Juneteenth is known as America’s “Second Independence Day,” commemorating June 19, 1865, when thousands of Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, to free the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state by executive decree (two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation).

Juneteenth was designated a federal holiday in the U.S. in 2021.

In 2025, Juneteenth falls on a Thursday.

Related: 21 Inspiring Quotes From Black Leaders From Throughout American History

Here’s what’s open and closed on June 19, from grocery stores to the post office.

Are Mail Services (USPS, UPS, FedEx) Open?

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is closed; no mail will be delivered, and no post offices will be open, according to a calendar on its website. The only exception is Priority Mail Express, which is available 365 days a year, including federal holidays.

However, both UPS and FedEx will be open, with pickup and delivery services available on June 19, according to each company’s website. UPS Store and FedEx Office locations will also be open.

Are Banks Open on Juneteenth?

Banks are closed for the federal holiday, though ATMs will be operable as usual. Although Capital One will be closed on the holiday, the company confirmed to USA TODAY that its cafes will be open.

Related: More Companies Have Designated Juneteenth a Paid Holiday

Is the Stock Market Open on June 19?

The Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange will be closed on June 19 in observance of Juneteenth.

Are Grocery Stores Closed for Juneteenth?

Most food stores, including Whole Foods, Publix, and Trader Joe’s, are open. Check your local grocery store for possible changes in hours.

Are Retailers Open for Juneteenth?

Most major retailers, including Costco, Walmart, and Target, will be open. Check store hours for more details.

Walgreens will be open, but many of its pharmacies will be closed, per CNN. Check with your local store for more details. 24-hour pharmacies will remain open.

CVS, meanwhile, will have pharmacies open, but stores will be operating on limited hours. Check with your local location.

I was doing walk-and-talk check-ins with our Seoul team. The first meeting went great, a check-in over iced Americanos.

The second employee walked in and answered the same question I’d asked her teammate, word for word. They’d traded texts in the 75 seconds between meetings. That moment showed me: internal information moves faster than management.

Employees share everything now, including their 360s. We can pretend we control the narrative while employees screenshot Slack messages and share salary data. Or we can lead by setting the terms of transparency ourselves. Culture leaks through Glassdoor, LinkedIn and group chats. Why not build with intention?

After experimenting with transparency for thirteen months, I’m learning the rules.

Related: My Employee Used AI to Ask for a Raise. So I Used AI to Say No — Here’s What Happened Next

From building products to building culture in public

Developers pioneered “building in public.” They tweeted revenue charts and shared prototype GIFs. Their transparency attracted users, generated feedback and built investor trust.

Company culture can follow the same path, with one crucial difference: culture affects people, not code. The stakes are exponentially higher. A software bug breaks, you fix the code. Cultural transparency goes wrong, and you damage careers, relationships and safety at work.

Start small and test everything

Treat each disclosure as a product feature. Start with the smallest public unit you can handle. Measure impact. Iterate. We tied our company values to specific projects on our website. We showed how those values played out in practice.

Then we showed our salary band and had an open Q&A Zoom. The feedback was immediate. Employees appreciated knowing where they stood, compensation-wise. They had pointed out questions about the increase and advancement criteria we hadn’t communicated.

Transparency isn’t a virtue; it’s just a tool for building trust. Trust fuels team performance, retention and honest feedback loops that strengthen organizations. As you experiment with transparency, you’ll make mistakes. That’s where the next principle becomes crucial.

Related: Full Transparency Is More Than a Morale Booster — It’s a Critical Growth Driver. Here’s How to Embrace It.

Humility as your operating system

Humility is your primary tool. I share my leadership missteps. Employees see that mistakes are normal, not fatal.

Recent example: I posted preliminary customer renewal data in Slack without context. Teams panicked, assuming crisis mode. Within an hour, I followed up with seasonal context and historical comparisons. I acknowledged my error and explained what I’d learned.

Lesson: add narrative, not numbers. Data without a story creates anxiety, not insight. When you mess up transparently, fix it transparently.

Outcome focus prevents performance art

Company transparency risks becoming performative with sharing happening for sharing’s sake. The cure: relentless outcome focus. Track how openness impacts business metrics: project cycle times, employee satisfaction scores, Glassdoor ratings and retention rates.

