Main Street Business: the library
Legal structure, small-business taxes, funding, insurance, pricing, bookkeeping, leases and contracts, buying, selling or closing a business, and a glossary.
Open this section in the app →In this section (10)
- 🏛️ Choosing a legal structure: sole proprietor, LLC, S corp, C corp or partnershipIn 30 seconds: The structure decides two separate things: who is on the hook if the business is sued or can’t pay its debts, and how the IRS taxes the…
- 🛡️ Business insurance: what each policy covers and how to buy itIn 30 seconds: Most small businesses need general liability, many can bundle it with property cover in a business owner’s policy (BOP), and anyone with…
- ✍️ Leases and contracts: commercial lease terms, customer terms and getting paidIn 30 seconds: A commercial lease is negotiated, not filled in, and almost everything in it has a price: who pays taxes and maintenance, how fast rent rises…
- 🧾 Small business taxes: SE tax, quarterlies, QBI, sales tax, payroll and 1099sIn 30 seconds: A profitable owner pays income tax plus 15.3% self-employment tax, in four estimated payments during the year. The 2025 tax law made the 20%…
- 📒 Bookkeeping basics: the monthly close and reading your three statementsIn 30 seconds: Good books are a habit, not a skill: one business account, a short chart of accounts, receipts captured the day you spend, and a monthly close…
- 🏷️ Pricing and margins: markup vs margin, labor burden and pricing an hourIn 30 seconds: Start from your full cost, including the hidden cost of labor and the hours you can’t bill, then price on what the customer values and check…
- 🏦 Funding a small business: savings, family, SBA loans, CDFIs, Kiva and the grant mythIn 30 seconds: Most local businesses start on savings, sometimes with a written loan from family. When outside money is needed, SBA microloans and CDFIs…
- 🤝 Buying an existing business: SDE, multiples, due diligence and financingIn 30 seconds: Small businesses are usually priced as a multiple of seller’s discretionary earnings (SDE), the cash an owner-operator takes home. The…
- 🚪 Selling or closing a business: preparing, valuing and the IRS checklistIn 30 seconds: A business sells for more when its books are clean, its earnings are documented and it runs without you, and that takes a year or two of…
- 📖 Small business glossary: more than 50 terms, from accounts receivable to working capitalIn 30 seconds: Short, plain definitions of the words that show up in your bank’s loan papers, your landlord’s lease, your CPA’s questions and your own…