Mobile augmented reality is still quite young but it is already attracting a lot of attention. It is the process of overlaying digital information onto the real world. Think of experiencing an app by a rock band where you can insert yourself into the concert and jam right along with the band. Technically impressive…yes! The business model and how you can make money with it is clearly still evolving.

That’s a polite way of saying mobile “AR” is really cool but no one knows how to use it yet but that doesn’t mean we should not be paying attention.

Perhaps one way Augmented Reality will be used is with with Industry-Based Learning

The modern world has experienced a great transformation in learning. There has been a shift away from self-study and workshops toward mobile training apps and learning management systems. However, human resource training experts are still in search of better learning solutions that can further improve their learning opportunities.

It is no wonder that augmented reality training falls among the hottest trends in the corporate learning industry. Most HR practitioners love these programs because of their possibilities. The 2014 sensor data survey reported (with regard to mixed reality training) that there was explicit proof that augmented reality training actually works. The survey revealed that Mobile AR’s offer significant advantages when you use them for training guidance.

For one, they eliminate the need for completing a task twice. Additionally, mobile augmented reality programs reduce the chance of making a mistake by 90 percent. By reducing the number of times you need to look at a device by 50%, these applications also enhance concentration levels for users. Even though this survey was carried out among engineers, one can assume that HR experts from other sectors can also take advantage of mobile augmented reality programs and use them to cover multiple types of training.

Healthcare Real-Life Practice

The Atlantic article highlights that most physicians and nurses in the United States don’t get a chance to put their skills into practice during training. It translates into a national wide shortage of nurses since most of the young professionals without practice don’t get a chance to secure employment. Healthcare experts are looking for ways of enabling on-work AR training that has applications such as DASH and anatomy 4D to solve this problem.

AR applications can assist healthcare workers to gain a skilled hand while safely performing procedures with the assistance of AR visual guidance. It is compatible with both living people and mannequins, and can capture the whole or parts of the human body frame, carry out an analysis on it and display additional tips according to the procedures you select upfront. For example, it can mark for you the exact sport for administering an injection or show you the region to examine for a given diagnosis.

Manufacturing: Introduction to the Job

You will discover that factory workers may require 6-month introductory training before they can independently work with a given machine in a safe manner with no need for supervision. Employees need some time before they become experts who can quickly recognize, replace, utilize, or fix complex machine units, systems, and mechanisms.

A mobile app can not only replace a supervisor but also reduce the training time. The application captures each section and provides a summary of what this detail is capable of or meant for. It will also show you how to carry out the operation through markers or arrows on the mobile screen.

It also comes with an option that allows you to add a voiceover with the facts that the trainee requires to understand. You could also attach a related video to the mobile application. The app can also analyze a condition of different mechanisms and report with immediate effect if there is need to adjust some details into the right position. Therefore, the employees will not acquire any erroneous practice skills.

Retail-Knowledge Review

Auditors and merchandisers are already widely making use of mobile apps in their daily workflow. You can combine these mobile applications with AR features to support training. You can customize the app to reflect a specific product category or brand for it to provide tips accordingly.

For example, a merchandiser will be able to capture a shelf of cereals. The application will be able to check that all the SKU faces are arranged in properly and display a notification when there is a mistake. This will spare the trainee the costs of real-life errors from the usual trail and error methods where one build’s up experience over time.

Car Insurance-Knowledge Testing

Car insurance deals with mechanisms just like manufacturing. Therefore, the ability of mobile AR applications for augmenting an auto can be helpful in introducing the trainees to this industry. They can adopt a similar functioning like the Audi AR and Volkswagen apps.

The advantage of AR software is that it can analyze the model of a car or even multi-models and compare it with the stored information of undamaged vehicles and identify the damage. The application can calculate and estimate the cost of repairs according to the prevailing industry rates and test whether the employee calculated properly. It can give them one, three or even five attempts to type the variations. The app will display the correct summation and provide a detailed explanation on how to provide the estimate correctly.

Selecting and Integrating the Device

Until recently, augmented reality was only accessible through gadgets like Hololens and Google Glass. However, AR for tablets and Smartphones has become an alluring option in the modern world. The development of mobile applications can tailor AR software logics to fit to any device.

However, AR for tablets and Smartphones can be inconvenient in industries where individuals need to use both hands to operate equipment, work in conditions that don’t allow them to hold a device or where they wear special gear. You will want to be sure it makes sense to provide AR equipped eye wear for your company. You might want to also combine AR training with classroom studies. It’s advisable to integrate these processes with the education management system of your company.

AR software for mobile devices and eyewear can enable safe training in action, decrease the time required to complete tasks and improve learning results. Most industries can implement AR training including insurance, manufacturing, retail and healthcare trades. Companies can integrate these process for one or multiple learning steps as they make it an important component of their blended learning program.

In 2002, the average Internet user would have interacted with two touch-points when purchasing an item. Less than 10% of users would use more than four touch points. Today, however, average consumers will use almost six touch-points when making an internet purchase. This means that sellers and business owners need to stay on top of where and how their audiences are buying their goods.

The challenge is to make sure all channels are in sync. It also means that offline and online shopping experiences are becoming more and more congruent. This means that more and more customers are expecting to buy an item online and then pick it up in a physical store.

The infographic below comes from call tracking experts Mediahawk, who specialise in uniting the online customer journey with offline conversions via telephone and with integrations with Google Analytics and Salesforce.

Here is a checklist to help you benefit from the competitive edge that omni-channel marketing brings.

What can you do to protect your small business?

A security breach could cost you thousands to sort out and put your customer’s personal information at risk. The problem with cyber-crime is that companies often don’t know they have been hacked until the damage is done. Getting cyber smart now could save you a lot of money and hassle in the long run. A good place to start is by identifying your weakest areas. For example, if you have a company email account, ensure all employees are vigilant when it comes to opening only safe emails.

Many cyber criminals use emails to send viruses and malware. If you don’t already have a filter for spam that identifies precarious emails, it is well worth it to invest in one. Similarly, it is also worth installing antivirus software to any work computers. These programs will defend your computer’s shared drive and prevent your businesses information from being compromised. Always keep your systems updated as hackers modify their scams and phishing techniques almost as quickly as web security companies improve theirs.

Teach your employees about cyber security

Have a system in place that protects your information. Ensure all computers have passwords that are not easy to guess and change them routinely. Choose unique passwords for all machines. It might be tricky to remember, but in the event of an attack, it will slow hackers down and might even stop them in their tracks.

Teach your employees the warning signs and encourage them to keep the company’s personal information private. Also make sure you change passwords when employees leave your company – promptly.

Avoid sharing information via email where possible. Always phone a company to confirm they are legitimate before wiring  them any money. Keep all of this in mind whether you are dealing with clients, banks or even work colleagues.

In the unfortunate event that a breach of security does occur, make sure you have a plan in place so all employees know exactly what to do. Working together might not stop an attack but it could certainly limit the extent of the damage the cyber criminals can cause.

Have routine employee meetings. Remind them of your security procedures, change passwords and make sure everyone is on board with what to do in the event of a breach.

If in doubt bring in an expert

The reason cyber criminals often target small businesses is because many smaller corporations have access to their customer’s personal and financial information. However while this information is sensitive, it isn’t always well protected. Hackers know this. They can use this information to defraud your customers and clients and even extort money out of your company.This could cause customers to lose trust in your company and if the information is misused, you could end up being liable.

Many small companies have actually gone out of business as result of a cyber-attack. To ensure that all the bases are covered it is worth contacting an IT security consultant. They can identify vulnerabilities in your company’s web security immediately and implement a program immediately to protect your systems from cyber-crime.

It is also possible to get cyber liability insurance to cover you in the event of a security breach. Some policies will even pay your legal fees so it is definitely worth looking into if you want added protection or feel you need it.

In any event, cyber crime is on the rise. Make sure you do everything you can to protect your company from an attack.

The business world seems like it caters to extroverts. And that makes sense: As a business owner, you need charisma to lead a team, negotiate with partners and engage with them regularly. In addition, you need to network with new people and improve your client relationships.

Related: 5 Mega-Successful Entrepreneurs Who Are Introverts

For an introvert, therefore, these responsibilities may seem intimidating, or even overwhelming, to deal with. Introverts tend to prefer quieter, solitary environments; but does that mean it’s impossible for them to be successful entrepreneurs?

Of course not. If you’re an introvert, you have your own strengths and weaknesses; and while you may have some extra challenges to overcome in business ownership, you’ll also have some extra advantages — if you know how to use them.

1. Choose your business category wisely.

Your first step is to choose your business carefully. Before you write up a business plan, think carefully about your idea and how it will relate to your personality and mental and emotional needs:

• Play to your strengths. Not always, but often, introverts like to bury themselves in specific, individual tasks. For example, you might like to code applications at work, or, as a hobbyist, you might be an expert woodworker. In either case, you need to build a business that caters to your particular strengths. There’s almost certainly something you can do or something you know that extroverts won’t be able to match. So pinpoint it and exploit it.
• Minimize interaction demand. When you start planning your business, opt for a model that doesn’t require much personal interaction. For example, you might want to avoid one-on-one consulting or training if you don’t enjoy socializing. You might also want to rely more on helpful tools to build your business than do other people.
• Start small. Whatever your business is, start small. Hire only the people you need; that way, you can get used to your role gradually and avoid overloading yourself with new people and situations.

2. Find partners who’ll complement you.

If you’re strongly introverted, you’ll be better off finding business partners and employees who complement your personality and skill set. For example, if you hate the idea of making a sales pitch to a stranger and don’t like talking to people in general, team up with someone who’s strongly extroverted and straightforward, who likes having conversations.

