t just […]
May 15, 2025
By Barbara Weltman
Small businesses operate with a tight staff; each person counts and it’s difficult for staff to cover when an employee is out for any reason. But some employees may be reservists called to active duty to serve in war, to help FEMA during a disaster, or for other reasons. For example, my son-in-law was called […]
May 13, 2025
By Barbara Weltman
While the calendar says the official start of summer is more than a month away, it’s not too early…or too late…to be thinking about that time of the year. The nature of your business may greatly affect what you do now. For example, if your business is outdoor-focused, you’re facing your busy season and need […]
May 8, 2025
By Barbara Weltman
Who knew that mom’s cliches would serve as lessons on how to be an entrepreneur? In honor of Mother’s Day, I’d like to thank my mom and all moms for their unintended wisdom when they repeatedly said those cliches most of us remember. How many times did you hear “What part of NO don’t you […]
May 6, 2025
By Barbara Weltman
It’s been estimated that nearly one in 5 people in the U.S. have a mental health issue. SAMSHA says “Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act, and helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices.” Within a business context, mental health issues […]
April 28, 2025
By John Jones
The U.S. government estimates that there are over one million warehouse and storage buildings with a total floorspace of 17.4 billion square feet. That’s a lot of space to keep clean. Waste management in warehouses isn’t just about keeping floors clean. It’s about improving operational efficiency, maintaining safety standards, and contributing to environmental goals. Warehouses, by […]
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Resources For Your Business
Let’s Celebrate Small Business!
A Good Time to Review Your Company’s Driving Policy
Don’t Take Tax Advice From …
Increasing Productivity without Burning Out Your Employees
Barbara’s Books
By Barbara Weltman
COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO SMALL BUSINESS TAX WRITE-OFFS AND STRATEGIES FROM A LEADING NAME IN TAX If you own a small business, this comprehensive guide explains in easy-to-understand terms the essentials of business taxes to prepare you to work better with your CPA or other tax adviser or handle tax responsibilities on your own. Whether you’re […]
By Barbara Weltman
THE COMPREHENSIVE HANDBOOK FOR AMERICAN TAXPAYERS LOOKING FOR EVERY LEGAL TAX DEDUCTION AND CREDIT This edition of this popular book has been fully updated to reflect the latest law changes, rulings and court decisions impacting 2024 returns. It’s organized in a way that allows you to easily refer to the appropriate deductions and credits for […]
By Barbara Weltman
Ideas you’ll use everyday! With only so many hours in the day, it’s impossible to stay on top of key developments and opportunities to help you run your business better and smarter. 500+ Big Ideas for Your Small Business gives you quick access to resources and tips you can use every day. Whether you’re a […]
By Barbara Weltman
Your GPS to Get You Where You Want to Go in Your Business Do you enjoy driving and being your own boss with flexible work options? Are you looking for a part-time (or full-time) activity that earns good money? Maybe you’ve already discovered that there are great opportunities for making money with your car. Or, […]
By Barbara Weltman
A Step-By-Step Road Map–with Checklists–to Get You Started Up, Profitable, and Successful Whether you want to start up a part-time home-based business or jump in full throttle and work on it full time, you need a start-up guide. A road map! Home-Based Business Start-Up Guide will help you chart your course to work-from-home success. Written […]
What every self-employed person needs to know about their taxes! If you’re self-employed, chances are the majority of your time is spent finding new customers or clients, servicing existing ones, and handling each and every aspect of your business. Freelancers, independent contractors, gig economy participants, and other individuals working for themselves need to be aware […]
By Barbara Weltman and Harvey Bezozi
Created for Uber and Lyft drivers as their GPS — to help them get where they want to go in their business, safely and securely. Note: This e-Book has been updated with a new title and revised content (shown). Do you enjoy driving and being your own boss with flexible work options? Are you looking […]
By Barbara Weltman
Presenting a recently-launched, updated, paperback edition! Barbara Weltman takes an inspired look in Smooth Failing at the hard lessons learned when things go wrong. Through extensive interviews with entrepreneurs whose ventures failed for a variety of reasons — some stunningly unexpected, some painfully inevitable — Weltman gleans valuable insights about the small mistakes that can lead to large scale catastrophe. Smooth Failing seeks to save readers from similar disaster — while empowering those who are learning from failures and adversity to bounce back stronger and wiser on the often rocky road to success.
By Barbara Weltman and Jerry Silberman
12 surefire ways for your business to survive and thrive! Owning a small business can be a fulfilling and financially rewarding experience, but to be successful, you must know what to do while the business is up and running, and, most importantly, what to do when the business runs into trouble. This book is definitely […]
By Barbara Weltman
As Vicki Raeburn of Dun & Bradstreet notes in the forward, “…the successful creation of credit by small business has a significant effect on one of the most important business drivers, namely cash flow. … [This book has] the information needed to understand and build business credit.”
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