Registering a US federal trademark yourself will likely cost between $250 and $2,000. You can choose to file the trademark application yourself (costing $250 per class of products or services) or hire a trademark attorney to guide you through the process (costing up to $2,000). If you are domiciled within the US or its territories,…
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What Is Payroll Software? Everything Small Businesses Need to Know
Payroll software is an application used to manage, automate, and streamline an organization’s payroll tasks. It’s a tool that frees businesses from the shackles of manual calculation, paperwork, and regulatory complexity. With payroll systems, tasks like calculating wages, withholding taxes, and ensuring benefits and allowances are accurately distributed become automated. As a small business owner…
What Is Professional Liability Insurance? Cost, Coverage & More
Professional liability insurance is a third-party liability insurance for small businesses in the professional services sector. It’s sometimes called errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, or medical malpractice insurance for those in a medical profession. Unlike general liability insurance, a professional liability policy covers more intangible claims, such as the business provided bad advice, and more…
What Is a Payment Facilitator (PayFac)?
A payment facilitator (PayFac) is a service business that provides merchants with a sub-merchant account. Payment facilitators like Square, Stripe, and Stax serve as an intermediary between a merchant acquirer and a business owner (or merchant) to make merchant account applications easier and provide better terms for small businesses. Payment facilitators came about as a…
What Is Print on Demand? Small Business Guide
Print on demand (PoD) is a business model where products are only manufactured, customized, or printed as orders are received, unlike traditional manufacturing models where products are created in large quantities and stocked in advance. The print on demand model has allowed many new entrepreneurs and existing brick-and-mortar retailers to test the waters of ecommerce….
What Is Retail? A Small Business Guide
Retail is a type of business where merchants sell products to consumers for personal use. Retailing is the act of conducting retail business. Ecommerce and omnichannel selling have blurred the lines of physical and online retail, so retail is a term that often encompasses all selling of goods—digitally, in-store, or elsewhere. In this guide, you…
What Is a Section 351 Exchange? A Small Business Guide
A Section 351 exchange is a way to obtain ownership in a corporation by exchanging property for stock while delaying tax. Without Section 351, giving property to a corporation and getting something valuable (corporate stock) in return would be treated by the IRS as a sale of the property and would result in recognizing a…
Medicare Tax: What It Is and How It Works
Part of an employer’s payroll responsibilities is to handle the deduction and payment of their employees’ taxes. One of these is the Medicare tax, which is 2.9% of the employee’s gross earnings (as of writing this). The equivalent amount is split between employers and their workers, each paying 1.45%. However, there are instances where the…