We share monthly business metrics with the entire team, not leadership alone. The team appreciates joining the conversation. Our employee net promoter scores have increased 12%, although it’s hard to attribute all the rise to one change.

But tracking outcomes is only half the equation. The other half is preparing your leadership team for a world where their every conversation might become public.

Retraining leadership for the public era

This approach requires retraining managers. Old coaching models assumed closed doors. Now, tough feedback conversations resurface as screenshots in group chats.

We teach managers to:

• State facts plainly without emotion.
• Speak as themselves, not corporate agents.
• Document their decisions and lead with the why.
• Assume conversations will go public.

Related: How Companies Can Develop Leaders Who Actually Deliver Results

When to pause

Even with seasoned managers, there will be situations when transparency becomes counterproductive. That’s why defining clear boundaries is essential.

We’ve laid out stop conditions. Active deals or employee safety threats require pausing disclosure. And we try to talk about scars more than active wounds.

People prefer hearing about resolved challenges rather than ongoing crises. Traumatic personal situations make strong disclosures, but only after resolution.

Transparency builds trust and alignment. It’s not a religious commitment overriding safety and judgment.

Not everything belongs in public. We distinguish transparency that builds trust from exposure that breaks it. Performance conversations stay private; public critique without consent is cruelty, not culture. Layoff discussions stay confidential until we notify affected employees.

We share salary bands, not individual salaries. We publish promotion criteria, not candidates under consideration. We’re transparent about strategic priorities, not M&A targets.

The test: Does sharing help our team make decisions, or create anxiety and speculation? Transparency empowers. It doesn’t paralyze.

The competitive advantage of transparency

Visible culture can’t be faked. You build the workplace you claim, not write mission statements.

Candidates self-select based on facts, not marketing. People who join know what they’re signing up for. Culture fit improves. Early turnover decreases.

The ongoing experiment

I don’t have a final blueprint. I have experiments, data points and faith that it’s what the company needs. You don’t build culture to publicize it. You publicize it to force yourself to build it. Your culture is already public. The only real question is: will you shape that or let it shape you?

I’m still figuring it out. But I’d rather build in the open than pretend in private.

Startups often rush to file patents while their product is still taking shape. The pressure can come from investor expectations or the instinct to claim a patent early. But I’ve seen too many founders spend $20,000 … $30,000 … protecting ideas that never reach the market.

Being selective avoids that capital drain. A rushed filing may feel safe, but if product plans change or the market shifts, you’ve locked in a cost with little return.

After 25+ years of helping startups protect what matters, I’ve developed a five-question filter to make smarter, more strategic patent decisions:

1. Does it solve a technical problem with a technical solution?

2. Will it still matter to the business in 2-20 years?

3. Can it become foundational and reusable across products?

4. Does it offer market differentiators over competitors?

5. What are its chances of getting your application issued from the patent office?

Here’s how to think through these five questions.

Related: The Basics of Protecting Your Intellectual Property, Explained

1. Is this innovation solving a technical problem with a technical solution?

To ease pushback from the patent office, your invention should solve a technical problem with a technical solution. It must go beyond abstract ideas or human-centered processes to improve how a system, product or service functions.

If it has advantages over known solutions, for example, efficient data processing, improved mechanical reliability or strengthening a component’s structure, you’re likely on solid ground. These differences affect how a product performs, not just what it does.

In contrast, innovations focused on managing human activity, solving business problems or directing human effort are typically seen as business methods. The patent office applies a skeptical eye on these innovations such that a patent is unlikely.

Take this case: Your delivery drone overheats on long routes. You redesign the motor housing to improve airflow and prevent failure. That’s a concrete technical solution to a real technical problem and likely meets the first test for patent eligibility.

Next, ask if it will still matter over time.

2. Will this innovation still matter to our Business in two to 20 years from now?

Patents aren’t overnight wins; most take two to three years — sometimes longer — to grant. By the time one is approved, will the idea still be relevant to your products and the industry?

Many startups file early with a sense of urgency, but products evolve, markets shift, and priorities change. That innovative feature users love today may be irrelevant next year.

That’s why I always ask: Does this idea support your long-term business goals? Could it remain part of your core offering even if your roadmap changes?

If the answer is yes, the idea is worth serious consideration. If not, you may be better off holding back your patent budget for the next big innovation.

