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Big benefits for NSBA Small Business members with our corporate partner, Stax. Running a small business is no easy feat. Among all the problems small businesses tackle, payment processing shouldn’t be one of them. That’s why it's imperative to conduct research prior to selecting a payment provider. Then, evaluate on an annual basis if your processor is right for you. As a new partner of NSBA, Stax is offering our members an exclusive offer of 2 MONTHS FREE plus a FREE card reader if you sign up today. Ranked the #1 Best Credit Card Processors by US News & World Report in 2022, Stax has disrupted the payments industry with its subscription-based pricing model. Stax is a merchant service provider with total transparency built into its framework. All merchants have access to direct cost payment processing with 0% markups, no contracts, and no hidden fees. To help you make an informed decision for your business, Stax has compiled 3 common payment processing challenges businesses face, and how to avoid them. Lack of transparency The payment processing industry is not one known for its candor. The difficult-to-understand processing statements and pricing tiers make it challenging for business owners to navigate payments. On top of that, many processors have hidden fees and charge for additional line items not initially disclosed to the business during the sales process. Higher fees can also be incurred as a business grows. Combined, these fees are one of the most common reasons for complaints in the industry. How to avoid it: When deciding which credit card processing company is best for your business, do your homework. Find out if the company charges different pricing tiers for different card types. With a tiered pricing model, similar transactions are grouped together and categorized into tiers. Each tier is then charged a different rate. Depending on the types of transactions, you could be paying upwards of 3% in processing. Try to steer clear of this pricing model and opt for flat-rate pricing options whenever available. That way, you know exactly what you’re paying for. High Processing Fees Another thing to watch out for when considering a payment solution is high processing fees. Business owners work too hard to pay extraordinarily high processing fees. And most have no idea what they're paying for in credit card processing, resulting in unnecessary money spent. How to avoid it: Avoiding paying inordinate amounts in processing by understanding the breakdown of different fees. The following are unavoidable charges every business must pay: ● Interchange - the required fee that credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard charge businesses to accept their cards - set by the credit card brands. ● Transaction fees - these are fees that are associated with each transaction run. A few payment processing fees you should watch out for: ● PCI compliance ● Setup fees ● Account maintenance fees ● Statement fees Know what to look for, and run when you see ANY mention of the extra fees. Choosing 0% processing lets you know exactly what you are paying for. Lack of Support When things go wrong, businesses need to know that they are taken care of and will be able to resolve their queries effectively. However, due to the high volumes of support queues and a growing number of businesses using credit cards, it’s not uncommon for support to be delayed. How to avoid it: Look for payment providers who offer dedicated, reliable, and timely support - via chat, email, and phone. A good way to see if a company offers this is by looking at the company’s reviews on sites like Merchant Maverick, Software Advice, and Google Reviews. NSBA members now have an exclusive offer of 2 MONTHS FREE plus a FREE card reader if you sign up today! Our new preferred payments partner is an industry leader with specialized solutions for small businesses. Contact Stax today to take advantage of their 2-month FREE offer EXCLUSIVE to NSBA members. Stax is a proud partner of the National Small Business Association. Learn more and set up a free consultation with a dedicated payments expert.

