Main Street Operator

How Maria Gonzalez, an Austin home-goods operator, survived a tariff that took her gross margin from 68% to 21% almost overnight — repricing, diversifying suppliers, and cutting dead weight. Plus Square Appointments, a free scheduling tool that stops no-shows.

Three cost levers moved this week — tariff costs are shifting from your margin onto your prices, small-group health premiums are up a median 11%, and 100% bonus depreciation is now permanent. One concrete move on each.

Sandi Luck lost her drive-up coffee kiosks in the 2009 recession, then rebuilt from a single nursing-home cafe into Bully Brew Coffee — a regional roaster supplying 120+ wholesale accounts and named North Dakota's 2026 SBA Small Business Person of the Year. Tool of the Week is Wave, the free invoicing app that gets invoices paid 3x faster.

Three things that moved over the July 4th weekend — the SBA doubled its combined loan cap to $10M with rates at 2022 lows, private-equity roll-ups are consuming the trades at record multiples, and June's soft jobs data hands operators a cheaper hiring window with a churn warning attached.

A Fourth of July spotlight on Evan LaBelle, who built precision manufacturer Autotiv out of a dorm room, watched orders collapse in 2020, and used boring SBA capital to keep his trained team — emerging as SBA's Young Business Owner of the Year for NH and New England. Plus Homebase, free scheduling for hourly teams.

Three moves for the short week before the Fourth — minimum wage hikes hitting July 1, tariff-driven inventory and cash-flow pressure, and the widening gap between operators who pay for AI tools and those still dabbling in free tiers.

Jeremy Barker went bankrupt twice and lived out of his car before patenting a hidden-door hinge and building Murphy Door from $7M to nearly $28M while still working as a firefighter. The lesson: own a defensible niche and never let growth outrun your cash. Plus Homebase, the free scheduling tool one bakery used to cut 20% of its labor budget.

Three pieces of operator intelligence for the week of June 22: the Fed held rates and a hike is back on the table, private equity keeps buying up the trades, and the Visa/Mastercard swipe-fee settlement just cleared a key hurdle. Each with one move to make this week.

Thomas Hartley founded Hartley Transportation in Pembroke, NH in 1992 and bought his building via SBA 504 in the 2001 recession — a decision that compounded for 24 years. Plus: NiceJob automates review collection for $75/month.

The Fed hasn't moved in 2026 and a hike is now more likely than a cut — what that means if you need capital this summer. Plus: 72% of SMBs have no supply chain visibility, and what to handle before Juneteenth.