Tracy Vides, Author at She Owns It

The 6 Step Guide to Turn Your Small Business into a Franchise by @TracyVides

July 31, 2018 by Tracy Vides 1 Comment

by Tracy Vides | Featured Contributor

Small business owners are constantly on the lookout to grow their business efficiently and profitably. Expanding an existing business into a franchise helps small business grow rapidly without incurring the risks of expansion.

Why franchise, you ask? Well, franchise businesses are created with the twin goals of rapid growth and limited risk exposure, for both the franchisee and the franchisor. Franchise owners don’t have to worry about spending on a new office or retail location, employing a staff of people, or even balancing the day to day operations of the new outlet. Similarly, franchisees don’t have to worry about building a brand up from scratch, testing an unknown product in a new market. As an industry, franchises contributed over 3% of the US GDP in 2017.

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Employment growth in the franchise sector has outpaced the US economy by leaps and bounds, signifying a similar blistering pace of growth in economic output from the franchise industry.

So without wasting any more time, let’s see how your business could become the next McDonald’s, 7 Eleven, or H&R Block.

1. Simplify your business model down to its ABCs

The core of a franchise business is replicating a simple business model over and over again, profitably. The first thing you need to do to turn your business into a franchise is to first understand the nuts and bolts of your business, discover what makes it tick and then create a simple 1-2-3 step process of creating your business under someone else’s watch. Layout the blueprint of your business and spell out each detail in such a way that a stranger who’s never set foot in your business is able to recreate it to a T.

The key thing to remember here is to take yourself as an individual out of the process of creating value. If you think your business runs purely because of some inherent skill or talent you possess, your business may not be the best type to be franchised.

2. Decide on your franchise structure

Once you know what your franchise business will sell and how it will go about creating this value for customers, you then need to figure out how you’ll structure your franchise business. Some key points to consider here are:

Number of franchisees
Location of franchisees
Upfront franchise fees (e.g. from $50,000 to $100,000)
Recurring royalty fees (e.g. between 4% to 8% of gross sales)
Dividing duties and responsibilities for the business between yourself and your franchisees
Degree of control you’ll have over your franchisees
Managing legal requirements – registration, licenses, permissions etc.

Want to learn more about structuring your franchise business? Go here.

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3. Start building your brand

Now that you know whether your business will be an individual franchisee or area franchise or something entirely different, you need to give your franchisees bang for their buck – a well-recognized, well-loved brand that they can sell in each of their locations.

Invest time in carefully crafting your brand identity – your logo, your main colors, your key messaging, taglines, etc. Once you have the building blocks of your brand in place, start infusing some character into your brand and flesh out a clear brand personality. This is where you figure out what your brand stands for, who is your core target audience, what does your advertisement say, which platforms should you advertise on and so on.

4. Identify and shortlist your core group of franchisees

When you first start out your franchise business, it’s imperative to get going with partners who are as committed to the business as you are. You want people who are smart, understand your business inside out and most importantly, can be trusted with your brand out in the big, bad world.

Interview and shortlist franchisee partners by evaluating them on the following criteria:

Role and responsibilities fit
Financial health
Detailed background check – credit scores, criminal check, references, etc.
Temperament fit – matches your goals and attitudes towards the business
Past business/employment record

5. Handhold franchisees and empower them

Setting up a new franchisee’s business is almost like building your business from scratch all over again. Only this time, you’ve already learnt from your past mistakes and know exactly what to expect (for the most part!).

Set aside team and resources to help a new franchisee start their business. Spend time personally on premises (at least for the first few franchisees) so you know can teach them the ropes of the business without any misunderstanding. Learning on the job will also make the franchisees more confident in their abilities to run the business and offer them a chance to see what a successful version of your franchise should look like.

Once you’ve set up the first handful of franchise outlets, you’ll slowly realize that you need to distinguish between your overall franchise business and the business of each individual outlet. As you create that mental distance between yourself and your franchisees, make sure you give them the tools to run their businesses as efficiently as possible. Besides in-store and on the job training, create detailed operations manuals that franchisees can refer to when you’re not around. You can use simple online training software to set up a dedicated portal for your franchisees and their employees to log in and learn more about the business, get tips and tricks, or more.

6. Maintain quality

Even though you have other people running individual franchise outlets, the overall franchise is still your baby. It’s up to you to ensure that your partners are delivering value to your customers.

Set up clear and strict guidelines to maintain the quality of your products or services. Make sure that the operations manual is adhered to by franchisees to the letter.

Sometimes, something as basic as selecting the right franchise location can have an impact on the quality of output. Bacon Bros. Public House, a farm-to-table restaurant chain, insists on having its franchises located within 50 miles of farming communities to ensure they get the freshest possible local produce for their restaurant.

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Surprise checks at the franchise outlets, sending in mystery shoppers to check processes, and conducting regular surveys of your customers are other simple and effective ways of monitoring quality.

The final word

Starting a franchise business is a huge leap for any small business, but done right the payoffs are tremendous as well. So ask yourself, would you rather be the queen of your own little castle or the boss of the next big business empire? Once you have the answer, go forth and conquer!

Tracy Vides

Tracy Vides is a content marketer and social media consultant who works with small businesses and startups to increase their visibility. Although new to the digital marketing scene compared to her illustrious She Owns It counterparts, Tracy has started off well by building a good online reputation for herself. She’s now a “serial blogger” with posts featured on Sprout Content, Steamfeed, Soshable and elsewhere.

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

plus.google.com/+TracyVides/about

Thinking About Quitting? Here are 4 Things You Must Do Before Transitioning into an Entrepreneur by @TracyVides

January 4, 2018 by Tracy Vides Leave a Comment

by Tracy Vides | Featured Contributor

The dream of starting your own business is becoming more and more attainable for women. Female-owned businesses are the fastest growing segment in the US economy right now.

While making the initial jump from full-time employee to full-time entrepreneur is scary and difficult, it’s oh-so-rewarding!

Leaving your 9-to-5 or traditional office setting to pursue your own path is a big leap to take –leaving a steady income behind can be a huge risk. Self-employment can also have a major impact on your family life in ways other than finances, so it is definitely not a choice that should be taken lightly.

Before you put it off by another year, remember that thousands of other successful entrepreneurs have turned their dream into reality by taking the plunge, so you can too. Prepare yourself for the move into full-time entrepreneurship by taking the necessary first steps that will help make the change as smooth and successful as possible.

1. Start with a Side Hustle

One good way to test the waters before you go full-time is to try starting a side hustle first. Not only will it provide you with an extra source of income that can fuel your transition into entrepreneurship, but it can also be a great learning tool to help you prepare to run a business full-time.

Lots of successful entrepreneurs started things out as a hobby-cum-business on the side. Like Kristin Berry, who opened up an Etsy shop selling her artwork and offering graphic design work. Her business quickly took off from there. In 2015, she successfully quit her day job and started her own company, Miss Design Berry.

Whether you want this side-business to turn into your full-time gig is up to you, but remember, it is a great foundation to start building a brand name. Once you’ve established a flourishing side gig, you can start the process of successfully turning it into a full-time business.