Related: 3.6 Million Patents Were Filed in 2023 Alone — This Is How the Most Successful Ones Got Approved

3. Could this innovation become foundational to be reused across multiple product lines?

Some of the strongest patents I’ve seen aren’t tied to a single product. They solve a technical problem that is foundational to the platform underlying entirely different product lines. Once issued, the patent strengthens the company’s foundation.

That’s what I mean by “foundational.” Maybe it starts in your core product but later shows up in a mobile app, internal dashboard or enterprise version. Same core capability reused again and again. If your team keeps finding new ways to build on it, it’s likely worth protecting.

A good example is Dyson‘s digital motor technology. It started in vacuum cleaners, then powered bladeless fans, hand dryers and hair tools. One patent family protected a core capability reused across distinct product lines, making it fundamental to the company’s growth.

If an innovation has that kind of scale, it’s a strong patent candidate. Next, think about how it might give you leverage in the market.

4. Would this innovation give us leverage against competitors?

One of the smartest things you can do as a startup founder is study your competitors’ product strategy. What are they filing patents upon? What products are they prioritizing? And more importantly, what gaps are they missing?

Filing into a soon-to-be-developed area can shift the power dynamic. You could secure a patent covering a capability they’ll eventually need, and now you know the path they are pursuing. That opens the door to licensing discussions, cross-licensing deals or defensive leverage when the competition heats up.

Because in competitive markets, patents aren’t just legal protections. They’re business tools. They create options for partnerships, revenue or pressure at the negotiating table.

However, even the best-positioned idea can fail not because of merit but because of where it lands in the patent office for examination. Your odds drop sharply if your application is assigned to a technology area with a near-zero allowance rate.

That’s why this final question matters before you file.

Related: 5 Ways to Improve Your Chances of Getting Patents

5. What are the odds of success for this idea at the patent office?

Before you file, know how the idea is likely to perform at the patent office. That insight is now available long before a single claim is drafted.

Modern predictor tools can now predict which USPTO art unit will handle your application with just a rough idea.

These units vary widely in allowance rates, timelines and examiner behavior. Knowing where your application is likely to be assigned gives you a strategic edge.

This becomes the final filter in identifying patent-worthy innovations.

Prioritize ideas likely to land in favorable groups. Drop the ones facing rejection-heavy examiners and drawn-out prosecution. Predictor tools can help you refocus your claim direction in one that is likely to see more favorable consideration.

No startup can afford to chase patents that burn time and budget.

I strongly believe great ideas earn protection not just by being smart but by standing up to scrutiny from every angle.

That’s what true vetting looks like. Engineers weigh feasibility. Business teams assess strategic value. IP counsel analyzes legal strength. When all these perspectives align, strong patent decisions emerge.

The five questions above are your shared framework. Answered across disciplines, they help surface innovations worth the time, cost and protection.

If you are an entrepreneur, I’m sure you are aware that things can change in an instant. With shifting market conditions, evolving consumer behaviors and constant technological advancements, leaders need to stay on their toes. This makes it essential to check if your marketing strategies are still effective regularly.

So, how can business leaders determine if their marketing efforts are really paying off? It’s all about understanding customer engagement, tracking return on investment and using practical methods to ensure that your marketing approach not only matches current trends but also aligns with your long-term business goals.

Let’s dive into some actionable strategies to help you keep your marketing on point.

Related: I Made $1 Million in Profit With My Startup — Then This Mistake Stalled My $10 Million Dream

Marketing missteps

Effective marketing results from a clear alignment with business objectives and customer needs, relevance and good timing. Some common pitfalls include limited or surface-level metrics, misalignment with sales and with what really drives buyer decisions. Others include:

