small.news: October 12, 2026 Joan Mansour Started Teaching Cake Decorating at Her Dining Room Table small.storiesBy Kekeletso Nkele, small.news Assistant In the 1970s, Joan Mansour made birthday cakes for her children. They were beautiful cakes — the kind that made people stop and ask questions. Friends asked how she did it. Neighbors asked if she could teach them. She set up around her dining room table and started showing people what she knew. Nobody planned for it to become a business. It became one anyway. What grew from those informal lessons is now NY Cake Academy®, a 5,000-square-foot home for baking education, retail, and community in Chelsea, Manhattan. The journey between those two points took five decades, several moves, at least one man who told her she would never make it, and a stubbornness that, in retrospect, looks a lot like vision. Read More → Top Stories ICYMI: The Man Building a Business to Last a Thousand Years small.worldBy Kekeletso Nkele, small.news Assistant With Contributions From Jay Cziraky There are small business owners who think in quarters. Some think in years. And then there is Jay Cziraky — a man who thinks in centuries. Cziraky is the founder of The No-End Philosophy Company, a Budapest-based organization built on a deceptively simple idea: That the greatest risk to our collective future is not economic stagnation, but the way we have allowed profit to flow out of communities rather than through them. His answer is a socio-economic model he calls No-End — a framework designed to keep capital circulating from investors to small business owners to the communities that need it most, sustained not by charity, but by commerce. Read More → Nova Scotia Small Business Owners Losing 90% of U.S. Revenue as Canada-U.S. Trade War Deepens small.deskBy Kekeletso Nkele, small.news Assistant Two Nova Scotia small business owners say the Canada-U.S. trade war has gutted their American customer base, forcing one to take on outside employment and the other to restructure her entire fulfillment operation, with both now calling on Canadians to redirect more spending to local businesses, according to CBC Nova Scotia. Read More → India’s MSME Sector Eyes Credit Breakthrough as New Law, Co-Lending Rules and Digital Payments small.deskBy Kekeletso Nkele, small.news Assistant A series of overlapping legislative and regulatory changes are reshaping the financing landscape for India’s micro, small, and medium enterprises, with lenders and industry bodies saying the reforms could mark a turning point in credit access for smaller businesses — provided implementation keeps pace with policy design, reports Business Standard. Read More → Building a Stronger Mindset: Small Steps, Big Growth small.adviceBy Charlene Crawford, Owner of Crawford Education Plus As the owner of Crawford Education Plus, I believe education is about more than learning facts and passing tests. It is also about learning how to believe in yourself, make good choices, solve problems, and keep going when things get difficult. A strong mindset does not mean you never feel afraid, tired, disappointed, or unsure. Read More → small.laughs By Dave Zaboski Disclaimer: All resemblances to any persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental and in no way meant to intentionally hurt anyone’s feelings. Keep Laughing → Leadership & Management Today – Same or Different? small.opinionsBy Caroline Nyamwaya Mwazi, Director and Transformation Lead, Huru Consult “Running a business can be lonely, but you don’t have to walk alone. People who challenge you, encourage you, and ask the difficult questions will make a big difference.” – Caroline Nyamwaya Mwazi ICYMI: Arrey Obenson on Youth, Curiosity, and Why Small Business Is the Path to Global Prosperity small.talkBy Kekeletso Nkele, small.news Assistant On July 29, 2026, Arrey Obenson, Co-founder of Transformunity, joined our small.talk to make the case that the world’s greatest untapped opportunity lies in its young people — and that small businesses are the vehicle to unlock it. Arrey joined Silver Lining Founder and CEO Carissa Reiniger spoke about the mindset shifts needed to meet a rapidly changing world, why rigid commitment to the past is the enemy of progress, and how empowering the next generation of small business owners could close income gaps, create employment, and transform communities from the ground up. Read More → Thank You To Our Founding Sponsors!