Real quick, before I get to other stuff: TL;DR I am hosting a free, live event on self-employed and small business health insurance options on October 28 at 12 PM PT. I’ll be joined by two benefits pros. Registering gets you the Zoom info and replay. Get your spot now.
Happy Women’s Small Business Month
It’s Easier Than Ever to Start—Harder Than Ever to Sustain
October is National Women’s Small Business Month. The SBA partied so much, they needed two weeks to recover.
I kid. But at this precarious time, SBA lending and supportive services have been paused by the federal government shutdown. As has the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which limits our view into unemployment, inflation, and the overall function of the economy. And we’ve got some new tariff noise after China levied fresh restrictions on rare earth minerals.
Thankfully, the Census Bureau is holding us down with a year’s worth of small business data, released in late September. They have this fun tool called the Census Business Builder, a free data visualization that will show you demographic data and business ownership stats down to the ZIP code..
From the Census Bureau, I learned that women continue to start over half of all new companies, and own 43% of solopreneur firms. The uptick of company creation that started in the pandemic has continued annually. Whether as side hustles or main sources of income, gigs or companies, American women are becoming increasingly self-employed in businesses they own.
I think a lot about what it means to own a small business now. It’s easier than ever to start a company. For a few hundred dollars, you can set up an LLC or a dba, buy a domain name, make a logo, and even generate a basic business plan. You can contract with people literally anywhere to do work for you.
And then comes running the company. That part is increasingly complex. Up until 2018, you could toss up a web page, take some payments, and file a pretty simple tax return. Now, small business owners have similar management considerations to professional athletes, but without the elite team of agents, business managers, and tax accountants. There’s sales tax tracking and filing, labor laws, financial management, multistate compliance, access to health insurance, not to mention the ever-changing economic and political environment.
Staying in business is the tough part. Writing down your goals and plan can help your company grow 30% faster. And, Brené Brown’s new research in Strong Ground reinforces that getting clear on what you value is critical to your success as a leader.
Next Tuesday is my annual planning day. I will reaffirm my centering principles, research some new service ideas, adjust my operating budget, benefits, and wages, reprice and repackage my offerings, and build out a monthly sales and revenue plan.
I know it’s tempting to wait until January, but any amount of organization you can do now will pay off. It’s a busy time of year, but also a critical one for resetting prices, sunsetting outdated products and services, and researching what comes next. With that in mind…
Strategy, Planning, and the 10 Weeks to Close Series
Next week: 10 Weeks to Close series returns
This is the time of year when we start moving from strategy to execution. We need to lay the groundwork for 2026 while finishing a bunch of time-sensitive operations, people, tax, benefits, and compliance decisions that can only be done, of course, at the busiest and most stressful period of the year.
To ease our collective pain, next week, I’m bringing back my annual 10 Weeks to Close series. Watch this space for a checklist-style summary you can download or put on your desktop.
Each week, I’ll walk you through what to evaluate, fund, file, communicate, and clean up before December 31 — so you’re not scrambling during school breaks or hunting down receipts over your holiday leftovers.
We start with health insurance, the champagne supernova of challenging tasks. Whether you’re buying for yourself or providing benefits to your team, your plan, budget, and partners need to be in place by November
To support your decisions, on October 28 at 12 PM PT, I’m hosting a free live event with expert guests who will help you review exchange, small business, and nontraditional options. Get your spot here and don’t gatekeep — share this series and the live event with your friends!