• Focusing on surface-level metrics like “Contact us” leads, clicks, impressions or follower counts. This short-sighted approach only presents part of the picture but isn’t a realistic indicator of marketing success. This narrow view often leads to strategies that prioritize short-term visibility over long-term value. This can result in eroding trust, diluting brand equity and failing to drive meaningful engagement or conversions.
• Confusing engagement with impact. Many teams celebrate high click-through rates, social media likes or impressions without connecting them to business outcomes like conversions, pipeline growth or customer retention. Vanity metrics look good in reports but often mask weak ROI.
• Over-automating personalization. While automation tools promise scale, organizations often deploy them with generic messaging. You run the risk of eroding trust instead of building it.
• Marketing strategies often fail when they operate in a vacuum. Without tight alignment on goals, messaging and lead qualification criteria, campaigns may generate leads that sales teams can’t follow up on. When strategies are driven by internal assumptions rather than real customer research, they often miss the mark. Messaging that doesn’t speak directly to pain points or decision-making criteria won’t resonate, no matter how well-produced it is.
• Focusing on short-term campaigns over long-term brand building. Chasing quick wins like promotions, one-off content pushes, or viral stunts comes at the expense of consistent brand narrative and trust-building, which are critical for long-term success.

Related: 5 Critical Marketing Strategies for Product Promotions

The best customer behaviors to look for

It starts with closely understanding and tracking high-value customer behaviors that are tied directly to business outcomes like sustained interaction or movement along the buyer’s journey. These include:

• Time spent on high-value content signals genuine interest
• Pricing pages viewed, demo sign-ups or direct inquiries
• Engaging more deeply over time or losing interest
• Sharing your content, inviting others or participating in user communities

Effective marketing should be rooted in a deeper understanding of customer behavior, authentic connection and linking behavior to intent and outcomes. That requires integrated tools, smart data interpretation and continuous refinement based on what’s working and what isn’t.

Click-through rates are overrated. On their own, they tell you very little about actual impact. Focus on post-click behavior and conversion quality, like:

• Conversion rate (for more meaningful actions like demos or sign-ups)
• Bounce rate and time on page for landing pages
• Lead-to-customer conversion rate
• Pipeline or revenue contribution per campaign

How to link marketing ROI to strategic business goals

Connect marketing activities directly to finding new leads, revenue impact and customer lifetime value. The key is to speak the language of the business (growth, efficiency and profitability). Here’s how to do it effectively:

1. Tie campaigns to the pipeline to track which campaigns generate opportunities, not just leads. For example, which publications are sending the most traffic back to your website? What were the topics of the articles whose links were clicked on? Those are insights you can use to reveal what your prospects are finding valuable and what their concerns are. Report on:

• Marketing-sourced pipeline (dollar value of deals originated through marketing)
• Marketing-influenced revenue (deals where marketing played a role post-lead stage)
• Win rates and average deal size by campaign type or content asset

2. Map marketing metrics to business key performance indicators. What are the ARR goals in your annual plan, for example? Make sure your results are tied to how you’re helping achieve those goals.

Show how marketing efforts support core business objectives like:

• Revenue growth via pipeline acceleration and higher deal volume
• Customer retention through lifecycle content and nurture
• Market expansion via reach and conversion in new segments or geos
• Sales efficiency by improving lead quality and shortening the sales cycle

3. Integrate financial metrics. Quantify ROI using real financial data, such as cost per opportunity or cost per closed deal, as well as campaign ROI.

4. Create a marketing scorecard for the C-suite. Build a simple, recurring report that aligns marketing impact to business outcomes using terms like:

• “Marketing generated 38% of new business pipeline in Q1.”
• “Our account-based-marketing (ABM) campaigns influenced $4.2 million in closed revenue.”
• “Email nurture increased sales qualified lead (SQL) conversion rate by 15%, reducing customer acquisition costs by 10%”

5. Involve the sales and finance teams early on. Work with sales and finance to validate attribution models and forecasting assumptions. This builds credibility and ensures alignment on what “value” looks like across departments.

Monitor your marketing strategy to know when to pivot

Real-time data analysis, ongoing customer feedback and strategic benchmarking are key. Don’t just track performance metrics; actively monitor changes in how your audience is engaging, deciding and buying across channels and content formats and adjust as needed.

Are competitors gaining traction in new platforms, formats or thought leadership conversations where you’re absent? Monitoring industry trends and share of voice can reveal where attention is shifting. When you’re still generating leads but sales reports show lower lead quality or longer deal cycles, this may indicate that your strategy is attracting the wrong audience or failing to address evolving buyer needs.

Your sales reps, customer success, surveys or interviews can uncover subtle but critical changes in priorities, buying triggers or objections that your strategy may be missing. The more things change, the more sound marketing practices will serve you. The need to demonstrate ROI is a growing business imperative.

