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This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Shanaz Hemmati, COO and co-founder of ZenBusiness, a $1.7 billion company that provides an all-in-one platform helping small businesses become official, stay compliant, manage finances and more. Her co-founder is Ross Buhrdorf, who serves as CEO. The piece has been edited for length and clarity.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of ZenBusiness. Co-founder and COO Shanaz Hemmati.}

I always had an entrepreneurial spirit, but I never really thought about going off and starting my own business.

At the University of Texas at Austin, I studied computer engineering, starting with hardware design before pivoting to software engineering. I truly love technology, and especially software engineering, because you’re coding to solve problems — I still love solving problems.

Related: This Mom’s Creative Side Hustle Started As a Hobby With Less Than $100 — Then Grew Into a Business Averaging $570,000 a Month: ‘It’s Crazy’

My husband’s an entrepreneur who’s always had his own businesses. He’d encourage me to start my own business, but I was too concerned. Sometimes women can think too hard about doing something; that’s what held me back from becoming an entrepreneur.

For women in male-dominated fields, it’s important to seek out mentors who can help you from their experience, even if their journey looked different from yours. You can bounce ideas off them and ask them questions. Mentorship pushes you, but it also gives you assurance and confidence.

Over the course of my career, I learned so much, which helped me when I made the leap to founder.

“Small businesses are what keep the economy growing.”

I first met my ZenBusiness co-founder Ross Buhrdorf when we worked at Excite.com, a web portal company founded in 1994. Several years later, I joined HomeAway, a vacation rental marketplace, where I stayed for 11 years until the company was acquired by Expedia.

Later on, Ross and I met up for coffee, and he started talking about this idea of building something to help entrepreneurs and people who are starting small businesses. I was intrigued and excited. I’d always been passionate about that category in the market: Small businesses are what keep the economy growing and going.

Related: I Walked Away From a Corporate Career to Start My Own Small Business — Here’s Why You Should Do the Same

So Ross and I founded ZenBusiness in 2017.

When it comes to a fast-growing company like ours, we have so many things on our to-do list, but we don’t always have the resources to get them done at the same time, so we have to prioritize.

AI has been one of those priorities. Everybody in business should be using it these days. It’s a great tool that saves time once you get employees on board and using it based on their role and function. Our personalized AI assistant, ZenBusiness Velo, is included with every LLC formation and helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses.

Related: Two-Thirds of Small Businesses Are Already Using AI — Here’s How to Get Even More Out of It

“It all comes down to this — people are at the center of any great company.”

For a long time, I’ve had this mantra that’s helped me succeed as a business leader: Be fearless, be ethical, be passionate.

Being fearless means recognizing that nothing is ever going to be perfect, but you just do it anyway. Being ethical means always being honest, to yourself, to your co-workers, to anyone. And being passionate is everything. Loving your work and doing the best job possible will help you progress in your career and build your business.

It all comes down to this — people are at the center of any great company. Anything you do is all about people, whether they’re employees, customers or the community.

ZenBusiness puts this rule into action by hearing and supporting its employees.

For example, we became an early adopter of remote work. The company sent employees home when the pandemic hit, but as we continued to grow and hire more people, we listened to employees who said that they preferred working from home. Remote work gave them the chance to spend time with their families, cut down on commute hours and be more productive.

Related: A CEO Who Runs a Fully Remote Company Has an Unusual Take on Employees Starting Side Hustles: ‘We Have to Be Honest With Ourselves’

“Maybe you launch as a side hustle to test it out.”

All aspiring entrepreneurs should avoid the pitfall of thinking about a business idea for too long before they take action: Do it sooner rather than later.

You don’t have to drop everything else you’re working on to start. Maybe you launch as a side hustle to test it out. Talk to the people you’re trying to solve a pain point for because those conversations will give you a lot of information.

Every day, you’re learning something new, and being able to pivot fast can be the difference between driving your business in the right direction or not. There are always going to be surprises along the way. So remember, it’s all about the people who are around you — it’s all about the people you bring in to help you go through your business journey.

This article is part of our ongoing Women Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of running a business as a woman.

We’ve seen all the think pieces about work-life balance. We’ve heard plenty of opinions from burned-out employees and concerned health experts, and even seen travel blogs touting countries like New Zealand and South Africa to find the perfect utopia where ‘work to live, not live to work’ exists.

But what if none of it is real? What if everything we’ve been led to believe about work-life balance is just a myth, and thinking we are failing in the mission leaves entrepreneurs miserable and unfulfilled?

I remember feeling this way when I first started my company, BriteCo. I was plagued with the thought that I was not giving enough hours to my business or that I was not committed enough as a father and husband when I was at home, if I spent too many hours at the office. The ideology bogged me down until I shifted my perspective and began to think of this preconceived “work-life balance” as “work-life mastery” instead.

Related: 10 Myths About Work-Life Balance and What to Do Instead

It’s not one or the other — It’s both

The breakthrough came when I stopped asking, “How do I separate work and life?” and started pivoting to “How do I make work worth integrating?”

Everyone talks about work-life balance as two polar entities: You have your work life and your home life, and they’re completely separate, never to meet. But that belief is where burnout happens.

