In life, there are moments and roadblocks we would never have predicted. No one plans for staff furloughs and layoffs, and no business owner expects to shut down their company, even temporarily.
However, when a small business is forced to close, employees quickly become former employees. Fortunately, unemployment insurance gives your workers some financial security while they’re without income.
We’ll explore unemployment insurance and what workers and employers need to know.
If you don’t have a fleet of company vehicles and employees are driving their own vehicles on your business’s behalf – making deliveries, inspecting workplaces, and gathering supplies – what are your obligations regarding fuel costs, maintenance, and vehicle depreciation?
There are both legal requirements and business considerations to keep in mind when determining whether you need a mileage reimbursement policy and what it should look like. This guide explains the basics of mileage reimbursement and how to devise a policy that reimburses your employees fairly and efficiently.
You know that moment when you’re reaching for your phone at 2 AM, telling yourself it’s just to check the time, but suddenly you’re deep into social media scrolling? Or when you promise yourself this is the last time you’ll hit snooze, only to repeat the same dance tomorrow morning? We’ve all been there. These automatic behaviors feel like they’re running the show, and honestly, sometimes it feels like we’re just passengers in our own lives.
Here’s the thing about bad habits—they’re sneaky. What starts as an innocent stress-relief activity (hello, late-night snacking) or a quick dopamine hit (just one more TikTok video) gradually becomes a deeply ingrained pattern that seems impossible to shake. The frustrating part? You know exactly what you’re doing wrong. You’ve probably tried to quit multiple times. Yet somehow, despite your best intentions and New Year’s resolutions, you find yourself back in that familiar loop.
Picture this: You’re on a video call, nodding along while secretly checking emails, mentally calculating if you have enough pasta for dinner, and half-listening to your kids arguing about whose turn it is on the iPad. Sound familiar? You’re not alone and you’re not imagining that life feels more overwhelming than ever. These are classic cognitive overload symptoms that millions experience daily.
Here’s why: Back in 2008, researchers found Americans were already processing 34GB of information daily. Today? We’re swimming in an estimated 75-100GB of data every single day. That’s like downloading your entire brain’s storage capacity, twice. Our digital interactions have exploded from 298 daily touches in 2010 to a mind-boggling 4,909 expected by 2025. We’re consuming 105,000 words daily, roughly 23 words per second during every waking hour.
The U.S. government is in full retreat from its efforts to make vehicles more fuel-efficient, which it has been waging, along with state governments, since the 1970s.
The latest move came on July 29, 2025, when the Environmental Protection Agency said it planned to rescind its landmark 2009 decision, known as the “endangerment finding,” that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare. If that stands up in court and is not overruled by Congress, it would undo a key part of the long-standing effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
As a scholar of how vehicle emissions contribute to climate change, I know that the science behind the endangerment finding hasn’t changed. If anything, the evidence has grown that greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet and threatening people’s health and safety. Heat waves, flooding, sea-level rise, and wildfires have only worsened in the decade and a half since the EPA’s ruling.
Steve Jobs walked to the podium, threw his jacket on the floor, and implored a group of designers to help shape the coming revolution. Addressing the 1983 International Design Conference in Aspen, Colorado, he simply explained his vision for the personal computer era he saw coming. He then turned to the challenge: “We have a shot at putting a great object there, or if we don’t, we’re going to put one more piece of junk object there . . . this stuff can either be great or it can be lousy. And we need help. We really, really need your help.”
ONE MORE PIECE OF JUNK?
What Jobs recognized was that major technological inflections are not just about accelerating what went before, but moments of profound redesign, and that takes more than just technical leaps. How we shape technical revolutions determines who participates, who benefits, what is gained, and what is lost.
Starting an Etsy shop can be one of the most rewarding and creative ways to turn your hobby into a thriving side hustle. Whether you’re a crafter, baker, vintage treasure hunter, or digital product creator, Etsy offers a built-in audience and user-friendly platform for new entrepreneurs.
But launching your business successfully takes more than just uploading a few items and waiting for sales to roll in. With competition fierce and customer expectations high, the key to standing out and making money is preparation.
Here’s your complete Etsy starter checklist—created with insights and research assistance from ChatGPT—to help you launch your shop the right way and jumpstart your side hustle with confidence.
As a longtime M&A attorney, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist with over 200 major deals under my belt, I have learned a lot of important lessons. One important business lesson is that time is one of the most critical factors in determining the success of any deal or transaction. The saying “time is the enemy of all deals” highlights a fundamental truth in business: the longer it takes to negotiate, the more likely it is that the deal will fall apart.
Prolonged negotiations can lead to various complications, including new offers, deal fatigue, or miscommunication, all of which can derail a business agreement that seemed promising at the start. It’s essential to recognize that speed and decisiveness are often key factors in successfully closing deals.
Small business owners navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of customer expectations may want to take note of a significant development in the AI customer experience (CX) space. Genesys, a leader in AI-powered experience orchestration, has secured a $1.5 billion investment from enterprise giants Salesforce and ServiceNow. This funding underscores a growing industry shift toward smarter, more autonomous CX systems—and it could shape the tools available to small and midsize businesses in the coming years.
Each company, Salesforce and ServiceNow, is contributing equally to the investment, which will be used to repurchase shares from existing equity holders. While that financial restructuring won’t directly impact small businesses, the strategic implications of these partnerships might.
Amazon recently released its second-quarter results, showcasing significant milestones that could impact small businesses across various sectors. As small business owners seek ways to navigate an evolving economic landscape, understanding these developments can help them leverage new opportunities and mitigate potential challenges.
In its latest report, Amazon revealed a revenue increase that highlights its strong performance in e-commerce and cloud services. The company announced net sales of $134.4 billion for the second quarter, a notable year-over-year increase that demonstrates a resilient consumer appetite. This growth can serve as a strong indicator for small business owners who are considering expanding their online presence or exploring new revenue streams through e-commerce platforms.
Dispatches From The Front 