2. Learn from Your Employer’s Mistakes

While planning an exit from your current employer is by no means an excuse to slack off on the job, it should be a time of learning and observation. It is much easier to see the weaknesses and kinks in a company as an employee than it is as a leader. No matter how much you may love your boss or coworkers, there are likely some things that would change if you were in charge.

Take the time to observe the day-to-day practices that go on at your current job, and then analyze which strategies work and which ones don’t. It is often the little things, like poor communication or inefficient leadership that can have the biggest impact, especially when it comes to employee productivity and task management.

Use this pre-entrepreneurship time to learn the finer details of how to run a business (and how not to run one). Take notes on the systems that are helpful and discuss ideas and suggestions from other coworkers for better solutions.

3. Construct a Strong Business Blueprint

Before diving head first into running your own business, make sure you are prepared with a strong business plan ahead of time. Getting your finances, marketing strategies, and business structure in place before your entrepreneurial venture begins is the best way to set yourself up for success.

While various studies peg the capital that an average business startup requires to get things started from as little as $1,000 to as much as $125,000, the right answer is it depends on your business. Figuring out a solid budget plan should be one of your top priorities. Your success depends on the metrics on which you base your calculations.

Poor money management has been the downfall for countless companies. Don’t hesitate to seek out a professional financial planner to help you prevent any kinks down the road.

A strong and lean marketing strategy can determine the success or failure of a new business quicker than anything else. Get yourself up to speed on the ins and outs of social media, content marketing, digital advertising, and more to determine which tactics would be best to get the wheels moving.

4. Work on Self-Improvement before Self-Employment

The truth is that not everyone is cut out for entrepreneurship. Few things in this lifestyle are easy. Self-starters face rejection and failure on a regular basis. However, there are certain characteristics successful entrepreneurs exhibit that you can attempt to develop beforehand, in order to help prepare for the hardships ahead.

Many entrepreneurs are self-declared bookworms, so pick up as many books on successful leaders, business strategies, and other interesting topics as you can. Listen to podcasts, connect with a mentor, or attend entrepreneurial meetups in your area to start networking with like-minded people.

Truly successful entrepreneurs are confident and ambitious. They always place a strong importance on personal growth. In many ways, entrepreneurship is a mind battle. Prepare yourself by learning and cultivating a go-getter mindset to set yourself on the path to success.

The Way Forward

Making the transition to a full-time entrepreneur can be both menacing and exhilarating, depending on your view of it. Planning ahead is key for making the change a little bit easier. While you can certainly learn a lot as you go along, take some steps to prepare by learning, strategizing, and improving yourself beforehand.

Tracy Vides

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

plus.google.com/+TracyVides/about

4 Priceless Skills Entrepreneurs Need to Sustain a Thriving Website by @TracyVides

January 17, 2017 by Tracy Vides 1 Comment

by Tracy Vides | Featured Contributor

Starting a business these days is tough. Perhaps one of the most difficult but taken-for-granted tasks that entrepreneurs face is crafting and maintaining a website through which their brand can establish a strong online presence.

Creating a website for your business is one of the most important things you will ever do as a business owner. While it can be a challenging – or even daunting – task, it’s not rocket science. (Nothing is rocket science, except rocket science, by the way.) Your platform is only as good as the one who builds it. The process requires a great deal of time and varied capabilities to supplement the interface.

Let’s discuss four skills necessary to create a website that strongly reflects you and your business.

1. Good Sense for Design

Perhaps one of the most important requirements needed to create a website is a good knowledge of aesthetics and graphic design. Keep in mind, you can have the best content and fundamentals on the internet, but if the aesthetics are messy, the entire interface will get derailed.

For both rookie and veteran entrepreneurs, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is designing a website that appeals to YOU, and not the user. Designing a cool looking website and suiting your objective take two extremely different mindsets. There are several key factors that play into a strong, user-focused platform:

Flow – This is how the user navigates your platform. When creating a good flow, the overall experience should not lead to confusion by jumping all over the place. Keep it straightforward and simple so potential customers can find everything they need. The flow should drive traffic to pages that push users to take action.
Color – Color alone can do a lot to either draw customers in, or send them packing. Your choices should wisely reflect the overall energy, aura and personality of your brand while putting the user in the mood to buy.
Visuals and Images – While stock images are a quick solution, any good audience can see what you’re doing from a mile away. If you’re going to add pictures or videos to your web pages, consider using photos and footage of real people taken at your business. Stock images or cookie-cutter “intro” videos can come off as lazy.
Communication – Throughout your pages and content, the tone you speak in needs to be consistent while your message should send signals that guide users down the conversion funnel. This goes back to putting yourself in the shoes of the user. What questions or concerns might they have about your product, your customer support, or the industry as a whole?

Learning the fundamentals of website design aesthetics can be a challenge. However, it is a very valuable skill to have. There are many options available to push you in the right direction. All the major online MOOC sites, including Lynda.com, Coursera, and Udemy, offer excellent free courses to get started learning the basics of good design.

2. Stoic Project Management Skills

As an entrepreneur putting together a new website, there is a good chance you will need to outsource or delegate some of your tasks. Whether it be content writing, programing, design, or usability, there are many standards and best practices; it can take months to produce the final product – your website.

This is where project management skills come into play for keeping the construction process running smoothly. You, assuming the role project manager, are the heart and soul that brings every component and aspect of the web development process together to ensure everyone involved has what they need.

As this is your website, the truth of the matter is that you will most likely have to do a good deal of micromanaging to ensure tasks get done on time in the way you need them to be completed.

Learning professional project management skills (and tools) early on in a startup will prove to be very useful down the line. For example, when your business starts to experience rapid growth, it would be a wise move to bring in a team to manage your website. In this case, will need to be able to delegate tasks in the best possible manner.

You might consider earning the PMP certificate to supplement your business skills. Here too, there are a lot of courses available to put you on the right path. For instance, Knowledgehut offers a top-to-bottom course to prepare you for the PMI exams with the help of certified professionals.

3. Keen Eye for Data and Metrics

Website development is never-ending project to improve and optimize. Interfaces today are becoming more and more data-driven. The more information we come across, the more necessary it becomes to structure and categorize organizational knowledge and insights in way that can be easily understood and processed. Every business decision you make should be data-driven to a certain extent.

Most websites are designed for the purpose of guiding visitors to complete a desired action. Whether that be buying, sharing, subscribing, or anything else, there are elements embedded in the website where presentation and sensory effects influence consumer behavior.

The ability to respond to data has seen a lot of improvement in recent years with the growth of analytics platforms. The need to bridge the gap between visitor data and making proper web adjustments is greater than ever.

As you pick up the reins of creating your website, you will need to keep a close eye on actionable data. Some of the quantitative metrics you will need to keep an eye on are:

Traffic
Sources of Traffic
Top Performing Content
User Conversion Rate by Source
Bounce Rate by page
Customer Lifetime Value

A clear sense of this information is crucial in learning what works with visitors and what doesn’t. From here, you can make necessary changes and updates while using split testing to gauge the results.

