Welcome to your daily briefing on small business developments in Michigan. Today we're covering 6 key stories including updates on michigan small business headlines, background & context. Let's dive in.
3 stories
A DBA, or 'doing business as,' is a registered business name that an individual or company operates under that differs from its legal name.
Michigan entrepreneurs who want to brand their business under a name other than their legal entity must understand DBA registration requirements to operate compliantly.
The Michigan Secretary of State operates the MiBusiness Registry Portal, which allows users to look up and review basic file information for any Michigan-registered business entity.
Small business professionals in MI can use this tool to verify competitor or partner registration status, conduct due diligence, or confirm their own entity details are accurate.
Commenda published a 2026 guide explaining how to find registered Michigan businesses through the state's online business entity search tool.
Michigan small business professionals can use this resource to verify competitor registrations, check name availability, or conduct due diligence before partnerships.
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3 stories
The S-corp election lets owner-operators take part of their income as wages (subject to payroll tax) and the rest as distributions (not subject to self-employment tax). The savings only matter once profit consistently exceeds a "reasonable salary" — typically $50K-$80K of pure profit above the salary baseline. Below that threshold, the added payroll-processing cost eats the savings.
Many LLCs elect S-corp status before they have enough profit to benefit, paying payroll processing for no tax savings. The election is reversible but not on a clock that matters in real time.
Buy-sell agreements among co-owners specify what happens at death, disability, or departure — but only matter if there is a funding source to actually execute the buyout. Common defects: insurance policies that lapsed, valuation methods that produce numbers no one can pay, and trigger events that include voluntary departure without a payment plan.
Without funding, the surviving owner faces a co-owner's heirs as the new business partner. Most buy-sell disputes that reach litigation are not about the agreement's terms but about the absence of a funding mechanism.
Most small-business insurance portfolios share predictable gaps: cyber liability (often excluded from general liability), employment practices (separate from general liability), business interruption (often capped well below actual reliance), and professional liability (excluded if not specifically purchased even when professional services are offered).
Each gap can become a six-figure claim that the owner assumed was covered. The cost of filling the four gaps is typically a few hundred to a few thousand dollars annually.
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