The joint-employer standard has oscillated back and forth since 2015. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has proposed a new rule to expand the joint-employer standard under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). On March 9, 2021, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act (H.R. 842, S. 420), which includes a provision that dramatically expands the joint-employer standard. On Sept. 7 this year, the NLRB issued a new notice of proposed rulemaking that pushes the standard beyond anything we’ve seen previously. The joint-employer standard under the NLRA is used to determine when two or more entities are jointly responsible for the terms and conditions of employment over the same group of employees. These terms and conditions include, but are not limited to, having the ability to hire, fire, discipline, supervise, or direct employees. Joint employers are responsible for bargaining with any union representing the joint employees and are mutually liable for any NLRA violations either entity commits with respect to those employees. Joint-employer status, therefore, results in significant changes to an employer’s liabilities and responsibilities under the law. Under the traditional, decades-old standard, entities can only be joint-employers if they exercised direct and immediate control over the essential terms and conditions of employment. This standard provided clarity for businesses and protected them from unnecessary involvement in labor negotiations and disputes involving workplaces over which they do not have such control. This is especially necessary in today’s world, where large and small businesses alike have contractual relationships with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of franchisees, vendors, and contractors. Under the PRO Act and the new proposed rulemaking, however, the joint-employer standard would include situations where companies shared only indirect or even just reserved, unexercised control over the terms and conditions of employment. This standard was originally conceived by the Obama-era NLRB in its 2015 Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI) decision. Under the PRO Act and new proposed rulemaking, nearly every contractual relationship could trigger joint-employer status, from the franchise model to relationships between contractors and subcontractors and suppliers and vendors, needlessly exposing vastly more businesses to unwarranted joint-employer liability. The proposed rulemaking goes further than both the PRO Act and BFI standard in that it would require a joint employer determination based on reserved or unexercised control in certain circumstances. The traditional standard allowed larger businesses to rely on goods and services provided by local businesses without facing uncertainty around joint-employer liability. Under the PRO Act and proposed rulemaking, however, larger companies would be more likely to subsume local small businesses rather than work with individually owned enterprises, stifling entrepreneurship, business innovation and flexibility. The expanded standard also hampers businesses’ efforts to encourage “corporate responsibility” among franchisees, contractors, and vendors to the detriment of workers, consumers, and their communities. According to the NLRB, the small businesses or entities most likely to be impacted by this proposal are: contractors/subcontractors, temporary help service suppliers, and users, franchisees, and labor unions, and the move to rescind the previous standard is one to ease the legal standard for deciding when one company jointly employs another firm’s workers. Relatedly, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is exploring a proposal to a similar rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which would change the rules for classifying workers as employees or independent contractors. While the two proposals are independent and target different changes, having multiple agencies consecutively offering rulemaking on employer-employee relations only expands the already cumbersome regulatory environment that often hits small businesses hardest. On Oct. 20, the NLRB and the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) are hosting a virtual roundtable to discuss the proposed changes to the NLRA and its effects. The virtual event is scheduled from 1:00-2:30 p.m. EDT with a purpose of gathering “specific small entity input and presentation on the proposed rule.” RSVPs should be sent to Janis.Reyes@sba.gov, and roundtable participation details will be provided upon receipt. Click here to read the NLRB’s press release on its proposal, and keep up with NSBA for opportunities to make your small business voice heard on this proposed regulation. Members of the public can file comments on the NLRB’s proposed rule until November 7.

Comments are due Nov. 28, 2022. Last week, NSBA reported a new proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that will adjust how employers determine whether a worker is an employee or a contractor. The proposal would largely roll-back a similar rule-making that occurred during Trump Administration. When determining a worker’s status, the Biden administration will use a multi-factor economic realities test that considers factors of the working relationship to determine whether the worker is truly in business for themselves. The proposed changes would be a return to a “totality-of-the-circumstances” analysis, according to the proposal, evaluating all of the factors involved in the working relationship equally. The rulemaking also would rescind a Trump-era rule that outlined a similar multi-factor test, but that gave greater weight to how much control workers have over their job duties and their opportunities for profit or loss when determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. Biden DOL officials said the simplified Trump independent contractor test is inconsistent with federal court decisions and would result in more workers being misclassified as independent contractors when they should be employees. The Trump test included five factors, but two were given far greater weight: the nature and degree of the worker’s control over the work, and the worker’s opportunity for profit or loss based on personal initiative or investment. The new Biden proposal would consider those two factors and four others: investments by the worker and the employer, the degree of permanence of the working relationship, the extent to which the work performed is an integral part of the employer’s business, and the degree of skill and initiative exhibited by the worker. The DOL may also consider “additional factors” beyond those six, if they indicate the worker may be in business for themselves, according to the proposal. The proposed rule also provides additional analysis of the control factor, “including how scheduling, supervision, price setting and the ability to work for others should be considered when analyzing the degree of control over a worker.” The Labor Department couldn’t be definitive on the proposal’s impact because it “does not have data on the number of misclassified workers and because there are inherent challenges in determining the extent to which the rule would reduce this misclassification.” The rule change would cost affected companies, independent contractors, and local governments $188.3 million, the DOL estimated. The proposed regulation was officially published in the Federal Register on Oct. 13, and comments are due Nov. 28, 2022. NSBA will be submitting comments and will help its members do the same. Please click here to read the proposal.

