#small-business

#small-business

When I turned 15, like all my friends, I wanted to get a job at a café to earn money. But my father pushed me to start my company young, and it's the reason I'm now financially independent at 20. I started selling origami butterfly artwork, a skill I picked up from a school trip to Japan and honed during the COVID-19 lockdown. I started selling them at markets in Melbourne when I was 16.

LIT Boutique, a women's designer clothing and accessories shop that has been a fixture on Newbury Street for 25 years, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, signaling a likely end for the longtime retailer. Once a small local chain with four locations across Boston; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and Newport, Rhode Island, the woman-owned boutique has steadily shrunk and now operates only its original store at 223 Newbury St.

A provision in the 2025 budget that would have lowered the threshold below which micro-enterprises are exempt from VAT to €25,000 in annual turnover was suspended until 2026 following protests from small business owners. This provision was expected to generate around €780 million per year in tax revenue. Almost as soon as the budget was passed, that provision was 'paused' following an outcry from small business owners. It was later formally suspended until 2026.

It took one bite into the massive fried chicken leg from Jonas Koh's food stall to know that he is doing it right. The leg -the biggest I've ever seen in my years of eating Singapore's hawker fare- was crispy on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside, and coated in spices without being overpowering. The onion and chili sambal paste on the side, Koh's pride and joy, added spice and sweetness to the dish.

Think about how you currently handle waste. Are your team members spending valuable work hours making multiple trips to the local dump? Are they bagging up endless amounts of waste, or worse, dealing with overflowing bins? Every minute they spend on these tasks is a minute they aren't spending on revenue-generating activities, serving customers, or doing the specialised work you hired them for.

Pension auto-enrolment and increased minimum wage will add to financial burden of rising food and energy prices, says One Society owner William Monaghan

As a quasi-successful artist and small business owner, I am asked all the time: "Why don't you open a shop in Portland? People here love your stuff!" Here's why: commercial rent is insane and untethered from economic reality. There is simply no foot traffic in this relatively small city to justify these asking prices. After paying a landlord his sky-high rent, there'd be no margin left at the end of the month to pay myself, hire workers, or even buy toilet paper for the bathroom.

"Each person's contribution is $100. Please Venmo me when you have a chance," the email read. It was sent to 17 managers, totaling a $1,700 contribution to cover a luxury fish subscription for the company owner. The message came from the president, who also happens to be the owner's nephew and is reportedly being groomed to take over the business.

The latest: Small-business owners' confidence fell this fourth quarter from an all-time high in the third quarter, according to an index from MetLife and the Chamber of Commerce out Wednesday morning and shared exclusively with Axios. It's one of several measures showing weaknesses for small business. By the numbers: 45% of small-business owners said inflation is their biggest challenge in the Chamber's survey, conducted in October during the government shutdown.

"We've worked so hard for this. We've been doing this for 20 years. We have to fight to keep this place open - it's what we love to do,"

Every creative person has had that moment where they look at something beautifully personalized-a monogrammed cutting board, a customized metal tumbler, a sleek engraved leather wallet-and think, "I could totally make that." Once upon a time, that idea would've required a workshop full of industrial tools and a level of skill that bordered on wizardry. Today? Thanks to modern laser engraving technology, that same idea can turn into a real business with surprising ease.

Port Washington: Review five popular social media networks and the benefits of each, how other businesses use social media, what to create, how to tell if it works and more, 7 p.m., Port Washington Public Library, 1 Library Dr., free, pwpl.org, 516-883-4400. BUSINESS MENTORING Rockville Centre: SCORE volunteers provide guidance on starting, managing and growing your small business, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Lakeview Public Library, 1120 Woodfield Rd., free, call to register for an appointment, lakeviewlibrary.org, 516-536-3071.

A provision in last year's delayed Budget lowered the threshold at which micro-enterprises had to start collecting and paying VAT to €25,000 in annual turnover, rather than the current €37,500 for services and €85,000 for commercial activities. The micro-enterprise status is most commonly used by freelancers, contractors, sole traders and small businesses - it has a maximum earning threshold so most of those on the status are low to medium earners.