Introversion is a collection of strengths and weaknesses, and extroversion is, too; so you’ll need a blend of both if you want your business to perform its best.

Related: An Introvert’s Guide to Communicating With Results

3. Create the environment you want.

This is your company. This is your brand. You get to define it and build it in any way you choose. Obviously, you have to consider the limits of practicality and what will work best for your business, but consider adopting policies and values that cater to your introverted nature. For example, if you prefer written communication to spoken communication, consider making your business fully remote, with all your employees working from home.

If you don’t like the idea of one-on-one sales meetings, opt for more inbound marketing strategies, to reach your revenue goals.

4. Use online networking and interaction.

If you don’t like to engage with people in the real world, maybe you can find your stride in online interactions. Instead of going out to networking events, for example, you can do the majority of your networking over social media. You can rely on emails and instant messages for the bulk of your interactions, and reserve in-person meetings for when you really need them.

There are some benefits to talking to people in person, so don’t be exclusive with online interactions.

5. Practice socializing.

While it’s definitely possible to be a solo entrepreneur, I don’t recommend it. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to socialize with other people, whether it’s partners, clients, employees or mentors. If you aren’t good at socializing, or prefer to avoid it, you’ll need to practice, to get your social game up. Conversation and interactions are skills, like anything else, and you can refine them if you spend time working on your abilities.

Start by attending more networking events, and talking to other attendees there. Also, develop new tactics for guiding conversations the way you want them to go. This may seem intimidating at first, but you’ll get the hang of it.

6. Learn to be uncomfortable.

There are a couple of important things to remember here. First, your introversion isn’t a curse — it’s a strength, if you know how to use it, and you need to be able to play to that strength. Second, no matter what, you’re going to face situations that make you uncomfortable as an introvert. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to become more comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable.

Related: Why Introverts May Be Better at Business Than Extroverts.

It’s only through discomfort that we challenge ourselves to grow, learn new things and earn successes that only people dream of.

JAYSON DEMERS

 Jayson DeMers is founder and CEO of AudienceBloom, a Seattle-based SEO agency. He’s the author of the ebook, “The Definitive Guide to Marketing Your Business Online.”

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RELATED: TOP NEW FRANCHISES TO INVEST IN 

Many of these franchises are quickly spreading across the country, and this is due to a lot of reasons, including their unique products, growing brand recognition and smart development plans. Similar to past years, the fastest growing franchise types this year were the following:

1. Restaurant Concepts
2. Fitness Centers
3. Beauty Salons

For restaurants specifically, the fastest growing franchises in America typically include those that specialize in sandwiches, coffee and frozen yogurt. When looking for your next investment, don’t forget to take a look at the fastest growing franchises. There’s a reason why these companies are sweeping across the country.

To see our franchise listings CLICK HERE

RELATED: TOP 10 FRANCHISES OF 2015

Developed by an unidentified programmer under the name Satoshi Nakamoto and introduced in 2009, Bitcoin was the first decentralized digital currency and has endured a tumultuous inception into the mainstream over the majority of the last decade. In this article, Wirex offer insight into the history of bitcoin. How has the infamous cryptocurrency progressed in terms of both value and abundance? And how is its price influenced by extraneous real-world factors?

In the beginning (2009-2010)

Bitcoin – a P2P electronic cash system – derives from an internet-published paper of the same name, which described a ‘system for electronic transactions without relying on trust’. Subsequently, at the start of 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence with Satoshi Nakamoto mining the first block (“genesis” block), which delivered a reward of 50 Bitcoins. However, due to its infancy and obscurity, it had relatively no value against major currencies and had low trust levels for investment opportunities.

This all changed in 2010, though, when the first real-world transaction was made with one Bitcoin owner purchasing two pizzas from Papa John’s in Florida for 10,000 BTC. Soon after this, in the early days of June 2010, the price of Bitcoin grew 1000% and rose from $0.008 to $0.08 for 1 Bitcoin. This substantial increase demonstrated future potential as such an exponential rise was monitored over the course of just 5 days.

Gaining traction (2011-2012)

After a difficult entrance into the mainstream and with a low valuation against the world’s main currencies, the next few years were highly prosperous for Bitcoin seeing it’s value skyrocket when compared to previous years. For starters, between Feb and April of 2011, Bitcoin took parity with the US dollar as the value for 1 Bitcoin grew to the equivalent of $1. Such valuation showed signs of real promise when it grew to a high of $31, as a number of high-profile organisations began to accept Bitcoin for donations. This high didn’t last for long, though, as it slumped back to just $2 in December 2011.

The growth of Bitcoin over the past year inevitably ground to a halt, demonstrating both progress and instability as the value experienced a turbulent year of rises and falls. However, the rise in value showed investors that it had potential and it closed for the year at a value of $13.

Bitcoin’s Volatile for the Mercantile (2013-2014)

Although Bitcoin had a low value as it entered 2013, in April of the same year Bitcoins value shot up to $266 as the summit of a price rally where its value was rising by 5-10% daily. However, the next few months saw the price slip to a low of $70 in June, but hankered around $110 in July. One of the main reasons for this is due to the increasing number of merchants deciding to accept Bitcoin under its payment processing service, though the instability of the market was enough to deter the masses.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding value, in the latter stages of the year the value of Bitcoin rose astronomically from a base of around $150 to over $1,000 per Bitcoin which was reported on 27 November 2013. The following month of December 2013 exhibited extreme volatility as the value crashed to $600, rose to $1,000, and crashed again to $500, before settling at a stable $650-$800. Owing to much media publicity throughout the year, the cryptocurrency had become too big to ignore for many as popularity soared into 2014.

One of the potential reasons as to why the price fluctuated so much over the course of this year is as a consequence of the banking crisis, which debilitated the economies of a host of countries. As such, with the world’s top centralised currencies reduced in strength and value, Bitcoin prospered.

Bitcoin’s fall from grace (2014-2015)

Although encountering a solid entry into 2014 with the value of Bitcoin peaked at $1000, before settling at around $850 by the end of January. February, however, signified Bitcoin’s fall from grace and epitomised the fragility of the market when extraneous factors limited its progression and potential investment opportunities. In the months to come, Bitcoin’s value continued to slide to its lowest point since the 2012-2013 Cypriot financial crisis to a low point of $340 per Bitcoin. Reasons for this may include the shutdown of Chinese Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, over legal issues and growing uncertainty over the legitimacy of digital currencies from the Chinese government. Much stayed the same throughout 2015 as the price fell once more in the earlier stages of the year, but began to increase in value towards the back end of the year.

Bitcoin’s resurgence (2016)

Bitcoin entered 2016 at around an unflattering $400 per Bitcoin, with the average price meandering between the $450-$750 mark. However, currencies in the Far East, such as the Japanese Yuen and Chinese Renmibi, depreciated significantly throughout the year which meant that more people were turning to Bitcoin to retain value in their native currency. Consequently, with such an influx of money pouring into the market, a surge in strength and value of Bitcoin rapidly increased over a short space of time from the latter stages of December and into early January of 2017. This increase saw Bitcoin’s value shoot up to a high of around $1,150 – the highest notable price in Bitcoin history – before dropping by almost 35% just a week later.

While Bitcoin is slowly recovering from the recent fall following its exponential rise in December, China’s Central Bank have launched an investigation into the fluctuations and have scheduled talks with three of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in China to gather additional information about the market. As it stands, though, the world must await China’s Central Bank to unearth their findings before any further rise can be expected from Bitcoin.

Creating the perfect office environment can be extremely tricky, which is why organizations often call in experts such as the Penketh Group.

On the one hand, the office is a professional working space. It needs to be geared up for maximum efficiency and productivity. However, it’s also important to make the workplace feel comfortable and pleasant for your employees. This is essential for staff morale and also to improve staff turnover rates.

But how do you make an office feel more like home, while still ensuring it’s a professional work space?

Here we have a few ideas for you:

• Greenery and plants. It might sound silly but it’s amazing the difference a plant or two can make to the feeling of a work space. Greenery can soften the corporate look while bringing in  a natural element and a feel of the great outdoors. How green you go is up to you. Anything from a single potted plant in the break room to dozens of plants all around the office and even a weekly fresh flower bouquet in the waiting area, the sky’s is the limit. Some organizations have taken it a step further by creating roof-top garden space and green “living walls” if their office space allows.

• A comfortable, non-corporate break room. During break times, it’s healthy for your staff to feel that they’re not in work mode for a while. Workplaces are busy and it is not always possible for employees to leave during their breaks to get some fresh air. When that is the case, give them a comfortable, well-furnished and well-decorated break room. Try not to decorate it with corporate style furniture. Instead, give them sofas and chairs that feel like home. Make the space warm and inviting and see how well the employees enjoy it. Always remember to keep workplace safety in mind. In other words, don’t furnish the room with throw rugs or other things that might cause potential trip hazards. While it may not feel like a work room to your employees, you still need to remember workplace health and safety when designing it.

• A good coffee machine. Yes, this is a luxury and it does cost money – but your staff will absolutely love it. A decent coffee machine can do wonders for staff morale, showing you care about them and their comfort at work. It can also impress visitors.  If you already have great coffee, step it up with a cappuccino maker. If you can’t afford one for your staff today, or you would rather create a contest for them to earn it, that can be very fun too. Give your staff a quota for the month and if they hit it, they get a new cappuccino machine for the break room. Or…if you take on 10 new clients this month or don’t lose a single client this month or…,the break room gets the machine and all the fixings. Give them attainable goals and let them have fun with it.

