Five Smart SEO Tactics Every Franchise Needs to Use

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Effective digital marketing for a franchise all comes down to getting the right eyes on your website and driving traffic to your physical location. People may already know that your brand exists on a statewide or national level. What they may not know is that it exists right in their own neighborhood. That means that you’re going to want to put energy into being as local as possible when building an online presence and crafting marketing content. What does this look like? Using SEO to make your franchise location rise to the top of search rankings all comes down to using geographical keywords wisely and making your brand alive and active on the Internet.

Create a Domain Based on Your Location

Having a URL with the name of the city that your franchise is located in is going to automatically make your business easier to find. This is the first move to make if you’re serious about SEO. In addition, people searching for your business won’t have to visit a corporate website and search through the directory to try to discover if a location is available in their area.

Be as Local as Possible

While branding your franchise based on its geographical area is key, simply interjecting the name of a town or city into the content on your franchise’s website isn’t going to cut it. People are looking for personal, local experiences when they seek out businesses in their area. Adding keywords that demonstrate your franchise location’s unique connection to a town or city is a great way to engage your audience. Getting down to the exact neighborhood and street where your franchise is located is preferred over simply mentioning the city or town. You’ll want to utilize your business address, phone number and hours of operation as tools for differentiation.

Maximize Mobility

Most people are already out of the house and on the road when they’re looking up the address of a business in a town or city. This is why optimizing a website for mobile usage and using keywords that heavily utilize a franchise’s street location are essential. Include features like maps, photos, landmarks and directions that make the location of your franchise very easy to navigate to for someone who is in a hurry.

Seek Customer Reviews

A big part of your online and mobile energy should be focused on getting reviews from actual customers. Getting five stars and some nice words can instantly make your franchise seem more appealing when people come across your presence online. A highly reviewed company that shows up on a search engine makes people more likely to click on your website to learn more and actually consider choosing your business.

Be Social With the Neighborhood

Don’t rely on a corporate Facebook page or Instagram account to draw traffic to your neck of the woods. A franchise should have its own social media presence that has a unique personality. Visibility comes with activity on platforms like Facebook. Updating as often as possible can increase visibility for a franchise. What’s more, the customers who interact with your social media pages are actually doing most of the work for you because friends who are likely to also live in the local area will see your franchise’s postings when they are liked, shared or commented on. It’s important to have the name of the city that you’re located in as part of your title on any social media platforms you use. Social media should be used to highlight sales, events and daily happenings at your franchise location.

Alex Alexakis is a UI Designer, SEO addict that helps businesses with their branding and SEO through his business PixelChefs. After hours he likes good food, Weimaraners, and toy robots. He has boldly build digital businesses by designing for conversion and offering a no-nonsense approach to internet marketing.

5 Ways to Select the Best Site For Your Franchise

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If your franchise needs to attract walk-in customers, you must select its location with great care. A choice made in haste or without taking every possible factor into consideration can lead to lower than anticipated sales and even business failure.

Every new franchise that performs well owes a large part of its success to its location. Your proposed site must be easy to access. If you expect customers to come by car, you must ensure that there is adequate parking. You must also ascertain that the site attracts the sort of customer that you are targeting.

It is very easy to go wrong with site selection. A neighborhood that sees a lot of traffic may not necessarily be good for your business. Similarly, paying a high rent does not mean that your sales volumes will be high.

What are the precautions that you can take when selecting a location? Although there is no way to be absolutely sure that a particular site is the most appropriate for your business, there are some steps that you can take to avoid making the wrong choice.

1. Study the area

Some franchises need to be situated at a place that sees heavy pedestrian traffic. This is especially true for restaurants and retail stores. If your business falls into this category, you would have to spend a substantial amount on rent. Opting for a lower-priced location that is in an area that attracts fewer people will result in lower business volumes.

But if your business involves a different type of activity, say, selling auto parts to trade customers, it would make more sense to select a site where the rent is less.

