For better or for worse, we live in a digital era. Businesses that fully embrace the digital age are far more likely to be successful in the 21^st century. At the level of the individual human being, things get a littler trickier. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this: One of the most valuable practices you can cultivate for success in business and life is the ability to unplug. Don’t get me wrong here: I’m not trying to convince you to “give up” your gadgets and devices. What I’m saying is your success is deeply impacted by your relationship to technology, and like any relationship, it can be healthy or it can be dysfunctional. In the first part of this two-part series about unplugging, I’ll focus on impacts in the workplace.

Unplug for Productivity’s Sake

Whenever I’m advising entrepreneurs or business owners about how to boost their productivity, I always recommend the elimination of distractions when you need to focus on an important task. Obviously, few things are more distracting than the constant flow of emails, instant messages, texts, and all manner of other notifications from social media and other sources. If you need your computer for the task, this means closing your Internet browser, email client, and temporarily disabling any other notifications that could pop up and only using the applications you need for the work at hand. But what’s the expectation at your workplace? Are your employees even allowed to unplug? 

How the Human Brain Works

The basic problem here is that the human brain evolved over the millennia without modern digital technologies, so our starting point here is asking our ancient brains to function in a very new, very recent high-tech world. If you think responding to the electronic distractions in the midst of your work is multitasking, you’re wrong. The human brain can only focus meaningfully on one thing at a time, unless you’re talking about routine activities that are entirely second nature (such as walking and chewing gum at the same time). For all intents and purposes, multitasking is a myth.

The Cost of Tech-Induced Distractions

Each time you allow an electronic distraction to interrupt your attention, you’re switching your focus from one task to another and then back to the original task, and there are real consequences to this sequence. Psychologist Larry D. Rosen, co-author of The Distracted Mind, notes that one study calculated this resumption lag of getting back to the original task, and the results are shocking: It takes a person on average nearly 30 minutes to go through the process of being distracted and then resuming work. The result is that tasks take longer to complete when distractions are permitted, causing additional stress and anxiety to workers. And it’s not always your fault either – many company cultures expect workers to respond immediately to work-related emails, texts, and phone calls. They think these immediate responses signal greater productivity, but if the act of responding is interrupting your essential work, then productivity is actually being harmed, not helped.

What Companies Can Do

The urgency of company management taking a more thoughtful approach to tech-induced distractions cannot be overstated. There are options. Some companies have created a 7-to-7 rule where any company communications received outside of those hours don’t require a response until your official workday has started. We also need new norms about handling digital communications during the workday, such as a 30-minute or even one-hour response time. If a communication is so urgent that it needs a faster response time, then it should be delivered through a phone call or an in-person visit. Rosen also advocates for company-supported “tech breaks.” You shut down all sources of potential tech distractions to focus on your work and set a timer for a specific amount of time. I would suggest 25 minutes, which is in line with what’s called the Pomodoro Technique. At the end of that chunk of time, you’re allowed to check whatever apps you want to check (or take a short walk), but only for 5 minutes, then you go for another uninterrupted 25 minutes of focused work. After four consecutive cycles of this, take a 30-minute break. This alone would revolutionize productivity in workplaces of the digital era. These are just a few of suggestions for how companies can change workplace practices to better support employee productivity in the digital era.

Keep an eye out next week when I’ll present Unplugged Part 2: Unplugged Entrepreneurs find Business Success – taking individual responsibility for your relationship to technology.

Many people who feel the entrepreneurial itch make the wise decision to develop their business chops by purchasing a franchise. It makes a lot of sense to have a successful franchising company backing you up with a well-developed business model, operational procedures, training, and even marketing support. But there is still a significant bill to foot in terms of the franchise fee and a host of other startup costs. You need to know what you can afford, and what you might qualify for in terms of a business loan to fund your franchise. The Entrepreneur Authority is excited to announce we are forging a new partnership with the business funding experts at Benetrends Financial. 

Strategies to Fund Your Franchise

Benetrends has been in the business of helping entrepreneurs realize their dreams of starting and running their own businesses for more than 30 years. And they don’t just help you out with initial funding – they stand by you for as long as you need them. eAuth views that kind of commitment to your success as an absolute basic foundation for considering a partnership. “When it comes to offering a range of innovative services to help entrepreneurs secure the funding they need, nobody does it better than Benetrends,” said David Omholt, CFE, a Dallas-based franchise expert and the CEO of The Entrepreneur Authority and Veteran Franchise Centers. “We don’t form partnerships with just anyone, and Benetrends not only meets but exceeds our rigorous standards.”

Can you Afford to Fund Your Franchise?

One of the most important steps in the funding process, and one that is often also the biggest question for most entrepreneurs, is trying to accurately estimate what you can afford for a franchise. Our partnership with Benetrends includes a robust pre-qualification tool that will help you narrow your search for the perfect franchise opportunity by identifying the various financing options for which you’d likely qualify. 

This process just makes good business sense when you think about it. After all, in the same way that shopping for a new home is unwise if you haven’t been pre-qualified for a mortgage to know how much house you can afford, you should also get pre-qualified for funding when shopping for a business opportunity.

Pre-qualification can also save you a ton of time, which is the most precious commodity for any entrepreneur. There are literally hundreds of options when it comes to buying a franchise. A good portion of them will turn out to be well beyond your means. When you know in advance what you have to work with, your search will be much more efficient by ruling out many. 