• Carefully chosen artwork. While I’m sure your company’s logo is amazing, having to look at corporate branding all day can get drab for some. Believe it or not, not everything you put on the office walls has to be directly related to the company. Why not hang some beautiful or inspirational artwork on your corporate walls? Something to take your employees on a quick trip to a mountain chalet or to a seaside view while they are on a short break. Believe it or not, giving employees something peaceful to look at can send them back to work with a new enthusiasm. If you have some blank wall space, ask your employees what they would most like most to see and then make it happen.

• Adjust the lighting. Finally, make sure you’ve got the lighting right. Blinding, white fluorescent lights not only make the office feel clinical and incredibly corporate, they can also affect staff morale in a negative way. Over time, this sort of lighting can give employees eye strain and headaches. Make a change by choosing a mix of overhead lights and task lighting, ensuring everything is adjustable in terms of brightness. If possible, let as much natural light into the office as you possibly can. Natural light is something most people enjoy and can not get enough of.

It may sound funny to try to make an office space feel more like home for your employees. After all, it is your office and the intent is for people to get work done and be productive. However, employee morale is important and can be critical to the success of your company. As business owners compete for the “best” employees, they should also work hard to ensure they stay on – after you work so hard to recruit and train them. Keeping this in mind, as you put together or improve your office space, might just be well worth it!

These expenses can cover a wide range of different services from branding and web design to content and social media.

Sometimes a marketing budget won’t stretch to cover everything, and in many cases trying to do everything with limited funds means you aren’t using your budget effectively.

Marketing agency every1 explains how a business can make effective use of a smaller marketing budget.

Maximizing Effectiveness

The key to using a small budget properly is identifying the areas where it absolutely has to be used.

Begin by performing an audit of your current marketing plan. Identify all the areas where you promote your business and assess how much you spend in each area. Evaluate how effective each program is working for you now.

From there you can see where the strengths to your marketing plan are. Maybe you are producing fantastic content but your website has a range of issues that prevent it from ranking?

Maybe the brand you are trying to promote isn’t effectively telling potential customers what it is you actually do.

Initially you should look to solve any of the major problems in place that run the risk of hamstringing your marketing efforts.

Then, focus your budget into the areas you can do well and are the most cost effective. This could be your content, or it could be that your business sees most of its leads and traffic coming from PPC. Whatever it is, focus on it.

Focussing your efforts on already successful areas can help them to grow and maximise their effectiveness – as opposed to spreading your budget too thin in the name of trying to do everything.

Reassess, Refine

You can’t just set it and forget it. The key to continuing to make a smaller budget work for your business is to constantly reassess your marketing. Keep looking for things that are working and work them harder. Also look for any problems that can be fixed and fix them.

Look at what you’ve done from month to month, what worked, what didn’t? Use this as a guide to refining your marketing efforts.

This might mean focussing more on a specific topic with content, either to promote a specific service or to maximise on current trending topics.

You might need to divert your social efforts into a particular platform, either to build upon existing success or because you are noticing an increase in the amount of tractions your posts are getting.

Diverting effort into areas that are working can help you to capitalise on momentum and build on previous successes. Refining your strategy based on trackable metrics such as engagement, conversions or even leads generated by a particular marketing piece can help you to decide where and how to spend a marketing budget.

The key with a small budget is to understand that most elements of online marketing will see results over time as opposed to instantly. Which is why periodic reviews are crucial.

A small budget doesn’t mean that your marketing will be ineffective. It just means that it needs to be more focused and guided more closely with a constant focus on strategy. Be flexible and prepared to adapt and adjust to improving successful campaigns and fixing emerging issues. Never stop refining your marketing approach in order to maximize the effectiveness of your campaign.

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Business is booming, orders are up, customers are happy, you are thinking of taking on more staff. Happy days! Right?? Hmmm…

This is what I’ve always wanted.

Why am I feeling so stressed?

I can’t do everything. I’ve always thought I was good with people. But if I am going to build this business — and that was always the plan — I haven’t got time to deal with all the issues my larger workforce is bringing to me.

I could carry on as we are, save money on manager wages and not have to deal with the fallout when I decide who’s got the job.

Or, my costs could soar and I could start to lose money. Good people might start to leave and take their experience with them because they don’t feel listened to or valued….because I just don’t have enough time to spend with them.

So that’s it! Easy decision made – let’s hire a manager.

Which is the next challenge:

Who should it be?  Does the business need just one more manager, or several? What do I want them to do? How do I want them to do it? Should I look to a new hire, or promote from within the organization?                

My best operator is not necessarily going to be a good manager. Managing requires a different skill set, but what are they?

I need someone who can plan and organize a team and resources effectively. Someone who can adapt their behavior and management style to each situation, the needs of team members and the business.

In addition, they will have to communicate effectively — with me and the team — particularly when the messages are complicated and difficult to hear.

I want them to motivate the team to want to work hard for me and this business.

Commercially the right person will understand the business drivers, our customers, market nuances and will manage the team to improve performance year over year.

They probably need some experience in my business area, but their management experience is far more important to me.

Ok, so that’s how I want them to behave.

How many do I need?

Research and experience tells me somewhere between 4 and 7 direct reports usually works best.

Too many and the team may feel disengaged, too few and there is the temptation to micro manage them.

I need to think about what I want them to do.

As we grow, the new manager will have to recruit new team members, source candidates through the assessment process, make hiring decisions and offer prospects the deal.

From there they will have to train and coach team members so they are confident in all tasks I expect them to perform. Set performance standards for all tasks and manage the team to deliver, by regularly monitoring, reviewing and providing exceptional feedback.

Other things they might need to do are:

Keep the team up to date with what’s happening in the business, how we are performing, why we’ve made certain decisions and define future opportunities.

Solve problems, resolve conflicts, and gather and implement improvement ideas.

Support me to grow the business, set goals, make plans and exceed customer expectations.

I just need to find someone who can match up.

Getting the right person in is just the start, I need to set them up to succeed in People Management

There are a couple of people who already work here who may be good but this role is important enough to test who’s out in the market too. It’s worth investing to get the right person. My existing people know the business but someone from outside may give us more challenge and alternative perspective.

At least now I have criteria which I can use to evaluate each candidate for the role, and they also get a good idea about what the role will involve and the behaviors and values I want them to role model to help them decide if this business is a good match for them.

All this should make sure I recruit the right person the first time. Getting this decision wrong could cost me more money than not recruiting at all.

I also have a decent framework to use when they start the role with which to agree on expectations, targets, and performance standards.

I need to manage this individual in the same way I expect them to manage the team, collaboratively, with regular feedback and review.

Personal values of honesty and integrity with a huge dollop of positivity and confidence should seal the deal.

If I get this right, the possibilities are endless.

Business storage; the how, the where and the when. It is the key to efficient selling and stock control. The bigger the space, the more complicated it gets to keep track of everything. Regardless of your stock level during the startup phase, putting methods and systems into place early can most certainly help you be organized and efficient into the future. Here are a few ideas for you:

Cloud Based/Online Storage 

The smartest start-ups get their cloud storage organized as one of their first jobs, and as a matter of priority. For security and peace of mind, as well as streamlining business operations, cloud storage is a smart business investment. Your business is going to need things and the more cloud based software and storage you have the better. Here are a few reasons why?

• Computers can crash
• Devices get misplaced
• You need access to files on the go
• You need to share files with colleagues or co-workers
• You need to collaborate with colleagues in real-time
• Some multimedia files are too big to email
• You need reliable data backup
• You need effective project management for efficient teamwork
• You need to simplify banking and accounting

Cloud based software and storage solutions is the answer. There are many business solutions available to start-ups regardless of their budget or IT knowledge.Thinking ahead is key to arranging the best fit cloud storage solution for your future business needs. Because you can’t predict everything your business will need in the future, look for a solution that offers scalability.

Examples include Microsoft Office 365, which you can join as a personal user and move up to an Enterprise level subscriptions as your business expansion warrants it. Alternatively, file share system like Dropbox offer both free personal user accounts and subscription business accounts as you grow and scale.

Every start-up will have different needs, so get familiar with the software before you make your choice. This will save you unnecessary complication and the expense of having to change providers in the future.

Check into their customer support also. Are they easy to get a hold of? Do they answer your questions promptly? Do they offer live chat for immediate help? These are other very important considerations if you anticipate having a lot of questions as you grow and scale.

Physical Storage Space 

Many businesses today begin at home in an office area or garage. While this is a great idea in the beginning, as your business grows you might feel the need to take on employees, and more stock and can quickly outgrow your home space. When this happens, a more professional space will be the answer.

It is pretty hard to skimp and save on office space, professional fees, insurance and staffing expenses. However, one area you might be able to save money is on physical storage for your stock.

Your business might require additional space for many reasons. Everything from needing to store seasonal inventory to being able to take advantage of overstock purchasing opportunities. Whatever the case, not having the space can lead to lost opportunities for your business.

One solution that can be temporary and easily scalable is self storage units. These units can be used for both storage and for operations like packing and dispatching. Often times you can tailor your rented space size to your startup needs. Cost advantages include low rentals and short term contracts. You’re not locked into long term arrangements, and avoid utility and VAT expenses. Many soft storage companies welcome business owners.

Organizing Storage for Peak Efficiency

Wherever stock is kept, it needs to be organized in an accessible way.

Knowing your inventory is key to stock organization. Make sure you know:

• How quickly items move.
• Which items take the longest to sell.
• How varied your stock is.
• How it changes from season to season.
• Which items/colours/sizes are most popular.

