By Joseph E. Seagle, Esq.

👋 Happy Friday! Today, the last Friday in January, is National Fun at Work Day. So, have fun if you’re at work today.

❗️Situation Awareness: Trump has abandoned his idea of allowing buyers to tap their 401K retirement funds for home purchase funds. We covered that proposal in this newsletter a few weeks ago. Go deeper on the about-face at Bigger Pockets.

1 big thing: SBA rolls out revolving business credit lines

The U.S. Small Business Administration has launched a new revolving credit loan program aimed squarely at manufacturers — a rare move in SBA lending that focuses on working capital, not just term loans. Early approvals signal the agency wants faster access to capital for businesses scaling production, modernizing facilities, or reshoring operations. 

Why this program is different

Unlike traditional SBA 7(a) loans that function more like long-term financing, the new Manufacturers’ Access to Revolving Credit (MARC) Loan operates as a credit line. Businesses can draw, repay, and redraw funds as needed — a major advantage for companies managing inventory cycles, payroll spikes, or supply-chain volatility.

Key details:

This makes MARC especially attractive to businesses that already have contracts, purchase orders, or rising demand — but need liquidity to keep the machine running.

Fee relief sweetens the deal

To accelerate adoption, the SBA is also waiving most loan fees for small manufacturers through September 30:

For capital-intensive businesses, these fee reductions materially lower the cost of borrowing — and may tip the scale toward expansion sooner rather than later.

Why Florida businesses should pay attention

Florida’s manufacturing sector spans aerospace, medical devices, food production, construction materials, and defense-adjacent industries. Many of these businesses face seasonal demand, labor constraints, and rising input costs — precisely the problems revolving credit solves.

Pair this program with Florida’s strong logistics infrastructure, workforce initiatives, and reshoring momentum, and MARC becomes a strategic financing tool rather than just another loan.

The takeaway: This is one of the most flexible SBA capital tools introduced in years. For manufacturers — and Florida-based suppliers tied to manufacturing — revolving SBA credit could mean faster growth, smoother cash flow, and better resilience in 2026.

What to watch next: Lender participation, underwriting standards, and whether the program expands beyond manufacturing if early results stay strong.

2. Inherited homes won’t solve the housing crisis

Recent data reveal a record share of U.S. homes are changing hands through inheritance, but don’t bank on this trend to ease the housing shortage facing buyers and renters. Policymakers and entrepreneurs should shift focus from hoping for demographic supply to building real inventory and unlocking existing stock. 

Vision: The “Silver Tsunami” Isn’t Delivering Supply

In the 12 months ending August 2025, roughly 340,000 U.S. homes were transferred through inheritance, accounting for about 7% of all property transfers—the highest share ever recorded by property analytics firm Cotality. That might seem like a big number, but it’s tiny relative to the roughly 30 million homes owned by Americans 65 and older, and it doesn’t translate into a flood of inventory hitting the open market. 

In California, where favorable tax policies, such as inherited Proposition 13 tax protections that make keeping homes in the family financially attractive, make inheritance financially attractive, nearly 60,000 properties were inherited in 2025 — more than twice the number of new homes sold locally. Yet even here, incentives to keep homes locked up with heirs dampen actual listings. 

Traction: Demographics Don’t Equal Listings

The much-anticipated “Silver Tsunami” — the idea that aging baby boomers will downsize and flood the market with homes — is largely a myth. Boomers are aging in place longer and holding onto homes, slowing the flow of properties to younger buyers. Many heirs, buoyed by tax breaks or emotional attachment, choose to occupy or retain inherited homes rather than sell them. 

For entrepreneurs and professionals eyeing housing market trends, this dynamic matters: relying on inheritance as a supply solution underestimates how housing economics actually function. The structural shortage — millions of homes short of what the market needs — persists because construction and zoning reforms haven’t kept pace with demand. 

People & Process: What This Means for Florida

In Florida, where housing demand continues to outstrip supply, stakeholders should temper expectations that inherited homes will ease affordability pressures. Instead, strategies that unlock existing homes (through rehabilitation, title clearance, and heirs’ property reforms) and accelerate new construction will have a more tangible impact on expanding inventory and meeting the real needs of buyers, renters, and local economies.

Bottom Line: Inherited homes can help some families build wealth or transition housing between generations — but they won’t, by themselves, solve affordability or supply crises. To move the needle materially, communities must focus on policies and development that actively expand usable housing stock where people want to live.

On this week’s episode of the Trust This podcast, I sit down with Chris McCullom of Bespoke Human Potential Coaching to dig into the issue of why smart entrepreneurs stay stuck and how to break through it.

 Listen in or watch on your favorite streaming platform.

3. Your “mattering span” — the overlooked retirement planning risk

Most retirement planning focuses on wealth and health. But many retirees quietly struggle with something else: the loss of relevance, purpose, and identity. Research shows that feeling like you no longer “matter” can be as damaging to health as financial stress.

What’s new

In a recent Wall Street Journal essay, author Jennifer Breheny Wallace reframed retirement planning around mattering — the human need to feel seen, affirmed, included, and depended on (the SAID principles). Her warning is simple: if you don’t plan your “mattering span” with the same fervor you plan your wealth span and your health span, retirement can feel like a slow social disappearance.

The big picture

For business owners and professionals, work has long supplied mattering:

Retirement removes that structure overnight.

Key takeaways (the SAID principles)

As humans, we yearn to be:

These questions belong alongside estate plans, not after them.

Planning insight

We increasingly see retirement

plans that address:

Bottom line

A long, well-funded retirement without purpose is fragile. Planning your mattering span is not touchy-feely—it’s risk management for the second half of life.

Go Deeper at our website

Get the Matterspan Worksheet to assess preparedness for retirement for yourself or — if you’re a financial adviser — your clients.

4. The rise of the fractional executive solopreneur

A new form of entrepreneurship is quietly reshaping leadership: the fractional executive solopreneur. These are seasoned operators—former CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, COOs—who build solo businesses by delivering executive-level impact to multiple companies at once. Not consultants. Not employees. Operators for hire.

This isn’t a fad. It’s a structural response to tighter capital, flatter organizations, and founders who need traction without full-time overhead.

Why fractional executives are booming

Small businesses are facing a paradox: complexity is increasing, but tolerance for bloated payrolls is shrinking.

Fractional leadership solves for both.

This is EOS in human form: right person, right seat—without buying the whole bus. Fractional CEOs (visionaries) and COOs (integrators) are becoming ubiquitous in small and medium-sized businesses, just as fractional CFOs, CMOs, CSOs, and CLOs have been for several years.

What fractional leaders actually do (when done right)

The best fractional executives don’t just advise. They own outcomes.

If they’re not tied to numbers, timelines, and results, they’re not fractional — they’re just expensive therapy.

The opportunity for entrepreneurs

For operators considering this path, the win is leverage:

For founders, the win is speed:

The takeaway

Fractional executive solopreneurship is not a downgrade from “real leadership.” It’s leadership unbundled — focused, accountable, and ruthlessly practical.

If your business needs traction but not another full-time title, this model might be the smartest hire you’ll never put on payroll.

Next step: Identify the single executive function your business is missing — and fractionalize it before it becomes a bottleneck.

We hope you found this helpful — any feedback is appreciated and can be shared by hitting reply or using the feedback feature below.

Be on the lookout for our next issue! 👋