“Buying or selling a business is a great time to have Schooley Mitchell make sure you’re as profitable as possible.”
Whether you’re looking to sell, merge, or acquire a business, finding your maximum profitability is vital to a successful deal. Schooley Mitchell is equipped with the tools and techniques to provide that assurance.
In the past six years since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been significant global economic uncertainty. Specifically, inflation has seen a major rise. This stagnated period initiated global supply chain disruptions and aggressive monetary tightening which created a challenging environment for businesses.
Inflation is “the persistent rise in the average price of goods and services over time. As general prices increase, each unit of currency buys less, which reduces your purchasing power and increases the cost of living.” According to Statistics Canada, prices have risen roughly 20% in Canada and nearly 25% in the United States since the beginning of 2020 due to cumulative inflation.
In 2026, businesses are feeling the effects of inflation from fluctuating energy prices, fuel costs, interest rate tensions, and changes in consumer spending.
In 2026, small and medium-sized businesses are enduring a more severe impact from inflation than large corporations, primarily because they lack the scale to absorb soaring operational costs or command supply chain leverage. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reports that small business optimism has fallen to its lowest level since 2024, with inflation ranked alongside taxes as their single most pressing issue.
Across North America, most businesses are not being hit by a single cost, but by several rising together. The biggest pressure points vary somewhat by industry, but the following stand out:
| Pressure points | How its affecting your business |
| Labor | U.S. inflation is outpacing nominal wage growth, resulting in a net decrease in real wages and purchasing power. While nominal wages and salaries grew by 3.4% annually, inflation sat at 4.2%. This shortfall means workers’ purchasing power is shrinking, though baseline pay budgets remain relatively stable at 3.5%. Despite stagnant real pay for workers, the actual cost of labor for businesses is rising. |
| Gas and Fuel | Gas and fuel inflation significantly increases operating costs by raising expenses associated with transportation, logistics, and daily business operations. As fuel is essential for many industries, rising prices shrink profit margins and often compel businesses to either increase the prices of their goods and services or absorb the resulting financial losses. |
| Utility Costs | Commercial electricity and water rates have surged, with average power prices rising significantly across the U.S. and Canada. In some regions, power prices increased by more than 25% to 76% due to regional supply constraints. |
| Costs of Good and Materials | Rising costs for goods and materials force businesses to either increase prices, which may reduce customer demand, or absorb the extra costs, lowering profit margins. This can strain cash flow, reduce opportunities to invest in business growth, and make long-term planning more challenging. |
| Rent inflation | Rent and leasing increases raises fixed operating costs for businesses. As an unavoidable expense with no direct return on investment, increasing rent reduces profit margins, limits cash flow for growth and hiring, and can lead to downsizing. |
Although businesses cannot control inflation, they can implement practical strategies to minimize its effects and maintain profitability. By carefully managing operations and financial planning, companies can better navigate the challenges associated with periods of high inflation.
Lowering Utility Costs: Utilities are often one area most owners don’t even realize they are losing money. Energy, gas, waste, heating/cooling, and other operational audits can significantly help businesses identify where they are losing money. For example, small errors with natural gas metering could be costing your business money in ways that you never realized. If after a meter is installed and running, the utility doesn’t perform regular checks to ensure it doesn’t drift out of calibration. Over time, it’s natural for certain components to shift or wear down, but this can lead to inaccurate readings and therefore lead you to paying more for the gas bill each month.
Cost reduction consultancy: One of the most strategic ways businesses can counteract the effects of inflation is through cost reduction consultancy. Cost reduction consultancy can help businesses by:
Combating Rent Inflation: To manage rising rental costs, small businesses can negotiate long-term leases with fixed rental rates, sublease unused space, or relocate to more affordable locations. Negotiating rent prices with landlords is the most effective way for businesses to manage rising rent prices. In many cases, receiving lower rent from a reliable tenant is preferable to leaving a property vacant. Businesses can improve their chances of securing a rent reduction by following these strategies:
In conclusion, while inflation continues to challenge businesses by increasing expenses and putting pressure on profitability, rising costs do not have to determine a company’s future. Small changes such as identifying hidden costs, improving efficiency, and negotiating better terms can have a meaningful impact on reducing operational costs.
In the past six years since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been significant global economic uncertainty. Specifically, inflation has seen a major rise. This stagnated period initiated global supply chain disruptions and aggressive monetary tightening which created a challenging environment for businesses.