Something doesn’t add up here.

This year, almost 40% of US companies planned to cut back on sponsorships and other external engagements related to Pride Week. But recent surveys show that — despite the apparent outcry — consumers and employees across the ideological spectrum firmly support DEI.

To me, it’s a classic case of perception versus reality. Rather than listen to their stakeholders, companies are catering to shifting political winds, something that may prove dangerously shortsighted.

Flip-flopping is never a good look, especially when it comes to values. A business risks being perceived as not standing for anything and alienating the very people who build its value: employees and customers.

We’ve taken a different approach. From the beginning, before it was called DEI, diversity was part of our company DNA. The original team of four was LGBTQ+, and our location in Montreal’s Gay Village helped us attract talent from a wide range of other identities and backgrounds.

For two decades, as we’ve grown to thousands of employees and $1-billion-plus in annual revenue, welcoming and celebrating diversity has made our business stronger. We’re not about to stop because of political pressure.

That doesn’t mean DEI programs are perfect — far from it. In fact, the current debate is an opportunity for companies to refocus by addressing those flaws. Here’s why DEI has sometimes fallen short — and what I’ve learned about how to make it work.

Quotas and lip service: The challenges of DEI

Diversity is usually treated as just another corporate mandate — a box to be ticked in the name of compliance. And that’s where problems start.

For starters, DEI at many companies has been reduced to quotas. Simply setting numerical targets for hiring people from underrepresented groups doesn’t add up to diversity.

Not only do companies give opponents ammo to question fairness and effectiveness, but “diversity hires” often end up marginalized and isolated, limiting their effectiveness.

Equally damaging has been the lip service paid to diversity, going through the motions without deeper value alignment. Trotting out rainbow flags once a year is neither meaningful nor progressive. It comes off for what it is — window dressing — and turns off customers, employees and other stakeholders who are left wondering, “What does this have to do with the brand?”

Casual policy reversals have only further devalued DEI. There have been so many examples of businesses that “championed” DEI initiatives for years — only to abruptly remove info about diversity programs from their website, stop sponsoring internal and external events and shed employees linked to those efforts. The takeaway message: This work doesn’t matter, and it never really did.

Related: DEI Is In The Firing Line – But At What Cost?

Rethinking DEI: A few learnings and insights

There can be a better way forward here for companies and leaders who truly care about diversity.

Every company is on its own journey and will have to learn its own lessons, but these are some insights we’ve gained over the past 20 years:

• Remember, diversity and merit aren’t oppositional: Progress starts with understanding what DEI is and what it isn’t. It’s about giving people a fair shot, not an unfair advantage. Somewhere along the way, that got lost in translation. DEI isn’t antithetical to meritocracy, as so many pundits insist — quite the opposite. By providing fairness of opportunity, you end up identifying and attracting the best people.
• Think ‘candidate pool,’ not ‘hiring quota’: When we’re looking to fill a role, we take steps to ensure a diverse candidate pool, rather than picking someone merely to fill an arbitrary quota. That means casting the widest possible net during the candidate sourcing stage. For example, for engineering roles, we work with the Black Professionals in Tech Network (BPTN) to identify promising candidates. But hiring decisions always come down to the best person for the job.
• Employee experience (not slogans) matters: It’s one thing to tout diversity in a values statement. It’s quite another for employees to truly live that experience. Effective diversity initiatives enable people to bring their authentic selves to work — to feel comfortable, empowered and able to contribute. This is a metric that can and should be tracked. (More than 85% of our team members feel that way.) Equally important is leaning on employee-led networks (ELNs) to help identify and address diversity priorities from the frontlines.
• Leaders can (and do) set the tone: When the CEO of Marriott International spoke out publicly in support of the hotel chain’s DEI programs, he got more than 40,000 emails from appreciative staff. At a moment when diversity is in the crosshairs, a clear message from the top makes a huge difference, tapping directly into employee concerns and priorities. I recently emailed our company to remind everyone that it’s a place for all, and the positive response was similarly overwhelming. If you care about diversity as a leader, say something. People are listening.

All of these steps are valuable, but there’s one critical element of effective DEI that’s too often overlooked: business outcomes.

