A standard business practice offsets future costs by funding a reserve for returns – but many small businesses don’t do it

In my 30-plus years of being an accountant I have learned many business lessons from people who were much smarter than me. Jerry Crawford was one of those people. Jerry taught me about product returns.

Jerry – who sadly passed away a decade ago – sold carpets wholesale from a nondescript little building in south Jersey. He employed about 50 people and counted many local and national carpet retailers as his customers. When I reviewed Jerry’s books, I noticed a large reserve for “returns”.

Small business owners say they’re being unfairly targeted – but disability advocates say violations must be dealt with

Rodrigo Nogueira was met with a surprise in April 2025 when lawyers contacted him out of the blue. They asked whether he needed legal assistance over a summons his restaurant received for violating Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

It was the first he had ever heard of it. The lawsuit listed 35 violations against No More Cafe, his restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village.

The senator proposed a federal overtime rule mandate, but incentives can better spur employers to reshape the workweek

Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator, recently proposed new legislation that would change federal overtime rules. The new law, if passed, would require employers to pay a minimum 1.5 hours of overtime for each hour worked past 32 hours in a week. Currently, overtime kicks in at 40 hours per week. The requirement would phase in over a few years.

Sounds great. Who wouldn’t want that? There’s just one problem: somebody has to pay for it. For business owners, this isn’t an ideological argument. It’s math.