Inflation is “the persistent rise in the average price of goods and services over time. As general prices increase, each unit of currency buys less, which reduces your purchasing power and increases the cost of living.” According to Statistics Canada, prices have risen roughly 20% in Canada and nearly 25% in the United States since the beginning of 2020 due to cumulative inflation.
In 2026, businesses are feeling the effects of inflation from fluctuating energy prices, fuel costs, interest rate tensions, and changes in consumer spending.
In 2026, small and medium-sized businesses are enduring a more severe impact from inflation than large corporations, primarily because they lack the scale to absorb soaring operational costs or command supply chain leverage. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reports that small business optimism has fallen to its lowest level since 2024, with inflation ranked alongside taxes as their single most pressing issue.
Across North America, most businesses are not being hit by a single cost, but by several rising together. The biggest pressure points vary somewhat by industry, but the following stand out:
| Pressure points | How its affecting your business |
| Labor | U.S. inflation is outpacing nominal wage growth, resulting in a net decrease in real wages and purchasing power. While nominal wages and salaries grew by 3.4% annually, inflation sat at 4.2%. This shortfall means workers’ purchasing power is shrinking, though baseline pay budgets remain relatively stable at 3.5%. Despite stagnant real pay for workers, the actual cost of labor for businesses is rising. |
| Gas and Fuel | Gas and fuel inflation significantly increases operating costs by raising expenses associated with transportation, logistics, and daily business operations. As fuel is essential for many industries, rising prices shrink profit margins and often compel businesses to either increase the prices of their goods and services or absorb the resulting financial losses. |
| Utility Costs | Commercial electricity and water rates have surged, with average power prices rising significantly across the U.S. and Canada. In some regions, power prices increased by more than 25% to 76% due to regional supply constraints. |
| Costs of Good and Materials | Rising costs for goods and materials force businesses to either increase prices, which may reduce customer demand, or absorb the extra costs, lowering profit margins. This can strain cash flow, reduce opportunities to invest in business growth, and make long-term planning more challenging. |
| Rent inflation | Rent and leasing increases raises fixed operating costs for businesses. As an unavoidable expense with no direct return on investment, increasing rent reduces profit margins, limits cash flow for growth and hiring, and can lead to downsizing. |
Although businesses cannot control inflation, they can implement practical strategies to minimize its effects and maintain profitability. By carefully managing operations and financial planning, companies can better navigate the challenges associated with periods of high inflation.
Lowering Utility Costs: Utilities are often one area most owners don’t even realize they are losing money. Energy, gas, waste, heating/cooling, and other operational audits can significantly help businesses identify where they are losing money. For example, small errors with natural gas metering could be costing your business money in ways that you never realized. If after a meter is installed and running, the utility doesn’t perform regular checks to ensure it doesn’t drift out of calibration. Over time, it’s natural for certain components to shift or wear down, but this can lead to inaccurate readings and therefore lead you to paying more for the gas bill each month.
Cost reduction consultancy: One of the most strategic ways businesses can counteract the effects of inflation is through cost reduction consultancy. https://www.schooleymitchell.com/what-we-do/Cost reduction consultancy can help businesses by:
Combating Rent Inflation: To manage rising rental costs, small businesses can negotiate long-term leases with fixed rental rates, sublease unused space, or relocate to more affordable locations. Negotiating rent prices with landlords is the most effective way for businesses to manage rising rent prices. In many cases, receiving lower rent from a reliable tenant is preferable to leaving a property vacant. Businesses can improve their chances of securing a rent reduction by following these strategies:
In conclusion, while inflation continues to challenge businesses by increasing expenses and putting pressure on profitability, rising costs do not have to determine a company’s future. Small changes such as identifying hidden costs, improving efficiency, and negotiating better terms can have a meaningful impact on reducing operational costs.
The results are in! Together, we have officially raised $4,665 in 2026 for The Heart and Stroke Foundation. Our Head Office team took part in our annual walk on June 25th to raise awareness for this great cause. These funds will go directly to supporting critical heart disease and stroke research.
We would like to say thank you to everyone who supported our campaign!
Success in today’s professional world requires more than just technical knowledge or experience. Modern professionals must possess a well-rounded skill set to remain adaptable and effective. Factors such as advancing technology, changing communication methods, and shifting business demands create extra challenges for today’s professionals. Naturally, the business world is ever evolving. Let’s look at some skills and attributes that continue to be valuable.
Being aware of evolving communication methods.