If you like a particular location, spend some time at the site and in the immediate vicinity. This will give you the opportunity to observe the level of traffic at different times. You should also make it a point to see how your competition is faring in the area.

If the territory already has a large number of businesses offering similar products, you may find it difficult to attract customers. On the other hand, this could prove to be an advantage as well. All that you would have to do would be to lure customers away from the competition. 

2. Speak to other franchisees

You can gather some very useful information by speaking to other franchisees selling the same product. Try and talk to those who have established their businesses in the recent past. Ask them how they went about the process of selecting a location. The intelligence that they provide can be invaluable.

It will be useful to ask other franchisees about the positive aspects of their location and its drawbacks. You can use what you learn from them to avoid making the mistakes they committed.

Of course, it is important to approach those franchises that are located at some distance from your territory. They should not be your competitors. If they are, they may not be willing to talk openly to you.

3. Don’t exceed your budget

Arriving at the amount that you are willing to pay as rent for your franchise location can be tricky. An expensive location will attract more customers and generate greater volumes of business. This will allow you to bear a higher rent.

On the other hand, a site in an area that attracts fewer people will probably get you a lower number of customers, but it will be cheaper.

Choosing between the two can be difficult. While it may be safer to opt for the site with the lower rent, this is not necessarily the correct choice. In fact, the general rule that you should follow is to select a location with greater potential. The additional sales that you generate will justify the extra expenditure on rent.

But don’t go overboard and lease a place that will stretch your budget. Remember that you are making a long-term commitment. If the location is inappropriate, shifting to a new place will be both expensive and cumbersome.

4. Patience pays

Your franchisor will be in a hurry for you to start operations as soon as possible. The real estate agent who is handling the property that you are interested in will also be keen to finalize the transaction.

Don’t give in to the pressure that is put on you. After all, it is your money on the line. Selecting a property is possibly the most important decision regarding your franchise. Take out the time to check if the location that you have selected will remain as attractive several years into the future. Is there any new development proposed for the area? Verify this with local, regional, or state authorities.

If a new road comes up and blocks access to your site, your business may suffer. Similarly, a new mall in the vicinity may draw crowds away from your location.

5. Understand the legal implications

The lease agreement for the property that you finalize is a crucial document. It is important that you have professional help that you can rely on. Your attorney should be an expert on real estate as well as franchising.

Study the agreement yourself and seek an explanation for the clauses that you don’t understand. Many of the points listed in the agreement will have a financial implication. You must spend time on this subject. If you don’t, you may get an unpleasant surprise months or years later.

Ascertain the costs that you will be responsible for. There will be utility bills and property taxes to be paid. There will also be other expenses like insurance, maintenance, and repairs. It is essential that you know which expenses you have to bear and how much it will cost you on a monthly basis.

Use your negotiation skills

Make sure that you see several properties. Don’t let the realtor or the landlord know your preference. If the landlord realizes that you have made a decision, you will find it difficult to negotiate the rent downwards. You should shortlist at least three or four properties. This will strengthen your bargaining position and allow you to drive the rent down.

The success of your franchise depends to a great extent on the degree of care with which you select a location. You must ensure that you give this issue the attention that it deserves. 

The Profitable Side of Passion for Business Entrepreneurs

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As someone who many might consider having an uncommon passion for what I do, which is bio-hazard clean up, it is not unlike any other business entrepreneur who wants to take what they love and turn it into a thriving business venture that will allow them financial stability for the long haul and security for their family for years to come.

That means not relying on passion alone to carry you to the highest levels of success and profitability. I seem to be telling myself more often than I care to admit that Passion is not going to blind me to the practical aspects of how to make my business successful. It seems to be turning into my entrepreneurial mantra.

