Small Business Insider: Policy Update, Tips & Intelligence, More

Small Business Insider: Policy Update, Tips & Intelligence, More

NEW REPORT: Bayh-Dole Is an American Innovation and Entrepreneurship Success Story

● SBE Council Files Comments on FTC’s “Personalized Pricing” Proposal

● SBE Council Supports FCC Action to Modernize Permitting and Accelerate Digital Infrastructure

● Comments Filed with SEC in Favor of Raising the Regulation Crowdfunding Offering Limit

● Statement in Support of the “Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act”

● Coalition Urges U.S. Senate Action on Bipartisan “GOOD Act”

● America.gov: New AI Tool Streamlines Government Navigation for Small Businesses

● Prepping Now for Small Business Saturday 2026 and the Holiday Season

● AI Agents Are Moving into the Small Business Mainstream

● Amazon Accelerate 2026: New Tools Give Small Sellers More Capacity, Simplicity and Global Reach

● Small Businesses Using AI Are Hiring Faster

● Can Your Business Afford a Cyberattack?

A new Bayh-Dole Coalition report “Measuring the Impact of American Innovation” documents the vast economic and entrepreneurial impact of the Bayh-Dole Act, including an estimated $3.3 trillion in U.S. economic output, $1.7 trillion in GDP, and 7.6 million job-years between 1996 and 2025.

In a Small Business Insider blog post SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan highlights these numbers and another extraordinary data point: Bayh-Dole-enabled technology transfer helped launch 19,027 startups and introduce 17,252 new products between 2001 and 2025. Moreover, approximately 70% of academic licensing agreements are with small companies.

As Kerrigan notes in her piece, the findings of the report demonstrate how decentralized technology transfer, strong intellectual property rights, entrepreneurship, and private capital work together to turn federally supported research into companies, products, jobs, and economic growth. Her blog post provides additional rational regarding why Bayh-Dole must be protected and preserved. Kerrigan writes:

“The report clearly demonstrates that Bayh-Dole is a policy innovation that is working. America’s elected leaders should not try to out-centralize the Chinese, or upend models that have proven their value for our economy and competitiveness. Our leaders need to simply focus on policy improvements that support investment and entrepreneurship. The focus should be on supporting the entrepreneurs and investors that help to generate and fund new ideas, breakthroughs, and economic growth and vibrancy across our nation.”

Kerrigan joined the Bayh-Dole Coalition for a Capitol Hill panel discussion that unveiled the findings of the report. Watch the video of the briefing here: Measuring the Impact of American Innovation.

“Dynamic and data-assisted pricing tools are not inherently predatory.”

In comments filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), SBE Council warns that the agency’s proposed personalized-pricing framework could sweep routine, pro-consumer pricing practices into an overly broad regulatory regime. SBE Council data show small businesses use automated pricing tools to manage inventory, optimize promotions and remain competitive, with 94% of users reporting improved competitive positioning. Rather than imposing complex disclosure mandates that could discourage discounts and loyalty programs, SBE Council urges the FTC to adopt a targeted, outcome-based approach focused on actual consumer harm.

“Modern communications infrastructure is foundational to entrepreneurship, small business growth and America’s economic competitiveness.”

In a statement of support, SBE Council welcomed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) action to modernize outdated NEPA rules and streamline permitting for communications infrastructure. Faster deployment will help expand reliable access to broadband, digital platforms, AI, cloud services and other technologies that increasingly underpin small-business competitiveness and growth. SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan emphasized that sensible environmental stewardship and efficient permitting can work together while accelerating private investment and economic opportunity.

SBE Council Files SEC Comments in Favor of Raising the Regulation Crowdfunding Offering Limit

“Raising the cap expands access and opportunity; it does not relax oversight.”

In comments submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SBE Council voiced its strong support for raising the Regulation Crowdfunding offering limit from $5 million to $20 million and indexing it to inflation. More than a decade after enactment of the bipartisan JOBS Act, crowdfunding has successfully expanded access to capital for Main Street businesses and opened early-stage investing to everyday Americans, but the current cap can constrain firms just as they begin to scale. SBE Council argues that modernization can expand opportunity while preserving the framework’s existing disclosure requirements, regulated intermediaries and investor protections.

SBE Council Supports the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act

“America needs to build, modernize and expand the infrastructure that will power economic growth, innovation and opportunity for decades to come.”

