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Old Brick Farm, where Larry Doll raises chickens, turkeys and ducks, was fortunate this Thanksgiving season. Doll’s small farm west of Detroit had no cases of bird flu, despite an ongoing outbreak that killed more than 2 million U.S. turkeys in the last three months alone. He also avoided another disease, avian metapneumovirus, which causes turkeys to lay fewer eggs. “I try to keep the operation as clean as possible, and not bringing other animals in from other farms helps mitigate that risk as well,” said Doll, whose farm has been in his family for five generations. But Doll still saw the impact as those diseases shrank the U.S. turkey flock to a 40-year low this year. The hatchery where he gets his turkey chicks had fewer available this year. He plans to order another 100 hatchlings soon, even though they won’t arrive until July. “If you don’t get your order in early, you’re not going to get it,” he said. Thanksgiving costs vary The shrinking population is expected to cause wholesale turkey prices to rise 44% this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Despite the increase, many stores are offering discounted or even free turkeys to soften the potential blow to Thanksgiving meal budgets. But even if the bird is cheaper than last year, the ingredients to prepare the rest of the holiday feast may not be. Tariffs on imported steel, for example, have increased prices for canned goods. As of Nov. 17, a basket of 11 Thanksgiving staples — including a 10-pound frozen turkey, 10 Russet potatoes, a box of stuffing and cans of corn, green beans and cranberry sauce — cost $58.81, or 4.1% more than last year, according to Datasembly, a market research company that surveys weekly prices at 150,000 U.S. stores. That’s higher than the average price increase for food eaten at home, which rose 2.7% in September, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Datasembly showed a 2% decline in the retail price of a 10-pound turkey as of Nov. 17. Pricing out Thanksgiving meals isn’t an exact science, and the firm’s tally differed from other estimates. The American Farm Bureau Federation, which uses volunteer shoppers in all 50 states to survey prices, reported that Thanksgiving dinner for 10 would cost $55.16 this year, or 5% less than last year. The Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute, using NielsenIQ data from September, estimated that feeding 10 people on Thursday using store-brand products would cost $80 this year, which is 2% to 3% lower than last year’s estimate. Tempting turkey prices Grocery chains are also offering deals to attract shoppers. Discount grocer Aldi is advertising a $40 meal for 10 with 21 items. Kroger said shoppers could feed 10 people for under $50 with its menu of store-brand products. Earlier this month, President Donald The President touted Walmart’s Thanksgiving meal basket, which he said was 25% cheaper than last year. But that was because Walmart included a different assortment and fewer products overall this year. “We’re seeing some promotions being implemented in an effort to draw customers into the store,” David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University, said. That’s despite a sharp increase in wholesale turkey prices since August. In the second week of November, frozen 8-16 pound hens were averaging $1.77 per pound, up 81% from the same period last year, according to Mark Jordan, the executive director of Leap Market Analytics, which closely follows the poultry and livestock markets. Avian viruses are the main culprit. But another reason for turkey’s higher wholesale prices has been an increase in consumer demand as other meats have gotten more expensive, Jordan said. Beef prices were up 14% in September compared to last year, for example. “For a big chunk of the population, they look at steak cuts and say, ‘I can’t or I don’t want to pay $30 a pound,'” Jordan said. That’s the case for Paul Nadeau, a retired consultant from Austin, Texas, who plans to smoke a turkey this week. Nadeau said he usually smokes a brisket over Thanksgiving weekend, but the beef brisket he buys would now cost more than $100. Turkey prices are also up at his local H-E-B supermarket, he said, but not by as much. “I don’t know of anything that’s down in price since last year except for eggs,” Nadeau said. Tariffs and weather The President’s tariffs on imported steel and aluminum are also raising prices. Farok Contractor, a distinguished professor of management and global business at the Rutgers Business School, said customers are paying 10 cents to 40 cents more per can when companies pass on the full cost of tariffs. Tariffs may be partly to blame for the increased cost of jellied cranberry sauce, which was up 38% from last year in Datasembly’s survey. But weather was also a factor. U.S. cranberry production is expected to be down 9% this year, hurt by drought conditions in Massachusetts, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In Illinois, where most of the country’s canning pumpkins are grown, dry weather actually helped pumpkins avoid diseases that are more prevalent in wet conditions, said Raghela Scavuzzo, an associate director of food systems development at the Illinois Farm Bureau and the executive director of the Illinois Specialty Growers Association. Datasembly found that a 30-ounce can of pumpkin pie mix cost 5% less than last year. Farm to table Back at Old Brick Farm, which has been in his family since 1864, Doll walked among his turkeys the week before Thanksgiving, patting their heads as they waddled between their warm barn and an open pasture. In a few days, he planned to deliver them to an Amish butcher. Doll sold all 92 turkeys he raised this year, with customers paying $6.50 per pound for what many tell him is the best turkey they’ve ever tasted. He enjoys a little profit, he said, and the good feeling of supplying a holiday meal. “I just love it, to think that, you know, not only are we providing them food, but the centerpiece of their Thanksgiving dinner,” he said. Associated Press Video Journalist Mike Householder contributed. —Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Business Writer View the full article

Becoming proficient in the final step in closing sales is crucial for turning leads into loyal customers. This phase involves comprehending your prospect’s readiness, addressing any objections, and using effective communication strategies. You’ll need to create urgency and employ various closing techniques to improve your success rate. Nevertheless, knowing what to avoid is just as critical. What does it take to truly excel in this pivotal moment? Let’s explore the key elements that can make a difference. Key Takeaways Closing defines the shift from potential buyer to committed customer, marking the end of the sales process. Understanding prospect readiness and addressing their needs significantly enhances closing success rates. Effective communication, including active listening and empathetic responses, increases the likelihood of successful closings. Creating urgency through limited-time offers and clear deadlines encourages quicker decision-making from prospects. Following up after the sale fosters customer satisfaction and builds long-term relationships essential for future sales. Understanding the Importance of Closing in Sales Closing in sales is a pivotal moment that signifies the shift from a potential buyer to a committed customer. Comprehending the closing the sale definition is fundamental, as it marks the culmination of the entire sales process, where agreements and contracts are finalized. The closing sales meaning goes beyond just asking for a commitment; it requires aligning with your prospect’s readiness and interest. Studies reveal that many salespeople find closing increasingly challenging, making effective strategies vital for overcoming objections. When executed well, successful closing techniques can boost your close rates by 20%. Mastering these techniques not only improves your adaptability to various customer scenarios but likewise increases your overall sales performance and customer satisfaction, solidifying the importance of closing in sales. Key Elements for Successful Sales Closing To successfully close a sale, you need to understand your prospect’s readiness and tailor your techniques accordingly. Recognizing when a potential customer is prepared to make a decision allows you to apply the right closing strategies, which can greatly improve your chances of success. Understanding Prospect Readiness How can you effectively determine a prospect’s readiness to buy? Begin by engaging in active listening throughout your interactions. When you truly understand their needs, you’ll discover that 60% of decision-makers are ready to buy when they feel their requirements are addressed. Remember, 73% of buyers prefer education over a hard sell, so align your discussion