Instead, learning to blend the two and finding ways to integrate and intersect is where there is real power and personal reward. This doesn’t mean you have to work 24/7/365. It means being intentional about what deserves your attention — and when.

Related: Are You Overlooking the Mindset Shift That Transforms Good Leaders Into Great Ones?

Making work meaningful

First and foremost, you should enjoy your work. As entrepreneurs, this is pivotal. You’re going to invest many, many hours, especially in the beginning, so rather than begrudge it, embrace it.

Having a strong passion for your business and the services or products you offer will help drive your success: It will help you solve problems and keep your curiosity firing. However, the other benefit is that when you enjoy what you do, the rules for structuring work are thrown out. You’ll soon realize you don’t have to gate work outside your life but can keep both doors open and accessible at all times.

Finding time for personal time

It should go without saying that you should absolutely schedule personal time — take days off, take vacations, show up for family time. But maybe taking a day off leaves an hour for a board meeting before you go. Maybe weekends also offer a chunk of time to catch up on menial tasks, so they don’t waste your attention during the work week.

When I go home every night, I sit down and have dinner with my family. I’ll still throw the baseball with my son and make time to coach his baseball team. I’m not working during that time, but that doesn’t mean that whole evening or that whole Saturday is completely checked out. It doesn’t have to be a full workday, but the purpose is to be flexible with my time and optimize my efficiency.

When I take vacations, I don’t completely shut off. I’ll still enjoy time away with my family, but I’ll check emails while we’re getting ready in our hotel and look for updates before going to bed. Doing so helps me stay even tangentially connected and offers a much smoother transition once I’m back to the office because I avoid the burnout of playing catch-up.

Aligning business goals with personal growth

What would shift if you viewed your business as part of your life’s purpose rather than something stealing from it? You’d probably have a whole new appreciation for what you do and the value it adds to your life.

If accomplishing business goals doesn’t give you a rush of endorphins and a huge sense of personal accomplishment, you may want to reevaluate whether your current line of work is the best fit for you. If your work successes don’t also make you want to level up in the gym, at home or in your personal hobbies, then it’s time to start finding that inspiration and fusing it into your whole life.

Whereas the old “work-life balance” model assumes work and life compete with each other and that you must escape one to enjoy or focus on the other, it’s time to flip the switch and invest in meaningful work that can energize your entire life.

The CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization, was killed after being shot on Wednesday at an event in Utah. He was 31 years old.

President Donald Trump announced the news on Truth Social.

^{Charlie Kirk at the White House on May 28, 2025. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images}

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump wrote. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

Kirk founded Turning Point USA when he was 18 years old. By 2023, the company’s revenue had reached $81.7 million, per TIME, and he garnered millions of followers by hosting debates and podcasts to showcase all viewpoints on college campuses. His YouTube page alone has four million subscribers.

The AP and NBC had previously reported that a person of interest was in custody, citing FBI Director Kash Patel’s initial statement on X. Later in the evening on Wednesday, the FBI Director released an additional statement saying that “the subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement.” Per the AP’s reporting, authorities are searching for a new person of interest.

^{Photo by Yilmaz Yucel/Anadolu via Getty Images}

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

Planning isn’t sexy. It doesn’t trend. No one’s going viral for updating their content calendar or plotting campaign touchpoints.

But here’s the hard truth most marketers won’t admit out loud: the teams that win are the ones who plan. Period.

As CEO of The Go! Agency, I’ve worked with growth-stage startups, international brands and Fortune 500s. And the difference between consistent growth and quarterly chaos always comes down to this — the presence or absence of a plan that actually works.

Yet every August, the same cycle begins. Q4 shows up like a freight train, and suddenly everyone’s scrambling:

• Campaigns are rushed
• Budgets are misaligned
• Messages are muddled
• Leadership is confused
• Teams are exhausted

And all of it could have been avoided with one thing: a strategic, forward-looking, execution-ready plan.

Related: Why Your Old Marketing Tactics Are Killing Your Growth in 2025

Why most marketing plans fail before they even start

Let’s stop pretending a planning session is a slide deck with buzzwords or a half-hearted brainstorm led by someone who still thinks “go viral” is a tactic.

Planning is not about checking a box. It’s about building a structure that connects real objectives to measurable actions across every channel. But most teams aren’t doing that.

They’re treating planning as an afterthought — if they’re doing it at all. And when your plan is a vague Notion doc, a disjointed task list or worse, a whiteboard of “cool ideas,” don’t be surprised when your campaigns flop.

The planning process has become a casualty of hustle culture. We’ve been trained to equate movement with progress. But in marketing, unplanned execution is just expensive guessing.

The fall framework that delivers results

At The Go! Agency, we’ve built and tested a framework that cuts through the noise. It’s what we used to help a premium pet nutrition brand drive over $47,000 in email campaign revenue and increase TikTok video views by nearly 500% in a single quarter.

It’s also what helped an international beverage equipment company exceed ROAS goals by 135% — scaling from 9.4 to 14.78 in just four months.

And no, it didn’t require 10 tools or a 92-slide deck.

