Business Resource Center

The Wall Street Journal (6/28, Mitchell, Subscription Publication) reported the White House Council of Economic Advisers on Friday projected the Administration’s deregulatory policies will raise household incomes by an average of $3,100 a year within five to 10 years. However, the Journal said the report does not consider the impact of the Administration’s trade policy and tariffs, which economists warn will cut into this estimate.

Powell Signals Fed May Start Cutting Rates Next Month Reuters (6/18, Schneider, Lange) reported that the Federal Reserve said yesterday it is “ready to battle growing global and domestic economic risks with interest rate cuts beginning as early as next month, as it took stock of rising trade tensions and growing concerns about weak inflation.” Reuters added that for the Fed, “the shift in sentiment since its last policy meeting was marked,” as it “dropped its pledge to be ‘patient’ before rate moves in a sign it was poised to act.” CNN (6/19, Tappe) pointed out that “only one voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee objected to the decision to leave interest rates unchanged for now. It was St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who recently said that a rate cut may be ‘warranted soon.’”

The NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index indicated that small business sentiment in May increased 1.5 points to 105.0, eclipsing pre-shutdown levels. Sales, business conditions, and expansion expectations all rose. NFIB CEO and President Juanita Duggan was quoted saying, “Optimism among small business owners has surged back to historically high levels, thanks to strong hiring, investment, and sales. ... The small business half of the economy is leading the way, taking advantage of lower taxes and fewer regulations, and reinvesting in their businesses, their employees, and the economy as a whole.” NFIB Chief Economist William Dunkelberg was quoted saying, “Small business owners are demonstrating a continued confidence in the strength of the economy and are betting capital spending dollars on it. ... This solid investment performance is supporting ongoing improvements in productivity and real wages.”

The Wall Street Journal (5/31, Morath, Kiernan, Subscription Publication) reported that according to the Commerce Department, while US household spending slowed 0.3 percent from March to April, the personal income of Americans increased 0.5 percent over the same period. According to the Journal, the growth in personal income was the biggest this year.

CBS News (5/22, Backus, De Pinto, Salvanto) reported that, according to a new CBS poll, most Americans “remain confident about the US economy and in their own financial situation, and more now give President Trump’s policies credit for a strong economy than did so last year.” Seven in 10 Americans “say the economy is in good shape, including a quarter who say it is very good. Nearly all Republicans and most Democrats and independents share this view.” Forty-one percent of those “who say the economy is good say Mr. Trump’s policies are mostly responsible, up from 32% at the beginning of 2018.”

HousingWire (7/3, Howley) reported, “American household income fell in May, even with the unemployment rate at the lowest level in almost 50 years. Median household income fell 0.6% from the prior month to $63,799, according to a report by Sentier Research on Tuesday.” Sentier Research’s Gordon Green said, “We are at a point now where real median household income is 3.4% higher than January 2000. Not an impressive performance by any means over a period spanning almost two decades, but the overall trend line has been positive for about seven years.”

Under the headline, “US Adds Solid 224,000 Jobs; Fed Rate Cut May Be Less Certain,” the AP (7/5, Boak) reported the Labor Department on Friday announced that “employers sharply stepped up their hiring in June, adding a robust 224,000 jobs,” which the AP said is “an indication of the economy’s durability after more than a decade of expansion.” However, the AP added that “the strength of the jobs report...could complicate a decision for the Federal Reserve late this month on whether to cut interest rates to help support the economy.” Trump told reporters, “If we had a Fed that would lower interest rates, we’d be like a rocket ship. ... But we don’t have a Fed that knows what they’re doing.” According to the AP, the June number “suggests that many employers have shrugged off concerns about weaker growth...Trump’s trade wars and the waning benefits from U.S. tax cuts.”

The New York Times (7/5, Smialek) said the Fed’s semiannual Monetary Policy Report, which was released on Friday, shows Fed officials “worry that the uncertainty caused by the trade war between the United States and China could be constraining business spending and may be contributing to a manufacturing slowdown that is dragging on growth.” According to the Times, “The report said that the American financial system was more resilient today than it was before the 2008 financial crisis, that economic activity had increased at a ‘solid pace’ in the early part of this year, and that the job market was performing well. But it also noted risks on the horizon as President Trump’s trade spat with China drags on.”

In a Pueblo (CO) Chieftain (7/6) op-ed, SBA Regional Administrator Daniel Nordberg lauded the small business’s historic role in the US economy, and he argues that the US “is a nation founded by entrepreneurs who were, by definition, risk takers.” He urged US citizens to remember that modern entrepreneurs “face many of the same barriers that our founding fathers did more than 243 years ago,” and he calls on readers to “say thank you to your local entrepreneurs for all they do for you and your local community.”

Fox Business (7/1, Limitone) reported that NFIB CEO Juanita Duggan said, “The [National Federation of Independent Business] has been doing the small business economic trend report for 45 years—and the data is in—this is the best economy for small business in 50 years. And it’s been setting records for the last two and a half years.” She continued, “They’ve been setting records for capital expenditures, for profits, for raising wages for their workers—I mean it just doesn’t get any better than this I don’t know what data [the Democrats] are looking at.”