with their knowledge level. Furthermore, look for key buying signals; acknowledging these can greatly improve your closing rates. Creating urgency is also essential, as 35% of salespeople experience stalled deals because of a lack of motivation. Tailoring Closing Techniques Recognizing a prospect’s readiness to buy sets the stage for implementing customized closing techniques that match their specific needs and personality. Tailoring your approach can increase your close rates considerably. Here are key techniques to contemplate: Assumptive Close: Act as if the prospect has already decided to buy. Puppy Dog Close: Allow prospects to try the product, nurturing emotional attachment. Address Objections: Understand and tackle any concerns your prospect has. Personalize Your Pitch: Directly relate your solution to their specific problems and desires. Master Various Techniques: Be flexible and adapt your approach based on the customer scenario. Effective Communication Strategies for Closing Deals Effective communication is vital when closing deals, as it directly impacts your ability to persuade customers and address their needs. Clear, concise messaging is important, since 76% of consumers expect you to understand their specific requirements. Use empathetic communication; studies show that 90% of customers are more likely to buy from representatives who demonstrate empathy. Summarizing key points reinforces the value of your offering, alleviating any last-minute hesitations. Regular follow-ups and maintaining open communication can boost customer satisfaction by 20%, keeping your services top-of-mind. Moreover, employing effective closing techniques, such as the assumptive close, can guide the discussion towards a natural conclusion, encouraging commitment and making it easier for your prospect to say yes. Techniques to Create a Sense of Urgency Creating a sense of urgency can effectively prompt your prospects to make quicker decisions. By implementing limited-time offers and highlighting immediate benefits, you can improve their engagement and push them toward a purchase. These techniques not just capture attention but additionally make the buying decision feel more critical and time-sensitive. Limited-Time Offers How can you effectively drive sales and encourage quicker decision-making among prospects? Limited-time offers are a formidable tool to create urgency. By implementing effective strategies, you can considerably boost your conversion rates. Here are key techniques to contemplate: Highlight a clear deadline for your offer. Indicate low stock levels to trigger scarcity. Use countdown timers in emails or on landing pages. Communicate the time-sensitive nature of promotions in your messaging. Leverage fear of missing out (FOMO) to prompt immediate actions. These tactics not only improve customer engagement but likewise motivate prospects to act quickly, potentially increasing sales by up to 33%. Immediate Benefits Highlight One effective way to drive quicker decision-making among prospects is by highlighting the immediate benefits of your products or services. When you emphasize quick results, customers are more likely to respond positively. Limited-time offers create a fear of missing out (FOMO), which can greatly speed up buying decisions. You can improve this urgency by incorporating exclusive bonuses or time-sensitive discounts, making your offer more compelling. Communicating scarcity, such as limited stock availability, further motivates prospects to act fast to secure their purchase. Mastering the Art of Objection Handling When sellers encounter objections from prospects, they often view these moments as hurdles to overcome, yet they can actually serve as pivotal opportunities for deeper engagement. By proactively addressing objections, you clarify benefits and reinforce your product’s value, which is crucial as 35% of salespeople find closing deals increasingly challenging. Preparing responses in advance allows you to see objections as collaborative problem-solving chances rather than confrontations. Building strong trust likewise simplifies objection handling. Consider these strategies: Listen actively to comprehend the concern. Respond with empathy to demonstrate awareness. Clarify benefits that particularly address the objection. Collaborate to find a solution that meets both parties’ needs. Follow up to maintain the relationship after the conversation. Customizing Your Approach for Different Customers Comprehending your customer’s unique needs and preferences is vital for effective selling, especially after handling objections successfully. Tailoring your sales pitch to align with their specific requirements can increase your close rate by 10%, according to CSO Insights. Adapting your communication style based on individual personalities improves engagement, making prospects feel understood and valued. Active listening is fundamental, as 76% of consumers expect Salesforce to grasp their unique challenges, according to a Salesforce report. Utilize case studies and relevant data that resonate with your customer’s context to strengthen credibility and demonstrate expertise. Personalizing offers by addressing specific pain points greatly improves sales interactions, ultimately leading to higher customer satisfaction and stronger relationships. Utilizing Various Closing Techniques Utilizing various closing techniques can greatly boost your ability to finalize sales, especially when customized to fit the specific needs of your prospects. Here are some effective techniques you can apply: Assumptive Close: Confidently assume the prospect is ready by discussing implementation timing or quantities. Puppy Dog Close: Offer a free trial, encouraging prospects to develop an emotional attachment to the product. Scarcity and Takeaway Closes: Create urgency by presenting limited-time offers, prompting reconsideration of interest. Ben Franklin Close: Help prospects weigh pros and cons, allowing them to see the value in the purchase. Tailored Approach: Use these techniques in a way that aligns with each customer’s unique situation for better results. Mastering these techniques can elevate your closing effectiveness. Common Mistakes to Avoid When Closing Sales Perfecting closing techniques is only part of the equation; recognizing common mistakes can greatly improve your success rate. First, don’t ignore customer pain points; failing to address these can lead to missed opportunities, as many salespeople struggle with unresolved concerns. Rushing the close is another pitfall; guarantee you answer all questions to avoid hesitations, as clarity in agreement terms is vital. Overloading prospects with information can overwhelm them, resulting in decision fatigue that hampers closing chances. Moreover, neglecting to build rapport throughout the sales cycle can alienate potential buyers; empathy is key. Finally, keep in mind that effective follow-up is fundamental for customer satisfaction and retention, which can greatly influence your future sales success. Avoid these mistakes to improve your closing effectiveness. The Role of Follow-Up in Closing Success During closing a sale is a significant achievement, the role of follow-up in ensuring long-term success can’t be overlooked. Effective follow-ups can dramatically improve customer retention rates, reinforcing relationships and addressing any concerns. Here’s how follow-up makes a difference: Sending thank-you emails keeps your brand top-of-mind. Regular check-ins provide after-sales support and gauge customer satisfaction. Empathetic communication boosts customer engagement, as 90% prefer it. Structured strategies help track interactions, ensuring consistent engagement. Follow-up nurtures trust, leading to long-term relationships. Building Long-Term Relationships Post-Close Building long-term relationships after closing a sale is critical for customer retention and increased revenue. By implementing ongoing support initiatives and nurturing loyalty programs, you can guarantee your customers feel valued and supported. Regular communication not just improves their experience but likewise opens the door for upselling and cross-selling opportunities that can considerably benefit your business. Ongoing Support Initiatives Even though many sales teams focus on closing deals, ongoing support initiatives play a crucial role in nurturing long-term relationships with customers after the sale is made. By implementing these strategies, you can greatly improve customer retention and satisfaction. Consider the following key actions: Conduct regular check-ins to gauge customer satisfaction. Provide customized after-sales support that meets individual needs. Utilize feedback collected during follow-ups to improve your offerings. Maintain open lines of communication for upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Build trust through empathetic interactions, as customers appreciate personalized service. Nurturing Loyalty Programs Nurturing loyalty programs is vital for maintaining long-term relationships with your customers after the initial sale. Implementing these programs can boost customer retention rates by up to 5%, encouraging repeat business. Engaged customers in loyalty programs are 80% more likely to continue purchasing from your brand, showcasing the importance of ongoing relationships. Personalizing rewards based on customers’ preferences and purchase history can increase engagement and satisfaction by 10-15%. Following up post-sale to inform customers about loyalty benefits improves brand perception, as 70% of consumers expect brands to understand their needs. Moreover, offering exclusive promotions or early access to new products creates a sense of belonging, making customers feel valued and increasing their lifetime value to your company. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Last Step in the Sales Process? The last step in the sales process is closing, which involves finalizing the agreement between you and the buyer. This step typically includes signing a contract and confirming the sale. It’s essential to identify the right moment to ask for the sale, ensuring that you’ve addressed any concerns the buyer may have. Effective closing techniques, such as the assumptive close, can greatly increase your chances of successfully sealing the deal. What Is the Most Important Step of Closing the Sale? The most important step in closing a sale is obtaining a firm commitment from the customer. This means securing a clear agreement, either verbally or in writing, to prevent any last-minute doubts. You should ask for the commitment after addressing all questions and objections, which increases your chances of success. Furthermore, using effective closing techniques customized to the customer’s needs can further improve your ability to seal the deal confidently and clearly. What Is the Final Stage of the Selling Process? The final stage of the selling process is closing, where you secure the prospect’s agreement to proceed with the purchase. At this point, you’ll use various closing techniques, like the assumptive close, to confirm their readiness. It’s vital to address any lingering objections and emphasize the solution’s value, ensuring it meets their needs. Clear communication of terms and follow-up plans is important to nurture customer satisfaction and future relationships. What Is the End-To-End Process for Sales? The end-to-end sales process consists of six essential stages: Prospecting, where you identify potential customers; Driving & Discovering Need, where you assess their needs; Solution Crafting, where you develop customized offerings; Solution Presentation, where you showcase your solutions; Negotiating, where you discuss terms and close deals; and Winning, where you finalize the sale. Excelling in these stages is important for converting leads into loyal customers and achieving your sales goals effectively. Conclusion In conclusion, mastering the final step in closing sales is vital for transforming prospects into loyal customers. By employing effective communication strategies, addressing objections, and creating urgency, you can greatly improve your closing rates. Furthermore, comprehending various closing techniques and avoiding common mistakes will improve your effectiveness. Remember, successful sales don’t end with a transaction; follow-up and nurturing long-term relationships are just as important for sustained success in sales. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Mastering the Final Step in Closing Sales Meaning" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Becoming proficient in the final step in closing sales is crucial for turning leads into loyal customers. This phase involves comprehending your prospect’s readiness, addressing any objections, and using effective communication strategies. You’ll need to create urgency and employ various closing techniques to improve your success rate. Nevertheless, knowing what to avoid is just as critical. What does it take to truly excel in this pivotal moment? Let’s explore the key elements that can make a difference. Key Takeaways Closing defines the shift from potential buyer to committed customer, marking the end of the sales process. Understanding prospect readiness and addressing their needs significantly enhances closing success rates. Effective communication, including active listening and empathetic responses, increases the likelihood of successful closings. Creating urgency through limited-time offers and clear deadlines encourages quicker decision-making from prospects. Following up after the sale fosters customer satisfaction and builds long-term relationships essential for future sales. Understanding the Importance of Closing in Sales Closing in sales is a pivotal moment that signifies the shift from a potential buyer to a committed customer. Comprehending the closing the sale definition is fundamental, as it marks the culmination of the entire sales process, where agreements and contracts are finalized. The closing sales meaning goes beyond just asking for a commitment; it requires aligning with your prospect’s readiness and interest. Studies reveal that many salespeople find closing increasingly challenging, making effective strategies vital for overcoming objections. When executed well, successful closing techniques can boost your close rates by 20%. Mastering these techniques not only improves your adaptability to various customer scenarios but likewise increases your overall sales performance and customer satisfaction, solidifying the importance of closing in sales. Key Elements for Successful Sales Closing To successfully close a sale, you need to understand your prospect’s readiness and tailor your techniques accordingly. Recognizing when a potential customer is prepared to make a decision allows you to apply the right closing strategies, which can greatly improve your chances of success. Understanding Prospect Readiness How can you effectively determine a prospect’s readiness to buy? Begin by engaging in active listening throughout your interactions. When you truly understand their needs, you’ll discover that 60% of decision-makers are ready to buy when they feel their requirements are addressed. Remember, 73% of buyers prefer education over a hard sell, so align your discussion with their knowledge level. Furthermore, look for key buying signals; acknowledging these can greatly improve your closing rates. Creating urgency is also essential, as 35% of salespeople experience stalled deals because of a lack of motivation. Tailoring Closing Techniques Recognizing a prospect’s readiness to buy sets the stage for implementing customized closing techniques that match their specific needs and personality. Tailoring your approach can increase your close rates considerably. Here are key techniques to contemplate: Assumptive Close: Act as if the prospect has already decided to buy. Puppy Dog Close: Allow prospects to try the product, nurturing emotional attachment. Address Objections: Understand and tackle any concerns your prospect has. Personalize Your Pitch: Directly relate your solution to their specific problems and desires. Master Various Techniques: Be flexible and adapt your approach based on the customer scenario. Effective Communication Strategies for Closing Deals Effective communication is vital when closing deals, as it directly impacts your ability to persuade customers and address their needs. Clear, concise messaging is important, since 76% of consumers expect you to understand their specific requirements. Use empathetic communication; studies show that 90% of customers are more likely to buy from representatives who demonstrate empathy. Summarizing key points reinforces the value of your offering, alleviating any last-minute hesitations. Regular follow-ups and maintaining open communication can boost customer satisfaction by 20%, keeping your services top-of-mind. Moreover, employing effective closing techniques, such as the assumptive close, can guide the discussion towards a natural conclusion, encouraging commitment and making it easier for your prospect to say yes. Techniques to Create a Sense of Urgency Creating a sense of urgency can effectively prompt your prospects to make quicker decisions. By implementing limited-time offers and highlighting immediate benefits, you can improve their engagement and push them toward a purchase. These techniques not just capture attention but additionally make the buying decision feel more critical and time-sensitive. Limited-Time Offers How can you effectively drive sales and encourage quicker decision-making among prospects? Limited-time offers are a formidable tool to create urgency. By implementing effective strategies, you can considerably boost your conversion rates. Here are key techniques to contemplate: Highlight a clear deadline for your offer. Indicate