Please note that this type of pre-qualification tool is not the same as an actual loan commitment. It is an early determination of what options and amounts you could qualify for based on your unique situation. But as an easy and free litmus test for what you can afford, it’s invaluable.

At eAuth we are constantly on the lookout for tips, tools and strategies that will give you an edge in finding the best opportunities, including the quest to fund your franchise. We hope this one helps you make the best decision possible!

Launching a business is not for the faint of heart. It requires long hours of dedication, research, planning, trial and error and deep introspection to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Here are a few DIY entrepreneur bootcamp practices you can try out to get your feet wet.

Determine Your Strengths & Weaknesses

If you really want your business to succeed, you need to fully understand your personal limits. This is crucial because, once you have determined your strengths and weaknesses, you can hire a team of people with the necessary attributes to help balance everything out.

There are many different approaches that you can take to uncover these qualities, including personal introspection, journaling and personality tests. One way that offers some great guidance through the process is called SWOT Analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and is a method that has been used for decades to help people better understand their business roles.

Take some time to dig deep and write out what honest answers to the prompts to uncover your assets and challenges. Share your discoveries with trusted friends to get their feedback and see if there are any other aspects that you may have overlooked.

Get Networking

When it comes to building a team of people to help you build your business, networking is always an effective strategy. While it may feel a bit forced in the moment, it is actually a much more natural way of connecting with people than putting out a job advertisement and interviewing a bunch of strangers.

To begin, use a website like LinkedIn to find local business groups and find networking events happening near you. Or, make money while you network by becoming a part of an organization like Amway that can help you diversify your income while you are working to launch your own business.

Make the most of your time spent networking by also using it as an opportunity to perfect your elevator pitch for your business. As you continue taking steps forward toward launching your company, this type of experience with selling your idea is especially valuable.

Find a Mentor

A great mentor is an invaluable asset, most especially when you are on the cusp of launching a new business. The ideal mentor will have years (or even decades) more experience than you do, work in a comparable field and a deep understanding of the challenges that you will face as you begin on the path toward building your business.

In order to help connect with a mentor, put your feelers out to friends and family to see if they have any connections who might be beneficial for you to learn from. You can also reconnect with past colleagues or you may find a mentor while attending a local networking event. You never know who could be a life-changing mentor for you, so it’s critical to remain open to the possibilities that come your way.

Learn About Your Audience & Competition

Once you have your business concept fully fleshed out, dive into learning everything you can about the market, from the intricacies of the audience to the field of competition. Get to know your competitors’ and what they offer so you can better distinguish your own offerings from theirs and find out what works and what doesn’t so you don’t waste time and money making similar mistakes.

Entrepreneurs are in the business of selling something, whether it’s a product or service, which means you can’t afford to ignore customer satisfaction. In order to understand how customer satisfaction impacts your business, you have to measure it, and this is where most companies begin wandering off into unhelpful territory. If you want a real (and perhaps very sobering) view of customer satisfaction, read on.

Frederick F. Reichheld is a customer loyalty guru and a Fellow at global management consulting firm Bain & Company who cracked this difficult nut in his Harvard Business Review article, The One Number You Need to Grow. What he lays out is a very compelling case for what question you should be asking your customers, the scale you use to measure it, and the way you interpret the results. 

Every company wants to see great customer satisfaction scores, which inevitably leads them to include people who are only barely satisfied in their count of those who are satisfied. This simply isn’t helpful because those barely satisfied customers are highly likely to switch to a competitor and aren’t serving as brand ambassadors. Reichheld argues you have to begin by asking the right question, which is this: “How likely is it that you would recommend [company X] to a friend or colleague?” That’s it – that’s the only question you need to ask because it gets at the key customer-related driver of growth and profitability, which is customer loyalty, not satisfaction per se. Your most loyal customers are those who are willing to recommend your company to others.

Now comes the response categories, and the recommendation here is to use an eleven-point scale numbered zero to ten, where zero is the negative end of the scale (not at all likely to recommend) and ten is the positive end of the scale (extremely likely to recommend). People intuitively understand this kind of scale. The zero is obvious, and then respondents are left with a ten-point scale, and people rank things out of ten all the time. It’s easy and intuitive. 

Then comes the part where you interpret the results. Keep in mind there are two goals here: To identify the people who are your most enthusiastic, loyal brand ambassadors and to avoid the grade-inflation that makes most measurement attempts worthless. Reichheld argues for grouping respondents into three categories. Those who give answers of nine or ten are the gold standard. They are your active promoters. You want all your customers in this category. Those who give a seven or eight are passively satisfied, so while you benefit from them purchasing your product or service, they aren’t actively engaged in promoting your brand. Everyone who gives a six or lower are interpreted as detractors. They are not only likely to switch to competitors but might even be angry and actively working against your company.

The one number you need to grow is your net-promoters score – the percentage of your customers who are promoters minus the percentage of customers who are detractors. When you find ways to increase your net-promoter by simultaneously reducing the number of detractors and increasing the number promoters, your company will grow. 

If you’d like a more detailed treatment of this topic beyond the HBR article mentioned above, you might be interested in Reichholds related book, The Ultimate Question 2.0.