Related: Why Letting Go of Full Control of My Business Was the Hardest — and Smartest — Move I Ever Made

Why there’s no DEI without ROI

DEI can and should be an end in itself. But cementing its place in corporate life requires a ruthlessly pragmatic step that too many companies avoid — drawing a direct line from diversity initiatives to ROI. Without making this direct link between “values” and “value,” it’s all too easy to dismiss diversity as a mere nice-to-have rather than a business-critical necessity.

That’s too bad, because there’s plenty of evidence that DEI is good for business. In one global study of some 1,200 companies, those in the top quartile for gender and ethnic diversity were almost 40% more likely to outperform financially than their peers at the bottom. Organizations with inclusive cultures are also six times more likely to be innovative and agile, and eight times more likely to achieve better business outcomes.

Among the most palpable ways to tie diversity to business outcomes is by looking at the impact on employee retention and engagement. The upside of a truly welcoming culture? Companies attract and keep quality people who want to build their careers. When employees feel a sense of ownership and know they can make an impact, they’re more invested in the business.

As a leader, I’ve seen how celebrating diversity and inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s also strategically sound. Ultimately, the best concepts come from a marketplace of ideas where distinct points of view are represented. It’s no accident that companies with above-average diversity generate almost twice as much revenue from innovation as their below-average peers.

For any company navigating the current DEI minefield, it’s important to remember that people haven’t really changed. They still value authenticity and opportunity for themselves and their neighbors — hardly controversial concepts. Those are common truths that people share, no matter where the political pendulum swings. Companies that honor them will gather goodwill, attract the best employees, build customer loyalty, and thrive in shifting winds. It all adds up.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on Tuesday that he expects Amazon’s corporate workforce to decrease in number in the coming years as AI takes over tasks.

In a memo to staff, Jassy wrote that Amazon is already using or building over 1,000 generative AI services and applications, “a small fraction” of what the e-commerce giant will ultimately create. These AI agents can act on their own to conduct deep research, write code, and translate languages.

Amazon is applying AI to improve its internal operations. The company is utilizing AI agents in its warehouses to improve delivery speed and has infused its customer service chatbot with AI capabilities, Jassy wrote. He noted that AI has also allowed Amazon to put together more detailed product pages on its site.

Related: AI Is Going to ‘Replace Everybody’ in Several Fields, According to the ‘Godfather of AI.’ Here’s Who He Says Should Be ‘Terrified.’

These new AI capabilities mean that Amazon needs fewer human employees. Jassy stated that as Amazon builds more AI agents to take over tasks in its business units, the company will make cuts to its human workforce.

“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy wrote in the memo. “It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”

Jassy advised employees to attend workshops and trainings on AI, to use the technology whenever possible, and to tap into AI to get more done with smaller teams. He said that employees who “embrace” AI and “become conversant” in it will be best-positioned to help the company move forward.

^{Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

Amazon employees took to internal Slack channels on Tuesday to criticize Jassy’s message, per Business Insider. In dozens of messages that reached thousands of employees, workers expressed hesitation about the reliability of AI, which some called “dangerous” due to its tendency to hallucinate or make up answers. Others voiced concerns about possible layoffs in the coming years.

“There is nothing more motivating on a Tuesday than reading that your job will be replaced by AI in a few years,” one person wrote in Slack, per BI.

Related: ‘I Hate Bureaucracy’: Leaked Internal Amazon Document Reveals How the Tech Giant Is Cutting Down on Middle Management

Amazon has laid off more than 27,000 employees since the start of 2022 to reduce costs. The tech giant has made dozens of cuts this year to its communications and sustainability departments, devices and services unit, and books division.

The company is also planning to invest heavily in AI this year, outpacing its peers. According to a quarterly earnings call in February, Amazon plans to spend about $105 billion in capital expenses this year, with the majority of expenditure going toward AI. In comparison, Microsoft is spending $80 billion on AI this fiscal year, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is expecting $75 billion, and Meta is preparing to spend about $65 billion.

Amazon has more than 350,000 corporate employees and 1.56 million full-time and part-time global employees as of March 31.

Following the unexpected success of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which have sold two million pairs since launch in late 2023, Meta is releasing new versions of its AI smart glasses under the Oakley and Prada brands.