low stock levels to trigger scarcity. Use countdown timers in emails or on landing pages. Communicate the time-sensitive nature of promotions in your messaging. Leverage fear of missing out (FOMO) to prompt immediate actions. These tactics not only improve customer engagement but likewise motivate prospects to act quickly, potentially increasing sales by up to 33%. Immediate Benefits Highlight One effective way to drive quicker decision-making among prospects is by highlighting the immediate benefits of your products or services. When you emphasize quick results, customers are more likely to respond positively. Limited-time offers create a fear of missing out (FOMO), which can greatly speed up buying decisions. You can improve this urgency by incorporating exclusive bonuses or time-sensitive discounts, making your offer more compelling. Communicating scarcity, such as limited stock availability, further motivates prospects to act fast to secure their purchase. Mastering the Art of Objection Handling When sellers encounter objections from prospects, they often view these moments as hurdles to overcome, yet they can actually serve as pivotal opportunities for deeper engagement. By proactively addressing objections, you clarify benefits and reinforce your product’s value, which is crucial as 35% of salespeople find closing deals increasingly challenging. Preparing responses in advance allows you to see objections as collaborative problem-solving chances rather than confrontations. Building strong trust likewise simplifies objection handling. Consider these strategies: Listen actively to comprehend the concern. Respond with empathy to demonstrate awareness. Clarify benefits that particularly address the objection. Collaborate to find a solution that meets both parties’ needs. Follow up to maintain the relationship after the conversation. Customizing Your Approach for Different Customers Comprehending your customer’s unique needs and preferences is vital for effective selling, especially after handling objections successfully. Tailoring your sales pitch to align with their specific requirements can increase your close rate by 10%, according to CSO Insights. Adapting your communication style based on individual personalities improves engagement, making prospects feel understood and valued. Active listening is fundamental, as 76% of consumers expect Salesforce to grasp their unique challenges, according to a Salesforce report. Utilize case studies and relevant data that resonate with your customer’s context to strengthen credibility and demonstrate expertise. Personalizing offers by addressing specific pain points greatly improves sales interactions, ultimately leading to higher customer satisfaction and stronger relationships. Utilizing Various Closing Techniques Utilizing various closing techniques can greatly boost your ability to finalize sales, especially when customized to fit the specific needs of your prospects. Here are some effective techniques you can apply: Assumptive Close: Confidently assume the prospect is ready by discussing implementation timing or quantities. Puppy Dog Close: Offer a free trial, encouraging prospects to develop an emotional attachment to the product. Scarcity and Takeaway Closes: Create urgency by presenting limited-time offers, prompting reconsideration of interest. Ben Franklin Close: Help prospects weigh pros and cons, allowing them to see the value in the purchase. Tailored Approach: Use these techniques in a way that aligns with each customer’s unique situation for better results. Mastering these techniques can elevate your closing effectiveness. Common Mistakes to Avoid When Closing Sales Perfecting closing techniques is only part of the equation; recognizing common mistakes can greatly improve your success rate. First, don’t ignore customer pain points; failing to address these can lead to missed opportunities, as many salespeople struggle with unresolved concerns. Rushing the close is another pitfall; guarantee you answer all questions to avoid hesitations, as clarity in agreement terms is vital. Overloading prospects with information can overwhelm them, resulting in decision fatigue that hampers closing chances. Moreover, neglecting to build rapport throughout the sales cycle can alienate potential buyers; empathy is key. Finally, keep in mind that effective follow-up is fundamental for customer satisfaction and retention, which can greatly influence your future sales success. Avoid these mistakes to improve your closing effectiveness. The Role of Follow-Up in Closing Success During closing a sale is a significant achievement, the role of follow-up in ensuring long-term success can’t be overlooked. Effective follow-ups can dramatically improve customer retention rates, reinforcing relationships and addressing any concerns. Here’s how follow-up makes a difference: Sending thank-you emails keeps your brand top-of-mind. Regular check-ins provide after-sales support and gauge customer satisfaction. Empathetic communication boosts customer engagement, as 90% prefer it. Structured strategies help track interactions, ensuring consistent engagement. Follow-up nurtures trust, leading to long-term relationships. Building Long-Term Relationships Post-Close Building long-term relationships after closing a sale is critical for customer retention and increased revenue. By implementing ongoing support initiatives and nurturing loyalty programs, you can guarantee your customers feel valued and supported. Regular communication not just improves their experience but likewise opens the door for upselling and cross-selling opportunities that can considerably benefit your business. Ongoing Support Initiatives Even though many sales teams focus on closing deals, ongoing support initiatives play a crucial role in nurturing long-term relationships with customers after the sale is made. By implementing these strategies, you can greatly improve customer retention and satisfaction. Consider the following key actions: Conduct regular check-ins to gauge customer satisfaction. Provide customized after-sales support that meets individual needs. Utilize feedback collected during follow-ups to improve your offerings. Maintain open lines of communication for upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Build trust through empathetic interactions, as customers appreciate personalized service. Nurturing Loyalty Programs Nurturing loyalty programs is vital for maintaining long-term relationships with your customers after the initial sale. Implementing these programs can boost customer retention rates by up to 5%, encouraging repeat business. Engaged customers in loyalty programs are 80% more likely to continue purchasing from your brand, showcasing the importance of ongoing relationships. Personalizing rewards based on customers’ preferences and purchase history can increase engagement and satisfaction by 10-15%. Following up post-sale to inform customers about loyalty benefits improves brand perception, as 70% of consumers expect brands to understand their needs. Moreover, offering exclusive promotions or early access to new products creates a sense of belonging, making customers feel valued and increasing their lifetime value to your company. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Last Step in the Sales Process? The last step in the sales process is closing, which involves finalizing the agreement between you and the buyer. This step typically includes signing a contract and confirming the sale. It’s essential to identify the right moment to ask for the sale, ensuring that you’ve addressed any concerns the buyer may have. Effective closing techniques, such as the assumptive close, can greatly increase your chances of successfully sealing the deal. What Is the Most Important Step of Closing the Sale? The most important step in closing a sale is obtaining a firm commitment from the customer. This means securing a clear agreement, either verbally or in writing, to prevent any last-minute doubts. You should ask for the commitment after addressing all questions and objections, which increases your chances of success. Furthermore, using effective closing techniques customized to the customer’s needs can further improve your ability to seal the deal confidently and clearly. What Is the Final Stage of the Selling Process? The final stage of the selling process is closing, where you secure the prospect’s agreement to proceed with the purchase. At this point, you’ll use various closing techniques, like the assumptive close, to confirm their readiness. It’s vital to address any lingering objections and emphasize the solution’s value, ensuring it meets their needs. Clear communication of terms and follow-up plans is important to nurture customer satisfaction and future relationships. What Is the End-To-End Process for Sales? The end-to-end sales process consists of six essential stages: Prospecting, where you identify potential customers; Driving & Discovering Need, where you assess their needs; Solution Crafting, where you develop customized offerings; Solution Presentation, where you showcase your solutions; Negotiating, where you discuss terms and close deals; and Winning, where you finalize the sale. Excelling in these stages is important for converting leads into loyal customers and achieving your sales goals effectively. Conclusion In conclusion, mastering the final step in closing sales is vital for transforming prospects into loyal customers. By employing effective communication strategies, addressing objections, and creating urgency, you can greatly improve your closing rates. Furthermore, comprehending various closing techniques and avoiding common mistakes will improve your effectiveness. Remember, successful sales don’t end with a transaction; follow-up and nurturing long-term relationships are just as important for sustained success in sales. