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NO. 8 · 9‑MINUTE READ Tuesday, July 21, 2026 |
| Operator Notes is for the people running Indiana companies. Every couple of weeks we send the handful of things worth your time on money, people, costs, and deadlines. You do not have to be buying or selling anything to use it. |
Hi everyone,
Our next OWN night is this Thursday, July 23, with Paul Lushin in Indianapolis. It is capped at 50, so grab a seat today if you want one.
Below: the one pricing move worth making this quarter, 1,158 trained workers about to come free in Avon, cheaper SBA money, and the deadlines worth putting on your calendar.
THIS THURSDAY
An Evening with Paul Lushin
“I like being the king-maker, not the king.” Paul became a business owner at 17 and never stopped. He built Lushin and Associates with his wife Sarah into one of the country’s leading Sandler training firms, and in 2023 moved his team into employee ownership through an ESOP. This Thursday he hosts us at Lushin HQ to walk through the whole thing: why owners get stuck running their own sales, what the 18 months before an ESOP close really look like, and what he would tell the next founder. Open Q&A.
Thursday, July 23 · 4:00 to 7:00 PM · Lushin HQ, Indianapolis · $15, free for OWN members · capped at 50.
TWO MORE ON THE CALENDAR
Wed, Aug 26 · Indianapolis
Year one of ownership, with the Ace-Pak team. Andrew Wahl, Gabrielle Rubenstein, and Max Wahl on what they inherited, what surprised them, and what broke first. The District Tap, 4:30 to 7:30 PM.
Thu, Sept 17 · Fort Wayne
Build it or buy it, with Matt Truty and Nick Ladig. Matt co-founded one company and then bought a 60-year-old one, and he walks through the tradeoffs of doing each. Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, 4 to 7 PM.
October · Bloomington is up next, our first OWN night there. Details coming soon.
OWN MEMBERSHIP
The room, all year
Founding memberships are open. The useful part of OWN was never the programming. It is the operator across the table who has already solved the thing you are stuck on. Membership makes that year-round.
WHAT YOU GET
Free entry to every operator-only event. Happy hours, dinners, roundtables, workshops, shop-floor visits.
Introductions we make ourselves. Tell us who you need to meet and we make the connection.
Founding member status and a say in what we build next.
ROLLING OUT SOON
A member directory, a members-only space between events, small-group dinners, and negotiated rates with Indiana service providers.
$50 for your first year, for the first 50 operators. After that it is $100.
How to join: self-serve signup is a few days out. Until then, reply with “I’m in” and we will hold your spot. We talk with every member before they join.
If you invest in or serve Indiana businesses, reply too. That lane opens next.
IN THIS ISSUE
| 1 | A price increase your best customers will not fight. |
| 2 | 1,158 trained warehouse workers come free in Avon on Aug 17. |
| 3 | A health plan cutting small-business premiums up to 40%, now at 35 Indiana chambers. |
| 4 | The SBA doubled what you can borrow, and one of its loans is far cheaper than the other right now. |
| 5 | The deadlines worth your calendar, including Indiana sales tax. |
| 6 | Four worth a listen, plus three tools you can use this month. |
THE PLAYBOOK · ONE MOVE THIS QUARTER
A price increase your best customers will not fight
A net 32% of small businesses plan to raise prices in the next three months, just off the highest reading since 2022, and inflation is back to being the problem owners name most, the highest it has been since October 2024. If you have not touched pricing in 2026, the market is moving without you. Most owners avoid it because they picture losing everyone. You will not, if you do it in this order. NFIB →
Segment first. Your customers are not equally price-sensitive. Sort them into three buckets: your best and most loyal, the broad middle, and your most demanding, lowest-margin accounts.
Start at the bottom and middle. Raise the least price-sensitive and lowest-margin accounts first. The ones who complain loudest are usually the ones you can most afford to lose.
Lead with value, not an apology. “Here is what you get, and here is the new price,” not “sorry, we have to raise prices.” Give 30 days’ notice.
Give your best accounts a short runway. A smaller increase or a 60-day grandfather for your top relationships buys loyalty for the cost of a few weeks.
Test, do not announce blindly. Run it on one segment, watch who actually leaves, almost always far fewer than you fear, then roll it wider.
Do this: Pick one customer segment and one product or service line, set the new price, and send the notice this week. A 5% increase that sticks falls almost entirely to your bottom line.
HIRING WINDOW
1,158 trained workers hit the Avon market on Aug 17
Two staffing firms inside the Radial fulfillment center in Avon, humano LLC and SIMOS Insourcing, end operations there on August 17 and filed a WARN notice, the advance layoff notice employers owe the state. The building stays open. It lost a customer contract. That puts 1,158 experienced freight handlers, pickers, equipment operators, and floor supervisors into Hendricks County on a single day, right before the fourth-quarter ramp.
