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Life with a fluctuating income is a lot like being left-handed: The world isnt designed to meet your needs, so you need to adjust accordingly. Those who make the leap into solopreneurship are often struck by all the little things they took for granted as salaried employees. Things like having health benefits, taxes and retirement savings deducted from their earnings, knowing exactly when the next injection of cash is coming, or what theyll make next month. Even monthly billing cycles for things like rent, student loans, and car payments are based on the assumption of predictable monthly earnings. Most dont ditch the corporate life because theyre really good at finance and tax planningunless, of course, theyre venturing off to become an independent accounting professional. For most, having to suddenly act as your own finance department is not just jarring, but also distracting from the countless other challenges that come with establishing an independent business. Solopreneurs have so much on their plate already; adding money stress is siphoning off creativity that would be much better spent making their businesses successful, says Ashley Lapato, personal finance educator for budgeting software provider YNAB. Once they get a handle on it, they tend to see more success. Here are some expert tips to help solopreneurs put away the calculator and spreadsheets, and get back to the things they do best. (Unless, of course, that thing also involves a calculator and spreadsheet.) Know your baseline When you dont know how much will be in the earnings column each month, it’s even more important to get a handle on expenses. According to Lapato, the first step is understanding the bare minimum you need to support your lifestyle. That might not include your Netflix subscription, but it’s things like your mortgage, minimums on any debt, your car payment, and groceries, she says. Then add irregular expenses. Because once you make that leap into solopreneurship, those irregular expenses can feel like emergencies. For example, if you travel to visit family each year, want to send your kids to summer camp, or have a big annual auto insurance bill, Lapato recommends breaking up those expenses and incorporating them into your baseline. Knowing that number, she says, allows solopreneurs to cover the necessities and then, once they earn that minimum, start saving for the next month. If, for example, that baseline is $8,000, Lapato says every dollar you earn in a given month after reaching that $8,000 minimum can be put toward next months baseline, longer-term savings, discretionary spending, or investing in the business. I would want at least three months of baseline buffer covered before taking the leap into full-time solopreneurship, she adds. Set up a legal entity There comes a point at which American solopreneurs can start seeing big tax savings by setting up a limited liability company (LLC) and registering as an S corporation, establishing a formal business for their solo venture in the United Statesthough similar tax structures exist elsewhere, too. If you make $70,000 and you’re going to get to $100,000 in the next couple of years, its the right solution, says Ran Harpaz, the CEO of Lettuce Financial, an accounting and tax software platform for solopreneurs earning six figures. People on our platform see annual average savings of $15,000, so the S corp election and the structure of the company are very meaningful. Harpaz explains that having an S corporation separates business earnings and expenses; your customers pay into the company, and the company pays you what the government considers a reasonable salary. The salary portion is subject to traditional tax requirements. The rest is taxed at much more favorable corporate rates. Creating a separate business entity also allows you to open business bank accounts and credit cards. It’s the right thing to do compliance-wise, but it’s also the right thing to do for financial management, Harpaz says, explaining that having separate accounts makes it easier to keep tax-exempt business expenses separate from personal spending. Put money aside for taxes There is perhaps nothing more sobering than seeing your first tax bill as a solopreneur. For those accustomed to having their taxes automatically deducted from paychecks, that bill will make you go numb, especially if you havent planned accordingly. Though its hard to predict how much youll owe when you dont know how much youll make, solopreneurs can often make an educated, conservative estimate and save accordingly. Every Monday, my wife and I fill out a sheet that says how much income we made [the previous week], how much we have to set aside for taxes, and what we spent, says Justin Welsh, a content creator and author of The Saturday Solopreneur newsletter. We pay our credit cards off, and then we set aside the money for taxes, we save and invest anything that’s left over, and that is a weekly recurring meeting that we’ve done for over five years. Over time, Welsh says the weekly fluctuations can be used to calculate a more predictable average, which helps the couple anticipate which tax bracket theyll fall into at the end of the year, and avoid overspending on the good weeks or panicking on the not-so-good ones. The goal is never to get too high with the highs and too low with the lows, he says. You just pretend you’re average every single week. Use tools, but keep it simple As the community of solopreneurs expands, so does the market for tools and technologies to make their lives easierYNAB and Lettuce among them. Welsh, for his part, is bullish on AI, but warns solopreneurs not to over-subscribe themselves. The whole goal of solopreneurship is simplicity, he says. I think you can do that through smart planning, using a simple spreadsheet and a thought partner in an LLM. For example, Welsh says solopreneurs can input their income and expense details and ask an AI platform to create a customized financial plan for them, or a contingency plan for when earnings drop unexpectedly. My advice to solopreneurs is to start simple and only add software or tools when it absolutely keeps you from making a big mistake or gives you a large percentage of your revenue back through tax optimization, he says. Other than that, just try and make as much as you can, try and keep as much as you can, and try and spend as little as you can.