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Mastering the Final Step in Closing Sales Meaning" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Something strange is happening this week: The hottest trend among young people is acting mature. Maybe it's in response to our nation's financial and political leaders abdicating maturity, but Gen Z is adopting business casual attire as a cultural identifier and using a pick-up line in online dating that seems like something out of the 1950s. Even the brain-rot generation is considering moving away from meaninglessness and dropping six-seeeven in favor of memes people can understand. What is a “quarter zip” and what does it mean to wear one?A quarter zip is exactly what it sounds like: a pullover sweater with a zipper that goes a quarter way down the chest, and it's becoming the go-to look for young men, especially Black men. Wearing a quarter zip isn't exactly "dressed up," but it's more sophisticated than rocking athleisure wear. More importantly, the quarter zip is often a signifier of status and intention. Like flannel shirts in previous generations, the quarter zip is marks one as belonging to an in-group, being a “quarter zip man," and the even being part of the “quarter zip movement.” The trend began earlier this month with this video from TikToker Jason Gyamfi: "We don't do Nike tech and coffee no more," Gyamfi says, "it's straight matchas and quarter zips around here." (Matcha is a kind of Japanese green tea. It's also a marker of "performative males.") Another part of the quarter zip movement are chunky black glasses, which I personally endorse because chunky black frames are the only glasses that matter. My white ass is not culturally qualified to talk about what the quarter zip means in terms the Black experience (dig into the hashtag if you'd like to go down that path) but I find it fascinating in terms of the younger generation taking a step into adulthood. It's not a great time for the concept of being a grown-up, with the most powerful people on earth trading schoolyard barbs and flame wars on social media regularly, so I see the quarter zip thing as a small countervailing force, as if younger people are saying, "You want to vacate maturity? We'll take it up." How “may I meet you?” is becoming Gen Z’s go-to pick-up lineSpeaking of maturity making a surprise comeback: Gen Z is adopting an unexpectedly formal greeting as a romantic opener. We have Bill Ackman to thank for it. The unlikely dating influencer isn't a roided-out weirdo Andrew-Tate type; he's a 59-year-old married hedge fund manager known for his philanthropy and his billion dollars built on long-shot bets. Ackman has summed up his investment strategy like this: “Make a bold call that nobody believes in,” and so he did in a recent tweet aimed at our nation’s young men trapped in the male loneliness epidemic, posting: “I hear from many young men that they find it difficult to meet young women in a public setting. In other words, the online culture has destroyed the ability to spontaneously meet strangers. As such, I thought I would share a few words that I used in my youth to meet someone that I found compelling. I would ask: “May I meet you?” before engaging further in a conversation. The tweet was viewed over 38 million times. It was at first met with skepticism, tweets like: This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. and memes like this: This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. But the phrase is actually catching on. People are using it on dating apps, sometimes ironically, sometimes not, but always with the subtext: "I understand this reference, therefore I am online enough for you." The phrase functions as both a shared joke and a surprisingly straightforward expression of interest. The politeness of it suggests "I'm not going to make this all weird," too. Whether young men are picking up the subtext of Ackman’s advice (i.e., “Just be a normal person—and it doesn’t hurt to have a couple billion dollars") is unclear, but the phrase has definitely embedded itself in online courtship. Generation Alpha's great meme resetMaybe this is wishful thinking, but I'm even seeing maturity creeping into the collective unconscious of Generation Alpha. As a longtime decoder of youth culture, I've watched Gen Z and Gen A's main form of self-expression—internet memes—going from generally relatable jokes and observations to messages with so many inside jokes that they're only understandable to the terminally online, to brain-rot memes that are incomprehensible to everyone, even their own creators, because they literally don't mean anything. But TikTokers are proposing a "Great Meme Reset" to begin in 2026, and promising a return to comprehensibility. The reset was first proposed (ironically, of course) in this video, posted during the supposed "meme drought" back in March. The idea that memes are dead has been much discussed online, with videos like this envisioning what the great sweeping away of memes might look like and solidifying the date it's coming: What comes next, though, is a harder thing to envision. Creators are basically proposing "going back to when memes meant something," and they generally land on 2016 as the "golden age." As TikToker NoahGlennCarter puts it in this video: "We're going to go back to the originals, things like nyan cat, Ugandan Knuckles, and the dancing banana are all going to be coming back as memes..." I'm in favor of the idea of bringing coherence back to meme-dom, but I'm sure you can see the problem here too: Nyan Cat, Ugandan Knuckles and company didn't mean anything in 2016 to anyone who wasn't terminally online. A reset is only possible if people share a baseline cultural reference point, and that’s hard to come by. Another problem: Self-conscious attempts to orchestrate cultural expression basically never work. You can’t will a renaissance into being; you can’t just make fetch happen. Viral video of the week: mishandled meatI usually link to viral videos that are funny and/or awesome, but this week's highlights a different viral subgenre: disgusting food-handling videos. TikToker @sergiogarcia9100 was apparently just hanging out on a roof (like you do) when he caught this scene of a restaurant employee's less-than-sanitary handling of some frozen ribs: The video was viewed over five million times in its first three days online. The original poster didn't provide much detail about where the video beyond saying it was "near San Jose." But internet detectives are good, and despite the seeming lack of identifying information in the video, a geoguesser on Reddit identified the restaurant as PhoLove in Milpitas, California. The county health department was notified, and the restaurant shut down temporarily while they address health code violations. All of which should remind us that the internet is terrifyingly good at CSI work, and, if you must mishandle meat, watch for video snipers on the roof. View the full article

While the tone is still generally upbeat, the market is mired below October's price highs and yields are range-bound. View the full article

