Small Business

IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel testifies before a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Feb. 15, 2023. Kevin Lamarque | Reuters Scrutiny of a pandemic-era tax credit intensified this week as lawmakers, the IRS and tax professionals sought solutions for the wave of small businesses that wrongly claimed the tax break.  The employee retention credit, or ERC,

In this article AMZN Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Todd Niggeling delivers packages for Amazon in Sioux City, Iowa, on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Niggeling delivers packages through Amazon’s delivery hub program in which Amazon is using small businesses as centralized drop-off points and paying business owners to drive the last mile to deliver

In this article GM F Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles at a Ford dealership in Colma, California, on July 22, 2022. Bloomberg | Getty Images After a home, buying a car is the most expensive purchase most consumers will ever make during their lifetime. The transition to electric vehicles by

Pgiam | Istock | Getty Images A cottage industry of specialist firms has sprung up to help business owners claim the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), a governmental tax incentive intended for companies stressed by the pandemic. But businesses need to be careful not to get hoodwinked.  There are strict eligibility requirements for the ERC —

In this article AMZN Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Workers retrieve boxes at an Amazon fulfillment center on Prime Day in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., on Monday, June 21, 2021. Rachel Jessen | Bloomberg | Getty Images Amazon Prime Day isn’t here just yet, but sellers need to act now to drive optimal results

In this article AMZN Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images With Amazon announcing on Wednesday that the 2023 Prime Day sales event will take place July 11-July 12, now’s an especially good opportunity for sellers to ramp up promotions. This year, there are some new deal offers Amazon is

Alison Schuch, owner of Fells Point Surf Company. Courtesy: Alison Schuch Alison Schuch owns Fells Point Surf Co., with locations in Maryland and Delaware. As summer arrives, Schuch is down about ten workers at her two beach locations as a perfect storm of reasons drive a post-pandemic hiring crunch. A lack of affordable summer housing,

Pixelcatchers | E+ | Getty Images It’s not an easy time to be a small business in search of financing. For LGBTQ owners, the struggle has been even harder. LGBTQ-owned businesses reported more rejections than non-LGBTQ businesses that applied for funding, according to a 2022 report from Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank that

The franchising industry is bracing to see whether the U.S. will change how it regulates a structure that fuels brands from McDonald’s to Marriott. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission wrapped up a public comment period in response to its request for information on the sector and its business practices. The agency sought input from

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in Washington, July 27, 2022. Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters The Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates by 0.75%, or 75 basis points, for the third-consecutive time at the Federal Open Market Committee

While some companies have slowed the pace of hiring due to concerns about an economic slowdown, the demand from small businesses for new workers has not yet shown signs of declining, Paychex CEO Marty Mucci said. “We’re still not really seeing any strong recessionary measures here for small business,” Mucci said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”

Brian Snyder | Reuters The Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said on Friday there will be “pain” to come in the economy as a result of the central bank’s battle with inflation, and right now, small businesses are experiencing that pain on both sides of the fight. Inflation has been the No. 1 concern of

A secret service agent. Julia Nikhinson | AP The U.S. Secret Service returned $286 million in fraudulently obtained pandemic aid loans to the Small Business Administration, the agency announced Friday. The funds sent back to the SBA were obtained via the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program using both fabricated information and stolen identities. The

Customers shop at a Walmart in Houston on Aug. 4, 2021. Brandon Bell | Getty Images After a year-long dip, household cash flow will begin growing again right after Christmas, and accelerate through the new year, according to new research by analysts at Goldman Sachs. These gains will reverse a year of negative growth of

In this article META Facebook’s new rebrand logo Meta is seen on smartpone in front of displayed logo of Facebook, Messenger, Intagram, Whatsapp and Oculus in this illustration picture taken October 28, 2021. Dado Ruvic | Reuters WhatsApp is already widely popular with U.S. consumers. Now Meta Platforms is turning more attention to building its

Filip Radwanski | Lightrocket | Getty Images The retail battle narrative over the past few decades has cited one of two wars: Amazon and e-commerce against the big bricks-and-mortar retailers, and everybody big against small Main Street entrepreneurs. But in the current confusing economic environment — marked by inflation, supply chain bottlenecks and a volatile

Fg Trade | E+ | Getty Images Small business confidence has hit an all-time low as the majority of Main Street expects runaway inflation and a Federal Reserve that is incapable of engineering a soft landing for the economy. In fact, the majority of small business owners (57%) taking part in the CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business

Photo: Bethenny Frankel “I truthfully didn’t even know the word entrepreneur. I was in my late thirties, and I didn’t know the word ‘brand,’ I didn’t know the word ‘entrepreneur,'” Bethenny Frankel, founder of SkinnyGirl, told Sharon Epperson at the CNBC Small Business Playbook virtual summit on Wednesday. Now, just over a decade later, Frankel

Damircudic | E+ | Getty Images With recessionary winds whirling, many small business owners have already cut back, but more trimming may be needed to weather the economic storm that’s brewing. U.S. economic growth fell 0.9% in the second quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported on Thursday, the second consecutive quarter of negative GDP.

The U.S. Federal Reserve increased its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points to a range of 1.5%-1.75% in June — the biggest increase since 1994. Fed Chair Jerome Powell (above) flagged there could be another rate hike in July. Mary F. Calvert | Reuters The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rates by 75