Having the answers will help you organize your shelving:

• Place the fastest sellers between shoulder and waist height.
• Order items by category, color, or size.
• Use transparent tubs in place of cardboard boxes so you know what you have
• Label everything upon receipt, especially stock in a new line or range.

Make stock taking easier by performing stock counts every month instead of having a massive stock take at the end of the year. Maintain a physical running tally on the outside of boxes or containers as well as religiously updating computer records.

There are a hundred and one things to consider during startup, with stock storage and it’s care and organization being one of the most important. Take the time now to set up your systems in the right way and as you grow, you will be very glad you did.

The primary objectives of every business website are to enhance online visibility and boost sales. However, did you know you can also monetize your website with affiliate programs? The Forex affiliate network is just one example of an affiliate marketing program that will pay you for posting links or banners on your site. You get paid when you direct prospective customers to their trading partners. If your site has a bit of traffic…this could be something for you to explore.

Affiliate programs are the least expensive marketing strategies that exist today. Besides being effective, they are a great way to sell products and services. Using the example above, working as a Forex affiliate, you would get paid for every successful client your generate for them through your affiliate links.

We are using a Forex Affiliate Program as our example. However, please note there are hundreds of other types of affiliate programs you can choose to promote including products, information, e-learning and so on.

Below is an overview of how affiliate programs work as well as a list of some of the best Forex affiliate Programs should you choose to go that route:

Understanding Affiliate Programs

Affiliate is an internet based IB (introducing broker). To earn commissions this way, you do not need an office or a staff – just a website with a good amount of traffic. The process of becoming an affiliate is simpler than you can imagine. You simply contact a business you want to affiliate with, sign up and they will give you a domain code. You will place this code on your site or as a link in an email announcement you might send. Once that is done, you are working as an affiliate. If the link you posted or emailed has a successful transaction in terms of traffic or money, you will get paid.

In this scenario, you are considered the affiliate. The merchant you are sending the leads to is considered the “merchant”

Agreements

The agreement differs depending on the number of clients the affiliate can send to the merchant site, number of people who buy the products or perform some other action in line with the company’s aspirations. In simple terms, the affiliate website is compensated if it can send traffic or money to the merchant site.

Payment methods

Here are a few ways in which affiliates are paid.

Pay per lead: This kind of payment is calculated based on the number of clients your link(s) can refer to the merchant website. As a lead, the visitors will have to sign up with the merchant site. The visitors will have to do this by filling out a form on the merchant site and this will be treated as a sales lead.

Pay per click: In this method, the merchant website will pay the affiliate based on the number of visitors who clicked the merchant site. The affiliate payment is done in this case even without the visitor performing any action on the site including a buying deal.

Pay per sale: This kind of agreement pays the affiliate only when a successful sale is completed by the visitor directed to the merchant site. While some merchants give a percentage of the sale facilitated by the affiliate, others pay a fixed commission amount. You will want to find out what your percent or commission is in advance.

Hybrid payments: Hybrid payments combine all of the above mentioned options. This means, the affiliate is eligible to receive revenue sharing (percentage of commission per sale generated) and also cost per acquisition.

Among the Forex Affiliate Programs mentioned above, the Hybrid Payment method is the most profitable.

A few important things to keep in mind:  

• Do thorough research to avoid fraudulent merchants. Read their terms and conditions thoroughly to know what the merchants, brokers and programs offer. Know what you are getting into before signing up.
• Always promote legally registered products, websites and brokers. Promoting well renowned opportunities will ensure more conversion and greater revenue.
• Look for merchants and brokers that will provide you with back-office access as an affiliate. This way you can log in and check your stats to see how many clients signed up through your link and track your payments.
• You can even test the link yourself if you choose. Sign up for the program “as a customer” using your affiliate link and see if you get paid as an affiliate. This is a great way to see if the merchant is legitimate and really pays out commissions.

Should you decide you would like to promote Forex affiliate programs, here are a few that pay well: 

AvaPartner

This is an excellent and top rated Forex affiliate program with an enviable track record of paying large commissions to their affiliates. The program offers both CPA and revenue sharing models. This program is highly suitable for bloggers and websites. Website: www.avapartner.com

ETORO Partners

Etoro offers one of the best Forex affiliate programs we’ve seen. This program shares about 25 percent of the merchant site’s profits with the affiliates. Their commission plan is called DCPA and they are one of the oldest affiliate programs. Website: www.etoropartners.com

XM Partners

XM Partners affiliate program compensates the affiliates based on the volume of sales by referred clients. If you think you can send them many clients, this could be the program for you. Website: partners.xm.com

Summing Up

Keep in mind, as with anything, unfortunately there are scams. Make sure you thoroughly check out any affiliate program you are thinking of promoting on your site be it forex, products, information, etc. Make sure the merchant is reputable and that your customers will ultimately be able to appreciate and enjoy the products you are promoting. That is probably the best way to add affiliate programs to your website.

It’s no news that consumers prefer digital media over traditional media in exploring and making decisions every day. For this reason, marketers devote billions of dollars to make sure their ad messages get to their target customers. Among the different types of digital media, mobile has continued to lead in a race for the consumers’ soul. What makes mobile so attractive is its relationship with the Internet. So once again, the leadership role of mobile in digital consumer marketing is in the news.

It was in 2013 when an Internet Trends Report revealed that Internet users interacted with their phones about 150 times daily. This interaction involves messaging, gaming, searching, music, and everything else a phone is capable of providing. The most common form of interaction was messaging, which consists of SMS and email. Interestingly, the report uncovers the business model of marketing and advertising guru Anik Singal. For Anik, “Email is a choice marketing method for entrepreneurs with little start up capital. It allows you to target individual customers and track their purchases at low cost and on a global scale.”

There is reason to suggest that marking via email has the potential to return profit to marketers when you carefully consider the micro-marketing moments of the Google content marketing team.

Explaining Micro-moment Marketing

The marketing paradigm of micro-moments is simple. The Google content marketing team defines it as “critical touch points within today’s consumer journey, when added together, they ultimately determine how that journey ends.” The team identified four critical moments in the journey of consumers in making sense of a myriad of information on digital media.

The preferred device choice for looking at digital messages is the smartphone. Every minute consumers are turning to their smartphones to make searches and buying decisions. Google advises that marketers ought to be there at every stage of the consumer journey if they want to succeed. The moments are shown in percentage, representing consumers who are caught in each step of the journey. Here is a list of the micro-moments.

• I-Want-to-Know Moments (66%)
• I-Want-to-Go Moments
• I-Want-to-Do Moments (70%)
• I-Want-to-Buy Moments (82%)

For example, imagine you see an ad on TV about where to buy a DIY shoe rack, but because the ad is fleeting, you turn to your smartphone to get better information. (This is the I-Want-to-Know Moment) During your search, you discover there are many stores offering this item for sale, but you are wondering if a local store sells it. So, you search for a local business nearby. (This is the I-Want-to-Go Moment)  Considering that the item needs to be assembled, you once again turn to your smartphone for a video of how to do (This is the I-Want-to-Do-Moment). Eventually, you are at the local store and you need help making a final decision, and again you resort to your smartphone (This is the I-Want-to-Buy Moment).

To read the micro-moments marketing report, click “Micro-Moments: Your Guide to Winning the Shift to Mobile”.

Seizing the Micro-moments Opportunity

Marketers could make gains by looking at the best ways to win in the battleground of micro-moments marketing. Four strategies have been summed up by the Google team; we will see how they apply to email.

• Be there. The team advises marketers to anticipate the next thing consumers will be searching for and make sure they are there to help. For instance, if a consumer had just seen an ad about property insurance and stumbled on your site for better knowledge, how would your email marketing integrate with the overall experience the consumer would have? Being there means you should have valuable information about property insurance on your site. Then the next question is what incentives would you use to acquire the consumer’s email address? And once you have gained the consumer’s email address, how would you anticipate what he might need next? Consider pitching. Pitching has to do with sending relevant offers to the customer when you have considered his buying behavior. Pitching could be done right by studying the next phase of property insurance and sending an email message to the customer before your competitor does.
• Be useful. Being relevant means you have to know you audience just as they know the product you are offering. And for email, instead of sending general newsletters or marketing messages to all the customers in your list, you could consider segmentation. Segmentation has to do with sending targeted messages to classified audiences. To segment, you could use Google Analytics to identify open rate, click through rate (CTR), and unsubscribes of previous ad messages you had sent. When you have sorted these, you will pay more attention to sending what is relevant to each segment.
• Be quick. This means you should not have an email message that rambles before exposing its true intent. Be concise and have a call to action that demands immediacy. The reason behind this is that consumers using mobile devices make lightning decisions and would rather not waste time reading through an email that is wordy when there are other competing Internet uses like gaming and social media.

Bottom line: Start ups businesses could benefit from the potential of messaging to reach target consumers individually and globally. In addition, understanding the fleeting moments of consumer behavior should help businesses create an email marketing campaign with micro-moments in mind; to capture the sale at just the right time.

In almost every business niche there is fierce competition and that is certainly true for the lawn care industry as well. But where there is a will there is a way. What it takes to be successful in today’s business environment (in any industry) is to be willing to go above and beyond the competition in terms of both service and quality.

In the U.S., just about everyone who can afford a lawn care service has one. While some people do enjoy caring for their own lawns, most do not or they simply do not have the time to do it. In the UK however, things are different. Most people do not understand the lawn care sector yet and still clip their own grass.

Things are beginning to change. Craig Daniel of Acer Lawncare tells us that in some of the UK’s wealthier areas like Manchester and Warrington, lawn care companies are springing up out quickly. With that, he says, “the competition is becoming quite stiff rather quickly.”