The Thanksgiving holiday is nearly upon us, which means tens of millions of Americans will be traveling nationwide this week to visit their loved ones and celebrate around the dinner table with them on Thursday. The majority of that travel both to and from Turkey Day destinations is expected to kick off tomorrow, Tuesday, November 25, and run through Monday, December 1, which are the dates the American Automobile Association (AAA) defines as the 2025 Thanksgiving holiday period. It’s the busiest travel period for Americans, even beating out holidays like the Fourth of July and Christmas. While several million Americans are expected to make their Thanksgiving journeys by air or train, the overwhelming majority—more than 73 million this year—are expected to travel by car. If that includes you, you’ll want to pay attention to the latest data compiled by AAA. It reveals the best times to hit the roads during the upcoming holiday period and the times you should avoid being on the streets if you don’t want to experience the worst of the increased traffic congestion. Best times to hit the roads for the Thanksgiving travel period Except on Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, any other time that you travel during this Thanksgiving holiday period, you are likely to see more road congestion than usual. However, some times of the day are likely to see less travel congestion than others. Here are the best times to be in the car this Thanksgiving period if you want to avoid the worst of traffic, according to information compiled by AAA from transportation data and insights provider INRIX: Tuesday, November 25: Before 12 p.m. Wednesday, November 26: Before 11 a.m. Thursday, November 27 (Thanksgiving): Minimal Traffic Impact Expected Friday, November 28: Before 11 a.m. Saturday, November 29: Before 10 a.m. Sunday, November 30: Before 11 a.m. Monday, December 1: Before 8 p.m. Worst times to hit the roads for the Thanksgiving travel period INRIX says that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon are expected to feature the heaviest congestion before Thanksgiving, and the Sunday after Thanksgiving is expected to see the heaviest traffic for return home journeys. The firm says that the worst times to be on the roads due to traffic congestion during the entire holiday period are as follows: Tuesday, November 25: 12 p.m.–9 p.m. Wednesday, November 26: 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Thursday, November 27 (Thanksgiving): Minimal Traffic Impact Expected Friday, November 28: 1 p.m.–7 p.m. Saturday, November 29: 1 p.m.–8 p.m. Sunday, November 30: 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Monday, December 1: 12 p.m.–8 p.m. More than 73 million people will travel by car this Thanksgiving AAA says 73.28 million people will take to the roads in cars this Thanksgiving holiday period. That’s 1.3 million more than the 71.99 million travelers who took to the roads during the 2024 Thanksgiving period—an increase of about 1.8%. It’s also 2.7 million more than those who took to the road in 2019, the last Thanksgiving before the outbreak of the pandemic. But travelers this week won’t only be taking to the roads to get to and from their Thanksgiving festivities. AAA says that while automobile travel will make up 89.6% of all travel in America during this Thanksgiving holiday period, millions of Americans will also be taking to the skies and rails. The association expects 6.07 million travelers to take flights during this holiday period, and another 2.48 million to travel by “other” modes of transportation, including buses, trains, and cruise ships. In total, AAA expects the number of travelers in America to reach 81.83 million this Thanksgiving holiday travel period. That’s a 2% increase from last year, when 80.22 million people traveled. And it’s 5.2% more than the 77.78 travelers who took to the road, skies, and rails in 2019. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Sonos Ace headphones are finally seeing their first major price drop for Black Friday, down to $279 from their usual $399 on Amazon. That’s a solid $120 off, and yes, the lowest price tracked so far, according to price trackers. Sonos Ace $279.00 at Amazon $399.00 Save $120.00 Get Deal Get Deal $279.00 at Amazon $399.00 Save $120.00 Sonos is best known for its home speakers and soundbars, but the Ace is its first shot at premium over-ear headphones, and it’s a good one. These don’t feel like a first-generation experiment. The build is lightweight and durable; the ear cups are soft and comfortable for long use; and the physical buttons are easy to find and press, which is great if you're tired of finicky touch controls. You get around 30 hours of battery life with active noise cancellation or Aware mode turned on, and closer to 40 if you keep both off. That puts it right up there with other top-tier options like Sony’s WH-1000XM5s. The Ace also supports Bluetooth multipoint, meaning you can stay connected to your laptop and phone at the same time and switch without much delay. Sound quality is clean and well-balanced out of the box, but you can tweak it in the Sonos app if you want more bass or brightness, notes this PCMag review. The ANC and transparency (or Aware) modes are both excellent, letting you tune out or tune in to your surroundings without a jarring switch. That said, there are a couple of limitations worth knowing. Unlike Sonos speakers, the Ace doesn’t support wifi playback, so you can’t stream directly from services the way you might with other Sonos gear. Still, they can pair with Sonos soundbars over Bluetooth, which might be a bonus if you're already in the Sonos ecosystem. Compared to similarly priced models like the AirPods Max or Sony’s latest WH-1000XM6, the Ace holds its ground, especially at this discounted price. Whether you're replacing an old pair or trying premium noise-canceling headphones for the first time, this deal makes the Sonos Ace worth a serious look. Our Best Editor-Vetted Early Black Friday Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $219.99 (List Price $249.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $279.00 (List Price $349.00) Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023) — $69.99 (List Price $139.99) Sony WH-1000XM5 — $248.00 (List Price $399.99) Blink Outdoor 4 1080p Wireless Security Camera (5-Pack) — $159.99 (List Price $399.99) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus — $24.99 (List Price $49.99) NEW Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones — $298.00 (List Price $429.00) Shark AI Ultra Matrix Clean Mapping Voice Control Robot Vacuum with XL Self-Empty Base — $249.99 (List Price $599.00) Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band) — $349.00 (List Price $399.00) Western Digital 14TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive — $169.99 (List Price $279.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

Another home furnishings retail chain has sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it deals with higher costs, reduced sales, a downturn in the housing market, and President The President’s tariffs. American Signature Inc (ASI), parent company of American Signature Furniture and Value City Furniture, said Sunday that it has secured $50 million in debt financing as it seeks a buyer in an auction process. Here’s what to know. What is ASI and why is it bankrupt? Founded it 1948 and based in Columbus, Ohio, American Signature Inc is the parent company of two home furnishings retail chains: American Signature Furniture and Value City Furniture. Combined, the company has 120 stores across 17 states, it said in a court declaration over the weekend. The Value City brand is spread out across more states, with stores in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. American Signature, meanwhile, has locations in Delaware, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. Additionally, the company has distribution centers in Ohio, Georgia, Indiana, and California, two of which are owned and two of which are leased. ASI employs roughly 3,000 people. As for why it’s filing for bankruptcy, the retailer noted that it had experienced a period of rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that sales have slipped over the last year. It cites a number of reasons for its dire straits, notably “one of the most severe housing market declines in recent history.” Macroeconomic factors including rising interest rates and inflation have further exasperated the situation for ASI, as have “newly established tariffs.” Which stores are closing as part of this process? The company said in its bankruptcy announcement that it expects stores to remain open throughout the process. However, in court filings it has identified five locations that it plans to close by early next year: Value City Furniture: 2320 Sardis Road North, Charlotte, NC 28227 American Signature Furniture: 1770 Galleria Blvd, Franklin, TN 37067 American Signature Furniture: 2130 Gallatin Pike North, Madison, TN 37115 American Signature Furniture: 2821 Wilma Rudolph Blvd, Clarksville, TN 37040 American Signature Furniture: 2075 Old Fort Parkway, Murfreesboro, TN 37129 Liquidation sales have already begun at these locations and are expected to be completed by the end of January 2026, court filings show. The company has enlisted SB360 Capital Partners to help with store closings and has warned that additional stores may close as the consultation process continues. It was not immediately clear how many job losses are expected. Fast Company reached out to ASI for additional details and will update this post if we hear back. What happens next? ASI has entered into an agreement with a so-called stalking horse bidder owned by the Schottenstein family, whom Columbus Monthly has referred to as the Ohio capital’s “last dynasty.” Holding company Schottenstein Stores Corporation also owns American Signature Inc, meaning the furniture chain could stay in the family. However, American Signature plans to seek a higher bidder during an auction process within about 45 days. American Signature’s bankruptcy follows a similar move by fellow home furnishings retailer At Home, which sought Chapter 11 protection in June and has closed a number of locations this year. This story is developing… View the full article