Here’s how it works:

1. Set goals that actually mean something
“We want more engagement” is not a goal, but “We want a 30% increase in demo bookings from LinkedIn in Q4” is.

Start with your business objectives, not just marketing KPIs. Growth only happens when your marketing activities ladder up to tangible business outcomes.

2. Audit your current channels
You’re probably doing more than you think: emails, blogs, paid ads, social, events, PR. But how much of it is working — and how much is noise?

Take stock. Know what’s performing and why. Then cut what’s not moving the needle.

3. Lock in messaging that doesn’t suck
Your message is your fuel. If it’s generic, recycled or vague, your audience is already tuned out.

You don’t need “clever.” You need clear, compelling positioning that reflects your unique POV and actually speaks to real pain points.

And no — ChatGPT can’t do this for you. AI is a multiplier, not a mind reader. Garbage in, garbage out.

4. Match the message to the market
Segment smarter. The same campaign can’t serve every audience. Tailor your messaging per segment and then match it to the right platform.

LinkedIn for B2B thought leadership? Absolutely — it’s still the best platform for building trust and credibility with a professional audience. TikTok for brand storytelling? If your audience lives there, it’s a powerful way to connect through authentic, culture-driven content. Email for conversion? Still king — when it’s targeted, relevant and backed by a strong message.

5. Build around a calendar
Themes drive cohesion. A roadmap aligns execution. You need to know what’s happening when — and how your campaigns, content, sales pushes and partnerships sync up.

Planning gives you rhythm. That rhythm gives your team momentum.

Stop glorifying the grind

Let’s kill the myth that planning is rigid. The right plan is a launchpad — not a cage.

It’s what lets you pivot without panic when a new initiative lands in your lap. It’s what helps you say “no” to shiny distractions. And it’s what allows you to build campaigns that scale, not scramble.

You don’t need more meetings. You need direction. You don’t need a productivity tool with 30 integrations. You need strategic clarity.

The ROI no one talks about

Think planning is overhead? Here’s what it really unlocks:

• Smarter content with a clear purpose
• Faster execution with less firefighting
• Scalable campaign architecture
• Higher ROI with fewer wasted hours
• Cleaner data to prove your impact

And let’s not ignore the internal wins: clearer expectations, tighter collaboration and less burnout.

The brands that scale aren’t guessing. They’re mapping.

Related: 3 Marketing Trends You Need to Capitalize on Now Before Your Competition Beats You to It

Final word: be the marketer who’s ready

You can’t be bulletproof without a blueprint. And planning is your blueprint.

This fall, don’t wait to react. Build your roadmap now. Align your team. Ground your efforts in strategy, not spaghetti.

Because the truth is, in a landscape filled with marketers who are busy, the ones who are intentional will always win.

Buy now, pay later online payment provider Klarna began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Its IPO was priced at $40, which valued Klarna at about $15 billion, but opened at $52 per share in its debut.

“To me, it really just is a milestone,” Klarna’s co-founder and CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, told CNBC on Wednesday. “It’s a little bit like a wedding. You prepare so much, and you plan for it, and it’s a big party. But in the end, marriage goes on.”

Meanwhile, just a few days before the IPO, Klarna, which was founded in 2005, told employees that it is joining Microsoft, Target, and other companies in mandating a return-to-office schedule (RTO) — in Klarna’s case, three days a week in the office starting September 29.

^{Sebastian Siemiatkowski, chief executive officer and co-founder of Klarna Holding AB, during the company’s initial public offering (IPO) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Michael Nagle/Bloomberg | Getty Images}

Related: ‘A Game Changer’: Klarna Becomes Walmart’s Exclusive Buy-Now-Pay-Later Provider

According to a Slack post seen by Business Insider, Klarna posted the news on an internal message board, but comments were disabled. Emoji reactions, however, were not.

According to the outlet, around 3,000 Klarna workers saw the post, and responses included a sad face (341), a “no” emoji (167), sweat-faced and sad (149), sad cat (131), facepalm (90), crying (86), clown face (73), and a “this sucks” (41) emoji.

There were also some custom creations: the “Homer Simpson backing into a bush” meme emoji (62), a “Hide the Pain Harold” meme emoji (43), and a child going down a slide saying “bye” (17).

Related: Klarna’s CEO Used an AI Clone of Himself to Report Quarterly Earnings. Here’s Why.

Still, not everyone hated the news; there were 19 thumbs-up emojis and 14 rocket ship emojis, Business Insider notes.

In June, Klarna announced that it was launching a debit card called the “Klarna Card.” Siemiatkowski told CNBC that the company has signed up 700,000 card customers in the U.S. so far, with a waiting list of five million people.

Kevin O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful, is one of the original Shark Tank sharks who, since 2009, has made the dreams of some entrepreneurs come true and sent others home in tears. The 17th season premieres in about two weeks, and if my conversation with him for our show, How Success Happens is any indication, time has not mellowed this man.

He calls b.s. when he sees it, but he isn’t a hater. As fast as O’Leary is to declare “I’m out!” he also doesn’t hesitate to throw his full energy behind the things he loves. If you follow Mr. Wonderful on social, you know he loves watches. WORSHIPS watches. We talked about where his passion for collecting rare timepieces came from and how that obsession led to his latest venture, WonderCare, a partnership with the 1916 company.