If you are thinking of starting your own lawn care business, it is important to know that most consumers expect it to be an expensive service. This is both good and bad. Good if someone is ready to hire you and knows the service will cost a little. Bad if they are not hiring a service because they feel it will be too expensive for them to even check out.

How Much should you charge?

There are a few things to consider when you are setting your pricing.

You will want to focus on having a large amount of customers within a small travel area. If you try to take accounts all over the place, you will spend a lot more on gas and wasted travel time and hence your business will be less profitable. So the first key to success is having a concentration of customers in a small area. When you are staring out make sure you spend your down time marketing your business in a small radius you would like to work in. Have flyers made, door hangers, business cards and so on and canvas an area.

If someone across town wants to hire you that could be good too. Just make sure you are charging enough to make up for the time travel to that area.

If you  have employees, trucks, gas, insurance and so on, make sure you figure all those expenses into your quotes and make sure you are giving yourself an adequate profit margin.

How many customers do you need to make a profit?

That all depends upon how big you want your business to be. Do you want to keep it small, be home based, do the work yourself and have one truck? Or, is your vision to have 20 trucks, 40 employees and several cities you work in? As a part of your early business planning, make sure you think abou that. That way, each decision you make will further you toward your end goal.

In either scenario, figure out what your total overhead will be. Then figure out how much money you want to make per month. Add the two numbers together, divide it by the number of accounts you believe you can handle, and that will tell you where your pricing needs to be. Of course that is a very over-simplified model but it is a good way do a quick and dirty business plan to see if your concept works for you. If the pricing is too low, is there some other service you can offer to set yourself apart from the competition? Can you offer fertilizing, tree trimming, pet clean up or total organic products? Be creative and unique and your customers will see why you charge a bit more.

How do you get your business off the ground?

We chatted with Craig Daniel of Acer Lawn Care, about how he managed to get his lawn care business off the ground. He told us, “Starting this lawn care business from scratch was very difficult to be honest. Before I began I researched my local area to ensure there were enough potential customers to satisfy my business goals and I also analyzed the competition. My initial outlay was quite heavy as I needed to buy a van, create marketing paraphernalia, build a website, embroider uniforms and do an endless amount of canvassing.”

Mr. Daniel went on to say that it was a lot of work for one person to do so you should know that going in. We followed up by asking him if he felt starting a new business was worth it. He replied “Without a doubt it has been very challenging, much more than I anticipated. I probably would think twice about it nowadays. However, he assured us that if a person has enough grit and determination, they can break through the difficulties and create a very successful business that will repay them over time.”

Conclusion

Most business owners agree that starting a new business in any field can be an extremely difficult accomplishment. It almost always takes more time, money and effort than anyone ever imagines it will. However, if you have a great passion and drive for your business, and are willing to work at it 110% until you get it off the ground, it will all be worth it in the end.

Source: Marketing Land www.marketingland.com

Writer: Joanna Lord

Let’s face the facts: customer lifecycle marketing is hard. Traditionally, the acquisition stage of the customer funnel kept marketers busy, but it appears the tides are turning — the majority of marketers interviewed in a recent 2014 State of Marketing survey said retention and re-engagement are now a key focus. Here Are a few great tips to re-engage your customers.

Customer engagement
So, how can we re-engage our past customers? There are a number of authentic and mutually beneficial ways to reach out and reconnect with those customers that have departed — cancelled their product subscription, uninstalled your app, etc. Let’s jump into some of the more popular ones.

Survey Them
While most companies have a survey on their cancellation page, don’t forget that you can also email past customers and request more feedback. You can ask them why they cancelled or what suggestions they might have for your company. Members that cancelled have a wealth of knowledge that can help steer your product and engineering efforts.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

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Naturally, you will have gone through withdrawal symptoms, and overcome all the cravings you feel for a quick drug or alcohol fix. In fact, emerging from rehab treatment  and into an everyday work life has been likened to stepping out of a cave. Undoubtedly, it is a transition process that requires many steps, adjustments, and resolutions in order to succeed.

If you are recently out of recovery, whether you manage a business or work as an employee, you’ll want to make sure you begin on the right path. You have been given a second chance and it is important that you approach it in good stride.

The Importance of Working

Getting busy is a big deal. It is actually a necessary part of long-term recovery. Being self-sufficient and having a steady pay-check is essential to building your self-esteem. But it’s more than that.

Davide Gerrard, expert adviser at Addiction Helper says, “Addiction is typically a disease of isolation and idleness, the less busy you are, the more likely you are to relapse.”

It is therefore important that people who are in recent recovery integrate themselves back into society. Getting a new job, starting a new project, and meeting new groups of friends are positive ways to promote sobriety and start life in long-term recovery.

Here are some particular ways to assimilate into the work lifestyle:

1. Start gently

Be careful of launching yourself into your new role with over-enthusiastic vigour. Many people, in an attempt to prove they are past their addiction, start off taking the bull by the horns, only to burn out after a while.

You may feel excited and eager to begin, but take some time to meld in carefully. If you are self-conscious of people around, you’ll be setting yourself up for failure. Your recovery is for you alone. It’s a good idea to live life to its fullest, but don’t take more than you can handle. Besides, a lot may have changed while you were away, and you’ll need some time to adjust.

2. Make up for the past

If you are resuming at the same place where you worked prior to recovery, there is a chance you may have built up grudge among colleagues or employees. Whether it’s something you said or did, find time to make up with the affected persons so there is no ‘bad blood’.

Some, (if not all) rehabs have a 12 step program that includes making amends for mistakes caused as a result of your dependence on the substance. No matter how happy they are to see you, note that you may often notice the effect of old wounds in your colleagues’ behavior towards you. Find out ways to right any wrongs you caused in the past.

1. Find out what is expected of you

Communicate with your colleagues at work. Let them know you are open to discussion and feedback. Avoid referring to your substance abuse in the office. After the initial makeup, focus squarely on your work objectives. If you work with a group, try to understand what each member is supposed to do, and delegate responsibilities the best way you can.

Conversely, meet your boss and discuss your new expectations and any challenges you may have in achieving them. If you run a business, do the same with your partner or colleague; ask for feedback. Having a checklist of your goals to make it easier for you to accomplish them.

2. Take on new projects

After you have settled in for a while and you feel more comfortable in your work environment, you may volunteer to participate in social projects. If your company is not involved in any charity activities such as community development, get involved as a way to give back to society. Additionally, it can help you build your own self-esteem as a coach or mentor.

Addiction usually leaves a vacuum in one’s life, and joining a good cause is one way to fill it with something constructive. Pick something fun and interesting.

New projects or hobbies are always a great idea, especially if it is likely to keep you from straying towards past behavior.

3. Make new friends

Post-recovery, it is always recommended to evaluate the previous friends you had. Were they also users? Did associating with them fuel your addictive behavior? At your work place, consider these points when establishing new relationships, even if they are on the job. Who’s to say you won’t be tempted for an after-work drink someday?

The importance of making sober acquaintances is critical to your success in recovery and path to long-term sobriety.

The business environment can be demanding, and if pressures from the previous job caused you to start using, it may be advisable to seek new opportunities elsewhere. Ensure that you maintain contact with a professional to discuss such issues.

Online advertising is slowly taking over more traditional forms of marketing. In the event you currently have little or no online presence, you will want to jump on the online train so you do not get left behind. Here are some easy steps you can take to boost your exposure and ultimately draw in more customers.

1. Figure Out Your Goals

Establishing a marketing plan can be difficult to do without knowing what it is you want to achieve. Your goals could be to increase sales, develop a larger customer database or enhance your social media following and all of those are great goals. However, the more specific you can be with each of them the better off your plan will be. In other words, your goal should not just be to “increase sales.” Instead, it should be to “increase sales by 20 percent by the end of the year.”

2. Build Your Brand

Effective marketing is reliant on knowing what sets your business apart from the competition. Every message you send out through your website, email announcements and social media channels needs to be on-brand. Highlight the aspects of your business that are unique. What is it that you do that is extra special or makes you – you? It could be that you offer the fastest delivery or the most unique styles or the best customer service. Whatever it is, use it in your campaign always – to really brand yourself.

Keep in mind too that your business type will also affect the types of social media pages you utilize. For example, if your business is dependent on visuals, then setting up Instagram and Pinterest accounts would be advantageous as they are both very visual platforms.

3. Utilize Social Media

At the very least you will want to have a Facebook and/or Twitter account. Use these accounts every day if possible and be sure to your followers and customers. If you do not have time to do it yourself, hire someone to do it for you.

Most social media pages provide you with metrics, so you can keep track of what posts did well and which ones did not. This allows you to know what type of marketing to focus on going forward. If you have not already posted today, then go ahead and post right now. Give it a try – it’s fun!

4. Develop an Email Campaign

Directly emailing people is a great way to stay in your customers’ minds. When people visit your storefront, encourage them to sign up for your mailing list, so they stay in the loop. Some helpful tips for effectively utilizing an email marketing campaign include:

• Emailing frequently enough so you stay in people’s minds – but not so often you annoy anyone (monthly is good)
• Include valuable content your customers will want to read
• Write an interesting subject line so they will open the email
• Include links in the email back to your website and to your social medial channels
• Invite your customers to FB like you, come in to the store or call for an appointent (according to what you do)

5. Implement SEO Practices

Search engine optimization is the practice of using valuable keywords in your company’s online content so that it appears higher up in search engine rankings. Any business with a website can use Google Analytics to determine what local keywords to include. Proper SEO also entails using keywords in URL links and adding meta descriptions and title tags on web pages.