Properly analyzing these metrics is no easy task. Take a look at some online courses to learn more about how to manage and make better data-driven decisions. Zeolearn, for example, offers a very informative course in Data visualization with Tableau (the big brother of Excel) that will teach you everything you need to analyze the state and progress of your business.

4. Firm Understanding of Web Security

Tech has done amazing things for the business world. Unfortunately, one of the side effects is that cyberspace has become a dangerous environment. In fact, a PwC report found that 79% of organizations in the United States have experienced a security breach at one time or the other.

One of the most important skills you can have when managing a business website is knowing how to keep it secure. Take a look at the OWASP development guide, for starters.

Learn as much as you can about common hacker practices and the reasoning behind breaches. While we’ve all heard about hackers stealing user passwords or personal details of your customers or gaining access to important financial data of huge companies, the most common break-ins happen when there are “vulnerabilities” in your website code or structure.

For example, a common but overlooked way hackers can gain entry into your site is by manipulating URL query strings in the browser and using the error messages displayed there. An error message that pinpoints the default error in the URL (such as 404) is a strict no-no; a better option is to create personalized pages with messaging that informs and amuses, but gives little away in terms of website data to potential hackers:

Play it safe and educate yourself on the best practices for keeping digital assets secure. SANS offers a great introductory course that will bring you up to speed on how to make sure your valuable data doesn’t get into the wrong hands. Gaining this knowledge could very well be the best decision you ever make.

Over to You

This was just the tip of the iceberg, as you may well have realized by now. Hey, who said starting a business was easy? While you may not be a designer or programmer by trade, learning the basics of development is a great way to save money in the early stages of your business and pick up some fundamental skills in the process.

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Tracy Vides is a content marketer and social media consultant who works with small businesses and startups to increase their visibility. Although new to the digital marketing scene compared to her illustrious She Owns It counterparts, Tracy has started off well by building a good online reputation for herself. She’s now a “serial blogger” with posts featured on Sprout Content, Steamfeed, Soshable, and elsewhere.

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

Tracy Vides

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

plus.google.com/+TracyVides/about

The Case for Ecommerce Tools: Must-Read for Time-Pressed Entrepreneurs by @TracyVides

May 31, 2016 by Tracy Vides Leave a Comment

by Tracy Vides | Featured Contributor

One of the most challenging aspects of being an entrepreneur is the persistent lack of time, you are constantly on the run with days and months flying by. Your growth chart changes over time, the number of employees in your company increase, you update your car and office, but one thing that doesn’t change is you are always hard pressed for time.

Entrepreneurs who run ecommerce businesses are better off than their counterparts in that help is available in the form of automation – here are some sound arguments why they must equip themselves with tools and tool suites that help them get things done faster…

Do more in less time

One of the best parts about the latest SaaS and ecommerce tools is you are able to do more than ever in less time. They help you automate every step in the ecommerce cycle so you can have more free time on hands.

For instance, HubLogix automates tedious tasks such as drop shipping, inventory management, shipping tracking, etc., which are inherently unproductive when done by a person. All these tasks can eat away a major bulk of your time – automating them frees up your time so you can focus more on productive and lucrative business functions.

There are literally hundreds of ecommerce “plugins,” “add-ons” or “extensions” – whatever you choose to call them (depending on the platform you are using) – that make everything from handling orders to upselling to social media sharing a breeze.

Spend nothing

Believe it or not, there is a free alternative tool available for almost everything these days. From creating product videos to testing your site, from finding relevant SEO keywords to automating emails, entrepreneurs who want to do anything on a budget can do so using free SaaS tools available online.

Get professional results

Other than being cost-effective (or free), ecommerce tools are also known for their amazing professional results. You don’t need to hire an analyst, designer or agency for small jobs, as most of the important ones like logo and layout design, product recommendations, A/B testing, web analytics, PPC, etc. can be handled easily with the help of intuitive tools.

For instance, gone are the days when you had to hire a Photoshop expert or spending endless hours making a logo. Ecommerce platforms like Shopify offer additional options such as a free logo maker tool to help you make a professional-quality logo even if you are not a designer.

You can go a step further and create striking homepage banners using a tool like Canva. These tools take the pain and guesswork out of designing and give your professional quality results.

Make better decisions

From your social media channels through to your website, every venue is a potential goldmine for insights. They are leaking crucial information and valuable data that begs to be listened. Tuning into this data can help you understand your customers and make better decisions.

If you are not mining this data, you are missing out on valuable insights on your audience, users, customers and site visitors. For instance, Crazy Egg offers heat maps, scroll maps, overlays and confetti reports that help you understand everything from the number of clicks on each element of your page to how far down the page people are scrolling on your website.

Stay ahead of the curve

The success of your ecommerce business depends quite a lot on which tools you use and how well you use them.

Ecommerce remarketing tools like AdRoll and Criteo (and of course the big daddy, Google AdWords) help you reach back to visitors who didn’t buy from you and significantly boost your brand recall as well as marketing ROI in the process. Retargeting ads help you convert customers who dither in making decisions, so you can easily stay in their memory even after they’ve flown the coop, ahem, your website or app.

With AdRoll or other remarketing tools, all you need to do is place a single pixel (code snippet) in your website and then divide your visitors into various segments based on their interests and intent. The segment you target will then begin seeing associated ads at strategic places along their web journey!

Rake in the sales

Ecommerce tools directly affect the bottom line. These tools improve your conversion rate through proven techniques that hold the visitor’s interest for that bit longer. For instance, exit pop ups are designed to increase signups and subscriptions while a visitor is about to leave the website. Cart recovery tools are designed to minimize abandoned cart recovery through personalized, automated emails. The best part is, many of these tools are integrated with or built into your ecommerce CMS.

On the other hand, some tools affect the bottom line indirectly (for example, customer service and analytics tool). Believe it or not, even smallest things like not having social buttons on your website might affect conversions. So it is very important to use the latest, bleeding-edge ecommerce technology.

The best part is, the cash register keeps ringing even without your direct involvement.

Get peace of mind

It’s surprising how underestimated peace of mind is in an entrepreneur’s journey. Most people speak about how they worked 16-18 hours a day or how they hadn’t taken a break in months or even years. This can be a disastrous attitude in the long run.

A lot of people are averse to tools because they think it might interfere too much with their natural working style. However, if you really value your peace of mind, it helps to use technology.

All tools are designed to scale operations and boost your productivity in a particular area, and bring peace of mind in the process.

Make money while you sleep

The best tools let you relax in the knowledge that things will be “the usual” and status quo will be maintained even in your absence.

While ecommerce tools might cost you money, they also make you money as we saw in the conversions section. Another rationale is that your time is money. So with all the time on your hand, you are free to network, find better growth opportunities and focus on expanding your business (or even starting new ones) rather than do the same things over and over again.

