Writers' Guidelines

MyBusiness is a guide to survival and success for small business owners. We take an in-depth look at how small business owners own, operate and grow their companies. The experiences of real small-business owners are essential to every story.

Our readers

MyBusiness is sent bimonthly to members of the National Federation of Independent Business. These small-business owners range from at-home sole proprietors to heads of companies with up to 500 employees. Our readers’ companies report median revenue of nearly $700,000 and an average of 16 employees.

Review our editorial calendar for more details.

What we want

We accept pitches for feature stories, which fall under one of three categories: Own, Operate and Grow. Story ideas should be small-business focused, with an emphasis on timely problems that small business owners face and real, workable solutions. Trend pieces are also of interest.

Submission policies

Please read this section carefully before submitting an idea.

  • Rather than unsolicited articles, we prefer to hear story ideas. It is strongly encouraged that writers check several recent issues of MyBusiness to find if their proposal is suitable. The most successful queries are tightly focused and contain timely, actionable information about the small-business experience.
  • Send proposals in writing to MyBusiness Magazine, c/o Imagination Publishing, 600 West Fulton St., Suite 600, Chicago, IL 60661 or e-mail to NFIB@imaginepub.com. Include your resume and two to four clips, preferably business-related.
  • Because of the large number of inquiries we receive, we accept written queries only. You can send your query by e-mail. No phone calls please. We will contact you if your pitch is a fit.
  • Deadlines are usually 90 days before publication. Copy should be submitted as a Microsoft Word enclosure. We pay upon publication. Our rates vary and are not discussed until we agree to accept an article query for publication.

Writing standards

Keep these key points in mind as you write for MyBusiness: We’re here to help small-business owners by giving them a range of how-to pieces that evaluate, analyze and lead to solutions.

We expect writers to double-check their facts and be able to vouch for every phone number, Web address and name spelling in a story. We also request a list of sources with contact phone numbers and email addresses, for fact-checking purposes.

We follow The Associated Press style in most cases, with a few exceptions. Please, only a single space after periods.