6. Create Shareable Content

It is not enough for a business to simply create web pages. You want to be certain the content you are publishing is something people will want to share while still being relevant to your business. As an example, a restaurant could make a blog post about a recipe people can make at home while also promoting new menu items. Your audience will be more likely to engage in the content and share it on their social media pages.

7. Use Special Techniques for Promotions

If your business is offering a temporary promotion, then you need to get the word out fast. Pay per click campaigns are useful in this endeavor because they can be fully customized to meet your needs. You can use geotargeting so that only potential customers in your city see the ads. With these campaigns, it is more beneficial to focus on enticing visuals rather than a lot of text. After the campaign is over, you can view the metrics to see how effective it was and if there is anything that should be changed in the future.

8. Establish Text Campaigns

This is similar to an email campaign in that you have customers give you their mobile phone numbers when they sing up for your newsletter or other name capture element to your website. This way, when you have a special promotion, you can text individuals so they get a notification immediately. You will want to time your messages properly, so people receive them at opportune times of the day. For instance, if you sell pizza via delivery, 3 to 4pm is a good time to send a text message as people are hungry and worrying about what to make for dinner.

Additionally, you want to remain engaging while always staying on brand.

9. Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

More people are researching businesses on smartphones than traditional computers. Therefore, it is prudent to ensure your website can be easily viewed, and items ordered, on mobile devices. If it is impossible for someone to look up information about your business on a phone, then he or she will go elsewhere. Your company needs to be accessible from every possible platform.

10. Promote Any News

Customers like feeling as if they are part of the family. If something big happens around your business, feel free to talk about it on social media. This can include hiring a new person or talking about any new inventory that came in.

You can get started on any of these tips today with an eye toward the future. Social media, apps and SEO are not going away so start building your online presence right now. You will be very glad you did.

Trends change fast in today’s technology-led world. If you went back in time, hardly anyone would be talking about Instagram as a key driver of fashion or acknowledge that most people are happily using online shopping platforms instead of visiting boutique shops. Suffice it to say that the future of the fashion world will look very different that what we are seeing now. Predictions are always difficult, but if you want to dream about what the future of fashion might look like, here are some of the fascinating trends we see ahead:

Everyone can become a designer

Until now, fashion design has been left up to professional designers who personalize each item they make and sell. However, with the advent of the 3D printer, the future of fashion design seems it will be far more available to anyone and everyone. For example, you will be able to design more personalised products and even print out your own creations at home.

What could this mean for the fashion world and designers everywhere? The prediction is that new clothing lines will start popping up throughout the year with far more designers able to access the trade. Retailers will swap larger collections for a more ever changing line-up with new and constant designs coming at every turn. So a far better variety indeed.

Fashion and technology continues to merge

You’ve probably heard the term ‘wearables’ by now. The idea of clothing that has in-built technology has been around for quite a while, with the predictions slowly becoming a reality. The merging between fashion and technology is going to speed up and it might be hard to know which industry is driving which at some point in the future.

Heather Picquot told Who What Wear that, “wearables are becoming much more comfortable and fashion focused. A great example is Samsung’s Body Compass that was unveiled at CES 2016in January. It’s a tank top with a tiny visible metal disk, a bottle cap-sized sensor.” This particular fashion item can measure your heart rate and keep an overall check on your health and we think that’s amazing.

While the discussion has so far been mainly about how health will be monitored with wearables, future predictions indicate the addition of social elements and wow factors to fashion trends. Utility and functionality will no longer be the focus of these technologies. It might be fun to have a jacket that closes itself when the temperature drops!

Sustainable choices

The fashion world is being pushed by consumers towards a much more sustainable model with social responsibility at the forefront. Consumers are much more aware of the impact their shopping decisions can have. While people will continue to buy nice things and update their wardrobe regularly, they will want to do so in a way that doesn’t put strain on the climate or harm the planet or people. Brands like Adidas are already investing in inventions like their their recycled sneaker. Stella McCartney has begun using new, cutting-edge materials that provide consumers with a more sustainable choice – without having to forego great fashion elements.

Mobile shopping is the new black

When it comes to buying beauty and fashion items, online shopping will continue be a buyer’s dream come true. The convenience of using online stores to find great things and update your wardrobe without ever leaving your home will be quite appealing to people with busy, hectic lives. Online shopping will also continue to transition from the laptop to mobile devices so online retailers should be getting themselves ready for that in a big way.

Smartphone shopping will be the future of shopping. The market research firm Forrester has predicted mobile purchases to account for nearly 50% of e-commerce by 2020. Beyond this, it’s hard to see why the market share wouldn’t just continue to increase.

Companies are already acknowledging this with responsive websites and shopping apps. Cult Beauty is one example of an online beauty products retailer getting ready with their online presence and mobile site.

Pop-up shops

It is possible the traditional brick-and-mortar store may become a thing of the past, with more agile options taking center stage. Pop-up shops are already a big thing in the food industry, but fashion is likely to follow next. Any future store will have to adapt to its customer and become increasingly convenient and accessible – this is likely to mean that you can soon shop in hotels, cars and even your home.

The changing times are exciting for the fashion and boutique industry. Big changes are already in the making and older brands and concepts that do not take heed may miss out in the future. It is likely that new businesses, store fronts and designers will come to the forefront and steal market share. Whatever the future brings, it is an exciting time with fascinating trends, technology and change in the world of fashion and boutique stores.

If you are thinking of starting a business and wondering whether it’s better to buy or lease a home, there are a few things you might want to consider before you decide.

For one, think about your capital. It can take quite a bit of money to make a down payment on a home purchase. That is not necessarily bad, unless you think you will need that same capital to start your company, buy inventory, lease space or buy required equipment to grow.

Another question you might want to ask yourself is if you plan on staying in your area for more than 5 year. If the answer is a resounding yes, and you have the capital, buying might be an excellent idea for you. If, however, you are thinking you might want to change neighborhoods in the near future, renting sounds like a better fit.

There are some advantages and disadvantages when it comes to leasing vs. buying so let’s go over those here:

Leasing Pros

Leasing means a much more temporary situation. You can avoid the responsibilities of owning a property such as maintenance, appliance repairs, upgrades and so on. You also won’t have to worry about things like lawn care, pool maintenance, tennis court repair and in some cases, even A/C filter and light bulb changes. If you live in a community like Vintage apartment homes as an example, everything will be taken care of for you in the rent you pay each month for your lease.

Leasing Cons

Leasing has disadvantages too. When you lease, you are not in control of your property. You will have to follow all community rules imposed by the owner. You might not be allowed to keep pets or smoke in the apartment and usually guests can spend a limited amount of time at your home. In addition, as rental rates rise, so may your lease rent. If you are looking to lease an apartment, and are in the Atlanta area, you might find more affordable rates at places such as  Altana Glendale and Aventine apartments.

Buying Pros

A home purchase can be regarded as an investment so when the market rises, as an owner, you earn that appreciation in price. You are also the king of your own castle. You can paint the interior any color you choose, have guests over for extended periods, keep pets and basically do as you please. After all, you are your own landlord.

Buying Cons

You have to come up with capital for down payment money and that might be funds you need to start, run or grow your business. Only you know your unique situation so you have to think seriously about it. Another disadvantage of owning is when something breaks or leaks, it is your responsibility to fix it. Finally, if something changes in your life, and you find yourself wanting to move quickly, it is more difficult to do so when you own your own place. You can decide to rent it out but then you have to deal with tenants. Selling is another option and does tend to take more time and effort than giving 30 days notice and being free to move – as with leasing.

Both buying and leasing have their advantages and disadvantages. It really comes down to whether or not you have the capital, plan to stay in the area a while, are comfortable taking on home repair responsibilities and think you may need the money for other things – like starting your own business! Truly, only you can decide.

A SME is a small to medium sized enterprise or business.

So how have SME’s changed in the past 30 years? A better question might be how have they not changed as they are vastly different today than years ago. This is due mainly to technological inside the workplace. These tech changes have dramatically impacted communication methods, customer service, brand identity, market research and more.

Here are a few specific examples of tech changes:

Storage

In previous years, offices had to make room for storage – and lots of it. They had to physically store things like:

• important documents
• employee records
• invoices
• account files etc.

These binders, files, folders and boxes were shoved on top of cupboard, inside maintenance closets and onto shelves as far as the eyes could see. Technology has totally changed that. Nowadays, cloud technology has revolutionized the way businesses file documentation. Applications such as Google Drive allow us to make and live-edit spreadsheets, word documents are more so employees don’t print multiple copies of one thing. And services such as Dropbox allow SMEs to save, share and access all manner of files from anywhere in the world. If you have not tried dropbox yet for your business, we highly recommend you check it out.

Fraud

As technology evolves and continues to grow, there will continue to be more ways for fraudsters to try and take advantage of unsuspecting small to medium business enterprises. However, technology is also ‘fighting back’ with continuous developments that serve to safeguard businesses against scams and criminals. In the past, SMEs would hand write checks and it was never suspected an employee, supplier or vendor would tamper with the check. This of course left the door open to fraudsters who were oh so happy to steal from businesses.

Today, however, technology provides SME’s ways to safeguard against check washing or tampering. Companies now can use highly secure checks to safeguard themselves against the fraudsters from the past.

Business expenditure

In the past, SMEs conducted most of their business deals in face to face meetings. New contracts were signed and deals were negotiated in person. While it is true there is still a great deal of value that comes from meeting someone in person, the advantages in technology today make it so much easier to work with people all over the globe and those advantages are undeniable. Programs such as Web conferencing, Face Time, Skype and Google Hangouts make it easy for businesses to get more work done, travel less, save money and this results in greater profit margins for everyone.

