Blogs

You’ve invested countless long, hard hours in building a stable, profitable business with a bright future. But negative economic forces can strike at any time, destabilizing your finances and possibly even endangering the survival of your business. This is one of the main reasons it’s so important to build and maintain healthy cash reserves. Cash reserves serve many important purposes including helping business owners meet unexpected expenses while also stabilizing cash flow and easing overall financial stress. This guide to cash reserves explains why it’s so important for a business to have...

Tax laws can be complicated, but forming a robust tax plan is crucial to attaining your future financial goals. In this article, we’re breaking down everything you need to know about tax codes and other helpful information to know as you prepare. A tax plan can benefit you in three ways. It allows you to: Maximize savings by leveraging all available tax credits and deductions Avoid costly fees and penalties by paying your taxes on time Make informed decisions regarding your tax liability and long-term goals Keep in mind that building your plan can quickly become confusing, as the tax code and...

Once upon a time, most businesses could rely on wages and salaries to attract talented employees. Securing the services of strong candidates was often purely a question of money. But much of that has since changed—and quickly—in the post-COVID-19 hiring and retention landscape. For many job-seekers, money is no longer enough. As a result, some businesses needed to prioritize their benefits package to attract top talent. Multiple trends can be seen driving the shift in attention toward employee benefits. Inflation rates hit multi-decade highs in the early 2020s, prompting some job-seekers to...

A year ago, a headline “The Recession of 2023 might surprise everyone” would have been prescient simply because it didn’t happen. On the contrary, last year showed surprising resilience and a pace of growth no one expected, despite forecasts of a slowdown or recession by most economists. 2023 was supposed to have been the year in which the economy succumbed to the sharpest increase in interest rates in four decades; tightening lending standards by the banks; and the end of pandemic-era government spending. Accumulated savings from Covid-related shutdowns and receipts of stimulus checks were...

Commonly known as the Beige Book, this report is published eight times per year. Each Federal Reserve Bank gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its District through reports from Bank and Branch directors and interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts and other sources. The Beige Book summarizes this information by District and sector. An overall summary of the twelve district reports is prepared by a designated Federal Reserve Bank on a rotating basis. Overall Economic Activity Retail sales, including autos, remained mixed; sales of...