SBE Council endorsed the bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, which aims to bring greater certainty, accountability and predictability to federal permitting. Modern energy, transportation, water, broadband and manufacturing infrastructure directly benefits small businesses, while entrepreneurs and smaller firms also serve as contractors, builders, suppliers and service providers on infrastructure projects. SBE Council says clearer timelines and modernized environmental review can unlock private investment, reduce unnecessary costs and expand opportunities for small businesses across the country.

Coalition Urges U.S. Senate Action on Bipartisan GOOD Act

“Regulatory transparency should not be at the discretion of the chief executive of any political party.”

SBE Council joined a coalition letter urging Senate Majority Leader John Thune to make passage of the bipartisan Guidance Out of Darkness (GOOD) Act a priority before the end of the 119th Congress. The legislation would require federal agencies to make guidance documents, policy statements, memoranda, FAQs and other sub-regulatory materials available through a searchable online portal, addressing a longstanding transparency gap for regulated businesses and citizens. The House has already acted on the measure, while the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced it unanimously, 10-0, in August.

“For small business owners, less time navigating bureaucracy and finding the right information means more time to build the business.”

The new AI-powered America.gov provides entrepreneurs with a single conversational “front door” to information drawn from approximately 29,000 government websites, allowing users to ask questions in plain language rather than navigate multiple agencies and webpages. After testing the tool on common small-business questions, SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan reported in a Small Business Insider blog post that she found its answers useful and practical, with links to underlying government sources, and appropriate cautions when professional advice or state and local information may be necessary. While important information should still be verified and transactional capabilities remain limited for now, America.gov offers a promising use of AI to reduce the time and complexity involved in navigating government.

With Small Business Saturday arriving November 28, small business expert and Big Ideas for Small Business founder Barbara Weltman offers a practical roadmap for small firms preparing for one of the year’s most important selling periods. From inventory and marketing to staffing, technology and AI tools, early planning can help businesses capitalize on Small Business Saturday, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the broader holiday season. In a Small Business Insider blog post, Weltman notes that preparation is particularly important given the stakes: last year, more than half of small-business owners surveyed by American Express estimated Small Business Saturday generated as much as 15% of their annual revenue.

AI is moving beyond answering questions and generating content toward carrying out multi-step work on behalf of business owners. Small businesses are already embracing the shift, writes SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan in a Small Business Insider blog post. SBE Council’s forthcoming Small Business Check Up Survey finds 58% of small employers already use AI agents regularly or occasionally and another 14% are considering or planning their use – meaning 72% are using or moving toward the technology. The article explores how agents can expand the capacity of resource-constrained firms and highlights Meta’s Muse for Small Business as one example of agents connecting across commonly used business applications and data.

Amazon Accelerate 2026: New Tools Give Small Sellers More Capacity, Simplicity, and Global Reach

In a Small Business Insider blog post, SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan writes that new tools unveiled at Amazon Accelerate 2026 aim to give small sellers greater operating capacity, simplify multichannel commerce, and lower barriers to selling internationally. The developments include an increasingly agentic Seller Assistant, tools that connect activity across multiple selling channels, and global expansion capabilities designed to reduce compliance, localization and logistics friction. The innovations reinforce a broader trend documented by SBE Council research: the increasing use of (and experimentation with) many multiple channels for selling, and that sophisticated digital infrastructure and AI are giving entrepreneurs capabilities once available mainly to much larger companies.

New research from Gusto offers evidence that AI adoption and job growth can go hand-in-hand at small businesses. Trends expert and Small Business Currents founder Rieva Lesonsky writes that during the first year after adopting AI, small businesses increased headcount about 5% more than comparable non-adopters, while businesses with fewer than 10 employees grew their teams about 10% more. Rather than primarily generating technology jobs, much of the additional hiring occurred in hands-on and customer-facing positions as AI helped owners reduce administrative work and devote more resources to serving customers and growing their businesses.

It’s National Cybersecurity Month. The reality is that cyberattacks are becoming increasingly expensive for businesses, and the financial consequences can be particularly damaging for smaller firms. Drawing on Verizon Business’s 2026 Breach Impact Study, Rieva Lesonsky reports that the median impact for small and midsize businesses is about $38,000, while business interruption, third-party breaches and software supply-chain incidents can produce significantly larger losses. The lesson for small-business owners is to view cybersecurity not simply as data protection but as a core component of business continuity, resilience and financial protection.

PROTECTING SMALL BUSINESS, PROMOTING ENTREPRENEURSHIP