Engage your employees. Talk about policy. Get out the Vote for Small Business. With the midterms less than three weeks away, the need for elected officials who support small business and NSBA’s priorities is greater than ever. According to the most recent World Bank Rankings, the U.S. ranks fourth in ease of doing business, but 20th in terms of starting a business, and 64th in terms of dealing with and paying taxes. Amidst painful inflation, rising interest rates, and increasingly cumbersome and confusing regulatory policies imbalanced on the back of small-business owners, talking to your employees about how to understand business priorities at the polls could make a difference for years to come. Of course, politics in the office is almost as much of a faux pas as politics at the dinner table, which is why NSBA has developed tools to make approaching these conversations painless, productive and appropriate. NSBA has created a nonpartisan poster for you to hang at your workplace which can help further explain and contextualize the importance of voting and why voting on small-business issues matters. For those small-business owners looking to take this engagement even further, download NSBA’s “Dos and Don’ts” Guide. Consulting with leading employment attorneys on a mission to serve small business owners, NSBA got the scoop on the dos and don'ts of talking with employees at work about voting. As business owners and employees educate themselves before casting a ballot, don’t forget to share your small business happenings with NSBA – we’d love to see you at the polls!

Employees v. Contractors – the DOL is weighing in once again. On Oct. 11, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) once again proposed a rule to challenge how companies are able classify workers which have typically been considered independent contractors. A change in classification from independent contractor to employee would expand the benefits and labor rules for employers. Per the DOL, several factors are evaluated to determine whether workers must be considered employees, including workers’ opportunity for profit or loss, permanency of their jobs, and degree of control a company exercises over a worker, to name a few of the criterion. DOL Secretary Marty Walsh said the proposed changes in standards for classification protect vulnerable workers and suggested employers frequently misclassify these workers as independent contractors. Amending the current economic-reality evaluation standard could limit the ability of workers who have their own business to increase their income through taking entrepreneurial initiative or an ability to work for competing companies. The DOL’s proposed rule reverses the standard implemented during the Trump administration and will take several months to gather input from stakeholders and review and finalize. NSBA has repeatedly urged DOL to proceed with caution when it comes to the burden this rule will place on small businesses as well as its potential to hurt workers looking to preserve their independent status and flexibility. Please click here to read the proposal. Stay tuned to NSBA for opportunities to make your voice heard on this proposed regulation.

The Summit will feature announcements to accelerate the benefits of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The White House will be holding its first virtual Accelerating Infrastructure Summit tomorrow, October 13, from 8:30 – 12:30 Eastern. The Summit will explore how the Biden Administration plans to execute the recently-enacted Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIF), which designates a record $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending, including updates to transportation networks, expansion of high-speed internet access, and investment into American clean energy production. You are invited to join Biden-Harris Administration officials, elected leaders from state and local governments, and leaders from academia, labor, and trade associations at this virtual Summit. Click here to register and receive your Zoom meeting credentials.

SBA recognizes small U.S. manufacturers’ contributions to expand our country’s capacity and economy. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is establishing a Manufacturing Office to help small U.S. manufacturers continue to commercialize innovation, automate processes, enter new markets, and contribute to the resiliency of the U.S. economy. According to SBA data, more than 50,000 manufacturers benefit from SBA support, including by increased means of selling to the federal government, purchasing and upgrading equipment, and expanding or renovating facilities, to name a few of its benefits. The new SBA Manufacturing Office will also provide government contracting assistance programs, as well as support for minority business owners and manufacturers. If you’d like more information on how to connect with SBA’s new Manufacturing Office, follow NSBA and read more here.

