Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

The numbers: Small businesses turned more optimistic about sales and profits in the first month of 2020, but they are still struggling to find qualified workers, according to a closely followed survey. The National Federation of Independent Business said its index of small-business optimism rebounded from a small dip in at the end of last year, rising to 104.3 points in January from 102.7 in December. Business owners were more confident that sales would continue to rise and help support higher profits, the NFIB said. What happened: The net percent of owners who expect higher inflation-adjusted sales in the months ahead rose by 7 points to 23%. By and large, business owners were nonplussed by the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. A gauge that measures uncertainty was basically unchanged. The biggest worry of small businesses continues to be a shortage of skilled employees available for hire. A quarter of owners say it’s their No. 1 problem — more than taxes or re...

Is your website a potential liability? Yeah, it probably is. Over the last three to four years, there has been an “explosion” of lawsuits and claims by disabled individuals asserting that businesses’ websites (and, increasingly, their mobile apps) were not accessible to them because they were not up to code with Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, according to Charles Marion, an attorney with Blank Rome LLP in Philadelphia. The issue received national attention after a decision this past October by the U.S. Supreme Court to let stand a lower court ruling which opened the door for blind people to sue Domino’s Pizza for not making its website accessible. The lower court ruling decided that the ADA not only applies for making a company’s brick and mortar establishments accessible to disabled people, but covers their online properties as well. Dominos is not the only business exposed to these claims. According to a 2019 study, a whopping 98 percent of more t...