Hey Athens.
I'm Andrew, the owner of Athens Scoop. Over 7,000+ people read our weekly newsletter about life in this town. About ~800 of you have told us you own a business here, and this is an email just for you to keep you connected to the entrepreneurial side of town.
Everything here is free. I want to help Athens businesses grow, and I think the best way to do that is to get us all in the same room and talking to each other. The businesses that thrive here are the ones that are connected.
Here's edition 4:
Athens Scoop Business Lunch is happening.
No agenda, no pitch decks, no nametag energy. Just a meal and real conversation with other people who run things in this town.
I'm locking down the restaurant now. I’ll send details to everyone who voted in the poll last week soon. If you didn’t vote but want in, reply “I’m in!”
Spots will be limited. More details coming soon to everyone who votes.
Georgia just signed $1.6 billion in tax relief, and your business gets a piece of it.
On Friday, March 20, Gov. Kemp signed two bills at the Capitol: HB 1000, a one-time income tax rebate totaling nearly $1.2 billion, and HB 1199, a 60-day suspension of the state gas tax. Both are now law.
The rebate breaks down like this: $250 for single filers, $375 for heads of household, $500 for married couples filing jointly. You need to have filed your 2024 and 2025 Georgia returns to qualify. The Department of Revenue expects to start sending checks this summer, roughly six to eight weeks from now.
The gas tax suspension went into effect immediately. Georgia's excise tax is 33.3 cents per gallon on regular gas and 37.3 cents on diesel. Prices at the pump should start dropping within days as new fuel deliveries hit gas stations. The suspension runs through May 19.
Context: gas prices in Georgia averaged $3.79 a gallon as of March 20, up 39% in a month. The run-up is tied to the conflict in Iran and its impact on global oil markets. Georgia is the first state to suspend its gas tax in response. Speaker Jon Burns estimated the suspension will save Georgia drivers and businesses nearly $400 million over 60 days.
Why this matters to you. If you run a business with a vehicle fleet, delivery costs, or commuting employees, the gas relief is immediate. A 15-gallon fill-up saves about $5 per trip starting now. The income tax rebate is separate cash back that hits this summer. And there's more potentially coming: HB 1001, which would cut Georgia's flat income tax rate from 5.19% to 4.99% for 2026, has already passed the House and is moving through the Senate. If signed, that's the lowest rate in state history and would save the average business owner additional money on pass-through income.
Between the rebate, the gas tax suspension, and a possible rate cut, this is the most aggressive tax relief session Georgia has run in years.
Claude just made its best features free. If you run a business, pay attention.
Earlier this month, Anthropic (the company behind the AI assistant Claude) made two of its most powerful features, Projects and Artifacts, free for all users. Previously, you needed a $20/month subscription. Now you don't.
Here's why that matters to you. Claude Projects lets you upload your business context (your menu, your pricing, your SOPs, your brand guidelines, whatever) into a persistent workspace. Then every time you ask Claude something, it already knows your business. You're not re-explaining yourself every conversation. You ask "write me a response to this Google review" and it already knows your tone, your hours, and your services.
Artifacts is the other piece. When you ask Claude to build something, like a budget tracker, a client intake form, or a weekly social media calendar, it creates a live, interactive tool right in the chat window. Not a document. A working app. No code required.
To try it: go to claude.ai, create a free account, click "Projects" in the sidebar, and start a new project. Upload a few files that describe your business (even just your website's About page or a PDF of your services). Then start asking it to do things. Draft an email to a vendor. Write this week's Instagram caption. Build a simple calculator for your pricing. It works immediately.
One caveat: the free version uses a less powerful model and has daily message limits. If you hit the cap, you'll get cut off until the next day. For most small business tasks, it's more than enough. If you find yourself using it constantly, the $20/month Pro plan removes the limits and gives you the stronger model.
What kind of networking has worked best for you? |
That's Edition 4. If you know something I should cover, whether it's a business opening, closing, hiring, expanding, or doing something worth paying attention to, reply to this email. I read all of them. If you're interested in sponsoring this newsletter or the main Athens Scoop one, click here.
We also built a free business directory at athenscoop.com/directory for Athens business owners. Your listing gets seen by our 7,000+ readers and gives your business an SEO boost with 5-10 backlinks to our site. No cost to join. Let us know at the bottom of that website or here and we'll get you set up.
Talk soon.