“The pandemic forced businesses to work in ways we’d never even considered...." FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Oct. 11, 2022 Contact: Molly Day 202-552-2904 press@nsba.biz NSBA Releases New Survey on Business Planning & Digital Utilization Washington, D.C. – Today, the National Small Business Association (NSBA) is releasing a new survey of small business about business planning and succession, their utilization of digital tools and what it means to be a small-business owner in today’s world. Among the key findings: just over half of small-business owners have a plan to pass on or sell their business when they retire, and nearly half of small-business owners say a merger or acquisition is important to their business exit strategy. “After the last three years, small-business owners have taken stock of where their business is and where it’s headed,” stated Todd McCracken, NSBA president and CEO. “The overwhelming majority of small businesses are the original founder of their business and play a very hands-on role, from personally writing the business plan to identifying a family member or staff member to take on the business when they retire.” When it comes to exit strategies, mergers and acquisitions are an important piece of the plan. Nearly half of small-business owners, 43 percent, say a merger or acquisition is important to their business exit strategy. Asked about digital tools, small-business owners reported high utilization rates of a variety of digital tools and platforms. “The pandemic forced businesses to work in ways we’d never even considered and the utilization of digital tools, particularly for remote work, is what kept millions of small businesses afloat,” NSBA Chair Mike Stanek of Hunt Imaging, LLC in Berea, Ohio. “The majority of small firms say that digital tools have contributed to the growth of their business and nine-in-ten have a positive view of the tech sector.” This survey was conducted online among 523 small businesses across the country May 23 – June 27. We hope you find the data in this report useful. Please contact the NSBA media affairs department with questions. Please click here to download the full report. Celebrating 85 years in operation, NSBA is a staunchly nonpartisan organization advocating on behalf of America’s entrepreneurs. NSBA's 65,000 members represent every state and every industry in the U.S., and we are proud to be the nation’s first small-business advocacy organization. Please visit www.nsba.biz or @NSBAAdvocate. ####

An employer and provider, Mr. Betancur bakes to change the world. The motto at Manolo’s Latin Bakery in Charlotte, North Carolina, is simple: “Our bread. Our People. Our Future.” Since founding the neighborhood institution over 25 years ago, NSBA member Manolo Betancur has become Charlotte’s premier purveyor of Hispanic baked goods. Today, Mr. Betancur serves breads and cakes originating from Mexico to Argentina, so “everyone has a chance to taste their home and their culture.” Despite the demands of operating a successful bakery, Mr. Betancur is also a tireless community leader and humanitarian. During the height of the COVID pandemic, Manolo’s Bakery donated thousands of cakes to Charlotteans who couldn’t afford birthday or anniversary celebrations. Stepping up to help with humanitarian crises close to home and across the world, Mr. Betancur is currently spearheading an effort to build a new bakery in Ukraine, where the war is limiting the luxury of a strong and secure community many Americans enjoy and have never contemplated existing without. A pillar of his philosophy in his service through small business ownership, Mr. Betancur said he knows firsthand the power of coming together and breaking bread for how it can work to resolve conflict – a piece of which he is working to bring to the people in paths of geopolitical uncertainty by providing food and baked goods and supporting productive ends to conflicts by any means feasible. Mr. Betancur is also a dedicated advocate for immigration reform, using his bakery as a symbol of the strength and ingenuity of America’s immigrants. For his efforts, the International Baking Industry Expo named Betancur a 2021 “World Bread Awards Hero.” Mr. Betancur credits his business for giving him the platform to be a changemaker. When asked what his business means to him and his humanitarian work, Betancur simply said, “Everything.” Click here to read more about Manolo’s delicious and inspiring story in Charlotte Magazine, and join NSBA as we celebrate Mr. Betancur during this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month and his work every day for small business: nsba.biz/join