According to a CNBC report released Tuesday, Meta is expanding its partnership with EssilorLuxottica, the parent company that owns Ray-Ban and Oakley and has a licensing agreement with Prada. The new Oakley Meta smart glasses will target athletes and active customers, while the Prada partnership will give Meta a high-end deal with a notable fashion house.

Related: Apple Is Reportedly Developing AI Smart Glasses to Compete with Meta and Google

The Oakley glasses will reportedly start at $360, a higher price point than the $299 Ray-Ban Metas, but have a more weather-resistant style, a source told CNBC. The glasses will be able to take photos and videos, make calls and send text messages through voice commands, livestream content, and play music, just like the Ray-Ban Metas. They will also have AI capabilities, so users can ask questions through a “Hey Meta” voice command.

Bloomberg also reported in January that the Oakley glasses were set to be released later this year, and the camera will be in the center of the frame instead of on the side, like the Ray-Ban Metas, so that “cyclists and other athletes” could record footage.

Meta previewed the Oakley partnership on social media on Monday by creating a new Instagram account for “Oakley | Meta” with one post that reads: “The next evolution is coming on June 20.”

Prada, meanwhile, renewed its eyewear licensing agreement with Luxottica for the next decade in December. Former Meta employees told CNBC that Prada eyewear designs were a good fit for Meta because the glasses feature thick temples that can house more technology.

Meta has yet to announce the Prada deal or a timeline for when the smart glasses will hit the market.

Related: Google Is Making AI ‘Intelligent Eyewear’ With Warby Parker After Eyeing Meta’s Ray-Ban Success

EssilorLuxottica and Meta first joined forces in 2019 to work on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. Meta released a first-generation pair in 2021 and a second-generation pair in 2023.

The second-generation glasses took off; EssilorLuxottica CEO Francesco Milleri said during an earnings call in February that the AI smart glasses were “a great success” and that the company plans to produce 10 million of them by the end of next year.

Meta, meanwhile, is also making a broader push into artificial intelligence. The company announced last week that it would invest $14.3 billion in AI data labeling startup, Scale AI, in exchange for a 49% stake. Some Scale AI employees, including CEO Alexandr Wang, will join Meta as part of the move.

Every business owner knows the day will come when they either sell their company or pass it on. What’s harder to accept is when that day is today.

Waiting too long can mean declining profits, dwindling energy or a missed opportunity to maximize your exit. But leaving too soon can stir doubt — what if the next owner hits record growth?

While there’s no perfect formula for timing your exit, there are signs. If you’re starting to wonder whether it’s time to move on, these three signals may offer the clarity you need.

Related: When Should You Get Your Business Ready to Sell? The Best Time to Start Is Now — Here’s Why.

1. You feel drained instead of driven

Remember when you used to wake up energized by possibility? When you loved solving customer problems or brainstorming with your team? If that drive has turned into dread, take notice.

Many founders dismiss this phase as temporary burnout. But if you’re going through the motions day after day — uninspired and emotionally checked out — it’s not just a rough patch. It’s a sign that your time in the business may be up.

Hanging on to a company you no longer love doesn’t just affect your mood — it chips away at the business’s value. Culture suffers. Growth stalls. And by the time you decide to sell, it may be worth far less than if you had exited earlier.

2. You’ve stopped getting excited about growth

New partnership? Big client? Expansion opportunity? If those words once lit a fire in you but now just sound like more work, you’re not alone.

When you no longer feel pulled toward opportunity — and instead feel trapped by it — it’s a strong indicator that your motivation has run dry. And motivation is fuel. Without it, growth halts and momentum fades.

Declining revenue is the death knell of a strong sale. Buyers pay for potential, not stagnation. So if you feel like you have nothing more to give, don’t wait for the numbers to reflect that. Move before they do.

3. Your business is booming

Ironically, one of the best times to sell is when everything’s going right. Profits are strong, clients are happy, and you’re at the top of your game.

So why would you even consider leaving?

Because that’s exactly when your business is most attractive to buyers — when there’s still room to grow. Smart owners don’t wait to “ride it out a few more years.” They sell while the company is on the upswing, not after it peaks.

We worked with a client who planned to sell in 24 months. But when the time came, he delayed. Again and again. By the time he was ready, his energy was gone, performance had slipped and the business sold for far less than it could have.

Waiting for the “perfect” moment is how many owners miss the best one.

