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A closeup shot of a woman's hands holding a long printout of a receipt. She has circled a number on the receipt showing her business is collecting sales tax as is required. Also on the desk are a calculator, another long printout of a sales receipt, and a printout of a sales report.

A Small Business’s Guide to Collecting Sales Tax, Use Tax, and VAT

If you’ve read our general article on taxes, you know that a business has to deal with a lot of ...
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A young man in a white shirt and a black tie sits at a desk, his right hand holding a pen to jot down numbers while his left hand types info into a tax software for small businesses. A calculator and two stacks of printouts of financial reports also lay on the desk.

Income Tax Software for Small Businesses

In our last article, we talked about how small businesses must pay quarterly estimated income taxes. Then, at the end ...
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A smartphone showing a calculator app sits on top of a hard copy of Schedule 1040-SE which, in turn, is laid atop of a laptop. A pair of glasses rests half on the tax form and half on the laptop. Everything is ready for a small business owner to learn how to calculate quarterly estimated taxes.

How to Calculate Quarterly Estimated Taxes, for Small Businesses

Businesses have to pay income taxes. We touched on this briefly in our overview article on the types of taxes ...
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A woman in a black shirt is standing and holding with both hands a small cardboard box. In the box are some folders, a spiral notebook, and a pen holder with a pair of scissors with red handles sticking out. This is the classic photo of what happens after you let an employee go.

How to Let an Employee Go, for Small Businesses

Things don’t always work out. And this is true, too, where it comes to employees. Sometimes, it’s because the person ...
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A man is sitting at a desk looking at some paperwork on a clipboard. There's an open laptop in front of him and an open calendar notebook to his left. Across from the man sits a young woman. She's looking at the back of the clipboard, smiling, and leaning slightly forward to show enthusiasm. Her hands are clasped together and resting relaxedly on the desk. He is interviewing her for a job, so he’ll need to keep in mind various employment rules and regulations when asking her questions.

US Employment Rules and Regulations: A Guide for Very Small Businesses

In the US, there are a lot of laws about how businesses should treat their employees. These employment rules and ...
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A young woman in a pony tail and wearing an orange T-shirt is sitting at a table, looking down at a laptop in front of her. Both her hands are cradling her face and she looks sad. She's just got the news that she's lost her job. Now, she'll probably need that unemployment insurance her former employer had been paying into, as a part of something every employer is required to do by law.

How Unemployment Insurance Works, for Small Businesses

When you start a business, you hope the business grows. But, sometimes, it grows and then it shrinks. You have ...
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A young woman wearing a white T-shirt and a baseball cap is standing in the middle of the photo. She's looking down at a clipboard she's holding in her left hand and seems to be copying with her right hand info from the clipboard to a sticker on a cardboard box. The box is on a table, on which a large computer screen also sits. To the back of her is a shelf full of boxes. She seems to be working in a warehouse or mail room and is exactly the type of worker who is paid by the hour and for which you'll need to calculate overtime pay if she works over 40 hours a week.

How to Calculate Overtime Pay, for Small Businesses

Most workers in the US know that if you work overtime, you get paid 1.5 times your normal wage. And ...
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A friendly, smiling waiter is chatting with three women patrons who're sitting at their table looking up at him, probably listening to him telling them about the specials of the day. The restaurant has a dark ambience, with a single light hovering over each table. The waiter is likely paid a special tipped worker's wage, which is slightly more difficult to calculate and is one reason business owners should understand minimum wage calculations.

Understanding Minimum Wage Calculations

Supply and demand. It’s basic capitalism. And this concept applies to the labor market too. As a business, when you ...
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A young man in a knit cap and wearing glasses sits at a cafe looking at his laptop. His left hand is raised to his face, like he's thinking. He is moving his right index finger on the touchpad of his laptop. To his left, here's a mug likely filled with coffee and a glass bottle of water as well as an empty drinking glass. The young man is the type of worker that might make a business work through the contractor vs. employee analysis, to make sure he is being paid correctly.

Contractor vs. Employee: An Explainer for Small Businesses

Having employees can get expensive. You have to pay all sorts of extra taxes and insurance. We covered the nitty ...
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Two pieces of paper that are a business's financial reports lay on top of each other. The one on top says Income Statement and partially obscures the other. A pen juts out from the lower left of the photo. The paper on top says Income Statement and has lines for Revenue, Sale revenue, Sales, Cost of goods [sold], and Gross profit.

Financial Reports Every Small Business Owner Should Understand

If you run a business, eventually, someone will ask to see your financial statements. What they mean is they want ...
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A table with a laptop on the right, a calculator to the left, and some papers scattered underneath both. One paper is titled Financial Report. A man who seems to understand basic accounting concepts is punching numbers into the calculator with his right hand and moving the touchpad with his left hand.

Basic Accounting Concepts for Small Business Owners

Every business needs to keep track of its money. But not every business owner has formal accounting training. Of course, ...
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A screenshot of a small business accounting software. The word Accounting is at the top. Below it, there are two rows, each with an icon or button lined up at the center. The row at the left says Accounting, Asset, Annual Report, Net Income, and Profit. The row to the right says Taxes, Accountant, Deposit, Investment, and Expenses.

Which Small Business Accounting Software Should You Pick?

So, yes, if you live for challenges, you can keep your small business’s books with pen and paper. Or a ...
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