Any good business person needs to incorporate their passion for their business with a dose of reality about some of the most important ways in which harnessing your passion can help make your venture successful:

1. Use Your Customers as Your Guide

If you love your work, then you have a certain level of respect for the people that you service every day or will service when your business is up and running. This includes valuing their feedback about your work. So, get as much feedback from them as you can through post-service surveys through surveymonkey.com that are free and can be sent via email to every customer. This will give you a visual perspective via a graph or chart of what your customers think you need to improve on when it comes to your overall service. Without knowing what may be wrong in the field, passion can deteriorate rapidly, and to be able to find out from the servicing source and fix it is an exciting element of your business that keeps the passion alive.

2. Don’t just Say you’re an Expert…BE one

Many individuals talk about passion for their business or a love of a hobby that would like to turn into a business, but it isn’t reflected in the most intricate details of their product or service. If you exude passion then it must show in even the smallest details of the product or service that you will offer.

Make sure you are knowledgeable about the latest technology in your industry and how you can offer it in the most cost-effective way. No one who is passionate about what they do offers outdated technology or services to their clients—especially if a customer is more aware than you are of the latest developments. Then, make your customers aware of what you have to offer in a new product or service through advertising mailers or an open house to tout your new discovery! This works wonders for generating new business or renewing business that has not used your services for some time.

3. Find Others with Passion

We have all worked at that job where we love what we do but we work with someone who is the “Debbie Downer” in the office and constantly complains about their job duties, the company, and usually their career in general. This is not a person that has a passion for their job. So, make sure that before you open for business that you interview potential employees with great care and ask about their reasons for wanting to join your team.

This means not just choosing someone because they took the time to go through the entire hiring process that you ask them to do because this could just simply mean they are desperate for a job! But, it means sitting down with them in a one-on-one in-depth interview where you can observe their enthusiasm for the position and for the product or service that is offered and more importantly, that they show an interest in knowing more and learning more within the scope of their duties on the job to grow with the company. This will more than serve to keep your passion alive and growing as well.

4. Sharing Your Passion

If your business stems from a particular skill or hobby, more than likely there are other people who share the same interest about the product or service. Many people who are passionate about their hobbies form clubs or organizations to interact with like-minded people who are also passionate about the same thing. Research and find these organizations so that you can network with them to gain a greater customer base right out of the gate. You can also utilize these types of groups to gain knowledge about new technology in your area of interest and how it is being used as well as the possibility of networking with experts to gain greater knowledge about what you do. In turn, as these individuals get to know you as someone who is as passionate as they are about your shared interests, they will be a great source of referrals to grow your business for years to come.

Raymond Magno is the owner and lead cleaner of a bio-hazard cleaning business in Los Angeles.  He grew up in a small farming community in Maine, worked as a radioman in the Coast Guard and as a commercial salmon fisherman in Alaska before falling in love and following his wife to her hometown of Los Angeles. In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his wife, son and two dogs and rooting for the Patriots football team.

5 Simple Ways to Ensure That Your New Franchise Succeeds

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5 Simple Ways to Ensure That Your New Franchise Succeeds

 

Buying a franchise and starting off on your own can be a life-changing decision. For one, you will be committing a great deal of money, possibly a good portion of your savings. You would probably also borrow from a financial institution or a bank.

 

The pressure on you to make a success of your franchise would be great. Your ability to meet your repayment obligations to the lender would depend on how well your new venture does and the amount of cash that it generates. You would also have to commit your time and energy to the franchise. It is quite likely that you would have to work long hours, especially in the initial stages.

 

Most franchise owners are willing to do everything that is necessary to ensure that they get off to a good start and meet their business targets. But your success often depends on how carefully you have selected your new franchise and the manner in which you have conducted the due diligence exercise.

 

Here are some steps that you can take to shift the odds in your favor.

 

1.    Select the franchisor carefully

 

There are literally thousands of options that are available. How will you make a choice? Don’t make the mistake of using only financial considerations. Say, the budget that you have in mind is $100,000 (including the sum that you intend to borrow.) Your choice should not be limited to only those franchises that you can afford.

 

Instead, find a business that appeals to you. More importantly, you should have some skills or expertise that will give you an edge over the competition. This could even mean that you select a business that only requires half your budget.