We also talked about the one investment his wife told him he was “out of his mind” for making (a record-setting winning $12.9 million auction bid on a basketball card,) his thoughts on management tactics, how he keeps his energy up, and the worst mistake he sees people make over and over again in entrepreneurship.

You can watch our entire conversation above or listen here, and check out below for some truly wonderful highlights.

Subscribe to How Success Happens to get a dose of inspiration twice a week! Apple | Spotify | YouTube

Give the Crap a Rest

The number one thing hurting most entrepreneurs’ ability to stay focused and energized? “Shit food,” says O’Leary. “You don’t know how bad that crap is for you until you stop eating it, and then you feel incredible.” He tells anyone he meets to try the Yuka app, which scans barcodes of packaged foods and tells you if you really want it in your body or not. He also stresses exercising your mind by doing things out of your comfort zone. “The producers of the upcoming film Marty Supreme called me and said, ‘Look, we’ve got a part in a movie for you and we’re looking for a real asshole and you’re it.'” O’Leary has never done scripted entertainment before and jumped at the challenge.

Takeaway: If you want to stop feeling like garbage, stop eating garbage.

Great Customer Service = Great Profits

Responding to a listener question about maintaining margins, O’Leary offers: “Customers covet one thing more than anything, service and support. …If the minute they call you, you fix it that same day… they’re not going to quibble about the bill.” He compares this to Apple’s ecosystem: “I worked for Steve Jobs way back in the early ’90s. Not a nice guy, but he taught me so much. He said, ‘I don’t need to do market research. They don’t know what they want till I tell them what they want.’ I said, ‘Steve, you sound like such an asshole.’ But he was right. He said they want a great product with fantastic service.”

Takeaway: Superior service commands demand—invest in happy customers, not endless discounts.

Success Demands Resilience, Not Certainty

Mr. Wonderful warns founders against falling in love with their own projections: “The road to success in entrepreneurship is a journey, it’s not a destination… Stuff you never saw coming at you, boom, it hits you. You need to be flexible.” He values founders who own their failures: “When you fail, it’s your fault. You screwed up. Own it and learn from it and don’t do it again. Then you get me to invest in you.”

Takeaway: Build flexibility into your business and see failures as critical learning opportunities.

Subscribe to the How Success Happens newsletter for more great leadership tips!

Let’s address the elephant in the inbox.

Email marketing isn’t dead. It’s not outdated. It hasn’t been replaced by TikTok, Threads or an army of AI bots. In fact, email is still one of the most reliable, highest-ROI marketing channels in your arsenal — if you actually use it right.

But here’s the inconvenient truth: most businesses don’t. They treat email like a leftover tactic from 2009, not the strategic revenue engine it can be. So when their campaigns fail, the blame is often directed at the platform, the audience, the open rates — everything except the real culprit: a broken system.

I’ve had enough client calls that start the same way to spot the pattern. “We’ve been sending emails for years,” they say. “Newsletters, sales promos, special offers. But it’s just not working anymore.”

Spoiler: The problem isn’t email. It’s execution. Let’s break it down.

Stop sending and hoping

Before you send another message, ask yourself one question: What is the actual goal of this email? If your answer is “generate leads,” great. That’s a start. But leads don’t materialize just because you hit send. Email isn’t magic. It’s a relationship channel.

You need a strategy. Are you building relevance? Segmenting based on interest? Optimizing timing? Tracking behavior across your site and CRM? If not, you’re not doing email marketing. You’re just sending digital flyers and hoping someone notices.

Related: 12 Reasons Why Your Emails Aren’t Driving Business

Your list isn’t a strategy

Here’s the harsh reality: most email lists are digital junk drawers. Bloated, unsegmented and outdated.

One client had 25,000 contacts in a single list labeled “Newsletter.” No segmentation. No tagging. Just one-size-fits-all messaging to cold leads, VIP clients and long-lost contacts alike. Their click-through rate? Less than 1%.

Would you hand the same sales pitch to a returning customer, a cold prospect and a lapsed buyer? Then why are you emailing them like they’re all the same person?

Your email platform has segmentation tools for a reason. Use them. Tag based on behavior, purchase history, content engagement and lifecycle stage. And if your list is outdated? Run a re-engagement campaign. Let people self-select. And yes — let them unsubscribe. Because a clean, active list will always outperform a bloated one.

Your platform might be failing you

If you’re still using the free version of Mailchimp from 2017, expecting results is like entering a Formula 1 race on a tricycle.

Email platforms have evolved. If yours doesn’t offer automation, A/B testing, tagging, CRM integration or real-time analytics, it’s holding you back. For ecommerce, I recommend Klaviyo. It connects directly to Shopify, lets you recover abandoned carts, trigger smart automations and — this is key — track actual sales tied to email behavior.

And yes, you’ll need to invest in a platform that can handle more than “send newsletter.” If you’re serious about revenue, stop being cheap about the tool that drives it.

Stop worshiping the open rate

Everyone obsesses over open rates like they’re gospel. But here’s the truth: a high open rate doesn’t mean anything if no one clicks, converts or remembers you. Don’t just design pretty emails. Design strategic ones.

