Decisions that land on an owner's desk with no department to hand them to: pricing, hiring, leases, insurance, credit terms, and the cost cuts that do lasting damage. Each piece works from real figures at small-company scale. Written for owners, managers and advisers of firms under fifty staff.
A $52,000 salary is not the cost of a $52,000 employee: employer payroll taxes alone add 7.65%, and the fully loaded total typically lands between 1.25 and 1.4 times base pay, per BLS employer-cost data.
Editorial Staff
The SBA's pandemic-era fee relief on 7(a) loans expired September 30, 2023, and the upfront guarantee fee returned at up to 3.75% of the guaranteed portion — several thousand dollars on a typical $500,000 loan.
Tanya Brooks
The Fed held rates on July 29, 2026, keeping the prime rate that prices many small-business loans at 6.75% — here is how that number actually reaches a line of credit or an SBA 7(a) loan.
Tanya Brooks
Mixing personal and business money — commingling — costs you in audit exposure, LLC protection, tax prep fees, and hours you never bill for.
Priya Vaithilingam