Advocacy Act Now: General Open Enrollment for Health Coverage Ends December 15
The 2021 open enrollment period for Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage in the Marketplace runs until Tuesday, December 15, in most states. During open enrollment, you can add, drop, or make changes to your health insurance coverage. Medicare Open Enrollment is also in full swing and runs until Monday, December 7. Booksellers should contact ABA membership health insurance partner LIG Solutions for a no-obligation health insurance assessment. State and Local Small Business Relief
Don’t forget that state and local small business relief may still be available in your area. Be sure to continuously check your state and local government websites for funding opportunities. For example, Connecticut has a new grant program that will open for applications soon. Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Independent Business Petition to Congress
This petition calls on Congress to act on the recommendations in the House Antitrust Subcommittee’s Big Tech report, which found that Amazon has monopoly power (see ILSR’s short explainer on the findings here). The petition asks Congress to pass legislation to break up and regulate Amazon and help restore competition so entrepreneurs have a fair shot to compete. Interested bookstores can sign the petition here. Last Day to Apply to be Featured in a Small Business Holiday Gift Guide
Bookstores can apply to be featured in Small Business Majority’s 2020 Holiday Gift Guide. This is a great opportunity to promote your bookstore for free during the holiday season. Approved applicants will be featured on Small Business Majority’s website from November 16, 2020, to January 1, 2021, and will be given a toolkit to share the gift guide with their customers. The deadline to apply is today, November 9. Apply to appear in the gift guide here.
IndieCommerce Save Time and Money with Your Own Credit Card Merchant Account
If your IndieCommerce (not IndieLite) website is still using the shared ABA credit card merchant account, now is the time to switch over to your own merchant account. Doing so will save you money with lower credit card processing fees, faster transfer of credit card payments to your bank, and faster refunds for your customers. Contact [email protected] today for more information or read these instructions to get started. ’Tis the Season for Credit Card Fraud
As the holiday shopping season starts to ramp up, so will the number of fraudulent online transactions. We’re currently seeing over $10,000 a month in fraudulent sales on IndieCommerce sites! Pay careful attention to your online orders before processing them! This is a great time to familiarize yourself with the most recent red flags to watch for when reviewing orders for fraud. Be extra careful when bulk processing online orders. It’s very tempting to not review orders for fraud before using this feature, but it’s almost certain you will accidentally process a fraudulent order if you don’t know what to watch for.
If you run across what you suspect to be fraudulent orders, please report them to [email protected].
This Week’s Events Coffee Break: Tuesday, November 10, at 3:00 p.m. ET
Join us for an opportunity to share support, ask questions, and trade best practices. All booksellers are welcome. If you’ve never attended this event before, it’s a great way to hear what’s working well at other stores and crowdsource solutions to any challenges you’re facing at your store. Email [email protected] for Zoom login details. Technology Meetup: Open Conversation, Thursday, November 12, at 1:00 p.m. ET
This session will not have any specific guest speakers. Instead, booksellers are invited to discuss what technologies improved their business operations or made work life easier this year, what technology they might be looking into for next year, Technology Meetup topics that stores benefited from over the past year, and what booksellers might like to see covered during meetups in 2021. Advance registration is required.
ABA is here for all of you. Please reach out if there is anything we can help with. Members can contact me directly, or email the Membership, Advocacy, or IndieCommerce teams. Best,
Allison |