Just over a month after a Waymo autonomous car hit and killed KitKat, the beloved Mission bodega cat, Randa's Market welcomed a new feline to its store late last week: Coco, a six-month-old white kitty with blue eyes, who is already winning over dozens of customers daily. "There won't be another KitKat, but she's bringing a spark back to the neighborhood," said a man named AJ as he left the 16th and Valencia store after petting Coco on his way out.

The Black Friday through Cyber Monday stretch known as Cyber Week is known as the best time of year to take advantage of crazy discounts at retail giants like Amazon and big box stores like Best Buy and Target. But it's also a great opportunity to stock up on gifts and essentials from small businesses, many of which only run a handful of sales each year.

"You hungry?" Lydia Lee asks me, beaming in her bright pink Hello Kitty apron. "You look skinny." She stands in front of a steaming vat of fish stock, ready to scoop me a fresh bowl of udon. It's not even 11 a.m., but I can't turn her down. At Yo Yo's, which offers one of the most affordable lunches in all of San Francisco's Financial District, an order of udon noodle soup is just $9, and a six-piece tray of sushi is just $3.25.

I met my wife while working at Target, marking the beginning of what became a decadeslong career in retail. Over the years, I moved into leadership roles at several major brands before eventually joining a senior living company in a senior role. Then, in August 2019, I got a call that changed everything: I was being let go. At the time, my wife, Danielle - who'd also built a successful career - was home full-time with our four kids.

While you're making preparations for Small Business Saturday at the end of November, make sure your website is optimized and ready to capture online shoppers. Don't just rely on foot traffic at your physical store - websites are a great way to capture online traffic and sales, too. American Express reported that 53% of consumers shopped online at small businesses on Small Business Saturday in 2023.

Razavi had been a regular customer at the market ever since he moved to Berkeley in 1976 from his hometown, Yazd, Iran, to attend San Jose State University. At that time, Middle East Market was the only place where Persian and Iranian immigrants could find familiar products from home, including teas, spices, sweets and rice, and it became a cultural and culinary hub for the Iranian community.

A financial move doesn't begin with a new credit product or a dazzling fintech app. It starts with a payment: A contractor waiting for an invoice to clear A restaurant owner sending same-day pay to a delivery driver A corporate treasurer watching how quickly suppliers get paid These seemingly minor exchanges now serve as the fulcrums driving broader financial solutions. Challenges that financial firms, particularly banks, once tackled from the top down - such as cash flow, employee retention, client engagement, and growth strategy - are increasingly being addressed with payments as the starting point.

HOUSTON, Texas -- Holiday spirit fills every corner at The Round Top Collection.

Jordan Trigg, who co-owns several Japantown businesses with his wife, Rina Trigg, has relinquished ownership of multiple parcels on the north side of East Taylor Street between North Fourth Street and North Fifth Street, according to Santa Clara County public records. Joe Jean, chief executive officer of J&J Acoustics, acted through an affiliate to gain control of the parcels at 165, 175, 181, and 193 East Taylor St., documents show.

Hearing directly from small business owners of all ages and understanding their challenges is critical for us to deliver on our commitment to savers across America, Renee Grimm, senior vice president of retirement plans for Capital Group, said in a statement.

A woman sought advice from the Reddit community after she was fired from her family's business and refused to transfer the company's website that she had built and maintained for years. When they demanded she transfer the complex website she had built, she refused, offering instead to let them copy it and take the domain. Now, she's wondering if she's wrong for standing her ground

If navigating San Francisco government is a bit like running a zoo, it would help to have experience working with animals.

Thanks to the cornucopia of SaaS products and B2B services offered by companies on this year's Inc. Power Partners list, you don't have to. After all, the more administrative work you offload to your software stack, the more time you can spend on the things that actually made you want to be a founder in the first place.

I worked in tech sales for about four years, mainly selling software and AI solutions to restaurant companies. I did well and consistently hit my quotas, but I didn't have control over my future. Even after a strong quarter, management would suddenly announce changes, and I never had a say in the matter. That's just how big companies work. Eventually, I knew I had to go out on my own if I wanted to shape my own future.

When it comes to cloud services and small businesses, the sky's the limit. That's a good thing because you're able to add what used to be challenging IT services by simply creating a login and sharing your credit card number. But it's also a bad thing because those cloud services multiply, and they're fairly easy to forget. In this article, we're going to do two things.