The case against ecommerce tools

There are situations when falling back on a tool might not be right for you. Some of these include:

You can get it done cheaper by humans.
You have superpowers that negate the need of tools.
Your ecommerce goals are not monetary or lucrative in nature and you’d like to highlight the fact that operations are carried out manually, maybe in order to appeal to a community.
Your goal involves integration of multiple functions that necessitate human intervention or input (an example being designing a complete identity for your brand), in which case an online marketplace would serve you better.

If none of the above apply to you, make sure you use as many ecommerce and automation tools mentioned here in order to scale up your business, lend credence to your marketing, and keep operations smooth.

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Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

Tracy Vides

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

plus.google.com/+TracyVides/about

7 Evergreen Social Media Truths to Guide Your Marketing by @TracyVides

August 3, 2015 by Tracy Vides 2 Comments

by Tracy Vides | Featured Contributor

The last half decade has been an extended social media party that refuses to turn down its volume. Anybody in the free world with an internet connection is probably part of, and most definitely aware of this phenomenon that has brought us closer to hundreds of people we barely know, while cutting us off from the people actually around us. But hey, that’s social media and its magnetism for you.

As marketers, we have seen social media budgets going up with every passing year. The job of a social media marketer too has become more and more complex with time. However, there are some truths that are so universal about this medium that they promise to stand the test of time.

Peeps Go Social to Hook Up with Friends, Not Brands

This is the first and most important certainty that you need to accept. Much as you hate it, your audience on social media is there to connect with friends, keep up with the latest family gossip or even snoop on their exes. No one signs up to social media in the hopes of following a fast food brand or an ecommerce site.

In Facebook’s own words, “People told us they wanted to see more stories from friends and Pages they care about, and less promotional content.” This means, if you want users to connect with your brand on social media and stay engaged, you need to offer them something extra.

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From inside scoops to exclusive social media discounts to special preview sales, give them a real benefit from connecting with your business on social media.

Getting fans and followers on social media is simply the first step. Real returns from social media come once you start engaging with your fans. Sharing your posts with their friends is probably the most significant form of engagement a fan can offer you. But social shares are also the most difficult thing to achieve. The trick to being extremely shareable on social media is to make your fans look good in front of their friends.

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By painting them in a favorable light, you are virtually ensuring the fact that they will share your content among their networks.

Social Media is Not Free

Yes, creating your profile on most social networks is free of cost. Posting content on the sites and interacting with your followers is free as well. However, as social media has gotten more mature, the networks have begun monetizing nearly every aspect of reaching out to users on their platforms. We are all aware of how organic reach on Facebook dropped dramatically last year and has been on the decline ever since.

This however is not limited to Facebook. Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, SnapChat are all monetizing their giant audiences and extracting marketing dollars from brands who wish to engage with them on those networks. The lesson? Create awesome organic content. But back it up with requisite paid advertising muscle across the networks of your choice to be visible to your audience and make a difference to your bottom line.

Your Choice of Platforms Can Make or Break Your Social Media Marketing

Say you’re planning to set up a new online fashion store. If you’re like me, you’ll spend days (probably weeks) researching, understanding and agonizing over which platform to go with, before gingerly beginning with a free online shopping solution such as Spaces. Or, if you already happen to be running a small site selling apparel, built on a basic ecommerce platform like Shopify, you could try expanding your business to Facebook.

Use that same due diligence to pick social media networks that will work best to influence your target audience. Look at trusted data sources like the Pew Research Center to determine the audience profile for each of the social networks out there. Match these profiles with your buyer personas and ideal audience profile to figure out which platforms would work best for you.

Listening is as Important as Talking, Sometimes More

Many marketers tend to look at social media as yet another podium to broadcast their brand messaging. However, social media is not your personal soapbox. It’s a channel that thrives on two-way dialogue. You’d be doing you brand a huge disservice by discounting the inputs of your users on social networks – there’s some awesome free data for the taking! Chipotle spots a great hook by listening in to conversations about itself on social media:

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Moreover, when users interact reach out to brands on social media they expect quick responses. Delay too much or worse, ignore them, and you’re on your way to losing their trust.

Tracking brand mentions allows you to unearth customer problems and fix them on time. Understanding customer sentiment, tells you about how customers perceive your brand, what its strengths are and what weaknesses need to be fixed.

You can manually quantify mentions by setting up Google Alerts for your brand or related keywords and keeping count on a spreadsheet. Alternately, you can simply pick up the ready-made mention metric available through a bunch of tools.

A tool like SocialMention helps you keep track the number of mentions your brand receives on a regular basis. It also lets you filter by source – Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and so on, so you know your brand equity on each platform.

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You can filter based on keywords used, identify top users, and also know whether users feel positively or negatively towards your brand. If you use social media dashboards like Raven or SproutSocial, they offer you the same data (in different formats of course) as well.

Not all users are equal. There is your average fan or follower who may like or comment about your brand once in a while. And then there is the super fan who evangelizes your brand like it’s their own. Or the celebrity who gushes about your service to their followers, sending an avalanche of business your way. Creating loyal customers and brand evangelists is definitely not as impossible as it sounds.

Bribing Users Only Works in the Short Term

Freebies and giveaways are an easy way to grow your fan base and increase engagement in the short term. However, users who like your page or share your posts in exchange for a bribe are mere opportunists who would do the same with your competitors too, given a chance. Instead of buying your customers’ love, try earning it on a more permanent basis. Post the kind of content that your users are automatically attracted to. Develop the kind of friendly, helpful social persona that your users love connecting with.

Social Signals Impact Your Search Visibility

We can debate till the cows come home the correlation between social media and search rankings and not get anywhere. However, multiple pieces of empirical data have conclusively proven that social media does impact rankings and hence cannot be ignored. Last year, data showed the growing importance of social media vs. search in terms of site traffic.

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When we integrate with social media into our websites as a means of improving organic rankings, we need to keep in mind one key fact. Social media is not a bottom of the funnel, last touch medium. Social media is a top of the funnel medium that attracts the right users to your site. It can influence a user positively about your brand. The actual conversion push might come from a coupon or a sale at a store that a user exposed to your social media marketing walks into. However, that does not change the critical role social media has in positively influencing customer choices.

Integrate social media into the fabric of your site by doing the following:

Place social sharing buttons strategically alongside shareable pieces of content. This could be product images, blog posts, quotes, or whatever else works for your site.
Actively solicit social sharing of your content through specific social oriented CTA e.g. “Be the first to tell your friends about this awesome deal!”
Showcase user feedback from social media platforms as a means of upping your social proof and winning credibility from new users.
Encourage your existing users to refer their friends and family to your site via social media plugins.
Consider including social login to your website with plugins like Janrain. Social logins make the experience of browsing your site seamless for your users. At your end, they offer you rich social data about each user that you would never be able to access otherwise.

Social Media Can’t Be Your Only Bet

Yes, we’ve all heard about those brands like Lolly Wolly Doodle that were built purely on social media. However, if we’re honest to ourselves, we’ll realize that those are exceptions, not the rule. Not every single customer of yours is going to be active on social media. Most businesses need a multi-pronged approach to reach out to their audience and get them to buy. A mobile friendly website, a content strategy that boosts brand authority, on-site SEO readiness, and an email marketing strategy, are all key elements of a successful brand’s marketing story.