Market research

Technology has also changed the way we do market research. Previously, market research was conducted using physical surveys, reports, telephone calls and focus groups. A great deal of speculation and assumption needed to be made because gathering the data was expensive and time-consuming. Recent technology has changed all of this. Businesses can now use online surveys to conduct market research and find out exactly what their customers are thinking. Surveys are quick and easy to disseminate and extrapolate data from and are very useful.

Customer service

Customer service is another area of focus that technology has completely revolutionized for SMEs. In the past, businesses predominantly invested in telephone-based customer service resources in order to answer questions and resolve problems. Recent, technology has put greater emphasis on customer service, enabling it to happen far more quickly in the kind of format customers find convenient. Telephone-based customer service has been replaced with live chat and social media responders, handling customer queries in real-time, and often around the clock.

Social identity

Finally, an SME’s ‘social identity’ has also changed dramatically in the wake of technological advancements, as social media makes a business’s reputation far more difficult to manage. For instance, if a business’s customer service is sub-standard or they receive a poor review on Facebook, their bad reputation will stick. For this reason, even very small businesses are becoming aware of their social identity. SMEs are monitoring activity online to ensure that their reputation is favorable in the eyes of their customers, meaning that technology is requiring SMEs to invest time and resources in maintaining a positive digital presence.

There is simply no denying that in the past 3 decades, technology has completely changed the work environment for Small to Medium Enterprise Businesses.  Things are changing at such a rapid rate it is difficult to keep up at times. One thing does seem certain, companies that embrace these new methods, features and the benefits they provide – are sure to do well in the decades to come.

Like any other business, when running a law firm, there is always the same marketing question; what part of your campaign and spend is generating good, quality leads? Once any business can answer that, they can begin to improve their campaign and spend money in the right places – ones that improve the bottom line.

Six months ago, a new website was launched in the medical negligence market (The Medical Negligence Experts). This is the first technology platform within that industry which sought to answer the question from paragraph 1. As they built up their data, clarity and efficiencies began to filter through their marketing team. They discovered a way to get more, high value customers from their leads. Using the same budget, they could both increase their number of quality customers acquired and reduce the quantity of low quality leads.

How did law firms generate leads before?

Regular digital marketing agencies were the usual approach. They are always available to use date to meet a cost target per lead KPI. The problem with this approach is that it only tells one side of the story. It does not account for the quality of the leads. In other words, your marketing activity may lead to a high volume of leads. Your agency believes they are doing a great job and may spend more money in this area. However, this activity may actually be generating low quality leads that are not producing customers. This is not a good situation.

So how does new technology change the way law firms generate QUALITY leads?

One law firm explained they built a system that connects their marketing activity with their CRM system but they take a few extra steps up front. When a lead comes in via a contact form or phone, the law firm talks to the potential client as they normally would. After the decision is made as to whether the lead parameters are met, customer service updates the CRM with that lead detail. Should the lead be a live one, a marketing campaign begins to turn that hot lead into a live customer. Using this method also allows the firm to attain more accurate cost per customer figures and gives them a competitive edge.

So far this system seems to really be working for law firms. It gives them the clarity to ensure they are making the maximum profits on their investment. The resulting quality of the leads and cost per lead is something that the old, established CMCs simply cannot match. It is predicted that over time, more data will generate further improved results, and in turn – serve law firms everywhere even better.

As a trader, you have to make a choice based on a number of market factors including the news, human behavior, algorithms and trading methods – which all work in unison to help predict what a stock price will do.

If you decide to trade, the first thing you will need to do is select a trading platform through which you will place your trades. Today you can usually place your trade online or by calling it in. Choosing a trusted broker to handle your finances is important and you should put some thought and due diligence into the process of choosing the right one.

Keep in mind that not all brokers offer the same services

If you are new to trading, you will want to look for a broker with an easy to use platform, good customers service and a training program if possible. You will also want to read as many books as you possibly can and open a “practice” account and don’t trade live until you have mastered the processes of the practice system.

As with most other things, if you want to become a successful trader, it takes a lot of time, practice, education and skill. There are many tricks and tips you can learn along the way to increase your odds of making a profit but learning the basics will be job 1. If possible, align yourself with a mentor. Successful traders say a good mentor is the number one way to learn the business.

Many people feel that trading options is quite similar to gambling. On the other hand, successful traders say that Binary options trading requires great skill and is nothing like gambling. While they do agree that odds can play a role in determining your profit, most of the money made is from careful analysis of the market and the implementation of skill based strategies.

Another word to the wise, when trading options, is to never let your emotions or fears dictate your trades. Trading this was is a surefire way to lose a lot of money fast.

Binary options trading is certainly not for everyone. It is speculative, requires that you have money you can afford to lose and will require education on your part. Read every book you can, sign up for courses and select a good platform with customer support. Learn as much as you can and find a mentor that is willing to work with you and teach you the ropes. That is really the best way to learn!

There was a time when door-to-door selling was seen as the most effective way to sell products. Salesmen had to visit their prospective buyers individually. However, the growth of the internet has brought about a new dawn in advertising. There is no dearth of advertising options on the web.

Today’s online advertising platforms allow you to set up highly targeted and cost effective campaigns to reach the right kinds of people. It’s no brainer that you need great content and captivating pictures. Thank heavens for Mac photo editing software like Aurora HDR that allow you to brush up on your pictures easily. But for you to make a big lasting impression you’ll have to do the following too.

What makes your business stand out?

Start by listing down around five things that make your business remarkable. Could be all your products are devotedly handmade or maybe you have snagged a couple of awards. Don’t you think having the lowest price is something your customers ought to know? All these things that make your business unique should stand out on your homepage and reiterated in your product pages. In the case of awards don’t just state it, display it to the world. Well just be sure to use your HDR software to ensure the picture screams quality.

Have an engaging About us and Contact pages

The first thing new customers visit is your “about us” page. They will want to know who and where they are buying from. A well written about us page should speak to the consumer on an emotional level. What inspired you to start your business? How has your business helped ordinary folks?

The history of your business, press coverage and accolades are all examples of useful content that will satisfy curiosity and allow you to have a better connection with your customers. And how can I forget team photos! But it has to be quality photos-HDR photo editor will come in handy.

Your contact page should offer concise, clear-cut information like email, social media, a contact form and phone number. Add a map with supporting opening hours plus an HDR quality photo of the business. This will let your customers know you are a real business that hands on and ready to support advise and help them.

Use product reviews to strengthen trust

Over the recent past, customer reviews have become a necessity for online merchants of all sizes and shapes. They should be honest, and well presented and real life testimonies. This will vastly add to your social proof.

Have the right category structure

Your category structures can make or break your business. You ought to take into account how your customers’ behaviors differ. Let’s use hardwood flooring as an example. Your categories should be able to set out to allow the same product to be accessed by wood pieces, manufacturer, types and even the room they are suitable for.

Trusted payment gateway

It’s no secret that small businesses have to contend with an increased level of scrutiny from customers especially on their choice of payment gateway. It will do you good to link up with a trusted gateway, whether locally or internationally. Make certain that your trusted payment method and gateway logo is clearly shown on your website. The best place to have them would be in the footer, a sidebar of your theme or header. But they should always be displayed on the checkout and cart.

Lenders are reluctant to offer any form of credit to individuals who work for themselves due to the financial uncertainty which typically comes with it. However, there are some companies out there who specialise in self-employed mortgages so if you’ve been, or you’re worried about being turned down, there are lenders out there who can help.

Here we’ll look at everything you need to know about self-employed mortgages before you make an application.

What options are available?

In the past, the self-employed had one main option when it came to getting a mortgage and that was the self-certified variety. However, after lenders took advantage, these mortgages were scrapped. So, what options are available to you now? Well, the good news is self-employed people these days have access to much the same mortgages as anyone else. It’s what you need in order to be accepted which differs from standard mortgages.

All lenders are different, but the average lender offering self-employed mortgages will usually want to see a minimum of two years’ accounts. This is basically to prove your income and show you’ll be able to make the repayments on the mortgage. However, don’t despair if you don’t have two years’ worth of accounts to show. Some lenders, such as Saffron Building, accept just one year’s accounts, though they will require a few other things to prove you can afford the mortgage you’re applying for.

You’ll also potentially need to prove how much you’re expecting to earn over the next year. Of course, it also helps to have a great credit rating and a good deposit.

Tips to improve your chances

While each lender is different, there are a few general tips you can follow to improve your chances of getting accepted for a self-employed mortgage.

Firstly, if you have an accountant, part of their job is to try and save you as much taxable money as possible. However, this can seriously damage your chances of getting a mortgage if it turns out you’re paying a small level of tax. It shows you don’t have a huge income and that is a red flag to mortgage lenders. You’ll also want to make sure the accountant is chartered.

Ideally, you’re also going to want to be able to show that your profits are increasing and your business is growing at a healthy rate. Your accounts will also need to be fully up to date.

Overall, while it was incredibly difficult for self-employed to get a decent mortgage years ago, these days there are numerous options available. Choosing a lender which specialises in self-employed mortgages is a good first step that will improve your chances of being accepted.

More entrepreneurs than ever are starting seasonal businesses. These might be accountants who put together tax firms in the spring or holiday proprietors who create pop-up stores for Halloween or Christmas. Either way, these types of seasonal businesses have a very specific window to launch. After all, they need to make as much money as possible before their season has passed. That means they don’t have time for complex problems and convoluted contracts. Follow these 3 tips to get your business launched in a few weeks so you can take advantage of the seasonal rush.

