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You Work Where??

 

Everyone talks about big results.

Few people talk about where it actually gets done.

The desk. The truck. The warehouse. The corner of a room you made work.

It is not always pretty.

It is not always ideal.

But it is real.

And most businesses are built in places that would not impress anyone on social media.

That is part of it.

Making decisions based on outdated thresholds.

 

The IRS updated key tax numbers for 2026, and those changes affect more than just your tax return.

They affect how much income is taxed, how much you can contribute to retirement, how much of your wages are subject to payroll tax, and how much you may be able to deduct for things like mileage and equipment purchases.

If you are still using last year’s numbers, you may be making decisions based on outdated limits.

Here are the 2026 updates business owners should pay attention to.

The decisions that cut next year’s tax bill happen right now.

Your CPA reported what happened last year. We analyzeswhat you can change this year, before the window closes on strategies that can’t be backdated.

Structure, retirement, deductions, credits—these decisions compound. Waiting until Q4 is how business owners end up overpaying by $30K–$80K.

We find missed strategies across retirement, entity structure, deductions, and insurance—with IRS calculations.

Your CPA’s job ended, our job starts now. See exactly what you’re leaving on the table.

Billionaires don’t have better CPAs.

They have a team actively reducing their tax bill — year-round, not just in April. That’s the real difference.

Wealthy taxpayers use planners who map out retirement, entity elections, and deduction timing before the year is over. Not after.

Stryde gives business owners the same AI-powered tax analysis.

What is a Buy-Sell Agreement?

While business owners hope to be successful enough that they have cash on hand to buy a partner’s interests out after an unexpected death, that’s not always the case. Even if it is, a lack of pre-planning can create an unfavorable situation when valuing the business and determining the method of payment.

Buy-sell agreements create a two-pronged approach to ensure the continuation of the business after the death of one of the owners. First, these agreements spell out the means by which the business will be valued at the time of an owner’s death. In addition to establishing

an easy to define valuation method, they also (when properly structured) provide the funding with which the surviving owner(s) can purchase the deceased owner’s

shares, thus allowing business and personal capital to remain untouched.

One of the ways that a buy-sell agreement can fund the purchase of the interests is by establishing the

purchase of a life insurance policy for each owner. All or a portion of the death benefit is then used to buy out the interest based on the valuation method chosen in the agreement.

Insurance isn’t the only way to fund a buy-sell agreement. Businesses can also choose to fund them with annuities, which may be preferred if one or more of the business owners happen to be uninsurable.

Control Is Costing You Growth

 

Most business owners start the same way.

You figure things out. You make it work. You get results.

So naturally, you trust your way.

And for a while, that works.

Until it doesn’t.

Because the same mindset that helped you build it… can quietly limit how far it goes.

If everything has to go through you, growth slows down.

And the people who could help you scale?

They start to feel it.

Not because they are not capable.

Because they are not being trusted to execute.