 

Visit an existing franchise and see how the business operates. Can you imagine yourself running a similar enterprise? It is also a good idea to speak to several existing franchisees to gain an understanding of the issues that they face.

 

2. Select an appropriate location

 

If the franchise involves renting a physical retail location, your choice will play a large role in determining your business volumes. An outlet in a high-traffic area could cost more, but the greater sales could more than justify the expense.

 

Selecting a location should be a carefully considered process. If you happen to see a large number of people in the area that you are considering, you may think that the location is an ideal choice. But it may be wise to dig a little deeper. Are the crowds seasonal? Or are there a large number of students? A university or an educational institution in the vicinity may result in low footfalls for several months every year.

 

3. Seek advice from an expert

 

When selecting a franchisor, the range of options before you can be overwhelming. You could shortlist five or ten companies and then try to make a choice after studying their brochures or websites. But if you do this, you would be severely restricting your options. Additionally, it would be highly time-consuming to conduct a due diligence of even a handful of companies.

 

Remember that selecting the most appropriate franchisor is critical to your success. How can you make sense of the multitude of options before you?

 

Using the services of an expert can help you in making your decision. The Entrepreneur Authority, a franchise advisor, uses a structured process to guide you in selecting a franchisor that best meets your needs and your skill profile.

 

An added advantage is that the service is absolutely free. The Entrepreneur Authority is compensated by the franchisor if you decide to sign on.

 

4. Develop your people skills

 

The results that you achieve will depend to a large extent on your communication skills and your personal effectiveness.

 

You will need to develop leadership skills and learn how to motivate your employees. Carry out a frank self-assessment. Do you know how to build trust and inspire your team? Are you a good listener? Will you take out the time to train your employees?

 

Cheerful workers who are willing to put in their best can be your greatest assets. On the other, disgruntled and sullen staff will drive customers away.

 

Don’t neglect this vital requirement. If you are unsure about your ability to manage others, it may be worthwhile to spend some time in acquiring the skills that are needed to lead and inspire your team.

 

5.    Track your finances carefully

 

The cost structure in a franchise operation is higher than in an independent small business. You will have to make regular repayments towards the loans that you have taken to finance your franchise fee and to purchase fixed assets. Your employees will have to be paid and there will be a number of other administrative costs.

 

All these expenses will strain your finances, especially in the initial months when sales volumes are low. You will have to keep a close watch on your cash flow and ensure that you have the liquidity to meet all your commitments.

 

Even if you use the services of an accountant, it is essential that you remain completely involved in all financial matters. Monitoring your cash flow on a daily basis will provide you with the information that you need to cut costs and strengthen your financial position.

 

Follow the rules imposed by the franchisor

 

Finally, remember that you must follow the conditions laid down in the franchise agreement. Don’t try to save money by taking shortcuts or deviating from the franchisor’s stipulations.

 

It is your legal obligation to stay within the terms of the agreement. In extreme situations, breaking the rules could lead to your franchise getting terminated and result in large financial losses. 

Five Tips for Creating Work Life Balance

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If you are a new entrepreneur with a small business, then you must learn how to balance your home life with your work responsibilities. Having a new business can monopolize your time, but you can change that with several simple ideas. There are great reasons for making changes to your lifestyle while operating a new business. Begin by using these ideas for wellness while opening your new business. 

1: Have a Weekly Schedule That Includes Family Time

The best way to balance your home and work life is by having a schedule each week. When you schedule time with your family, make sure to focus 100 percent of your energy on them without responding to cellphone calls or text messages. If you find it difficult to stop thinking about your business, then arrange activities with your family that will require going somewhere interactive. Take your family to the golf course on a weeknight, or you can plan a weekend camping trip. By taking time for your spouse and children at scheduled intervals, you will have healthier relationships. When your home life is happy, your business is more likely to succeed. 