NSBA is always glad to see unanimous, nonpartisan support for strengthening small business. Working hard before its midterm fall break, last week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship unanimously passed a panel of six bills aimed at investing in small business and improving the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Committee Chairman Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said the bills are aimed at addressing several “critical areas of concern,” including disaster assistance, access to broadband, and protection from cyber threats. The six bills passed without any objections, and summary descriptions are as follows: S. 1617, the Disaster Assistance for Rural Communities Act | Introduced by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), John Kennedy (R-La.), and Mike Braun (R-In), the bill would amend the SBA’s threshold for disaster declarations, allowing the administrator to issue a disaster declaration for rural communities included in a Presidential public assistance-only disaster declaration. Under the bill, the governor of the state must request the declaration, and at least one homeowner, small business, or nonprofit must have experienced significant damage. The bill passed the committee on Feb. 15, 2022. S. 1687, the Small Business Cyber Training Act of 2021 | Introduced by Sens. Shaheen and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), this bill would create a program to train counselors at SBDCs to provide cybersecurity guidance to small business owners. The committee approved the bill on May 18, 2022. S. 3906, the Small Business Broadband and Emerging Technology Enhancement Act | Introduced by Sens. Shaheen and Kennedy, the bill would equip the SBA with the leadership and resources necessary to help small businesses access broadband internet; it was passed by the committee on May 18. H.R. 4877, the One Stop Shop for Small Business Compliance Act | Introduced in Congress by Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), the bill would require the SBA to maintain a website with hyperlinks to the small business compliance guides of each federal agency, as well as the relevant points of contact for the guides. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Jacky Rosen (D-Neb.), and Shaheen introduced the Senate companion, which cleared the committee on May 18. H.R. 3462, the SBA Cyber Awareness Act | Introduced by Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Young Kim (R-Calif.), this bill would require the SBA to: 1) assess its cybersecurity procedures; 2) develop and annually report to Congress its cybersecurity strategy; and 3) implement a notification system to alert Congress and all affected parties in the event of a cyber-breach. The committee passed the bill on February 15. Sen. Rubio sponsored the senate companion. S. 2521, the SBIC Advisory Committee Act of 2022 | Introduced by Chair Cardin and Sen. Risch, this bill would establish an advisory committee to develop recommendations for increasing demographic and geographic diversity in SBA’s Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program. Under the legislation, an advisory committee would be required to submit a report to Congress with recommendations on how to expand SBIC access to underserved communities within 18 months. The bill cleared the committee on February 15. For some context, in 2021, SBICs made 1,063 investments in small businesses, of which only 55, or five percent, were owned by women, veterans, or minorities. Twenty percent, or 224 , of these categorized small businesses were headquartered in low- and moderate-income communities. These bills will now move to the larger Senate for consideration, where very limited legislative calendar time poses high hurdles for expedient passage. Follow @NSBAAdvocate, share your small business story with our staff and your Members of Congress– especially if there may be tangible or indirect effects of these bills on your bottom line, and check back here as NSBA tracks the latest on these legislative proposals from Capitol Hill.

With growing concerns of cyberattacks worldwide, at home, small businesses should take steps to protect themselves. Amidst cyberattacks worldwide, the U.S. government is noticeably increasing its efforts to proactively support parties to protect themselves – including small businesses. The threat for cyberattacks is ubiquitous. From energy, to infrastructure, health care, and everywhere between, companies should note the enhanced efforts from lawmakers to address these problems, including creating legislation to help federal agencies and small businesses create plans to prevent hacks and commit to strong cyber hygiene, including regularly updating, encrypting sensitive data, and limiting administrative log-ins. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) is asking his committee to consider his legislation to update the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) with an intent to mitigate security vulnerabilities. While the partisan gap is very much alive and well, some provisions in the Peters bill are the source of some debate, Peters’ committee isn’t all contention: Members recently approving H.R. 6824, a bill to codify CISA’s annual cybersecurity competition recognizing government employees for enacting best cybersecurity practices and discipline. Looking to join in on the efforts to encourage companies and constituents to square up plans and defenses from hacks, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is hosting an inaugural Small Business Cyber Summit October 26. Held during Cybersecurity Month, NSBA is looking forward to the success of this SBA summit, and is proud to work with partners, like CrowdStrike, an industry leader offering high level security to small businesses—and great discounts for NSBA members. For more information on how to protect your small business, connect with NSBA.

President Biden signed the CR into effect after House passage on Sept. 30, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown. Funding is fulfilled through Dec. 16, when lawmakers will once again have to address this fiscal priority. SEPT. 30 | This afternoon, the House voted to advance a 10-week stopgap funding bill to fund the government with a continuing resolution (CR) through Dec. 16, 2022, by a party line vote of 230-201. 72-25. The vote comes after the Senate passed the bill 72-25, clearing a procedural hurdle earlier this week for advancement when Senator J0e Manchin of West Virginia (D) requested his special interest project to expedite permitting for energy projects be removed from the CR text. In addition to providing federal solvency (at least on paper) and keeping the government open beyond this weekend, the text includes provisions $12.4 billion in aid to Ukraine – nearly $1 billion more than requested by the President. With the legislation on its way to the White House, lawmakers will have less than three months to agree on a funding plan for the federal government following their return from midterms this November. Biden’s requests for $22.4 billion to COVID resources and $4.5 billion to respond to monkeypox cases were not addressed in the legislation poised for a vote this evening, and, while Democrats claim the bill as a great reflection of bipartisanship, its final terms remain largely uncertain. Follow @NSBAAdvocate and check back here for the latest.