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E-Commerce
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a leading Democratic critic of President Donald Trump, says he will consider running for the White House in 2028 after the midterm elections next year.Asked in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” whether if would be fair to say he would give a campaign serious thought after the November 2026 vote, the term-limited governor said, “I’d be lying otherwise.”Newsom has been trying to raise his national profile, adopting a combative style that parodies Trump’s social media strategy with similar all-caps posts, memes and merchandise.The Democratic governor has sparred with the Republican president over the deployment of the California National Guard following immigration protests and Trump’s redistricting moves in Texas. Newsom has also led a campaign to redraw California’s own maps to add five Democratic U.S. House seats in response to the changes in Texas. Voting is underway on the so-called Proposition 50 and concludes Nov. 4.“I’m looking forward to who presents themselves in 2028 and who meets that moment. And that’s the question for the American people,” he said in the interview that aired Sunday.The feud between Trump and Newsom does not seem like it’s going away anytime soon. On Thursday, Trump acknowledged he had agreed to halt a planned show of federal force planned for this weekend in San Francisco after appeals from tech executives and the mayor. Newsom was mayor of San Francisco between 2004 and 2011.In the interview, Newsom described Trump as an “invasive species.”“He’s a wrecking ball. Not just the symbolism and substance of the East Wing,” Newsom said, referring to the demolition of that part of the White House to build a ballroom. “He’s wrecking alliances, truth, trust, tradition, institutions.”Earlier this year, Newsom launched a podcast in an effort to brand himself as a centrist. During the show, he has held conversations with influential figures all across the political spectrum, from late conservative Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated on a college campus tour, as well as former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat. Adriana Gomez Licon, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
For most of its two-decade history, ActBlue hummed along in relative obscurityand for Democrats, it might have been better off that way. The online donation platform for the left was founded in 2004 with a mission to harness the power of the internet and fuel political campaigns through small dollar donations. In the 2008 presidential cycle, it set out with the humble goal of raising $100 million for Democrats; this year, it raised nearly eight times that much in the first half of 2025 alone. ActBlue processed another $482 million in the third quarter of this year. As ActBlues coffers have grown, so has the target on its back. What began as a series of spurious online rumors about alleged fraud on the platform has since spiraled into a slew of state investigations, a lengthy ongoing probe led by House Republicans, and a Department of Justice investigation ordered by President Trump himself in April. At the same time, the organization, which operates as a political action committee, has recently seen a number of high profile departures, including within its legal team, which have only fanned the flames of Republican inquiries. The DOJs deadline to complete its investigation has already passed, and the department declined to comment for this story. The Houses investigation, meanwhile, has yielded one preliminary report, which charges ActBlue executives with failing to take the threat of fraud seriously, without identifying any instances of potential fraud that ActBlue hadnt already caught. The report also made no mention of WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform, which is facing its own investigations regarding allegedly deceptive fundraising practices. Still, the political attacks and turnover have placed substantial strain on a vital piece of Democratic infrastructure, through which billions of dollars in funding flow. Now, the question is whether ActBlue can survive this relentless firestormand what it will mean to the party if it cant. Fast Company spoke with more than a dozen sources, including ActBlues CEO, current leadership, former employees, Democratic strategists, and other former party officials. These conversations show that even as Democrats rally around ActBlue in the face of what they say are dangerous attacks from the right, they are also sharply divided over whether the organization is equipped to handle these blows and whether the right leaders are in place to meet the moment. Internal turmoil One figure at the center of this divide is ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones, who joined the organization in 2023 after spending her career working at tech companies (eBay, Facebook, Yahoo) and serving in local government in East Palo Alto. After The New York Times reported on the departures of at least seven senior ActBlue leaders in April, ActBlue sought to cast the moves as part of the natural turnover after the 2024 election cycle. But former ActBlue employees and Democratic strategists familiar with the exits told Fast Company