Look for Temporary Space – office or retail

If you’re trying to make the most of a few months, then you’ll want perhaps a temporary mall kiosk or perhaps an office workspace where you can have meetings and use professional office equipment. This of course assumes your business is not a work from home concept.

Look into coworking spaces in your area and see if there are options for renting an office for a few months. This creates the appearance of professionalism without the expense of a year-round office. If your concept is retail, contact all your local mall manager and ask them what types of products they are accepting, if they have kiosk’s available, what they rent for and the required hours you must be there.

Hire Contractors as Seasonal Labor

When running a seasonal business, the key to success is making sure you can replicate the process year after year. To do this, make sure you have seasonal labor that you can rely on to work for you next year. Many haunted houses flourish in October because employees regularly return in the fall. The same happens during spring training in March.

If possible, hire your employees as contractors or as part-time hourly labor. Part-time contractors also have more flexible schedules than people looking for a full-time job, so you should have a wider talent pool to choose from. After all, you are not the only one out there trying to make a little bit of extra holiday money. Put an ad on craigslist.com in your area and watch the resumes pour in.

Find Vendors Who Work With High-Risk Businesses

As a seasonal business owner, it’s hard to build your credit history. That can turn into a major red flag for some businesses. For example, banks and credit processors might decline your application because they don’t know the frequency and size of purchases to expect. One thing you can do is find a high-risk credit card processing company to help you establish a merchant account. Once you are up and running and have a season or two behind you, getting better rates should be much easier.

To find other vendors that work with seasonal and small businesses, talk to other professionals in your coworking space or attend networking events. Others in your industry should be able to point you in the right direction for staffing, health care, insurance, and other technical necessities that your business must have before it can start making money this season.

Your seasonal business is a great opportunity to make extra money or boost your income for the rest of the year. Don’t get caught up in the technical aspects like credit processing and office rentals, which will slow down your launch. Remember, you only have a few months to make the bulk of your revenue. If you’re stuck finding employees, a retail space or office location, you might miss your window. Check out Specialty Retail magazine too for more great ideas on seasonal goods to sell, kiosk and much more and just get started.

Self Interview from former owner of a Cold Stone Creamery Franchise – Laurie Bennett

What type of experience did you need to start your Cold Stone Creamery Franchise?

I had a college degree in business and I had owned a clothing store for 5+ years when I had my first taste of Cold Stone with my husband. We loved it! My husband really wanted to go into business for himself and we felt Cold Stone Creamery was perfect. I already had a lot of business experience so it was an easy decision for us to make.

How much capital was required for the total business and how much cash did you need?

We were told (in 1998) the cost to build a store was $185,000 in the FDD and by Doug Ducey the Cold Stone President.  However, we later learned those were outdated numbers. In actuality, it cost upwards of $325,000 to open a store and we had to learn that from the other franchisee’s that were in the system, opening stores and were finding out themselves. It was a scary time for all of us. Honestly, if we had known the true costs in advance, we would not have gone forward with a franchise. We simply could not have afforded it.

We ended up getting half way though our build-out and learned from the actual invoices and existing franchisee’s that the actual costs were $325,000+. My husband and I were scared to death. We had a 2 year old and a new born, my husband was still working full time, I was running my clothing boutique and we were in the process of building our Cold Stone. I kid you not – we had to quickly sell our house to get enough money to finish the store. Honestly, I learned then and there the importance of doing a TON of due diligence when you buy into a franchise BEFORE you agree to invest.

Did you have to get financing?

The franchise was so new back then and we talked to a few banks but no one would finance that concept. We had $200,000 cash so we really thought we had plenty of capital since the FDD listed the high side of the cost to get a store open as $185,000. Turned out the actual cost was much higher and Cold Stone knew that – they just never told us.

What other franchises did you look at before deciding on the one?

Honestly, none. I had never really considered a franchise before. But I loved the Cold Stone product, environment and vibe and so did my husband. We stumbled onto it, loved it and went for it. We honestly thought we were getting in on the ground floor of something amazing. A few years later, after we knew everything there was to know about Corporate Cold Stone, we decided we needed to leave the system.

What was your worst customer experience?

We didn’t have too many but I remember one from the day we opened. One of our first customers came in and we were giving out free ice cream the first hour as a promotion. Yes…it was FREE and this lady still was complaining. My husband made her a super duper ice cream treat and mixed in her favoring things (according to her specifications). She took one bite and just about spat it in his face. She yelled out that she hated it. We went on to sell more than $5,000 of ice cream that day but it was a horrible way to start our first day in business. Of course we laugh about that now but that day it literally broke our hearts.

What was your relationship like with the Corporate Franchise?

It started out really good but unfortunately, it turned downward after the first year. We had a very high volume store as we were in a very nice outdoor mall location. Because our traffic and sales (and rent) were greater than many other stores, our needs were very different. We needed to be highly efficient and that is how I like to work anyway. The franchise did not agree with us however. I would ask them for things like franchise approved ice cream cake boxes or to-go lids for the ice cream – which seemed like must have items to me. Cold Stone Corporate would respond to my requests by saying things like, “well no one else needs those things so you can’t have them.” It was an absurd way to run a business.

I already owned a clothing store so I knew that when I had a business problem, I found a solution to fix it immediately.  Cold Stone’s philosophy was the opposite and that would have been nice to know before going into it. They down right refused to spend the energy or look into products the higher volume stores could use to bring up our efficiency and lower our cost of goods. But they had no trouble finding the time and energy to harass us and tell us we could not use “non” corporate approved products or help us fix the problems we were experiencing. Eventually corporate would agree to let us use lids on to-to items but can you imagine having to argue with a franchise for such a simple thing you had requests for hundreds of times a day? I often told them they should be asking the busy locations for input on how to get better and not trying to threaten us for solving problems in the franchise. The whole thing was very upside down.    

Do you have any regrets?

It was a heck of a learning experience but knowing what I do now, I would not have opened a Cold Stone Creamery. My husband and I both had to work a million hours a week to keep it going. I had to neglect my clothing store (which provided us our livelihood) and I missed out on so much with my babies those first few years. The franchise had alluded to the fact that we would be hiring a manager to run the show for us and we would be overseeing things.  Trouble was we didn’t feel we made enough money to pay a full time manager. My husband and I both worked 65+ hours a week and we were exhausted all the time. We were open 12 hours a day plus one hour of prep and one hour of cleaning. We hand made the ice cream, brownies and cones so it was extremely labor intensive.  Just thinking about it now gives me the willies.

How many other franchisees did you speak to before buying in and do you think they were honest with you?

That is where I feel we really went wrong. I only spoke to 3 franchisees and one had not opened their store yet so they didn’t really count. The other 2 were vague and a bit strange and I could not seem to get straight answers from them. Turns out I was asking all the wrong questions. I honestly believed they were trying to keep new people out of the system because it was so great and they didn’t want to share the territory. Realistically, I had already made up my mind that I was going to open a store and so was not really listening. HUGE MISTAKE! Later, after I opened my store, they told me they had tried to warn me but I refused to hear them. They were right. I took what they said and twisted it to suit my needs. Turns out they were actually leveling with me the entire time.

What was the most difficult part of the business?

At one point we had 22 employees all under the age of 17. For them, work was not a priority. It came after homework, school, football, cheerleading, prom, spring break, parties, movies, travel etc. The kids were great but they were young and Cold Stone Creamery is hard work. Our turnover was very high and we were constantly hiring and training. That for me was extremely difficult.

What do you wish that you knew before buying in – that you do know now?

As I said, if we had known the true cost, more about the corporate dynamic and the atrocious work load – we would not have gone through with it. But…we live and we learn and boy did we learn!

What did you like about the franchise?  

I loved the ice cream – it was delicious. At our store we worked hard to make sure the quality was second to none and were very proud of that. I also really enjoyed the other franchisees. Most of them were terrific people and we were all in the same boat. We had no choice but to work together to find solutions, cut costs and grow sales.  One time, after we had been open approximately six months, another franchisee sent 4 of their BEST crew members to our store to work so my husband and I could go eat dinner together. It was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for us. It was an amazing gesture and we so appreciated it. Dave and Howie if you are out there somewhere – thank you so very much from the bottom of our hearts.

Would you tell someone else to open one?

I could not in clear conscience tell someone to open a Cold Stone Store. I know there was a class action lawsuit at one point and many franchisees sued the franchise as they felt they had been misled. That was years after we owned our store so we were not a party to that.

Hopeful franchisees would call our store on a daily basis and ask us if we “like the franchise.” We had to be careful of what we said, and not make corporate mad, as they would retaliate on franchisees who did. Still, we needed to be honest with people so we had a saying, “it is the hardest work we have ever done in our lives for the least amount of money.” It was the truth. I’m sure we scared people off but we just wanted them to know the truth. If that still sounded good to them, then by all means open a store. If not, they could move on.

How much work was required of you per week on average?

It never ended. I had someone watch my kids during the day almost every day. Then my mother and my husband’s mother would alternate evenings watching our children until 1am when we got home after cleaning up and closing. On weekends, my husband had to go back at 4am to start making more ice cream as our equipment and systems were inadequate for our volume. It was a tremendous work load.

Any words of advice to prospective franchisees looking into any franchise brand?    

I am definitely not saying all franchises are bad. I am sure there are hundreds, if not thousands that are great. I just want people to know that when you buy into a franchise, you are buying their system, culture and integrity.  If they are honest and forthright and the business model works, as long as you follow the system you should do great. However, if they are a misleading bunch and their business model does not fit your lifestyle (e.g. working 70+ hours a week) you need to ask enough questions in the due diligence process to discern that too. Remember…you get the truth from the existing franchisees NOT the franchise itself.