Ask better questions. What KPIs actually map to your business goals? For ecommerce, it might be revenue per email, cart recovery rate or product clicks. For B2B, it may be meetings booked or resources downloaded.

Start there. Reverse-engineer your content. Then test relentlessly. Subject lines. Send times. CTA placement. Message framing. Real marketers test. Lazy marketers send and pray.

Visibility, credibility, engagement — then sales

Email doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It’s part of a journey. You don’t go from “nice to meet you” to “here’s our invoice” overnight. So layer your content.

Visibility gets you seen.
Credibility makes you trusted.
Engagement builds the bridge.
Sales walk across it.

If every email is just a promotion, you’re not building a bridge — you’re shouting into the void. Offer value. Share insight. Deliver relevance. And when it’s time to sell, you won’t have to beg for attention. You’ll already have it.

Related: 6 Reasons Your Marketing Emails Aren’t Converting — and How to Fix Them All

Campaigns don’t build revenue — systems do

Most marketers jump straight to tactics — “Let’s send something Tuesday at 10 a.m.” — with no infrastructure underneath.

But if your email doesn’t plug into a system, it’s a short-term stunt, not a long-term strategy.

Here’s what a real email system looks like:

• Set up automated workflows for key stages like onboarding, re-engagement and post-purchase to nurture your audience over time.
• Build segmented customer journeys that align with specific buyer behaviors so your emails are always relevant and timely.
• Integrate your email platform with your CRM and ecommerce systems to enable real-time targeting based on user actions.
• Define clear KPIs that are directly tied to business outcomes before you create or send any campaigns.

This is the work most marketers skip. And it’s why their email marketing never scales. Strategy always beats volume.

Want to win Q4? Fix this in Q3

Here’s your reality check: once fall hits, you’re out of time. Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Holiday chaos. End-of-year goals. Your calendar will be execution-heavy and strategy-starved.

So fix it now.

Audit your platform. Clean your list. Segment your contacts. Define your goals. Connect your data. Build the machine. Because when email works, it doesn’t just deliver opens. It delivers ROI. Recurring revenue. Customer loyalty. And a real reason to celebrate when the quarter ends.

Apple held its biggest launch event of the year on Tuesday, with the tagline: “Awe Dropping.” At the event, Apple released the next generation of iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods, including the Apple Watch Ultra 3, AirPods Pro 3, and iPhone 17.

“We’re taking the biggest leap ever for iPhone,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the event.

Here’s what Apple announced, from the ultra-thin profile of the iPhone Air to satellite connectivity on the Apple Watch Ultra 3.

Related: ‘We’re Very Open’: Apple CEO Tim Cook Says He Wants to Buy Startups. Could Your Company Be Next?

Apple Introduced the iPhone Air and iPhone 17

The new iPhone lineup includes four new phones: the iPhone Air, 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max.

Apple revealed its highly anticipated $999 iPhone Air, the “thinnest iPhone ever” — at 5.6 millimeters, it’s the slimmest iPhone yet. Apple also claims that the 6.5-inch phone is the most durable of all iPhones and benefits from an improved internal chip. It’s the most power-efficient iPhone ever made, with a powerful camera and an all-day battery life.

^{iPhone Air. Credit: Apple}

Meanwhile, the $1,099 iPhone 17 Pro is “the most powerful iPhone yet, by far,” according to Apple. The phone has a unified outer body that uniformly dissipates heat from the battery, preventing overheating. Apple also said that the phone offers “the best battery life ever in an iPhone,” with 39 hours of video playback.

Related: How Much Does Apple Pay Its Employees? Here Are the Exact Salaries of Staff Jobs, Including Developers, Engineers, and Consultants.

Apple said the event was filmed with an iPhone 17 Pro, demonstrating the capabilities of the phone in real time. The $1,199 iPhone 17 Pro Max has a larger screen than the Pro, but features the same capabilities, including increased power and battery life.

^{iPhone 17 Pro. Credit: Apple}

The standard iPhone 17 features a 6.3-inch display with thinner borders for a wider screen. The display is more readable in direct sunlight, and the phone has twice the scratch resistance. Charging is now faster than ever: Ten minutes of charge can result in 8 hours of video playback.

iPhone cameras are also improving, with better resolution and a wide field of view for the front-facing camera. Apple noted that users took 500 billion selfies last year, more than any other smartphone.

^{iPhone 17. Credit: Apple}

Pre-orders for the new iPhone lineup start Sept. 12. The new phones will be available starting Sept. 19.

What’s New With the AirPods Pro 3

Cook said that this year, Apple was building on innovations with AirPods Pro, including the hearing aid function introduced last year that transformed the buds into assistive devices for people experiencing mild to moderate hearing loss.

Related: Your Old Apple AirPods Can Soon Act as an Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid, According to the FDA

At the event, Julz Arney, senior director of fitness technologies at Apple, introduced heart rate sensing for AirPods. Custom sensors on the AirPods allow the earbuds to track heart rate independently of a smartwatch, Arney explained.