Related: Sell Your Company When You Least Expect It — How to Properly Scale and Sell Your Business

What to do if you see the signs

These signals are emotional and internal — but your next step should be grounded in data. If any of these signs resonate, get a business valuation or exit assessment. Know what your company is worth today and what’s at stake if you wait.

Most importantly, don’t wait until you’re exhausted to begin the process. Selling a business takes time and energy — two things in short supply once burnout sets in.

You don’t need a crystal ball to time your exit well. You just need to trust your instincts — the same ones that helped you build this business in the first place.

No entrepreneur wants a surprise tax bill — especially when every dollar matters for growth. Staying ahead of tax policy changes is one of the smartest ways to protect your bottom line and avoid disruptions.

With the Senate now reviewing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Congress is moving closer to enacting one of the most significant shifts in U.S. tax policy in recent history. If passed, the legislation would expand — and in many cases, strengthen — existing incentives for entrepreneurs to reinvest in equipment, hire more staff, and scale with confidence.

Here’s what’s coming — and how you can position your business for what’s next.

Related: 4 Tax Strategies Every High-Earning Entrepreneur Needs to Know for 2025

The government wants you to invest in your business — now more than ever

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) brought sweeping changes to the tax code, many of which aimed to boost business investment. But those provisions were set to expire by the end of this year.

The new House bill extends and enhances several of those benefits. One major update? The Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction gives many sole proprietors, partnerships, S corporations, and some trusts and estates a tax break. Under the TCJA, that deduction was 20%. The new legislation would increase it to 23% and make it permanent, putting more cash directly into the hands of small business owners.

Another key change: entrepreneurs could again deduct domestic R&D expenses immediately, restoring a popular provision that had expired. While this update would only run from 2025 through 2029, it marks a meaningful shift. Countries like South Africa and Singapore already offer enhanced R&D deductions of 150% to 400% — this change helps U.S. businesses stay globally competitive.

The bill also brings back full bonus depreciation, allowing businesses to deduct 100% of qualifying assets like equipment, software, and property at the time of purchase. That means you won’t need to spread deductions out over time — you get the full benefit upfront.

The government is shifting what it wants you to invest in

Governments shape economic behavior through tax policy. In recent years, U.S. incentives have focused heavily on renewable energy and emissions reduction. Business owners have used tax credits to install solar panels or invest in electric vehicles at lower costs.

But the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, backed by the Trump administration and a Republican-led Congress, signals a pivot. Incentives are shifting toward American manufacturing and domestic fossil fuel production.

That means it’s time to reexamine your tax strategy. If you’ve invested in green initiatives — or plan to — you’ll want to understand how these new priorities could affect your bottom line. For example, while EV tax breaks may fade, the bill introduces a new $10,000 deduction on loans for vehicles assembled in the U.S. Make sure your strategy aligns with these evolving incentives.

Personal tax changes will impact you and your employees

The bill also raises the standard deduction to $16,000 for individual filers and $32,000 for joint filers — up by $1,000 and $2,000, respectively. That’s welcome news for many employees and for entrepreneurs who don’t itemize.

Seniors get an even better break. The legislation includes a temporary $4,000 bonus deduction for individuals over 65 with a modified AGI under $75,000 (or $150,000 for joint filers). However, that bonus expires in 2028.

If you live in a high-tax state, you’ll want to note the changes to the SALT deduction (state and local tax). The current $10,000 cap would jump to $40,000 in 2025 for households earning under $500,000 and gradually increase through 2033. Above that threshold, the deduction phases out entirely.

There are also proposed exemptions for tips and overtime pay, which could change how you approach payroll and compensation. These details are worth discussing with a tax advisor to ensure you’re optimizing for both compliance and competitive hiring.

Related: 4 Tax Tips That Will Give Your Business an Edge and Save You Money in 2025

Thinking of starting a business? Now may be the best time

The U.S. has a long tradition of using tax policy to support entrepreneurship, and this bill continues that legacy. If you’ve been sitting on a business idea, the new provisions could help you get started with lower upfront costs and stronger long-term incentives.

At the end of the day, every dollar saved on taxes is a dollar you can reinvest — whether in talent, technology, or new offerings. Smart planning now will ensure your business is ready for what’s ahead.