Maria Haubrich

There's some seriously good news for small businesses right now: Consumer love for independent brands is soaring.

Back in the 1980s, my editorial team and I launched a magazine for women entrepreneurs. At the time, women-owned businesses were just beginning to emerge as an economic force. As the saying goes, we've come a long way—but not nearly far enough.

In 2024, Gartner forecasted that 20% of organizations would use AI to flatten their structures by 2026, eliminating more than half of existing middle-management roles.

Fuel prices are climbing again, and if you run a small business, you've probably been feeling it. What surprises many owners is that the hit rarely shows up directly at the pump; it pops up weeks later in a supplier's invoice, a freight surcharge, or a quiet bump in the cost of the materials you order every month.

AI supervision is fast becoming a priority for compliance teams across financial services. Firms are booking demos, building business cases, and assessing vendors at pace. However, most are skipping a question that impacts the long-term vision: do you own your communications data?

Walk into any supplement aisle, and you will see the same promise repeated over and over: more muscle, better recovery, faster results.

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), every technology decision in the AI era now carries greater weight. Cost pressure remains high, teams are lean, and the pace of change is accelerating. In this environment, the question is no longer what technology to buy, but how long that investment can continue to create value.

The payments industry is changing rapidly, and small business owners could soon have fewer—but more powerful—choices when it comes to payment providers. As payment companies race to add technology and broaden their capabilities, consolidation is accelerating across the industry. Stripe's reported $53 billion bid for PayPal is the latest—and biggest—example of that trend. I talked with

As AI becomes part of everyday marketing, many small business owners worry about losing what makes their companies unique. According to the

When I started my company in 2022, I assumed the hard part would be finding clients. That's what everyone tells you.