Employee empowerment is a key ingredient in providing top-notch customer service, writes John Tschohl of the Service Quality Institute. "If an employee must seek approval from someone higher up the ladder, it costs you money by taking managers away from other duties they should be handling," Tschohl writes.

AI is transforming ecommerce, especially during high-stakes periods like Black Friday. Leaders from Wix and Hostinger emphasize that AI now allows entrepreneurs to quickly launch professional online stores, generate product descriptions and create branding with minimal expertise. To stand out during the sales rush of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, fast-loading sites, clear value propositions and well-organized marketing campaigns are essential. The use of countdowns, exclusive previews and automation tools can help build anticipation and manage high traffic.

American Express is broadening its "Shop Small" campaign beyond the original Small Business Saturday annual event to operate year-round, introducing new digital content and grant opportunities and aiming to provide ongoing support and visibility for small businesses. AmEx is working with food writer Keith Lee on a digital content series that features stories of small businesses driving local culture and creativity. The company has also partnered with Main Street America to launch a $5 million grant program, awarding 250 grants of $20,000 each to small businesses, with additional funds donated for each AmEx card purchase at qualifying businesses on Small Business Saturday.

Applying the concept of "love languages" to the workplace can enhance emotional intelligence, a skill increasingly valued by employers. Practicing the five "business love languages" daily can improve team morale and foster loyalty: words of affirmation, acts of service, gifts, quality time and appropriate physical touch.

Small and medium-sized businesses are struggling with rising health care costs, with median health insurance premiums increasing 23% over the past three years, according to a report from Gusto. Despite this, nearly a quarter of SMBs continue to offer health insurance, with employer contributions only decreasing slightly from 70% to 68% over three years, reflecting the importance of health insurance as a tool for attracting and retaining talent. Many SMBs are turning to health savings accounts to manage costs, with almost 48% offering HSAs this year.

Vibe coding, which uses AI to translate natural language prompts into code, is becoming a game changer for small businesses by allowing them to innovate without large development budgets. For beginners, vibe coding begins with selecting user-friendly AI builders, such as Google AI Studio, Lovable, Bolt or Replit, which convert text prompts into working web or mobile apps. New users are encouraged to focus on describing the desired results in simple language, iteratively refining their prompts to improve the output and deploying basic projects while gathering feedback to boost confidence and skills.

Successful founders can confidently answer five essential financial questions to ensure business health: their cash runway, actual gross margin, customer acquisition cost versus lifetime value, operating cash conversion cycle and exact break-even point, writes Jennifer Barnes, the CEO and founder of Optima Office. A controller, a fractional CFO and a good working relationship with a CPA are essential to gain the financial knowledge and visibility needed for success, Barnes notes.

Small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly turning to embedded finance to manage cash flow, with 58% citing inflation as a primary challenge, according to a PYMNTS Intelligence report in collaboration with Galileo. Instead of simply facilitating easy payments, embedded financial tools are now designed to give companies greater command over liquidity, capital access and operational workflows. This transition is recasting financial infrastructure as a strategic element, central to business operations rather than a peripheral add-on.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's reworked rule on small-business data collection sharply curtails the amount of data that it would require from banks and other lenders, while the compliance deadline would be delayed until January 2028. The revised rule would define a small business as one with gross annual revenue of as much as $5 billion, compared with $1 million under the previous version. The latest proposal would apply to lenders making at least 1,000 covered loans per year, up from 100 previously.