In Closing

Social media is a dynamic space. Some days your audience seems to love Facebook, the next day they switch to Instagram. Sometimes images are the biggest engagement tool on social media, and then suddenly images turn passé with videos usurping their spot. These are trends that you’ll learn to keep up with as you ride along your social media journey. However the fundamental truths that social media operates on remain constant. Master them and you’re closer than most to your goal of rip roaring returns from your social media marketing efforts.

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Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

Tracy Vides

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

plus.google.com/+TracyVides/about

Project Management Tools That Every Small Business Needs by @TracyVides

July 17, 2015 by Tracy Vides 4 Comments

Back view of businessman drawing sketch on wall

by Tracy Vides | Featured Contributor

Managing a project is never easy. There are so many factors you need to consider, and even if one or two of them slips your mind, it can be devastating for your business. Project management responsibilities are in fact unavoidable; you will face them at various points within your organizational operations, irrespective of your domain or size of the business. How you use your resource to deliver projects within the budget and timeframe and collaborate with your team members and clients typically determines the success of your business.

But this is easier said than done. A lot of challenges lie in the process of delivering a project without a proper framework. Things are especially challenging for small business as they usually have constrains on budget and resources. They need appropriate project management tools to face these challenges.

The project management tools available in the market at the moment can be broadly classified into three categories and small businesses need all of these functions to effectively execute their objectives.

Types of Project Management Platforms

1) Task Assignment System:

This is perhaps the most basic type of project management tool that every small business needs in their arsenal. Using this type of systems, businesses can:

Break down bigger and more complex goals into more manageable, smaller tasks.
Assign tasks to individual employees with the team.
Demonstrate workflow visually, indicating the order your team needs to follow to accomplish a task.
Assign a deadline/due date to each task.
Mark projects/tasks as “complete.”

On a more simplistic note, you can accomplish these tasks on Excel-like spreadsheets or even note apps. But these won’t provide you the features of more advanced project management software.

2) Collaboration Environment:

Task management tools, albeit important, do not provide the full scope of needs associated with dynamic project management environment. You cannot simply assign tasks to your team members and expect them to complete them properly without any supervision or internal discussion. It only shows your short sightedness and can be downright disastrous for your business.

Collaboration is key to successful project management. This allows your team to:

Communicate seamlessly with clients, stakeholders and others within/outside the company to discuss project requirements throughout its life cycle. This brings remote employees and large workforces working in multiple locations closer to create a better end result.
Discuss time-sensitive tasks so that managers/clients can respond to queries without interrupting existing work schedules.
Store and share ideas, notes and documents to facilitate better and efficient project completion.

Again, at its simplest, Google Apps and other file storage and communication systems can help you create a collaborative environment. But for more complex projects, you need something that combines task assignments with collaboration to address the diverse needs of a business with more than a single ongoing program.

3) Time Tracking Utility:

Finally, there are platforms specifically designed for tracking the time invested in a particular task. Proper time tracking is an essential part of good project management; simply delivering the project within the time-frame is not enough. You would also want to know how long it took your team members to complete a given task to see if you can find new efficiencies that you can put to use in future.

A time tracking tool is what you need for this purpose. It helps you track the time spent by every employee on each task/project, so that you can get a better overall idea of task sizes, as well as bill clients accurately for hours spent. A good time tracking tool allows you to switch between projects and tasks seamlessly.

These days, most project management tools combine time tracking with collaboration and task assignment. This allows businesses to leverage all features of a good project management from one single, robust platform instead of trying to pair or cross-integrate various standalone tools. It also makes the whole process inexpensive.

Based on these three categories of project management platforms, let’s consider three agile solutions that are great options for small businesses, both in terms of functionality and cost effectiveness.

JIRA

Previously called GreenHopper, JIRA is a project management tool by Atlassian Enterprise. This is a great agile project management tool that provides a “flexible and scalable issue tracker for software teams.” JIRA features a Scrum board as well as a Kanban board so that teams can successfully collaborate and complete tasks within the given time-frame.

It allows you to:

Prioritize and plan your tasks so that you can take action on what’s important.
Remain updated with everything your team is doing throughout a particular phase.
Create milestones and assign tasks with due dates.
Get real-time visibility of the progress and status of an upcoming/ongoing release via the Release Hub feature.
Collaborate through real-time communication in HipChat.
Generate reports.

Nutcache

A cloud-based collaborative project management, Nutcache allows you to “TEAM UP. ORGANIZE. TRACK. GET PAID.” It is the perfect solution for businesses to organize and track their work in a collaborative environment.

Nutcache has flexible boards that you can use to apply the Kanban model or the Scrum methodology of project management. Additionally, you can assign tasks as well as manage your project by phases or team. Nutcache allows for both internal and external communication from a single platform to enable better sharing of ideas, status updates, document sharing, comments, and so on.

Nutcache allows you to:

Create projects and assign tasks to individual employees or teams.
Assign hours to a specific project.
Attach documents such as files, videos and images to a particular project.
Create collaborative boards and organize it with lists and cards.
Track time spent on each assignment.
Create project estimates and invoices.
Bill clients with work hours directly from the project dashboard as well as invoice a whole board.
Select recurring frequencies for invoices.

Basecamp

This project management tool helps small businesses, entrepreneurs, small groups and freelancers collaborate with different people in order to achieve the common goal of “finishing a project together.” It facilitates easy communication between team members and associates to deliver projects successfully within the predefined time-frame and budget. Little need be said about Basecamp, because it is easily the most widely used project management tool in the small to medium sized business segment.

This popular collaboration tool allows you to:

Eliminate messy emails from your project management process by allowing you to post messages to its interface directly.
Assign tasks and mention deadlines.
Create multiple to-do lists and add sub-tasks.
View the whole thread of conversation on a topic in a single screen.
Share files with internal and external collaborators.

In Conclusion

What project management tools suit your business depends on your particular requirements. You can incorporate a standalone task management tool or a combined, agile solution that does it all for your business, depending on the complexity of your projects, the size of your business and number of employees who need to use the system. Irrespective of the tool you use, remember that managing operations with a project-based system is the key to a successful business.

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Image credits:

Task assignment – http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s.casual.pm/blog/posts/5%20Principles%20Of%20Creating%20A%20Task.jpg

Collaboration – https://www.marketopia.com/wp-content/uploads/bfi_thumb/Screen-Shot-2015-04-23-at-10.37.13-AM-2yyle7n97wf51dji1k4lxc.png

Time tracking – http://teamviget.com/images/uploads/tracktor-1.png

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Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

Tracy Vides

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

plus.google.com/+TracyVides/about

6 Neat Pieces of Tech for a More Productive Workday by @TracyVides #VZWbuzz

June 22, 2015 by Tracy Vides Leave a Comment

by Tracy Vides | Featured Contributor

Citius. Altius. Fortius. Meaning “Faster, Higher, Stronger” in Latin. These are the words that pretty much represent our everyday lives, not just the Olympic Games, anymore.

