Federal student loan terms can change from one academic year to the next. For instance, every spring, the Treasury Department determines the fixed interest rate for federal student loans for the upcoming award year, which runs from July 1 to June 30. Borrowers know that if they take federal loans every year of college, each one will likely come with a different interest rate. But major overhauls to federal student loans—like the changes that went into effect as of July 1, 2026—tend to catch borrowers by surprise. In this case, the passing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)…
Author: Staff Writer
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways AI does not replace operational knowledge. It requires leaders to understand their business, customers and workflows in greater depth to produce informed outputs. The value of AI in leadership is not automation alone. It is the ability to create visibility across initiatives and coordinate work at scale. AI shifts leadership from sequential task management to directing systems and outcomes, allowing organizations to move faster without sacrificing oversight. Inside our company, I have built what I think of as an AI executive copilot. It is integrated into how I manage the…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Finance automation is delivering on efficiency for most companies, but what it isn’t delivering is control. When automation expands across regions, business units and systems without clear enterprise-level ownership, it amplifies whatever fragmentation already exists. To govern it, you must assign enterprise-level ownership, standardize where it matters most, tie every automation initiative to a capital outcome and build real-time visibility into the system. Right now, core financial processes in your organization — approving payments, matching invoices, forecasting cash — are likely running continuously and largely without human intervention. That’s the…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways AI washing happens when organizations celebrate faster response times, adoption rates and new platforms while the outcomes that actually matter — customer retention, employee experience, better decisions — quietly move in the wrong direction. Before approving any AI initiative, leaders should be able to answer three questions: Will it improve the customer experience? Will it help employees do more meaningful work? Will it help leaders make better decisions? If the answer to all three isn’t yes, the investment is producing activity, not value. Every company wants to be seen as…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways 20 years of research across 600+ Black women professionals shows external visibility has a negative relationship with promotion, while internal visibility and proximity to decision-makers are the strongest predictors of advancement. Strategic presence beats industry profile: send monthly wins to leadership, choose work tied to decisions leaders are actively making and spend more time in front of executives than on panels. I was in my early thirties, one of two Black women in a finance division of 200 staff. I spent an entire weekend preparing for a high-stakes strategic planning…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways The fastest way to lose support from investors is to hide the challenges you face along the startup process. Credibility is not built by perfection, but through clarity. The leaders that people trust are the ones who treat disclosure like a habit and not like a negotiation tactic. They set a real plan, communicate it clearly and stay honest about where they are on that path. They understand that people are afraid of surprises, not difficulties. Fundraising is no different. I once sold a home in Las Vegas, and the…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Two companies with identical numbers can get opposite reactions from the market because investors, employees and customers no longer wait for results — they judge leadership in real time based on tone, consistency and how well decisions are explained. Credibility is a compounding business asset: leaders who pair visibility with clarity earn the benefit of the doubt in a crisis, while those who execute without explaining leave a vacuum that stakeholders fill with assumptions, rumors and worse. Listen to enough earnings calls, and you’ll start to hear something curious. Two…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Alignment improves decisions and suggests discipline, collaboration and care. But it can also become something else — it can spread exposure so widely that no one person is carrying the decision anymore. The problem isn’t alignment itself but what alignment becomes when it stops improving the decision and starts protecting people from owning it. The highest cost is diluted ownership. The organization can tell itself the decision has been aligned, while it gets harder to say who’s actually accountable for moving it. Instead of asking “Are we aligned?” leaders should…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Expanding into international markets can open up exciting opportunities for founders, from reaching new customers to building new revenue streams. However, growth across borders also brings new tax complexities, one of the most common being the risk of your income being taxed both in the US and in another country. A tax treaty doesn’t automatically fix this. Planning does. That means knowing which country has taxing rights, taking advantage of available tax benefits, and understanding your reporting obligations so you can stay compliant. Why double taxation happens Double taxation is triggered more…
Key Takeaways Robles found inspiration for her bookkeeping side hustle while scrolling on Facebook. She paid $10 for a business license and $12 for a domain name to launch her business. Now, the side hustle generates $2,800 in gross monthly revenue, or $33,600 a year. This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Kayli Robles, 26, of Bellingham, Washington. Robles is the owner and operator of Robles Bookkeeping, a bookkeeping firm that currently generates approximately $2,800 in gross monthly revenue, or $33,600 annually. She works 40 hours a week as a bookkeeping coach and runs her business as a side hustle. Responses…