- Decide whether tariff-driven landed-cost increases are already hitting your margins.
- Decide whether payroll classifications still match current overtime exemption thresholds.
- Decide which AI-ad disclosure changes and grant headlines deserve attention now.
Most small business news is like a weather forecast that only shows satellite imagery. It’s technically accurate. But it tells you nothing about whether to carry an umbrella today. This piece pulls out five things from this week that actually need a decision from you, and one thing you have full permission to ignore.
Check Your May Invoices for This
If you buy any physical goods from overseas suppliers, your landed costs likely jumped 10-25% over the past 90 days thanks to tariff increases that rolled in during early 2025. For a business doing $100K a month in revenue with even modest import exposure, that can mean $2,000 to $5,000 a month in extra cost that did not exist at the start of the year. Many suppliers quietly passed the increase through without a separate line item.
Pull up your last three vendor invoices and compare the per-unit cost to what you paid in January. If you import directly, check your customs broker statements for any new duty line items. Our breakdown of how tariffs hit small businesses walks through exactly which product categories got hit and what to look for. The point is not to panic. It’s to stop paying more without knowing you’re paying more.
The Overtime Rule Snapped Back and Your Window Is Shrinking
Quick background. Federal labor law lets you pay certain salaried employees a flat salary with no overtime. Those employees are called “exempt.” Whether someone qualifies as exempt depends partly on how much they earn.
In 2024, the Department of Labor raised the minimum salary for an exempt employee to about $58,600 per year. That rule got struck down in court. Then in early 2025, the Department of Labor officially reinstated the old 2019 threshold, which is roughly $35,568 per year. You can read the full details of the reinstatement here.
Here is why this matters right now. If you reclassified employees during the 2024 rule change, or if you hired salaried people at the higher threshold, your payroll setup may not match the current law. Picture a salaried office manager earning $42,000. Under the 2024 rule, they would have been non-exempt and owed overtime. Under the reinstated 2019 rule, they are exempt again. Your payroll system might still be tracking them the wrong way.
Your last comfortable window to fix this is before your next payroll cycle closes in June. Some states layer on their own salary thresholds that are higher than the federal number, so the answer is not always straightforward. If you operate in multiple states, our guide on catching state-level rule changes can help you figure out which ones apply.
“Are my current exempt classifications still correct under the reinstated 2019 federal threshold, and do any of my states have a higher minimum?”
That is the exact question to send your payroll provider this week.
Meta Now Requires Something New on Your Ads
Until recently, you could run ads on Facebook and Instagram that used AI-generated images, AI-written copy, or AI-altered visuals without telling anyone. Meta did not ask, and the platform did not flag it. Most small businesses running boosted posts or simple campaigns never thought twice about it.
That changed. Meta now requires advertisers to disclose when ad content is made or significantly altered by AI. The requirement applies to images, video, and audio. If you use AI tools to create or edit your ad creative, you need to check a disclosure box when you set up the campaign. Meta’s system may also auto-detect AI content and label it. You can read the specifics of the new disclosure rule here. If you run any paid social ads, check your next campaign setup screen this week. If you don’t use AI in your creative at all, you can wait and watch.
There’s Grant Money Open Right Now
This Sounds Big but Isn’t Your Problem Yet
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI model, announced a new joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, and Hellman and Friedman to embed AI into mid-sized businesses. It made headlines everywhere. But the venture is targeting companies with 500 to 10,000 employees and enterprise-grade budgets. If you run a business under 50 people, nothing about this changes your week, your tools, or your costs. Revisit it if the service tiers expand to smaller companies or if your current software vendors start bundling Anthropic tools into your existing subscriptions.
Now, the only part that matters: what to actually do this week.
Your 15-Minute Punch List for This Week
All of this fits inside a single coffee break.
- Pull up your last three vendor invoices and compare per-unit costs to January. Look for any line item that quietly increased by more than 10%.
- Send your payroll provider this question: “Are my exempt classifications correct under the reinstated 2019 federal overtime threshold, and do any of my states have a higher minimum?”
- Open your Meta Ads Manager and check whether your next campaign setup includes the new AI disclosure toggle. If you use AI tools for images or copy, start checking that box now.
- Spend 20 minutes on the NSF’s SBIR program page to see if your R&D work fits any open topics. If it does, bookmark the deadline.
- Set a calendar reminder for September 1 to check whether Anthropic’s new AI venture has started offering anything relevant to sub-50-employee businesses. Until then, ignore it.
Five decisions. Fifteen minutes. You are now more prepared than most owners who spent an hour scrolling headlines this week.