The quest for a quicker, more efficient way to get things done has led to a whole lot of interesting innovations. We’re familiar with apps that make our lives easier like Evernote or Flipboard. Here’s a selection of apps as well as gadgets that make for a more efficient and productive day at work – at the office, in a retail setup or even in home-offices.

Smart Shelves

Supermarket shelves that carry the price and unit price for each item are so passé. Smart shelves are all set to take over the boring old and extremely limited utility store shelves of the past. These smart shelves are not paper and plastic tags anymore. They’re electronic labels that allow retailers to update product prices instantly with no manual intervention at each shelf. The shelves notify store managers when a product is running low on stock or is out of stock so the store does not lose sales due to stock outs. Some of these shelves even come equipped with Apple’s iBeacon technology which allows them to send customized offers to users’ smartphones as they pass by the shelves in the store.

Wrike

Projects typically require teamwork and inputs from various individuals at different stages of completion. Keeping track of individual pieces of the project, staying on top of who’s accountable for what and making sure that timelines are adhered to can all be real stressors with just email. A tool like Wrike takes the legwork out of project management by bringing together all members of the team on the same account where everyone can share their work freely with the rest of the team, team members can collaborate with ease on the same piece of work, one can even open up access to parts of the projects to outside vendors or clients as per the project manager’s discretion. Instead of a million emails back and forth regarding every aspect of the project, teams can store all their communication, files, comments and to-do lists in one place with Wrike.

USB Cup Warmer

America is a country of coffee drinkers. Why we even have coffee chains that claims that the nation ‘runs on’ its coffee. While coffee is indispensable to the average workplace, too many coffee breaks can definitely eat into your team’s overall productivity. So what do you do? You can’t obviously monitor or regulate coffee breaks. Any admonishments will definitely backfire and spoil your work environment. Why not approach the problem from a completely different point of view?

Invest in coffee mug warmers for your team. These devices as their name suggests, keep your coffee warm and piping even hours after your initial coffee run. You don’t have to worry about replacing batteries or finding a wall plug for this neat gizmo. With its standard USB port you can get your hot caffeine fix at your desk, on your couch or even outdoors. No more dillydallying at the coffee machine!

NeatDesk

In spite of how modern and digitized life has become, a lot of things at a workplace are still based on paper filing and recording. Things like receipts, bills, agreements, business cards and more are all still largely paper based and can be a real pain to keep track of.

Enter NeatDesk. NeatDesk offers a high speed desktop scanner that converts all your paper documents, receipts, visiting cards and more into digital form. By digital form I don’t mean that it simply scans the documents. NeatDesk’s intelligent text recognition system understands what is written on your documents and transfers key data from the documents into digital files that can be edited or worked on at a later date. It also comes with free limited period cloud storage for your data to make life easier in terms of data accessibility.

Walkstation

Long hours of sitting have been proven to be bad for your body and for your mind. Efficiency drops and postures get affected when people sit for over two to three hours at a stretch at the same desk. Many offices have adopted standing desks or even adjustable sitting / standing desks for improving employee health and productivity. However, reports show that standing desks may not be all that they are vaunted to be.

A Walkstation is essentially a desk with a treadmill attached to it. Instead of making your employees spend the entire day sitting immobile at their desks, Walkstation is a good way to get them moving and healthy, without sacrificing their productive. You don’t have to convert every desk into a Walkstation obviously. However, consider installing a section in your office with four or five of these where employees can exercise and work at the same time. These Walkstation zones can turn into de facto meeting rooms with employees exercising their grey matter as well their bodies all in one place. The best part is that since Walkstations do not replace regular desks, they do not pose a threat to comfort and ease of work at the office.

Focus Lock

According to Salary.com’s annual survey of workplace timewasters, 2014 saw 89% of all surveyed employees admitting to wasting time at the workplace. Time wasters typically included search and social media, with Google, Facebook and LinkedIn taking the top honors. Social media, online shopping, gaming and more offer employees the option goofing off while at work without even bothering to budge from their seats. The net result? Thousands of lost man-hours.

Focus Lock is an Android app that allows you to proactively lock time waster apps and get attention back to the long list of tasks at hand. This can prove to be a godsend for freelancers and work from home employees who don’t even have the office environment to regulate their productive hours. By selecting the apps that need to be locked away and choosing the duration for which they will be inaccessible, Focus Lock ensures that workers spend less time dawdling and more time being useful.

In Conclusion

Near-perfect productivity is an elusive goal that every company chases but few are successful in attaining. While down-time is necessary for all employees it is a huge problem when the ratio between downtime and productive time is reversed. Keep a rein on how you and your coworkers spend time at work with some of these fun tech ideas and let us know how it goes!

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Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

Tracy Vides

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

plus.google.com/+TracyVides/about

Social Media Trends in the Fashion Industry by @TracyVides

November 20, 2014 by Tracy Vides Leave a Comment

by Tracy Vides | Featured Contributor

Fashion is an experience. At least that’s how the major fashion houses describe it. And they are not entirely wrong either; it is, after all, the experience that makes buyers feel confident, trendy and compelled to buy more. But replicating such an experience online is a major challenge. No wonder the fashion industry took quite some time to incorporate social media into its marketing and advertising strategies.

But when it did embrace social media, the result was mind-blowing. It created new channels for the industry to engage customers like never before. It allowed consumers to establish a near-personal connection with brands, and as a result the apparel industry saw a resurgence of brand loyalty. A number of fashion designers, brands and fashion retailers are using social networking sites to control and form brand perception. Social media also allows businesses to determine their relevant performance metrics, which further helps in evaluating their progress.

Investing in Social Media is a Necessity, Not a Luxury

The fashion industry has long since accepted the power, reach, and influence of social media. Fashion businesses have been using social media as an integral part of their content strategy, and as a result, have seen measurable benefits in terms of referral traffic, lead generation and revenue.

Social media marketing is no more limited to just Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Although these platforms are widely used to deploy effective marketing strategies, there are other platforms out there that may have emerged later but are playing bigger and even better roles. Pinterest, Vine, Instagram, and Tumblr are a few such examples.

Consider this: Just five years ago, the UK fashion industry had a £21-billion stake in the economy, whereas the present figure is £26 billion. This 22% rise also correlates with the growth of digital and social media technology and this is not at all a coincidence.

Here is another example. eBay Deals studied data from five popular social networks during New York Fashion Week and published an infographic called How Social Media is Making over the Fashion Industry. The findings show how fashionistas are using social channels to keep track of events and other details, while major designers and brands are using the platform to engage with consumers through live tweets and feedback.

When it comes to social media marketing, innovation and creativity win the game. Brands that successfully deploy and demonstrate these two elements can better leverage these platforms to achieve their core objectives.

Blogging Takes You a Long Way

Bloggers are the new thought leaders in fashion. They are probably the biggest influencers after celebrities.