2: Give Up the Activities That Waste Your Time

Begin to analyze your days to determine how much time you are wasting on worthless activities. If you are monitoring your text messages on a 24-hour basis, then you are not using your time effectively. Think about how much time you spend on the internet or watching television. Don’t waste time talking to friends throughout the day at your business because it can keep you from completing important tasks. If you tend to procrastinate while working, then set the timer on your cellphone to finish writing a report or contacting a customer in a certain amount of time. 

3: Outsource Some of Your Home and Work Tasks

If there are certain jobs that are too time-consuming, then hire someone to perform the tasks for you. When you don’t have time for keeping your home or business clean, hire someone to vacuum carpets or take out the trash. Hire a teenager in your neighborhood to shovel the snow from your sidewalks or driveway. Have an assistant work for you on a part-time basis to complete errands such as picking up office supplies. Outsourcing the tasks that require too much time or that you dislike is the best way to maximize your time each day. 

4: Take Care of Your Physical Health While Operating a Business

Make sure to take care of your physical health while running a business and caring for a family. To remain healthy, you must continue to eat three nutritious meals each day. If you don’t have time for cooking, then learn how to prepare extra food to freeze for quick microwave meals on busy days. Create weekly menus for meals and snacks so that it is easier to shop at the supermarket. In addition, get enough sleep each night to remain alert along with preventing illnesses. 

5: Stay Energized Throughout the Day At Work

Your brain will function better while you are working when you take regular breaks. Take a break every two to three hours to go on a walk outside or to meditate. Exercising is one of the best ways to increase your mental energy, and you might perform yoga poses in your office, or you can join a fitness studio. If you enjoy listening to music, then play your favorite CD to increase your energy levels. Staying energized at work is an excellent way to reduce your stress to avoid developing burnout.

Jessica Kane is a professional blogger who writes for Faxage a leading company that provides Internet fax service for individuals and businesses.

Top 5 Ways to Build Your Business Digitally

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When you’ve got a small business, it’s sometimes hard to get the word out. While many small business owners depend on word of mouth to help drum up business, building leads by using the internet and the social feed is becoming increasingly useful. In this guide, we’re going to outline the top 5 small business internet techniques that you can use to create business leads.

Always Have a Site for Your Customers to Frequent
Even if you’re not technically inclined, having a portal for your customers to have access to your products and services is very important. Your site should be easy to navigate, have a good UI for your customers, and it should keep your potential customer’s attention. If programming and designing on a content management system (CMS) isn’t your cup of tea, there are a wide variety of companies that will set your site up for you so that you can convert customers online.

Keep Your Site Updated
Many of the small businesses that are converting visitors also happen to have blog content about their products and services. Nothing is more annoying for a customer than a site that has out-of-date information, other inaccuracies, or doesn’t look fresh and easy to read. Blogs are a great way to address the customer directly; you can make blog posts about the types of services that you offer, about the industry, about what makes your type of product stand out, or even about savings opportunities. Additionally, having a steady stream of new content will let your customers know that you care about your business.

Use the Social Feed
The majority of Americans access their social feed before they go to work, during work hours, and for about an hour after they get home. That’s a lot of time spent browsing Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and you can use the billions of users of these platforms to boost your business’s performance. Facebook, for example, has an ads feature that will let you reach out to a certain number of Facebook users in a day. Your business will appear directly in their feed and it’s relatively inexpensive.

Keep Your Generalized SEO Game Tight
Search Engine Optimization isn’t going anywhere. Google and Youtube are the number one and two search engines on the internet, and when someone is searching for a business, they seldom ever go past the first page on their search engine. This is why you should use SEO best practices for your page so that customers can find it on the top search engines. It doesn’t take much; sometimes some search-friendly keywords are all it takes, but that simple change can help your business grow exponentially.