^{AirPods Pro 3. Credit: Apple}

The AirPods Pro 3 also deliver twice the active noise cancellation of previous generations. Apple claimed that the AirPods deliver the world’s best active noise cancellation of any in-ear headphones.

The earbuds also offer live translation, transforming words from one language into another in real-time. For example, if someone speaks a different language, the AirPods will lower their voice and deliver a real-time translation.

The AirPods Pro 3 cost $249 and will be available on Sept. 19. Preorders begin Tuesday.

Here’s How the Apple Watch Is Changing

Apple introduced the $399 Apple Watch Series 11, which comes with a thorough list of health features, including state-of-mind tracking for mental health.

In a new development, Apple is taking on hypertension, or high blood pressure, with a new feature that tracks irregularities in blood pressure over time. Apple expects to notify one million people of hypertension within the first year alone.

^{Apple Watch Series 11. Credit: Apple}

The company is also introducing a new sleep score based on duration of sleep, how many times a user wakes up throughout the night, and regularity of sleep over time. The new sleep score function applies to the budget-friendly $249 Apple Watch SE 3.

The $799 Apple Watch Ultra 3 is also packed with new features, including satellite connectivity. Even when a user is off the grid, they can use their Apple Watch to get help in case of an emergency. The watch features 42 hours of battery life and also has hypertension notifications.

^{Apple Watch Ultra 3. Credit: Apple}

Cook called Apple Watch “the most popular watch in the world.”

The Apple Watches can be pre-ordered today and will be available starting Sept. 19.

This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Krista LeRay, the 34-year-old founder of needlepoint store Penny Linn. She lives with her husband and two children in Westport, Connecticut. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Penny Linn. Krista LeRay.}

Want to read more stories like this? Subscribe to Money Makers, our free newsletter packed with creative side hustle ideas and successful strategies. Sign up here.

What was your day job or primary occupation when you started your side hustle?
Before starting Penny Linn, a new-age needlepoint store offering hand-painted canvases, accessories and more, I was a full-time influencer running my blog, Covering The Bases. I started the blog in 2013, but I only took it full-time about a year before starting Penny Linn. While managing the blog, I had a corporate career at Major League Baseball, where I worked on the social media team for over five years.

Related: He Spent $36 to Start a Side Hustle. Now the Business Earns 6 Figures a Year — With Just 1-2 Hours of Work a Day: ‘Freedom.’

When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it?
I initially learned to stitch from my grandma, who inspired the name of the business, and then I really got into it in college at the University of Kentucky. I picked it back up again in 2018 when I started stitching custom belts for my dad and husband, and a ring bearer pillow for my wedding in 2019. Little did I know that this would be the perfect hobby to fall back in love with as the pandemic approached.

As I got back into stitching, I quickly stitched through my stash of canvases and was disappointed with both the in-person and online needlepoint shopping experiences. It felt antiquated; there weren’t many sites with a good user experience, a handful of the shops made you call to order, and the designs felt very mature. I found myself wishing there were more fun and better accessories and canvases, so I started making them after my search came up short.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Penny Linn}

What were some of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the ground? How much money/investment did it take to launch?
When I started painting my own canvases, I wasn’t even in the mindset of starting a business; it was still just a hobby for me. I probably spent under $100 buying a blank canvas on Etsy and paint at Michaels, and painted the infamous Ralph’s Coffee cup for myself. When I shared it on my Instagram, I had an overwhelming number of followers ask to buy one, so I knew my followers were also interested in needlepoint.

As I began searching for cuter accessories for myself, I found that many custom items had a 100-item minimum. At the time, I had a business bank account for my blog, so I used that money to order the inventory and knew that I could at least sell 90 of them to my followers who also needlepointed. After making a few canvases and seeing the demand, I realized I had enough ideas to launch a larger collection online. So I bought the smallest Shopify package, started sourcing needleminders and project bags, and recruited my friends and family to help paint canvases.

All in all, I spent about $5,000 on the initial inventory for our accessories and an additional $2,000 on shipping materials, canvas tape, etc., but none of this accounted for my time painting the canvases one by one, which was the biggest investment.

Related: These 31-Year-Old Best Friends Started a Side Hustle to Solve a Workout Struggle — And It’s On Track to Hit $10 Million Annual Revenue This Year

If you could go back in your business journey and change one process or approach, what would it be, and how do you wish you’d done it differently?
Looking back on how I built my business, it’s a catch-22; if I had known what I know today, I might have done it differently. However, having my hands in every aspect of the business has brought me a great deal of knowledge and appreciation that continues to shape the business.

In the beginning, I hand-painted nearly every canvas, which took many, many hours, but it kept costs low since my labor was essentially free and gave me control over my inventory. If I had known that people outsourced painting, it would have saved me so much time and energy, but doing it myself taught me the value of a hand-painted canvas.

Similarly, I wish I had hired people at the beginning to take more off my plate, but by doing it all, I learned valuable lessons and knew how I wanted every aspect of the business to run. I don’t think Penny Linn would be such a thoughtful and impactful brand today if I hadn’t had my fingers on every aspect of the business in the beginning.