Brands are investing in fashion bloggers not only for product reviews and feedback, but also to establish a liaison between the brand and the target customers. For luxury brands such relationships are proving invaluable, especially because it costs less than traditional advertising. Most of the time fashion bloggers promote a brand for free to maintain their brand loyalty. All you need is a tweet, a retweet or a social mention with a hashtag to thank them for their efforts.

As a fashion brand your marketing team should also concentrate on on-site and guest blogging. It gives you an edge to better explain yourself; however, the focus should always be on establishing a relationship with reputed fashion bloggers – they offer authority like no one else. Such liaisons are also advantageous for bloggers, especially in bringing them into fashion spotlight.

The Magic of Microblogging

The likes of Topshop and Burberry are probably the best examples of how to connect and engage with the cyber crowds using social media. Other uber-trendy brands also tend to flood the Twitter and Instagram through mentions and shares during the London Fashion Week this year. From runway trends to photographs of models, live tweeting and instagramming has become hot. Twitter has become an integral part of the world of high fashion.

Fashion designers usually operate their own accounts while brands generally opt for a recognizable person (a face) to maintain all social media presence. But a mere presence on social media for the sake of pushing out marketing content is not enough. You need to connect with customers – being highly responsive to tweets and mentions, providing behind-the-scenes action, and giving away content that helps build stronger brand love are some of the ways of doing it correctly. Also, tweets must be witty and personal at times to show the very human side of the colossal fashion industry.

How Burberry is retaining its social media crown is no rocket science. The brand gained more than 80,000 social mentions over the five-day event of 2014 London Fashion Week. They provided backstage beauty action and live streaming of their catwalk show through Twitter, Vine and Pinterest. Topshop went a step ahead by airing a virtual catwalk at its Oxford Street flagship store.

Pin It!

Pinterest and Instagram are the new favorites of the fashion industry. From designers to brands, everyone is pinning their product images on these photo-sharing sites. Apart from live streaming photographs from popular events, fashion brands are using these sites to drive sales as well. Ecommerce sites are using Pinterest to reach out to customers on both desktop and mobile devices.

Visual content is becoming a critical part of any good content strategy and hence the importance of these image-based social media sites is on the rise. Pinterest, which previously had a reputation of a “women’s only” network, is becoming popular among male users as well.

For example, online retailer OwnOnly has made Pinterest an integral part of its marketing strategies. The company selling men’s custom tailored suits and shirts is promoting its lines of business and casual suits, blazers, shirts, and men’s accessories using visual content on Pinterest and other image-based social media sites. Apart from sharing its huge apparel collection, Ownonly is also using these social media sites to share informative and interesting infographics, a pretty clever way to engage their customers.

Apart from Pinterest, you can leverage the ‘sharability’ features of other photo-sharing sites like Instagram, Tumblr, Slideshare, Mobli and Path. If you’re creative enough, you can even use these sites to promote products and drive sales directly. Running promotional contests like “Pin It to Win It” is a great idea that you can try out on Pinterest.

Final Thoughts

The way some of these trendy brands are going social, it is hard to predict where it will lead in the next five years. But when it comes to leveraging social media, creativity and innovation are crucial for connecting with consumers. They are the only way to bait the crowd.

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Image credits:
Featured. http://wear2tear.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/social-outfits.jpg?w=500&h=401
1. http://blog.hoosh.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Fashionbi-Facebook-Twitter-Mass-Brands-650×838.jpg
2. http://e-rockentertainment.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/InFB-article_The-Role-Of-a-Fashion-Blogger.jpg
3. http://cdn1.tnwcdn.com/files/2010/09/event-600×382.jpg
4. http://www.pinterest.com/Ownonly/mens-wear/

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Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

Tracy Vides

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

plus.google.com/+TracyVides/about

5 Tools to Get Your Customers to Pay Faster by @TracyVides

October 6, 2014 by Tracy Vides 2 Comments

by Tracy Vides | Featured Contributor

Small-business owners know the premium their businesses place on timely invoicing and payment. A delay or snag in cash flow can upset expansion plans and derail projects.

While invoicing is critical to your business, it is of utmost importance that you do it accurately, professionally, timely, and easily.

There are umpteen popular and reliable Web-based solutions that provide invoicing, accounting and project management tools. Let’s look at some of the most popular and well-known software products around.

1) Cloudbooks

Cloudbooks is a feature-packed cloud-based accounting app that is tailor-made to cater to the needs of freelancers, and small and medium-sized businesses. It can be scaled up to manage huge projects also.

Estimates can be sent to clients and when approved can be converted into invoices with a single click. Recurring invoices can be automated.

Expenses can be easily tracked and recurring expenses can be automated. Unique expenses can be tracked and categorized.

Cloudbooks has strong project management features. You can assign tasks to team members and track progress. In-built timer ensures you do not miss out on billable hours, even on the go. The costs can be automatically added to the relevant client’s invoices.

Invoices can be generated from finished projects with a single click.

Cloudbooks supports role-based permission to team members which ensures security and confidentiality of your business data.

The client page has all the necessary information about on-going projects and invoices. Clients can open invoices and estimates, and view payment history.

Online payment is facilitated by PayPal and Authorize.net integration. You can send a personalized automated thank you note as well once the payment is made.

The free plan allows you to send 5 invoices and supports 1 client. The freelancer plan is priced $2 per month, team plan $10 per month and agency plan costs $20 per month.

2) Greenerbilling

Greenerbilling is an online billing system that caters to the specific demands of small and medium-sized businesses. It can also be scaled up to invoice bigger projects and clients.

Greenerbilling allows for unbranded invoices which can be customized with your company’s logo. If you opt for paid plans, there are several templates available for you to choose from. It also offers plenty of customization options.

Greenerbilling supports recurring billing and partial payments. Pending invoices are e-mailed to clients. When the payment is made, the receipt is mailed to the client.

Payments can be recorded when they are made, whether by cash, credit card or PayPal. Payments can be added to a client not just through the invoices. A single payment can be added to more than one invoice and this helps in efficient billing.

The client page has all relevant information like location and contact person details.

The free trial version allows you to send 5 free invoices, after which you are in the dirt plan where you are charged $.50 per invoice. The seedling plan costs $15 per month. The other monthly plans are the plant plan at $25 and the premium tree plan at $60.

3) BillMyClients.com

BillMyClients is another cloud-based billing solution you can consider.

A unique feature of BillMyClients is that it allows attaching images to invoices. You can send the invoice via e-mail or snail mail.

There are no tools to create estimates. BillMyClients supports time-tracking with a built-in timer. This aids in efficient billing of hourly rates. The premium plan also helps you set up line items database (product list) which simplifies invoicing.

BillMyClients accepts partial payments and over-due invoices are e-mailed to the client.

Invoices can be customized to add your logo and other details. Recurring billing can be automated. Client portals store all relevant information like details of the contact person and addresses. Client billing reports help you have a tab on financial transactions.

Tax rates can be automatically calculated and added to invoices. Bluepay and Authorize.net make it easy for your clients to make payment online.

The monthly plan starts at $11.99 per month.

4) AcceptPay

AcceptPay is an online billing system from American Express in conjunction with PaySimple.