Use Local SEO to Bring in New Clients
SEO on sites like Google aren’t the only types of SEO. Local SEO capitalizes on local search so that, once again, customers can find your business more easily. You can provide your business’s information on sites like Yahoo Local, Bing Places, or even Google My Business, which will get you started. Next, digital word of mouth is very important; it’s imperative that your customers have a good experience so that they can begin leaving reviews about your business on the key sites like Yelp and Foursquare, where the good reviews can help you convert future clients.

Final Thoughts
The future is digital, which means that you’ll need to leverage the internet and social feeds in order for your business to grow. Utilizing these five steps will definitely provide you with palpable results and propel your business into the future.

Jessica Kane is a professional blogger who focuses on personal finance and other money matters. She currently writes for Checkworks.com, where you can get personal checks and business checks.

4 Essential Items to Include on Your Company Website

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E-commerce continues to become increasingly central to marketing success. In 2016, global e-commerce sales reached $22 trillion, a 6 percent increase from 2015, according to eMarketer. By 2020, global e-commerce revenue will climb to $27.7 trillion.

So what does this all mean? Truth be told, your website’s performance is more important than ever for driving revenue. Here are four essentials you should include on your website to maximize traffic, conversion rates and sales.

Content

Valued at $99 billion, Amazon is today’s most successful online retail brand. This is primarily due to the company’s marketing strategy, which includes tactics like price matching and free shipping. However, the real key to Amazon’s success has been content marketing. Whereas most websites only feature product sales pages, an Amazon product page includes content like

  • Free sample pages
  • Customer reviews
  • Links to user forums
  • Links to other works by the same author
  • Related reading suggestions
  • Lists of recommended books in a given category

This information educates visitors, thereby helping them make more informed buying decisions and making them more inclined to purchase a product or service. Amazon’s content marketing strategy also includes featuring SEO-oriented keywords and topics to attract readers from search engines.

Amazon also shares content on social media to draw readers from sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, Amazon’s extensive help documentation provides content that’s valuable for both prospective and current customers seeking answers to frequently-asked questions.

Design

While valuable content can help attract readers to your site, eye-catching design can help keep them there. One company that excels at this is Adobe, which stays true to its focus on products for creative audiences in fields such as graphic design and videography.

Adobe’s homepage is currently paying homage to the 25th anniversary of the company’s Adobe Premiere video editing line of products, with the area above the fold highlighting movie hits edited with Premiere Pro, like Deadpool. This helps underscore the product’s professional target market. Below this are links where visitors can learn more about Adobe’s Creative Cloud signature product, which includes Premiere Pro as one of its components.

This design serves both to grab the viewer’s eye and to steer them toward clicking on a link for a featured product. For visitors seeking other information, there is also a menu icon with additional navigational options.

Graphics

Graphic selection is a key element of design. Your graphics send a message about your brand and products, telling your visitors something about your company as well as about who you perceive your audience to be. Your graphics also set the emotional tone for your site, with factors such as subject matter and color influencing your visitors’ mood.

One company that has succeeded in part by carefully controlling its graphic image selection is Apple. From its inception, the company’s corporate philosophy has emphasized simplicity as the key to functional sophistication. This philosophy is embodied both in the design of Apple’s products and in the company logo.

In fact, Apple’s distinctive logo consists of just two shapes: a bitten fruit and a stem. The logo shape has remained consistent over the years, with the color changing to reflect different marketing themes. Additionally, Apple publishes a detailed brand style guide, which lays out strict policies for use of the logo and other imagery. This helps Apple maintain quality control over its graphics to ensure a professional impression consistent with the company’s branding philosophy.

Products

Where and how you display your products is crucial in piquing customer interest and generating continued sales. A proven approach is to use the area above the fold to showcase a current sale or signature product, with additional navigational links available for other products.

One site that uses this approach effectively is TireBuyer.com. Mobile visitors will notice a sales offer for discounted tires, with a drop-down menu to select specific brands from which to purchase. Meantime, desktop visitors will see an alternate offer with a similar menu selection. This approach extends a special offer to visitors regardless of which product they’re looking for or what device they’re using.