Related: I Interviewed 5 Entrepreneurs Generating Up to $20 Million in Revenue a Year — And They All Have the Same Regret About Starting Their Business

When it comes to this specific business, what is something you’ve found particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who get into this type of work should be prepared for, but likely aren’t?
The reason Penny Linn has been so successful as a business, and also in reviving the cultural love for needlepoint, is that we brought much-needed innovation to the industry. I never expected the amount of pushback from vendors and industry vets I received. Across the board, people pushed back on our ideas and how we ran our business.

Today, we have found partners who believe in our growth and are building with us. When we launched our acrylic line in 2022, there was so much chatter online that it wasn’t innovative or unique, but today we hold a patent for the design, and it’s one of our bestselling lines. We also take a slightly smaller wholesale margin than the industry standard because I believe in making needlepoint accessible. Our wholesale partners were initially adamant that it wouldn’t be successful, but it has proven otherwise. I developed a thick skin while blogging and learned to shut out the noise, which has followed me into Penny Linn as we continue to shake up the industry.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Penny Linn}

Can you recall a specific instance when something went very wrong? How did you fix it?
I vividly remember one of our first bag launches, which did not go as planned. It was a beautiful project bag with leather and PVC that we sold through so quickly! As I was packing them, I tested a few of the zippers and was very disappointed to find that they stuck and were difficult to open, despite the samples working perfectly. I reached out to each customer who had ordered them and let them know that the bags weren’t up to our standards. I offered them a full refund if they wanted to return the bag or a discount if they wanted to keep it.

This became one of my biggest rules in business: When anything goes wrong, I need to take ownership and work to rectify it immediately. Our community was beyond appreciative of how proactive we were, and most ended up keeping the bags. We put the rest of the bags on clearance and now work with our team and vendors to ensure we have quality control measures in place.

How long did it take you to see consistent monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn?
In the first six months after we launched, the only consistent revenue was what we generated during launches. Everything would sell out so quickly that we wouldn’t have any inventory left until the next launch. We would often have a day or two without sales in between launches, which wasn’t a sustainable way to run a business. To prevent this, we started producing more inventory and introduced our Penny Linn Collective, allowing us to bring on designers who expanded our offerings. Our designer collective has been fruitful for us over the past five years, and we continue to grow it today.

We started seeing more consistent revenue in year two, doing just over $30,000 per month. The popularity of our launches started to level out, and we could better forecast inventory to keep our income steady. It was such a big deal for us at the time to reach these numbers, but we do that in a day now. Each year has been drastically different in terms of demand, and about every six months, we reach an inflection point where we need to increase quantities even more.

Related: This Couple’s ‘Scrappy’ Side Hustle Sold Out in 1 Weekend — It Hit $1 Million in 3 Years and Now Makes Millions Annually: ‘Lean But Powerful’

What does growth and revenue look like now?
It’s been really exciting that Penny Linn has doubled or tripled each year. In 2024, we did $4.4 million in revenue, and we have already surpassed that and are on track to double it in 2025. We are currently averaging $570,000 per month. Whatever I think our ceiling might be, we come in and double it each year. Our growth has been so explosive that I do expect it to start leveling out in the next year or so, but there is still so much opportunity for the business.

My mind is always racing with new ideas for the brand as we expand our product offering, launch new designers under the Penny Linn Collective and bring new accessories to market. Our store opening in Norwalk, Connecticut, earlier this year was a huge milestone for us, and now we are exploring what more stores might look like. I don’t see our growth slowing down anytime soon.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Penny Linn}

What do you enjoy most about running this business?
I honestly love what I do so much and find great fulfillment in it. I feel so much pride, excitement and joy thinking about what we’ve created at Penny Linn and the business I’ve built in under five years. It’s nothing I could have ever imagined as my career or what I expected Penny Linn to grow into. We haven’t seen many bumps in the road yet, and keep having success after success, which energizes me to keep going.

I pride myself on the fact that Penny Linn is “by a stitcher for a stitcher,” and there is nothing more satisfying as a needlepointer to want something in my collection and to be able to make it. I’m privileged to have the ability to work with our vendors to create the products of my dreams, and it’s just as exciting to see how much our community loves them.

I also find so much joy in the change we have brought to the industry and how we have been able to bring needlepoint to the forefront for a new generation. It’s crazy to sit back and think that my brand has revived a centuries-old tradition and built it into something that will continue to live on and evolve for generations to come.

Related: These Friends Started a Side Hustle in Their Kitchens. Sales Spiked to $130,000 in 3 Days — Then 7 Figures: ‘Revenue Has Grown Consistently.’

What’s your best business advice?
The first is, “If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.” People are often scared to reach out because they are afraid of rejection, but my motto is always to ask, and if they don’t reply, it’s still not a no. If they don’t respond, it’s not the end of the world, but the opportunity for the answer to be yes is so much greater.

My second is to learn the difference between constructive feedback and criticism. If someone doesn’t like you or your business, they will never have anything nice to say, and it’s not worth listening to. However, if they are a loyal fan and a frequent shopper, and they comment on how a product or process might be improved, it’s worth listening to. It’s easy to get lost in the negative feedback, but the faster you learn what is worth listening to, the better decisions you will make for your business.