Do this: Call the Indiana DWD Rapid Response team now. They reach affected workers before the separation date, while the pool is still together. Then watch the state WARN list so the next one does not surprise you.
COSTS, CASH & CREWS
Where your margin is leaking
A health plan the Indiana Chamber says can cut small-business premiums up to 40%. ChamberCare, run through Columbus-based SIHO, just expanded to 35 local chambers across the state. It pools employers with 2 to 50 employees and keeps the major hospital networks. Savings depend on your plan and eligibility. Health benefits are one of the hardest costs to control and one of the top reasons good people leave for a bigger employer. Do this: ask your local chamber whether they are in the ChamberCare network and get a quote against your current renewal. Inside INdiana →
Two more talent signals, if you hire skilled labor. Thyssenkrupp Presta in Terre Haute is shedding 207 manufacturing workers in phases through March 2027, and Campbell Snacks in Jeffersonville closes Sept 15, freeing 111 food-packaging and sanitation workers. If you are in either market, plan your hiring around those dates. State WARN list →
Two-minute security check. Ransomware crews now steal your data before they lock it, then threaten to publish it, and basic antivirus does not catch that. Ask your IT provider this week about endpoint detection and response, or EDR, which is software that watches every device for the behavior that comes before a breach. Many small-business breaches start through a vendor, so ask your key vendors what they run too. CISA →
FROM WASHINGTON
Cheaper money, and a tax change worth one call
The SBA doubled how much you can borrow, to $10 million. As of July 4, the 7(a) program (working capital and acquisitions) and the 504 program (real estate and heavy equipment) no longer share a $5M cap, so you can stack up to $5M in each. The SBA is also waiving fees for manufacturers this fiscal year, which on a large 504 project can mean six figures, but that window closes Sept 30. The spread matters more than the cap: 504 money is running near 6.2% fixed while 7(a) is variable in the 9 to 11.5% range. Do this: if a building, equipment, or buying a competitor is anywhere on your horizon, re-run the plan now with an SBA lender or a CDC, the nonprofit that packages 504 loans. SBA →
The 2025 tax law is in effect for 2026. One hundred percent bonus depreciation is permanent again, so qualifying equipment can be deducted the year you put it in service, and the 20% Qualified Business Income deduction for pass-through owners is permanent too. The 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC reporting threshold rises from $600 to $2,000. A few more provisions are worth one call to your CPA before year-end: interest deductibility got more generous for owners carrying debt, domestic research and development is fully expensable again, and there is a new employer childcare credit. Do this: if you were going to buy equipment in the next 18 months, talk to your CPA about timing it, and confirm your bookkeeper has the new 1099 threshold set. 2026 tax guide →
DEADLINE WATCH
Dates to put on the calendar
The act-before-this-date list. Screenshot it.
| Jul 30 | Indiana sales tax due for regular filers. If your monthly liability tops $1,000 you file early, and the next early date is Aug 20. DOR → |
| Aug 3 | Indiana Chamber Emerging Leader of the Year nominations close. Indiana Chamber → |
| Aug 17 | Avon separation date for the 1,158 warehouse workers above. |
| Sep 9 | Indiana Tax Amnesty closes. Last day to set up a payment plan and get penalties, interest, and collection fees waived on pre-2024 liabilities. Not available if you used the 2005 or 2015 amnesty. DOR → |
| Sep 30 | SBA manufacturer fee waiver closes. |
Update: SBA renewed the 0% fee for manufacturers for another year starting Oct 1, 2026, as we reported on Sept 29.
THE INDIANA NUMBER
$43.77 / hour
The average wage on the 3,000-plus new jobs Indiana companies committed to this year, about 44% above the state average and 10% above last year’s record. Thirty-four companies made those commitments, worth $273.7 million in new payroll. This is not a number to match. It is what the companies moving here are paying, and it is who your next skilled hire is quietly comparing you to.
Source: Indiana Economic Development Corporation, second quarter 2026.
