I had a whole topical plan for this week but after crash revising everyone’s 2025 strategic plans, it’s now crunch time for healthcare open enrollment and end of year tax organization with my clients. Today’s newsletter highlights things to get done and a few small business shopping starters before you blow your budget on Black Friday deals.

November AMA Replay

The replay of my November AMA is available now. We talked about individual health insurance, setting up a new company, winding down an existing company, and planning for the end of the year. The replay link is time stamped by topic so you can jump to areas that are relevant for you.

My final AMA of the year will be Thursday, December 12 at 10 AM PT. That’s just a couple of days before the December 15 exchange individual health insurance plan deadline. If you can’t attend live, submit questions here.

Now on-demand: Decoding Your 2025 Health Insurance Options replay

If you’re purchasing individual coverage through an exchange, you have until December 15 to apply for subsidies, choose your plans, and make your first premium payment. If you start that process and realize you could use some backup, my health insurance webinar is now available as an on-demand download. Purchase the replay and presentation deck at this link.

For reference, here’s the checklist. We’re getting into crunch time on the close. The next three weeks have several critical activities. If you haven’t started yet, next week, I’ll give you a condensed list so you can catch up over the holiday. For now, at least get your meetings set.

• File your BOI: If you own an LLC, S-corp, or C-corp, or a company outside the US that sells here, you have until December 31 to file a business owner information (BOI) form. While services are offering to help for $150-$200, it’s free to file yourself directly with FinCEN. It’s a fairly simple form with good instructions, and should take you less than 10 minutes. File your BOI here. If you’re starting a new company, you must complete a BOI within 60 days of your incorporation. The fines are steep for noncompliance. Just get this done, even if you need to pay someone..

• Schedule with your tax advisor: You’ll want to check in with your tax advisor between December 1 and 20 to review your test close, confirm end of year tax and compliance transactions, and estimate your January 15 taxes. Investing in 30 minutes now can save you thousands of dollars on your 2024 taxes, as there’s no “oops” button for deadlines that expire on December 31. While you’re at it, make sure your books have been closed for October.

• Outline your 2025 strategic plan: Do you have a sales plan? Operating budget? Staffing plan? You should have enough visibility into your Q1 pipeline and outlook for next year to put together a high-level strategic plan that includes unit sales from your offers / product list, personal compensation goal, known operating costs (from your P&L), and staffing or consultant costs. Take a couple of hours before the holidays to organize and step up sales or make adjustments if necessary.

• Lock in kid coverage and OOO requests: School doesn’t care that you have pressing Q4 business to finish. There may be as many as 14 working days of school closures for you in the next six weeks. If you need camps or coverage for your kids between December 16 and January 7, get that organized this week. Encourage your team to update their OOO requests as well so you know where you might have staffing gaps.

• Marketplace: The Marketplace team spent a week visiting five small business districts in Los Angeles for their Tricks of the Trade series. Many folks have expressed interest in spending more money with small businesses. This series is a how-to for shopping with jewelers, farmers, fishmongers, flower merchants, and thrifters. 

• Amazon: Do you struggle with business organization and systems? Neurodivergent entrepreneur (and our operations partner) Latrice Prater has written a new guide, The Chaos Queen: Embracing the Mess & Succeeding with ADHD, detailing her approaches and systems to keeping business and daily life organized and out of overwhelm. This one’s only available in paperback from Amazon for now. 

• Shopping list: As you prepare for holiday shopping, keep your fellow small business owners in mind! 67% of spending at a small business stays local, versus about 43% from a national chain. Some of my favorites are circular clothing and foundations from The Big Favorite, prints and art novelties from TheeBouffants, books from Bookshop.org (where they’ll place your order with a local indie shop), and Alamo Drafthouse’s AlamoMart for movie-related novelties. I’ll be at Alamo later this week to see Wicked…if you missed that “Defying Gravity” headline.