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PEST Analysis and What It Means to Your Business
What is PEST analysis? It’s not an examination of whether there are ants or rodents on your premises. PEST stands for Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, and ... -
Recession-Proofing Your Business: Making Strategic Plans
Each year for the past several years, I’ve run a series of articles throughout the year on a single main topic and this year will ... -
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in the Inflation Reduction Act
On August 12, 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (I.R.A.), a $739 billion measure intended to bring down inflation, encourage green energy activities to ... -
5 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Business
Are we in a recession, which is defined as a significant decline in economic activity or two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction (something we’ve already ... -
Recovery Strategies: Staying Positive
It’s axiomatic that small business owners are optimists who, as Winston Churchill said, “see the opportunity in every difficulty.” Why else would they risk everything—their ... -
Plan Your Holiday Sales Strategies Now
Kiplinger forecasts that the child tax credit payments being sent to parents each month from July through December will support more consumer spending at holiday time ... -
How to Compassionately and Legally Break Promises to Your Staff
At the end of February 2020, the federal unemployment rate was 3.5%. At that time, business owners were looking for ways to attract and retain ... -
COVID-19 and Small Businesses: 5 Big Surprises
In just a couple of months, the small business landscape has dramatically changed, in some instances forever. The medical impact of COVID-19 continues to be ... -
Preparing for Economic Changes: Staying Alert
“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” - Jimmy Dean. No one knows ... -
Preparing for a Recession
Why would you consider thinking about a recession when we’re in the middle of a boom economy? Because every boom is followed at some time ... -
What Does an Improved Economy Mean for You?
The most recent NFIB Index of Small Business Optimism shows that the optimism of small business owners is at near record highs. Earnings trends were the ... -
What Is Wall Street Telling Main Street?
The market has been amazing for more than 8 years (since March 2009): the Dow gained more than 14,000 points and the S&P tripled. That ... -
Lower Oil Prices Isn’t Good News for Everyone
Oil prices at the pump haven’t been this low since 2003. The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that prices will stay low through 2017, although ... -
How to Get Entrepreneurship Moving
Follow @BarbaraWeltman The economy may be good for some sectors (the government reported that GDP increased an annual rate of 2.3 percent in the second ... -
Sole Proprietorships: A Tax Perspective
Follow @BarbaraWeltman IRS statistics help to paint a picture of sole proprietorships in the U.S. and makes for interesting reading. Following a review of these ... -
The Sharing Economy -- What It Means to Your Business
Follow @BarbaraWeltman Technology has enabled people to share homes (Airbnb), rides (e.g., Lyft, Sidecar, cars (e.g., RelayRides, Getaround), bicycles (e.g., CycleHop), home wifi networks (e.g., ... -
Economy Better but Small Businesses Aren’t Hiring
Follow @BarbaraWeltman Various economic indicators continue to show that the U.S. economy is getting stronger: GDP is up, unemployment claims are down. How is this ...