AROUND THE STATEHOUSE
A new corporate headquarters lands in Fort Wayne
True Value is moving its headquarters to Fort Wayne. Do it Best, which bought the brand out of bankruptcy, is relocating it from Chicago to the Electric Works campus with about $3.4M in state incentives. For Allen County that is a new corporate buyer for IT, facilities, catering, and staffing, and more competition for admin and management talent. Worth a look at your pay bands. Inside INdiana →
WORTH A LISTEN OR A READ
Four worth your time
Set your marketing budget backward. An Owned and Operated episode argues you should stop setting marketing spend as a percentage of revenue. Work backward from how many leads you actually need to hit your number, then figure out what a lead costs you. Applies to any service business. Owned and Operated →
Working in the business versus on it. On Acquiring Minds, Jake Bittner bought an IT firm for about $600k and grew it to a roughly $35M exit. The useful part is the seven things he changed, and nearly all of them come back to removing himself as the bottleneck. Acquiring Minds →
Know what you are worth before anyone calls. The Exit Planning Institute finds that only 20 to 30% of businesses that go to market actually sell. This is not about selling. A current number shows you where the business depends on one person and which value gaps are fixable. Exit Planning Institute →
What actually sets the price of a service business. An Owned and Operated episode on scaling an HVAC company makes the point every service owner should hear: buyers pay for recurring contracts, a real management bench, and a digitized customer process, not just profit. A business that runs on the owner is worth less. Owned and Operated →
TOOLS WORTH A LOOK
Three you can put to work this month
Roughly two-thirds of small businesses now use AI in some form, up from about half a year ago, and the average user reports saving close to six hours a week.
Your IRS Business Tax Account. It now lets you download an EIN verification letter yourself, which banks accept in place of a 147C, pull payroll and income transcripts, and give an employee limited access. Ten minutes now saves a scramble the next time a bank or a buyer asks for records. IRS →
AI note-taking on your calls. Tools like Google Voice now add call summaries, transcripts, and action items, and sell standalone without a full software suite. If your sales or service team still writes notes by hand, pilot it on one team and watch how much faster the follow-up goes. Everyone on the call hears a recording disclosure. Google Workspace →
A penalty you may not actually owe. The IRS is rolling out Automatic Exemption from Penalty this summer. If you have three clean years behind you, a one-time late filing or payment is not penalized, and there is nothing to apply for. If a penalty notice showed up after one bad month, it is worth checking whether that relief should have applied. IRS →
EVENTS WORTH YOUR TIME
Where to be
July 23 and 24: Indiana Chamber HR Leadership Seminar. Built for owners who carry the people problems themselves. Details →
July 24: TechPoint on AI and talent, Indianapolis. Details →
July 27: Indy Chamber Breakthrough Selling workshop, Indianapolis. Sales momentum, which every owner needs regardless of what you sell. Details →
Aug 11: Greater Fort Wayne small-business health-insurance session, and Aug 18, Financial Health and Sustainability. Two of the more useful pure-operator events on the calendar. Details →
Aug 11: Women Excel Bloomington. Details →
Aug 25: IN AI Roadshow, Greater Lafayette. Practical, early-stage AI sessions built for small and midsize operators, not theory. Details →
For Buyers & Sellers
If you are buying, selling, or just want to know what your company is worth, here is the deal-side read.
The market rewards clean, not just big. BizBuySell’s Q2 report shows completed sales down about 10% from last year, but buyers are paying up for quality. A telling gap: 61% of buyers want seller financing, where the seller carries part of the price as a loan, but only 19% of owners plan to offer it. If you are selling, a reasonable seller note widens your buyer pool and your price. BizBuySell →
Correction: BizBuySell’s Q2 2026 report found 90% of buyers expect seller financing and 29% of owners plan to offer it. We printed lower figures here and corrected them in the Oct 13 issue.
Succession is becoming a community project. Greater Lafayette Commerce launched an Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition initiative, backed by a $40,000 state grant, to help retiring owners build succession plans and match them with local buyers. The point for everyone else: a business that depends on you being there every day has almost no transferable value. Documenting how the work gets done, separating personal and company finances, and building a management bench is the same work whether you sell in ten years or never. Greater Lafayette Commerce →
ONE BIG ASK
Host an OWN Night, or sponsor one
Each month OWN is hosted at a different Indiana business. July, August, and September are set, and October is coming together in Bloomington. We need help with November and December. Three formats work well: a facility tour, a founder story, or teaching one system you use to run better. Open to other ideas too.
We are also opening up event sponsorship. One sponsor per night, not a logo wall. You get time at the mic in front of the room, your name on the event page and the on-site signage, and a feature in this newsletter. It also helps us keep taking OWN to more of the state.
Want to host or sponsor? Reply to this email or message Jared on LinkedIn. Also open: shop-visit nominations, roundtable topics, and cities outside Indy where OWN should show up.
Thanks for reading. Reach me directly at [email protected].
One favor: hit reply and tell me what you run and what you want more of. It shapes what goes in the next one.
Jared Luegers
Founder, OWN Indiana