2025 was a transformative year for business communication, and this is largely to due to with the use of artificial intelligence (AI). This major technological advancement has taken the business world by storm, with some companies fully integrating forms of AI into their daily functions, with others being more reluctant. AI and automation can be a controversial topic, especially within the workplace. Adopting all current trending changes is clearly not realistic or even successful depending on your workplace. The key is to be cognizant of these trends in order to connect with both customers and industry partners. By doing that you will be able to observe the forecast see what tactics might work for yourself and your clients.
Emotional intelligence and resilience.
Emotional intelligence in a professional setting is the skill of understanding emotions for the purpose of applying them to achieve higher levels of collaboration and productivity. This trait is extremely valuable within the workplace as it’s needed in virtually all roles. From management to lower level staff, emotional intelligence is required to successfully interact with colleagues, clients, vendors, etc. Additionally, possessing emotional intelligence is an essential tool to have when sorting through any sort of conflict or high-pressure situations within the workplace. This is also where emotional resilience comes into play.
Vanessa Boetcher, Chief Operational Officer of TTI Success Insights, says: “Emotional resilience is your ability to immediately recover from heightened emotions, professionally or personally”. This skill is helpful when recovering from any sort of stressful situation in the workplace, allowing you to compartmentalize and pivot quicker. Together, these skills can enhance performance and productivity in today’s workplace, as well as create a better working experience for you as a professional.
Core skills still relevant in today’s workplace.
Although the modern workplace requires professionals to adapt to changing times, general foundational skills such as customer service, active listening, and lifelong learning continue to be critical for success. Skills such as these, will seemingly always be required in any industry. More specifically, according to World Economic Forum “Analytical thinking remains the top core skill for employers, with seven out of 10 companies considering it as essential. This is followed by resilience, flexibility, and agility, along with leadership and social influence, underscoring the critical role of adaptability and collaboration alongside cognitive skills”.
Strong core skills continue to be what enables individuals to build relationships, contribute to organizational goals, and achieve sustained career growth.
How your business can support.
It’s important for organizations to have a clear overview of their employees and initiate any further training that might be required. This also means as a business it’s your responsibility to keep an eye on the emerging skills that contribute to a successful partnership with your employees. When employees are supported by their employers, that is when everyone will thrive.
If your business has been utilizing shipping services for years, you’ll know it’s been the industry norm to experience static periodic rate adjustments. These rate adjustments could make it difficult to keep on top of your expenses, as what you were paying at the beginning of the year could completely change by the end.
A new challenge business owners might face lies in how shipping providers could be changing their pricing strategies to include dynamic pricing. Major carriers across North America are gravitating towards this model, which could have a lasting impact on their clients. In this article, we take a look at what that means and what you might be able to expect.
Dynamic pricing is a structure by which rates continuously change based on variables such as demand, capacity, and more. You might be familiar with this structure if you’ve ever shopped for flights, hotel rooms, taken an Uber, or even ordered something on Amazon.
There are a lot of variables that can change shipping rates under a dynamic pricing model. Some of the most important factors include:
No matter the size of your operation, dynamic pricing could potentially impact your prices significantly. At a minimum, it can make it harder to plan and budget for shipping as tightly as you might want. For businesses already struggling to meet consumer demands for fast, free shipping, this could become increasingly complicated.
Experts at Harvard Business Review warn dynamic pricing for parcel shipping “could pose serious margin risks” to some businesses.
“These evolutions will impact everyone in the supply chain, including consumers who will feel the shift through reduced free shipping, larger order minimums, slower deliveries, and higher prices. And this isn’t just an e-commerce issue. Pharma, telecom, auto parts, industrials: anyone who moves high volumes of parcels is exposed.”
With dynamic pricing potentially resulting in pricing changes as often as several times a day, it’s more imperative than ever that businesses stay on top of their shipping expenses and contracts.
Lisa recently volunteered at the Shine Gala, hosted at the Salt Lake Country Club. This was a fundraiser for the Children’s Center Utah, a mental healthcare facility for children under seven and their families who have been affected by a traumatic event. The service is provided to families who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford this support. Following the event, the Shine Gala officially announced a total donation total of $1,100,000!
Lisa helped welcome and check guests in, and checked out auction items. She also visited the Children’s Center itself, and was extremely impressed by its positive environment, organization, and the care of the staff and team involved. Lisa is proud to have played a part in such a successful fundraiser, in support of such a good cause!