The Art of Inquiry: Asking Great Questions

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Over the years, I have observed a skill that is often lacking in today’s entrepreneurs. I call it the art of inquiry, but in its simplest form what I mean is asking great questions. When entrepreneurs encounter failure, whether it be not meeting a particular business goal, a product launch that crashes and burns, or a business process that gets derailed, I’ve found it can often be traced to a failure to ask questions. Even more frustrating is when you realize that the question did occur to you but you put aside to get on with the work. In today’s rapidly-changing business landscape, asking great questions isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity.

Why Asking Great Questions is Hard

Part of what’s going on here is a failure in the way we educate. When kids are around the five, they’ve developed just enough that they start asking lots of questions. This is a good thing, even if some parents find it a bit frustrating at times. But then they go to school, and the plain fact of the matter is that most schools train students on finding and giving answers rather than asking great questions.

Think about what else goes on in school. It’s the teachers who ask the questions, right? And no student wants to look “dumb” by not knowing the answers, so they stay silent and don’t ask questions. It’s a lose-lose situation.

Layer on top of this our need for speed. Who’s got time to even ask questions, let alone pursue answering them? But if you don’t slow down and ask questions, how do you know what you’re doing is going to get the best results possible? Asking great questions is the absolute core of being innovative.

Modern American culture simply doesn’t value effective inquiry. Entrepreneurs especially feel the need to project an image of being certain of the answers. Asking great questions feels like some kind of weakness.

Regaining the Skill of Asking Great Questions

Asking great questions is a skill every entrepreneur needs to develop. It begins by training yourself to not dismiss those questions that pop into your head. Not every question is a great question, though, so you need to know what makes for great questions. All great questions should be empowering, meaning they lead to thoughtful discussion and further inquiry. They serve to do one or more of the following:

  • Challenge assumptions.
  • Enable a different view of a situation.
  • Get people reflecting on their behaviors.
  • Elicit discussion by being open-ended.
  • Lead to confidence and courage.
  • Result in effective action.

Anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss once said something worth remembering about inquiry: The wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions. Your success as an entrepreneur depends on all kinds of factors, one of which is your skill in asking great questions. 

How to Build and Manage Your Retail Supply Chain

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As Amazon steps up its move into the supply chain market, retail chains are finding themselves forced to improve their supply chain management to stay competitive. As February drew to a close, Target announced it would sacrifice $1 billion in operating margins in order to lower its costs, an effort to compete with Amazon, ZDNet reports. Target chief operating officer John Mulligan attributed part of the company’s problem to inefficient supply chain management, reflected in slow-moving products and excessive inventory. Walmart also announced plans to adjust its supply chain in March, offering free shipping on orders over $35, says Business Insider.

Developments such as this illustrate how crucial supply chain management is to the success of a retail franchise. Here are some ways you can build and manage an effective supply chain to ensure the success of your retail franchise.

Plan Your Supply Chain Management Strategy

The foundation of an effective supply chain is supply chain management (SCM) planning. Map out the steps in your supply chain from supplier to customer, and select metrics to measure performance for each stage.

There are a number of key metrics that help determine your SCM performance. For instance, perfect order measurement tracks how many orders are delivered without errors. This can be broken down into subcategories such as the procurement, production, warehousing and transportation stages. Cash to cash cycle time tracks how long it takes between when you pay for materials and when you get paid for your product. Knowing this is crucial for managing your cash flow. On-time shipping rate tracks how many orders arrive on time, which is vital for customer satisfaction. Simplicable identifies 12 key metrics that can be tracked to optimize supply chain management.

Your sales and marketing directly impacts the rate of your supply flow, so you should consider this while you’re planning your SCM strategy. For example, o-ring supplier Apple Rubber uses instructional videos distributed through social media as a promotional tool. If you use social media in your marketing, tracking your social follows and shares and correlating this with your sales rate can help you adjust your inventory flow to meet demand cycles.