that many of the departures stemmed from what one former employee characterized as a verbally abusive working environment under Wallace-Jones, marked by major blowouts. This employee described Wallace-Jones as deeply distrustful of both the Democratic ecosystem and members of her own staff. The former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of being singled out by members of Congress, described a situation in which he briefed ActBlues general counsel on a potential sponsorship that could have had legal implications for ActBlue. According to internal communications viewed by Fast Company, Wallace-Jones later chastised the former employee for sharing information with ActBlues legal team, suggesting that doing so was tantamount to leaking. (ActBlue declined to respond directly to this claim). People did not just leave because it was the end of a cycle, the former employee said. We did not trust that she was the leader to take this organization forward anymore. “She made it very clear to everybody that they were replaceable,” said another former employee. According to The New York Timess reporting in April, unions representing ActBlue employees wrote a letter to the board asking it to hire outside counsel to investigate the current state of the organization and evaluate if our C.E.O. is doing her job in an appropriate, competent and responsible manner. A spokesperson for ActBlue told Fast Company the firm had in fact supported an independent and privileged investigation, which had concluded that the allegations in the letter could not be substantiated. Many of these interpersonal challenges would scarcely bear mentioning in the cutthroat world of politics or even tech, if it werent for the fact that theyve bled out into the public domain and are now being used as evidence by House Republicans that something must be awry within ActBlue. After the Times report, the committees investigating ActBlue shifted focus, sending another letter to the organization, this time demanding documents related to the resignations and possible retaliation against whistleblowers. In July, the committees subpoenaed ActBlue for further documents, arguing that the staff departures may be related to ActBlues fraud-prevention efforts. In September, the committees reportedly subpoenaed ActBlues former lawyers, including its former general counsel, Darrin Hurwitz. (Hurwitz did not respond to Fast Companys request for comment). The sources who spoke to Fast Company say ActBlues staff turnover has nothing to do with what they say are baseless allegations of fraud being leveled by Republicans. They want to say, Oh, all the executives fled the company because of all the craziness they saw, said one former employee. That could not be farther from the truth. Still, they point to these allegations as one side effect of Wallace-Joness leadership and an example of how the organization has failed to navigate the political messaging of this moment. At its core, ActBlue is a olitical organization that does tech, not a tech organization that works in politics. At every turn, theyve fucked up the politics, said one former Democratic National Committee official, who critiqued ActBlue for failing to work with the rest of the party to combat the GOPs attacks and disseminate information about the recent staff departures. No one knows whats going on over there. Thats led to more fear than is rational, he said. One of the former employees who spoke with Fast Company said Wallace-Jones did not appear to take the GOPs attacks on the platform seriously until it was too late. Of all the priorities, this was not a top one, and it should have been, considering the risk its yielded, the former employee said. Asked about this claim, an ActBlue spokesperson told Fast Company, Everything weve said from last August through today has demonstrated we are fighting these attacks aggressively, thoughtfully, and honestly. Hard choices In an interview with Fast Company, Wallace-Jones said she needed to make hard choices when she arrived at ActBlue. Indeed, a few months after she joined the organization, ActBlue laid off one-sixth of its staff in what Wallace-Jones said at the time was an effort to control costs and focus on its technology. Some of the former employees interviewed for this story agreed that, while painful, many of the organizational changes Wallace-Jones made were necessary. It is my job to bring ActBlue into its next phase of contribution, and in so doing, any CEO has got to evaluate what the present state of the organization is. Any CEO has got to evaluate whether all of the pieces are in place to support the go forward. In some cases there are hard choices to be made, Wallace-Jones told Fast Company. She said her current team is the right team to carry us forward into who we can become. An ActBlue spokesperson said in a statement that it would be difficult to imagine or point to an instance where a male CEO would be similarly scrutinized, let alone have a credible media article focused on such a non-issue. The spokesperson described the Republican attacks against ActBlue as attacks against democracy itself. [T]hey are coming after ActBlue because we are the largest, most successful and impactful technology-driven fundraising platform for Democratic candidates and Progressive causes, the