A Bootmaker Got This Letter and Ignored It. It Cost $75,000
The FTC mailed seven more "Made in the USA" warning letters on July 6. The letters aren't fines, and they say so in writing. That's not the same as saying they're harmless.
Small Business
Cash flow, suppliers, regulation and fraud — for the people who run the place themselves.
Twenty Thousand Dollars, One Month, One Snack She Grew Up Eating
Caroline Dai left a finance career to sell a tofu snack. Two weeks after launch, it went viral. What happened next is a real small-business story — with one honest asterisk on the numbers.
Tariffs Made Your Supplier Expensive. Finding an American One Is Harder Than It Sounds.
Everyone tells small business owners to buy domestic. Almost nobody tells them how, or admits what it costs. Here's the honest version.
They Didn't Hack You. They Talked Meta's AI Into Handing Over Your Account.
The exploit that seized Instagram accounts at the end of May didn't break anything. It just asked politely. And it failed against every account that had two-factor switched on.
Small Businesses Are Hiring Again. They're Not Paying More to Do It.
NFIB's June survey found more Main Street owners trying to fill jobs than in May. Fewer of them raised pay to do it. Normally those two lines move together.
Four Cents a Letter, Three Times This Year
The Forever Stamp went to 82 cents this week. Postmaster General David Steiner told Congress in June that the agency is out of cash and borrowing from its own employees' retirement fund. Those two facts sit on the same page. If you still mail a check, so do you.
One Eviction, Reported Three Times
A tenant screening company will pay $2.25 million after the FTC said its reports counted the same court record over and over. In one case, two records showed up as fifteen.
You Skipped the AI Boom. You're Paying for It Anyway.
Four out of five small firms don't use artificial intelligence. That hasn't spared them the bill.
Deere Just Agreed to Hand Over Its Repair Software. Read the Fine Print.
Independent shops get the same tools the dealers have. Farmers get no money, Deere admits nothing, and a judge hasn't signed it yet.