Select Your Suppliers and Processes

After planning your SCM strategy, the next step is to select your suppliers and set up your processes. Look for reliable suppliers with a reputation for on-time delivery. You can investigate suppliers by interviewing them, talking to industry peers and reading reviews by customers and expert reviewers. Directories such as SupplyChainBrain can help you identify suppliers.

Processes that need to be set up include inventory management, pricing, payment, delivery and returns. To increase the efficiency of your processes, you can use supply chain management software (SCMS). Leading SCMS providers include SAP, Oracle and JDA Software.

Organize Manufacturing Activities

Next, you will need to plan the activities in your manufacturing cycle. These include production, quality testing, product packaging and delivery. Your planning should take into consideration which metrics you will use to track product quality, product output and workforce productivity.

Set Up Your Logistics Network

The next step is setting up your logistics processes and network. This involves planning how you will receive customer orders, invoice receipt of payments, coordinate orders with your warehouse and ship your orders.

Your planning will include selecting a delivery service for shipping your orders. In the United States, there are two types of delivery services. Services such as US Postal Service Priority and First Class package services provide confirmation of delivery. Services such as US Postal Service Express, UPS and FedEx provide door-to-door tracking for shipments. Delivery confirmation delivery services are less expensive than trackable services.

Prepare Your Returns Procedures

A certain percentage of your orders will get returned, so you will also need to set up procedures for how to handle returns. This involves setting up a procedure for receiving and processing defective or extra items. It also involves setting up customer service procedures for providing support to customers returning items. You should coordinate your returns procedures with your bookkeeping procedures so that refunds and returned inventory get entered properly into your system.

Unplugged Part 2: Unplugged Entrepreneurs find Business Success

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In Unplugged Part 1: Unplugged Employees Boost Business Success, I made the case for workplaces cultivating a healthier relationship between employees and the technologies they’re expected to use because their productivity and, by extension, your company’s success, depends on it. This follow-up article is aimed more squarely at you as an individual and your personal relationship to technology. Being constantly “plugged in” to the constant stream of emails, instant messages, texts, and all manner of other notifications from social media and other sources can take a serious toll on your personal sanity. Now is the time to overhaul your relationship to technology.

What Individuals Can Do

While it’s important for companies to overhaul their expectations of workers, it’s even more important for each individual to take responsibility for creating a healthier relationship to technology. We all know how addictive the social media feeds and texts can become. If you don’t intentionally set boundaries, you can get sucked in and lose big chunks of time in your life. As writer/designer/photographer Craig Mod recently put it in an online article, “There are a thousand beautiful ways to start the day that don’t begin with looking at your phone. And yet so few of us choose to do so.” I like that because it emphasizes the fact that unplugging is a choice each individual has to make, and depending on how dysfunctional your relationship to devices is, it might be really difficult to do. But remind yourself what’s at stake here: Your attention span. Your ability to focus on important tasks. Your sanity. The stakes are high!

The Business of Stealing Your Attention

There is something else that makes unplugging difficult, which is the apps themselves and how they are designed. The desire to check your phone is natural because the apps insistently demanding your attention are specifically designed to hook you in and keep you there as long as possible. The companies behind the distracting apps have made it their mission to steal your attention – and they’re very good at it.

Create a Simple, Sustainable Boundary

If you want to get your attention back and feel truly refreshed and able to focus on what’s important, then set some real tech boundaries and stick to them. Craig Mod came up with a very simple approach that works for him: Unplug before going to bed. Don’t plug back in until after lunch. Obviously, he’s prioritizing a well-rested morning without tech-induced distractions. If that many hours unplugged sounds like too much to you, start off with just an hour or two, and after you get used to that, see if you can increase it. Your ability to unplug will give you a surprisingly distinct competitive advantage in the digital era. 

Now is the time to ask yourself what kind of relationship you have to technology and whether or not it’s time to make a change. As counter-intuitive as it may feel in this brave new world of the digital era, consistently finding times to be unplugged can go a long way towards boosting your success as an entrepreneur.