#small-business
Financial management strategies and tools for small business owners
Online sellers, dropshippers, and Amazon FBA merchants sit inside the strict-liability distribution chain even when they never touch the goods. This guide covers Amazon's $1 million insurance requirement, the gaps standard policies leave — recalls, fines, claims-made traps — and the bookkeeping records that make an eighteen-month-old claim survivable.
Most week-to-week rent-to-own agreements are operating leases, not credit sales — the unit stays on your books as depreciating rental inventory, each payment splits into lease revenue, bundled services, and fees, and a repossession is a status change rather than a gain or loss. Covers lease-versus-sale classification, repossession entries, doubtful-rent allowances, and the payout math that decides whether a unit makes money.
Rhode Island's SB 3212, signed in June 2026, lets business owners remove fraudulent UCC filings through an administrative complaint, authorizes the Department of State to refuse suspicious filings, and requires misleading "annual report" solicitation letters to disclose that they are advertisements. The same defenses — quarterly UCC searches, entity-record checks, and fee verification — work in every state.
On July 4, 2026, the SBA doubled its combined 7(a)/504 borrowing ceiling from $5 million to $10 million. This guide explains how the stacking works, which limits stayed in place, and the loan-tracking bookkeeping a $10 million capital structure demands.
Main street businesses are priced as Seller's Discretionary Earnings times a multiple — an all-sector average of 2.57x, ranging from 1.39x for dollar stores to 4.99x for car washes. Here is how SDE is calculated, which add-backs survive buyer diligence, why the multiple ladder moves, and how 2026 SBA lending rules reshape deal structure.
The Sloan ratio divides the gap between net income and operating cash flow by total assets to show how much reported profit is accruals rather than cash. Includes the formula, the ±10% caution bands, and a worked example of a profitable agency where only 40 cents of each profit dollar arrived as operating cash.
Business bankruptcies hit 24,737 filings in the year through December 2025 and Subchapter V cases jumped about 67% year-over-year in January 2026. This guide explains why filings are rising, how Subchapter V differs from traditional Chapter 11, what the $7.5 million versus $3 million debt limit fight means for eligibility, and the five-number dashboard that surfaces trouble months before a filing.
KFF's review of 318 insurers found ACA small-group premiums rising a median 11% for 2026. Learn the five drivers behind the increase, why the smallest employers feel it most, and how to budget your renewal without dropping coverage.
How translation and interpreting agencies should cost jobs by billable versus payable words and door-to-door session time, pay freelance linguists and file 1099-NECs, track utilization and overhead, and reconcile multi-currency and retainer cash flow to hold 30-50% gross margins and 15-25% net.
A practical guide to truffle orchard accounting — why a 5- to 10-year preproductive period triggers Section 263A capitalization, when the small-farmer election lets you expense instead, how to track costs by block, and when a block becomes productive and starts 10-year depreciation.
Only about 437,000 of the 864,000 UK sole traders and landlords in scope filed their first Making Tax Digital quarterly update by 7 August 2026 — close to half missed it. No penalty points apply this tax year, but HMRC begins forced enrolment in September 2026 and the next quarterly update is due 7 November 2026.
How wedding DJs and mobile entertainers should classify booking deposits and retainers under cash versus accrual accounting, depreciate sound and lighting gear under Section 179 or MACRS, track revenue and cost per event, issue 1099-NECs for second DJs, and survive the off-season cash crunch when most revenue compresses into a few months.