spokesperson said. To suggest that their attacks are due to anything other than a desire to take out the infrastructure of the Left is short-sided at Best. [sic] Several current ActBlue executives and Democratic strategists also described Wallace-Jones as precisely the kind of leader the organization now requires. Jason Wong, who has been ActBlues vice president of engineering since 2022, said that prior to Wallace-Joness arrival ActBlue operated mostly on a consensus basis, making it difficult to move transformative projects forward. Wallace-Jones has brought more clarity to ActBlue, Wong said, and has pushed ActBlue to take on a bigger role within the party. Recently, the firm acquired its first company, a digital organizing platform called Impactive, and announced it would be donating $1 million to Democratic state parties to bolster their infrastructure. It also recently launched Raise, a simplified version of its fundraising tools, designed for down-ballot races. We’re a different company today than we were back then, Wong said. He acknowledged that, those transformations are difficult for everyone involved. Lawrence Oliver, ActBlues new chief legal officer, who joined the firm after the departure of its former general counsel, also described Wallace-Jones as the perfect leader for this. Is she demanding? Yes. Is she tough? Yes. But Ive worked for a lot of tough and demanding people, said Oliver, who was previously chief counsel of investigations at Boeing and a special counsel in the Cook County, Illinois State Attorneys Office. Others outside of the organization defended Wallace-Joness communication within the broader Democratic party. She worked overtime trying to make sure she had meetings with people, said Minyon Moore, who has previously served as chair of the Democratic National Convention Committee and CEO of the Democratic National Committee. She called the notion that Wallace-Jones has been slow to respond to the GOPs attacks BS. We can blame ActBlue for showing up slow or coming on too fast, but the fact is we all should be ready to pounce on that, Moore said. One platform, lots of vulnerabilities Some of the people Fast Company spoke to pointed to ActBlues record under Wallace-Jones, which includes processing more than $3.8 billion in donations in 2024. WinRed, by contrast, brought in less than half of that. But Wallace-Joness critics argue that ActBlue can only take so much credit for that cash bump. The money the party and the candidates are raising is because were in a huge crisis moment and huge fight, said the former DNC official. The historic nature of Democratic fundraising is despite ActBlue at this point, not because of it. Beyond the questions about ActBlues current leadership, the conflict surrounding the organization has highlighted the risks of relying on a single payment platform. Trump attacks or not, it’s a precarious place to be, said one Democratic strategist. Daniel Garcia, communications director for the Democratic party of New Mexico, said his team began working with another payment platform, GoodChange, in addition to ActBlue, earlier this year, in part due to the ongoing investigations. The potential for ActBlue to come under attack certainly is a concern for us, Garcia said. In the event something does happen to ActBlue because of the Trump administration, we do want to be prepared and have another option. GoodChange cofounder Becky Pittman told Fast Company the firm is now working with 20 state parties and county committees. She said GoodChanges platformwhich includes, among other things, event features and a tool that allows donors to donate spare change from every purchase they makeoften complements other payment platforms. And she condemned the GOPs attacks on ActBlue. It makes it dangerous for everyone, Pittman said. In an interview, Wallace-Jones said Democrats arent moving away from ActBlue, pointing to the amount of donations that have flowed through the platform this year. ActBlue has had, bar none, the most successful fundraising cycle its ever had in its history, she said. Of course, if Democrats wanted to distance themselves from ActBlue entirely, it would be no trivial thing. ActBlues sheer size and dominance has made it challenging for other startups to even raise the funding they would need to operate a viable challenger, said a Democratic strategist who spoke with Fast Company. ActBlue has also become the de facto keeper of Democratic donors information, an advantage that makes it possible for people to seamlessly donate across campaigns without reentering that information. Another enity can rebuild that, but it would just take time, said the strategist, adding that thats time most campaigns dont have. There are also risks inherent to experimenting with new technology. Wong, ActBlues vice president of engineering, noted that the platform saw unprecedented levels of traffic in 2024 without experiencing any outages, strain that newer platforms could struggle to withstand. And in a political climate in which the president appears hellbent on punishing perceived enemies, theres no guarantee a more diversified landscape would be any safer from political attacks. If they’re going to come after us, he said, they can come after anyone.
Category:
E-Commerce
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