Small Biz Primer · US small business Independent · plain-English guides for US small businesses
Plain-English business guides
Small Biz Primer

How to start & run a business, minus the jargon.

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Contribute

Write for us

We publish people who have actually done the thing. If you have run the payroll, filed the paperwork or lived with the software for a year, we want to hear from you.

What we are looking for

One piece, one job. The pitches that get accepted here are specific and come from experience: what actually happens when you switch accounting systems mid-year, how a licence application works in a particular state, what a first-time employer gets wrong about payroll tax. The common thread is that you know something from doing it that a writer researching the topic would not find.

Useful areas: business formation and structure, business finance and lending, accounting and tax operations, payroll and hiring, business software from an operator's point of view, sales and marketing for small teams, licences and compliance.

Good contributors here tend to be founders and operators, accountants and bookkeepers, people who implement business software for a living, and specialists in one narrow area who can go deeper on it than we can.

What we reject

Most pitches. Not because we are precious, but because most of what arrives is a link in a costume. Specifically:

  • Anything published elsewhere, syndicated, or spun from an existing article.
  • General-interest filler - "10 tips for entrepreneurs", "why mindset matters".
  • Copy written around a link rather than around a reader's problem. It is obvious every time.
  • Off-topic pitches - if it is not about starting or running a small business, it is not for us. Casino, payday lending, crypto speculation and adult are automatic no.
  • Invented credentials. We check. Claiming attorney, CPA or adviser status you do not hold ends the conversation permanently.
  • AI-generated drafts submitted as your own work. Use it to tidy your prose if you like. Do not send us something you did not write and could not defend.

Guidelines

Length and shape

Usually 1,200 to 2,000 words. Longer is fine if the topic earns it. Short and complete beats long and padded. Use descriptive subheadings, short paragraphs, and real examples with real numbers where you can.

Voice

Plain English. Write like you are explaining it to someone competent who has not done this particular thing before. No "in today's fast-paced business landscape". No stacking synonyms for a keyword. If a sentence exists only for search engines, cut it.

Accuracy

Cite the primary source for anything factual - the IRS page, the state agency, the provider's own pricing page. Not another blog. If a rule varies by state, say so rather than giving one answer. Nothing that reads as legal, tax or investment advice.

Links

  • One link to your own site, in your author bio, is standard and free.
  • In-body links to your own product count as a commercial placement. We are not selling those at the moment, so a pitch built around one is a no. If that ever changes, any such link will carry rel="sponsored".
  • External links to genuine sources are welcome and encouraged.
  • We will add internal links to our own guides where relevant.

Byline

Real name, real bio, and a link we can verify. We do not publish under invented personas or ghost-write a byline for a brand. If you cannot be named, we cannot publish it.

After publication

We may edit for length, clarity and accuracy. Substantive changes come back to you first. We can update or correct a piece later, and we may unpublish anything that turns out to be inaccurate. Contributions are unpaid unless agreed otherwise in writing.

Paid placements

We are not selling commercial or paid placements at the moment. There is no rate card, and nothing of the kind has been sold. If your aim is a link rather than a readership, that is a legitimate thing to want, but this is not the site for it today. The advertise page says the same thing in more detail.

The rules would not change if that did. Any paid placement is labelled as sponsored and any commercial link carries rel="sponsored". Pitching a paid placement as an editorial contribution to avoid the label is the one thing that gets you blocked.

Submit a pitch

Two or three sentences is plenty. Tell us what you know from doing it. Please do not attach a finished draft on a first contact.

No sponsored or paid placement has been published here, and none is being sold. Any that ever runs will be labelled, and its links will use rel="sponsored". We keep full editorial control and reject anything off-topic or low quality. See our disclosure policy.