When starting a business, registering it properly is vital for its success. You need to determine your business structure, choose a unique name, and file necessary tax documents. Furthermore, registering with the Secretary of State and obtaining required licenses are fundamental steps. Each of these actions helps establish your business legally and protects you from future issues. Comprehending these steps thoroughly can save you time and trouble, so let’s explore them in detail. Key Takeaways Determine the appropriate business structure (LLC, corporation, or sole proprietorship) based on your goals and liability considerations. Choose a unique business name and ensure it complies with state regulations and is available for registration. Register your business with the Secretary of State by completing necessary forms and submitting required fees. Obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN) and register for any necessary tax permits based on your business activities. Identify and apply for required licenses and permits, and ensure ongoing compliance with state regulations and filing deadlines. Determine Your Business Structure How do you decide on the best business structure for your venture? Start by evaluating your business goals, as the structure you choose—be it a sole proprietorship, LLC, or corporation—affects personal liability, taxation, and management obligations. Sole proprietorships are simple and require minimal registration, but they expose you to personal liability. Conversely, LLCs protect your personal assets while offering flexible taxation options, such as pass-through taxation. Corporations require more formalities, like drafting bylaws and filing Articles of Incorporation, but they provide limited liability and can raise capital through stock sales. Follow the necessary steps to register a business, including obtaining a trade name certificate, to guarantee compliance and operational success. Choose a Unique Business Name Choosing a unique business name is crucial for establishing your brand and avoiding legal issues. You should check its availability through the state business registry and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to guarantee no existing trademarks conflict with your choice. Furthermore, if you plan to operate under a different name, consider registering a “Doing Business As” (DBA) and remember to comply with state naming rules that apply to your business structure. Check Name Availability When registering your business, it’s essential to check if your desired name is available, as this step can save you from potential legal issues down the line. Start by searching your state’s business registry and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to see if the name is already in use or trademarked. Furthermore, conduct a local search through your county clerk’s office to identify any conflicts with existing businesses in your area. If you plan to operate under a different name, remember to file a Doing Business As (DBA) registration. Finally, guarantee consistency across your business name, domain name, and social media handles to strengthen your brand identity and recognition. Comply With Naming Rules Selecting a unique business name is critical for ensuring compliance with legal requirements and establishing your brand’s identity. First, check the availability of your chosen name through your state business registry and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to prevent legal conflicts. Be aware that naming rules differ by state; for example, LLCs and corporations may need specific identifiers like “LLC” or “Inc.” in their names. Consistency is crucial, so use the same name across all platforms, including websites and social media, to improve brand recognition. Registering your business name not only protects it from use by others but also boosts your professionalism and credibility in the marketplace, making it a fundamental step in your business path. Register a DBA Registering a Doing Business As (DBA) name allows you to operate under a name that differs from your official business name, providing flexibility in branding and marketing. To get started, check the availability of your desired DBA through your state’s business registry and the county clerk’s office, ensuring it doesn’t conflict with existing names. Typically, registering a DBA involves submitting a form and paying a fee, which can range from $10 to $100, depending on your jurisdiction. Moreover, consider trademark registration for added protection of your brand name at the national level. Consistency is key; use your DBA name across all marketing materials, business cards, and online profiles to establish a strong and recognizable brand identity. File Necessary Tax Information and Documents Filing the necessary tax information and documents is a vital step in establishing your business, as it guarantees compliance with federal and state regulations. First, you need an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS, important for tax reporting and hiring employees. Next, understand your state’s specific tax forms, which can differ based on your business structure. Don’t forget to register for a sales tax permit if you’re selling taxable goods or services. Furthermore, some states require franchise tax forms. Finally, keep accurate records of all submitted documents to make sure you’re prepared for future audits. Tax Requirement Description Employer Identification Number (EIN) Required for tax reporting and hiring. State Tax Forms Varies by business structure and state. Sales Tax Permit Needed for selling taxable goods/services. Franchise Tax Forms Required by some states based on business type. Record Keeping Vital for maintaining compliance. Register Your Business With the Secretary of State To successfully register your business with the Secretary of State, you need to first determine your business structure, whether it’s an LLC, corporation, or sole proprietorship. After that, follow these vital steps: Confirm your business name is unique and complies with state naming rules. Complete the required registration forms and submit them along with the necessary filing fees, which can range from $50 to $500 or more, depending on your state. Consider obtaining an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS, especially if you plan to hire employees. Maintain ongoing compliance by filing any required annual or biennial reports to keep your business in good standing. Each step is critical for securing your business’s legal status. Obtain Required Licenses and Permits Once you’ve registered your business, it’s essential to identify the specific licenses and permits you need based on your industry and local regulations. Each sector has its own requirements, so make sure you gather all necessary documentation before applying to streamline the process. Keeping up with renewals is equally important to avoid any compliance issues that could disrupt your operations. Identify Necessary Licenses When starting your business, identifying the necessary licenses and permits is crucial, as these requirements can vary widely depending on your industry and location. To guarantee you meet all legal obligations, consider the following steps: Consult state and local regulations to determine specific requirements. Check with local government offices or their websites for application processes. Identify common permits, such as health permits for food businesses and sales tax permits for retail. Regularly review and renew licenses, as many have expiration dates. Utilizing resources like the Small Business Administration (SBA) can likewise provide valuable tools and guides. Apply for Permits Having identified the necessary licenses and permits for your business, the next step involves applying for these required approvals. It’s essential to determine the specific licenses based on your industry and location, as different sectors have unique regulatory requirements. Common permits include health permits for food-related businesses, signage permits for physical locations, and sales tax permits for retail operations. Permit Type Level of Application Typical Approval Time Health Permit Local 2-4 weeks Signage Permit Local 1-3 weeks Sales Tax Permit State 1-2 weeks Business License Local/State 4-6 weeks Remember to apply early and regularly review your permits to maintain compliance. Comply With Additional State