You can customize invoices with your company logo and add custom fields. AcceptPay offers a variety of invoice styles and there are several options in templates as well.

You can categorize and organize your products and services, which makes routine invoicing easy. But you can only enter product names, descriptions, and prices; if you require a more functional inventory module, AcceptPay may not be the best option.

AcceptPay does not support time-tracking but you can automate recurring invoices and bills. Invoices can be sent to clients via e-mail and once payment is done, receipts can be automatically e-mailed.

Payment reminders can be automated and overdue statements can be mailed to clients.

Role-based access allows employees or team members to view, edit and create invoices, and accept payments.

AcceptPay generates accounts receivables charts that help you track income, and outstanding and future invoices for each client.

AcceptPay offers a generous free trial period of 60 days. However, the subscription plan is on the expensive side at $30 per month.

5) Invoices Made Easy

Invoices Made Easy is an online billing system that simplifies the invoicing process and makes billing easy and accurate.

There are three templates for invoices and you can customize with your logo and style sheet. You can also add your electronic letter head to the printed or downloaded PDF files.

If you sign up for their EasyMail service, you get your invoices printed and mailed via US postal mail for as little as $1 per invoice.

Invoices Made Easy supports recurring invoices and accepts partial payments. You can also apply a single payment to more than one invoice. Receipts can be sent to clients via e-mail.

PayPal and Authorize.net integration makes online payment easy and convenient.

The client portal allows the designated contacts to view invoices and make payments online. They can also modify and update contact information and other details.

Invoices Made Easy supports all relevant information on customer page including contact details, payment terms, payment history, pending invoices, tax rates and also your personal notes. This helps you get all information on a client in a single click.

Invoices Made Easy does not offer time-tracking or hourly billing facilities. Multiple currencies and international tax rates are not supported and this makes it unsuitable for businesses with international clientele.

Invoices Made Easy has a free trial period of 30 days and charges a flat fee of $9.95 per month for unlimited invoicing to unlimited clients.

Conclusion

Online billing options help you get your books in order faster, and consequently, your client to pay faster. Do try some of these options and let me know in the comments if any of them simplified your work.

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Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

Tracy Vides

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

plus.google.com/+TracyVides/about

5 Web-based Tools For Running Your Ecommerce Business Better by @TracyVides

September 27, 2014 by Tracy Vides 1 Comment

by Tracy Vides | Featured Contributor

The web is awash with web-based tools and apps that can potentially solve some of the most pressing problems small business owners face worldwide. Some of these tools are so powerful and efficient that you might not even find the need to hire people anymore.

Yes, some of these tools are that powerful. Ecommerce was already at US $1 trillion at the end of 2012, according to emarketer. And that gave rise to even more robust tools to meet the demand.

Here are some awesome web-based tools you might or might not have heard about:

ShopIntegrator

A little pop quiz: What’s the most important thing to do when you decide to launch an ecommerce store? Is it the building of the ecommerce store itself? Is it to get the backend processes up and running? Forecasting sales? Planning customer service?

The answer: everything except the building of the store itself. Sales and customers takes priority, of course. Yet, many ecommerce storeowners and wannabe ecommerce entrepreneurs are guilty of spending more time with store building. It’s time to change that with ShopIntegrator.

With ShopIntegrator, you can basically bring in your existing website and turn it into an ecommerce-enabled powerhouse. Of course, there’s a content management system built right inside to allow you to use content to make the marketing wheels go spinning.

The tool is enticing enough that it allows you build a complete retail store just by dragging, dropping. You can add everything in there that matters, such as create and manage coupons, setup secure, PCI-compliant pay processing workflows, customize the checkout processes. The tool allows you to build your store, manage your store, add mobile ecommerce to the mix, and more. See a demo and see what it can do.

That’s not even the beginning of “good stuff.” ShopIntegrator is free to use if you never plan to sell more than 50 items. In case you go bigger than that, pick pricing plans from $9.50 per month to $66.49 per month.

Asana

A retail store isn’t a “set it up and take off to Hawaii, drink Pina Colada” thing. It’s a “setup and tweak forever and ever” thing (that’s the reality, no matter what anyone told you). But to your advantage, you can manage your ecommerce store completely virtually (sipping a drink on the beach won’t change a thing about managing your it). You can collaborate with your web/mobile developers, designers, copywriters, vendors, partners and drop shippers using just this one tool. For the seemingly endless series of projects, tasks, and team work on deadlines, Asana is awesome to work with.

Asana is completely free to use for up to 15 users and it has everything in it for you to manage a team (virtual or not). You can create projects, tasks and sections to organize your activities better, and assign deadlines that’ll eventually show up on the “team calendar.” It also has integration with Harvest (a time-tracking app), Google Apps, and more.

While there’s no “in-review” phase for tasks (which is a slight inconvenience), there’s definitely a lot going for Asana including color codes for projects. You can use it for a lot more than project collaboration.

Fishbowl

We’ve come a long way from doing things manually, for most things at least. Ecommerce businesses can rejoice with sophisticated inventory, warehousing, and management solutions such as FishBowl. This is a QuickBooks product with focus on Inventory Management. Here’s a rundown of the services available:

Group together bill(s) of materials, work orders, and more.
Track thousands of parts without letting anything slip through the cracks.
Build streamlined processes to pick, pack, and ship products. Meanwhile, avoid overstocking as well as going out of stock.
Benefit from multiple integration with other ecommerce solutions.
Track assets using barcodes, place automatic reorders, and stay informed with data updated in real time.

Snip.ly

You’d doubtlessly be on social media engaging, building rapport, starting and taking part in conversations, sharing your own blog posts, and going all out to spread the word. Until now, there wasn’t really a surefire way to get a Call to Action out for all these updates you might end up doing in a single day.

Now, there is Snip.ly.

Create a “snip” – a way to shorten your links but with a twist: any page you point to will now have a customizable call-to-action.
If your fans take action and do what you want them to do, you can track that as a conversion.
Make use of your statistics on the “dashboard” to make better decisions on how to really make social media work for your ecommerce business.

ZenDesk

You are selling products. In fact, you are selling solutions to people’s problems. But there’s another issue: what if 20 other online shops sprout up almost instantaneously (which is possible, and you know that)? There’s always a way to differentiate yourself from the pack and that’s called “customer support.”

With solutions like ZenDesk, you don’t have to break the bank, find a hundred people in a third-world country capable of managing your customers, or build a renaissance customer support program for your team. You just have to use the robust toolset ZenDesk that provides to create a Knowledge Desk, arm your team with sophisticated (but simple to use) tools, and put your customer support processes on a sprint.

Your Turn

Today, we have a good problem to have: there are way too many apps and tools available (and most of them are really good) for anything remotely related to running an online business. So, instead of spending on building anything from scratch, use any of these tools to give yourself a quick start, followed by a solid run.

While running your ecommerce business, what does your workflow look like? What tools do you use to run your business? What are your favorite apps and web-based tools?

Please give me a shout in the comments. I’m excited to know what works for you!

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Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

Tracy Vides

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

plus.google.com/+TracyVides/about