Upwork announced a new set of tools and partnerships designed to transform how companies and freelancers hire and work. This announcement was made during the first edition of Upwork Updates: Spring 2024, a semi-annual product showcase. The highlight of this Spring’s update is Uma, the new AI developed by Upwork. Built on advanced language models and enhanced with data from Upwork’s platform, Uma is designed to streamline the hiring and collaboration processes, helping businesses and freelancers find each other, get started, and achieve better work outcomes. New features powered by Uma include ..read more

Over the course of the past couple of decades, outsourcing has become one of the most hotly debated topics in American politics. Nobody likes to see jobs go overseas, and lawmakers love to use a firm stance against the threat of outsourcing as a rallying point for their wider business agendas. But in the realm of small business, outsourcing doesn’t necessarily mean taking work overseas. When small business owners talk about outsourcing, they’re usually thinking of farming out content work to freelance writers, hiring an accountancy firm to take on the book keeping or relying on an employment ..read more

California’s restaurant scene is bracing for another financial hit this summer when a new law is set to shake up menu prices.  Fox Business reports that following the recent increase in the state’s minimum wage to $20, fast-food chains have already adjusted their pricing. Now, with a new law targeting “junk fees” slated to take effect on July 1, further price hikes are on the horizon. Signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the new law aims to eradicate surcharges and fees levied by restaurants. Historically, these types of surcharges often have been used by restaurant owners to fund employee b ..read more

Major press features can make a huge impact on small businesses. But securing these features is often challenging. That’s where working with professionals, like the team at Everything Branding, can help. Learn more about the company and what sets it apart in this week’s Small Business Spotlight. What the Business Does Provides public relations services. President and CEO Chelsea Gladden told Small Business Trends, “We secure consumer facing press for our clients with top national media outlets, including Today Show, Good Morning America, Forbes, CNN, BuzzFeed and many more.” Business Niche De ..read more

A ban on polystyrene went into effect for small businesses in San Diego in April. Polystyrene is a synthetic polymer sometimes colloquially called Styrofoam, especially in the U.S. The move means more costs for small businesses in that California community. “Polystyrene plastic foam is one of the biggest sources of marine litter and costs the state and local governments millions of dollars each year to collect it from beaches, road sides, and storm drains,” writes Mariel Garza for the Los Angeles Times. Small businesses making less than $500,000 annually received a brief year long exemption. B ..read more

New laws on the books in Massachusetts are threatening the future of some historic local tobacconist businesses. Following a landmark decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, several Greater Boston towns are adopting something known as a generational tobacco ban.  As reported by Cigar Aficionado, the legislative actions are setting a precedent that could influence broader state and national tobacco regulations. Often with local governments, one board of councilpersons get their ideas from another – a monkey-see, monkey-do scenario. In March 2023, the court upheld a bylaw in t ..read more

Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. As a result, the merchant never sees or handles the product. We’ve researched 25 great profitable dropshipping business ideas you can start now. Here’s how dropshipping operates as a business model: Customer places an order: The process begins when a customer places an order for a product from the online business store of a dropshipping retailer. Order forwarded to sup ..read more

For many businesses that struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic, Small Business Administration loans provided an essential lifeline. But now, thousands of businesses that accepted these loans have defaulted. And they owe a total of $59 billion in late fees, according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal. During the pandemic, the SBA loaned out a total of $390 billion in recovery loans from the COVID-19 disaster program. Now, 860,000 of those loans are delinquent and have been sent to collections. When Congress originally approved the federal debt collection program, it authorized th ..read more

The U.S. Department of Labor rolled back a Trump-era rule that lets self-employed individuals and small businesses purchase cheaper association health plans. The plans did not fully comply with Affordable Care Act requirements. Small business owners and entrepreneurs benefiting from cheaper association health plans will soon lose their more affordable options. As reported by Bloomberg, the new Biden rule – issued by the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration – will take effect 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register. Initially proposed in December 2023, the new rule repl ..read more

A Chicago-area tax preparer has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison for preparing and filing over 900 false income tax returns. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said this has resulted in a loss of $1.3 million. Vervia Watts, a resident of Lansing, Illinois, operated a tax preparation business in Illinois and other locations, where she orchestrated a sophisticated scheme to defraud the IRS. Between January 2017 and June 2023, Watts prepared and filed fraudulent income tax returns for her clients, falsely claiming education expenses and business income to secure larger refunds. He ..read more