The Spoon (7/5, Lamb) reported on the Hatchery, the Chicago-based food business incubator comes that was established three years ago. At first, it “didn’t have a suitable kitchen space for these startups so it teamed up with Accion, which provides small business loans, to create a non-profit that would foster food businesses and provide them with a startup space and the potential for investment.” The article went on to say that “lately food business incubators have become quite en vogue” and “notable players besides The Hatchery are the Chobani Incubator program, DC’s Union Kitchen, and The Kitchen in Israel.”

Black Enterprise (6/30, Williams) interviewed Rodney H. Brown, executive director of Unlimited Financial Funding LLC, about how potential black business owners can get the funding to start up a franchise. Brown said that a client seeking SBA funding to purchase a franchise will “need to be working with an SBA franchise, have a 660 credit score (may accept 620 with explanation), no bankruptcies, and 10%-15% cash down payment of the total loan amount.”

The St. Joseph (MI) Herald Palladium (6/30) reported two key considerations small business owners should consider are thinking about scalability from the start and creating processes and systems. SCORE mentor and business development expert Wilson Chu said, “Your business plan serves as a road map for the growth of your business, and it should include the organizational structure needed to achieve that growth.” Chu added, “Well thought-through processes and systems will allow your organization to grow and expand to accommodate future requirements. They give your organization the flexibility to change.”

PYMNTS (6/21) reported, “Southwest Airlines is introducing a credit card for small business owners aimed at enhanced travel rewards,” called the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Card. The card offers 80,000 rewards points for spending $5,000 in the first three months.

Fundera (6/8, Shepherd) compared Stripe and PayPal, calling PayPal “the better option for small business given its simple setup and ease of use,” while adding that “Stripe is a good option for larger businesses, as it offers more customization and additional features.” PayPal “offers an oftentimes simpler solution” than Stripe, and has an array of payment solutions include Payflow and PayPal Payouts. Fundera concludes: “All in all, PayPal’s online payment options aren’t as in-depth as Stripe’s, but they are certainly good enough for most businesses.”

USA Today (7/7, Wolf) reported the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will on Tuesday “hear 90 minutes of oral argument Tuesday in a challenge that threatens the [Affordable Care Act’s key features – and possibly the entire 974-page statute. ... On one side are the Trump administration and 18 states, led by Texas, that agree with” US District Court Judge Reed O’Connor’s December ruling “that by repealing the tax on people who refuse to buy insurance, Congress in 2017 rendered the individual mandate” and the ACA as a whole unconstitutional. They are opposed by the House and 16 states led by California “seeking to have that ruling reversed.” USA Today says the case could again set the ACA on a track for consideration by the Supreme Court.

In a front-page article, the New York Times (6/28, Goodnough, Kaplan) said the response to being asked if they “supported abolishing private health insurance in favor of a single government-run plan” and the “ensuing confusion, reflected one of the deepest fault lines among Democrats heading into 2020 – on an issue the party hopes to use as a cudgel against President Trump as effectively as it did last fall, when their vow to protect the Affordable Care Act helped them recapture the House.” The Times said that while Democrats had “owned the health care issue in 2018, pointing a way forward...is proving tricky for the party’s presidential candidates.” According to the Times, “The challenge is to avoid alienating both the progressives, whose support they will need in the primary, and the more moderate voters, without whom they cannot survive the general election.”

The San Jose (CA) Mercury News (6/28) reported that while “millennials may have given rise to the hustle culture...when it comes to putting in hours in the gig economy, baby boomers might have them beat.” According to the article, baby boomers “earned the most money, took on the most gigs and earned the highest ratings on Wonolo, a platform where companies can find short-term workers.” Wonolo Vice President of Strategy and Finance Beatrice Pang said, “I think traditionally, people think of the gig workers as millennials,” but “our workers range from 18 years old to over 80 years old.” Pang added, “Boomers also do some of the most physical gigs,” including “fulfillment warehousing and general labor.” Boomer Lauren Swigger said she began driving for Uber and Lyft after being evicted from her apartment. Meanwhile, 51-year-old Steve Gregg “came to gig work late in his working life after an injury put a halt to his career in horticulture.”

Homestar Restaurant Group owner Larry Fox wote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (6/21, Subscription Publication) that bills introduced by some members of Congress that would require businesses to pay their workers minimum wage would cause his business to shut down. Employees at Fox’s company, a Hooters franchisee, already make between $18 and $28 per hour. Fox estimated the legislation would increase the cost of paying a tipped employee as much as 600 percent.

Bloomberg (6/21, Sink) reported, “President Donald Trump said he’s considering backing an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour, as some Democratic presidential candidates have proposed, but says salary growth during his presidency should assuage concerns over fair pay.” However, Bloomberg said, “Trump has given a number of contradictory statements on whether he would support increasing the federal minimum wage.”