Every day, business owners encounter large and small decisions that could significantly influence their company’s health and growth. Having the right tools and technology can be just as crucial as building a strong team, particularly as more resources become accessible to businesses of all sizes. That’s one reason AI adoption is climbing fast.

According to new research from Intuit QuickBooks, 68% of small businesses now use AI regularly, and most (74%) say it’s helping them accomplish more with less. Unpacking how AI can help your business in meaningful ways starts with understanding what it can do for you efficiently.

What’s the difference between generative and agentic AI?

GenAI has become one of the most familiar and accessible technologies in recent years, built into everything from search engines to accounting platforms. Today, 56% of small businesses using AI rely on these generative tools. GenAI excels at automating content creation: summarizing, translating and drafting responses, which helps business owners stay responsive, make faster decisions and reduce manual work.

However, even greater value can be achieved by layering in agentic AI, although only 9% of businesses currently utilize it. Unlike GenAI, agentic AI takes action on your behalf. These AI agents are context-aware, meaning they can handle multi-step processes and explain their reasoning behind decisions, drawing on past data to provide business owners with clarity and control.

In short, while GenAI helps you create, agentic AI helps you execute. Used together, they empower small businesses to achieve more with less. Among businesses using AI, 41% say their revenue has increased, and 86% consider their business in good health.

So, how can businesses best leverage AI tools? Here are five areas where businesses can infuse AI into their workflows.

Related: How AI Is Leveling the Playing Field For Small Businesses to Compete With Industry Giants

Marketing

In the next three months, 47% of small businesses say nothing would help them more than a successful marketing campaign. It’s no wonder 43% are already using AI to sharpen their marketing efforts. GenAI can create copy and images for social posts, email campaigns and digital ads. Let agentic AI manage audience delivery based on customer behavior, run A/B testing and track results.

How to get started: Start small by leveraging GenAI features in the tools you already use, such as social media scheduling. For your next marketing campaign, consider using agentic AI to experiment with email subject lines, optimize send times or segment audiences based on purchase behavior or engagement history. The key is to test and learn what resonates most with your audience. To go a step further, use a marketing platform that can analyze your customer communications and create unique campaigns based on their interaction with your product or service.

Customer service

Thirty-six percent of small businesses already use AI for customer service. Among them, 74% report higher productivity, and 24% have actually shortened their workdays. That’s time you can put back into your business. GenAI uses natural language capabilities to generate replies and power chatbots based on user prompts. While agentic tools can respond to customers as well, they go further with their ability to autonomously plan, reason, and take actions to resolve customer issues, such as routing requests, flagging urgent communications, tracking follow-ups and even making changes to customer records without human intervention.

How to get started: Try creating a library of automated templates for your most common questions first. Once you’re comfortable, test agentic features that can prioritize or escalate requests for you.

Related: AI Is an Incredible Customer Service Asset — But It’s Not Flawless. Here’s How to Avoid 4 Common Mistakes.

Admin and operations

GenAI can quickly summarize meeting notes, write reminders and create checklists, reducing everyday friction. Meanwhile, agentic AI can multiply administrative efficiency through automated actions. After a client call, for instance, it can create follow-up actions, schedule meetings, log notes into your CRM or assign tasks after a call — no manual effort required. Roughly a third (33%) of small businesses are using AI to handle administrative tasks, often through tools they already rely on.

How to get started: Simply turn on AI features in your calendar, email or project management apps. Then, explore ways to connect these tools for even smoother workflows.

Data and insights

AI is changing the way small businesses understand their numbers. GenAI is well-suited for summarizing reports, spotting trends and quickly answering “what happened?” within a business. Agentic AI drives tasks like forecasting future trends, alerting you to anomalies and connecting real-time data to your planning tools. Today, 32% of small businesses use AI to help make sense of their data.

How to get started: Ditch the spreadsheets and input your business performance data into an AI-powered software to get a clear baseline of your business health. Try AI-powered dashboards that notify you when key metrics shift, so you can stay ahead of the curve. This can help you with automating business reports, but can go as far as even helping you predict changes in cash flow.

Related: AI Can Turn Your Raw Data into Actionable Insights and Visual Stories

Bookkeeping and finance

The survey also found that 29% of small businesses use AI for bookkeeping, and 15% adopted it based on a recommendation from an accountant or consultant. With GenAI, business owners can automatically categorize transactions and track cash flow, so nothing slips through the cracks. To streamline workflows even further, agentic AI capabilities can automate account reconciliations, flag irregular transactions and send personalized invoices tailored to clients, helping businesses get paid faster.

How to get started: Look for a connected AI-powered platform that unifies your business data, automates accounting tasks and proactively delivers insights and recommendations, so you can spend less time on manual work and focus on growing your business with confidence. And, if you are using an accountant, pairing the power of AI with human expertise will lead to a clearer view into your finances.

AI is already helping small businesses work smarter, but business growth comes from using it with purpose. Generative and agentic tools each play a role, and when combined with your expertise, they can support better decisions, faster follow-through and stronger operations. If you’re one of the 1 in 4 small businesses not yet utilizing AI, here’s my advice: start in one area, build from there and keep moving forward.