Requirements Managing additional state requirements is essential for successfully registering your business and ensuring long-term compliance. Each state has unique regulations that you must follow, adding extra steps to your registration process. Here are some common requirements to keep in mind: Publish a notice of formation in local newspapers to notify the public. File initial reports detailing your business structure and operations shortly after registration. Obtain specific industry-related permits or undergo inspections, depending on your state. Utilize compliance platforms like Mosey to help navigate state-specific requirements. Maintain Ongoing Compliance After Registration Maintaining ongoing compliance after registering your business is vital for avoiding penalties and ensuring smooth operations. You’ll need to file annual or biennial reports as required by your state to keep your business in good standing. Stay informed about any changes to state-specific regulations that may necessitate additional filings or updates. Designate a registered agent to receive legal documents, which helps you respond swiftly to compliance-related matters. It’s important to track and fulfill your tax obligations, such as sales tax and franchise tax, to avoid fines. Regularly review and update your business licenses and permits, as neglecting this can lead to legal issues or operational shutdowns. Staying proactive will keep your business running smoothly. Frequently Asked Questions What Are the Steps to Registering Your Business? To register your business, start by choosing the right structure, like an LLC or corporation, considering liability and taxes. Next, select a unique name and check its availability. After that, file formation documents with your state, such as Articles of Organization or Incorporation, and pay any fees. Don’t forget to obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS and secure needed licenses or permits based on your business type and location. What Are the Steps to Establish a Business? To establish a business, start by choosing a suitable business structure, like a sole proprietorship or LLC, since this impacts liability and taxes. Next, pick a unique name and verify its availability. After that, file the necessary formation documents with your state’s Secretary of State and pay the required fees. Don’t forget to obtain any needed licenses and register for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) for tax purposes and compliance. What Are the Four Main Steps Required to Establish a Business? To establish a business, you’ll first need to choose a legal structure, like an LLC or corporation, which affects liability and taxes. Next, register your business name to guarantee it’s unique and file any necessary documents with the state. After that, obtain required permits and licenses relevant to your business activities. Finally, register for taxes by applying for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) and any applicable state taxes to guarantee compliance. Is Registering a Business the Same as LLC? No, registering a business isn’t the same as forming an LLC. When you register a business, you create a legal entity but may choose various structures, like a sole proprietorship or partnership. An LLC, or Limited Liability Company, is a specific structure that separates personal and business liabilities. To establish an LLC, you must file Articles of Organization with your state, which provides liability protection not available with other business types. Conclusion By following these seven crucial steps, you can successfully register your business and set a solid foundation for its future. Start by determining your business structure and choosing a unique name, then move on to file the necessary tax documents and register with the Secretary of State. Don’t forget to secure the required licenses and permits, comply with state regulations, and maintain ongoing compliance. These actions will help you avoid penalties and guarantee your business operates smoothly. Image via Google Gemini This article, "7 Essential Steps for Registering Your Business Successfully" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

When starting a business, registering it properly is vital for its success. You need to determine your business structure, choose a unique name, and file necessary tax documents. Furthermore, registering with the Secretary of State and obtaining required licenses are fundamental steps. Each of these actions helps establish your business legally and protects you from future issues. Comprehending these steps thoroughly can save you time and trouble, so let’s explore them in detail. Key Takeaways Determine the appropriate business structure (LLC, corporation, or sole proprietorship) based on your goals and liability considerations. Choose a unique business name and ensure it complies with state regulations and is available for registration. Register your business with the Secretary of State by completing necessary forms and submitting required fees. Obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN) and register for any necessary tax permits based on your business activities. Identify and apply for required licenses and permits, and ensure ongoing compliance with state regulations and filing deadlines. Determine Your Business Structure How do you decide on the best business structure for your venture? Start by evaluating your business goals, as the structure you choose—be it a sole proprietorship, LLC, or corporation—affects personal liability, taxation, and management obligations. Sole proprietorships are simple and require minimal registration, but they expose you to personal liability. Conversely, LLCs protect your personal assets while offering flexible taxation options, such as pass-through taxation. Corporations require more formalities, like drafting bylaws and filing Articles of Incorporation, but they provide limited liability and can raise capital through stock sales. Follow the necessary steps to register a business, including obtaining a trade name certificate, to guarantee compliance and operational success. Choose a Unique Business Name Choosing a unique business name is crucial for establishing your brand and avoiding legal issues. You should check its availability through the state business registry and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to guarantee no existing trademarks conflict with your choice. Furthermore, if you plan to operate under a different name, consider registering a “Doing Business As” (DBA) and remember to comply with state naming rules that apply to your business structure. Check Name Availability When registering your business, it’s essential to check if your desired name is available, as this step can save you from potential legal issues down the line. Start by searching your state’s business registry and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to see if the name is already in use or trademarked. Furthermore, conduct a local search through your county clerk’s office to identify any conflicts with existing businesses in your area. If you plan to operate under a different name, remember to file a Doing Business As (DBA) registration. Finally, guarantee consistency across your business name, domain name, and social media handles to strengthen your brand identity and recognition. Comply With Naming Rules Selecting a unique business name is critical for ensuring compliance with legal requirements and establishing your brand’s identity. First, check the availability of your chosen name through your state business registry and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to prevent legal conflicts. Be aware that naming rules differ by state; for example, LLCs and corporations may need specific identifiers like “LLC” or “Inc.” in their names. Consistency is crucial, so use the same name across all platforms, including websites and social media, to improve brand recognition. Registering your business name not only protects it from use by others but also boosts your professionalism and credibility in the marketplace, making it a fundamental step in your business path. Register a DBA Registering a Doing Business As (DBA) name allows you to operate under a name that differs from your official business name, providing flexibility in branding and marketing. To get started, check the availability of your desired DBA through your state’s business registry and the county clerk’s office, ensuring it doesn’t conflict with existing names. Typically, registering a DBA involves submitting a form and paying a fee, which can range from $10 to $100, depending on your jurisdiction. Moreover, consider trademark registration for added protection of your brand name at the national level. Consistency is key; use your DBA name across all marketing materials, business cards, and online profiles to establish a strong and recognizable brand identity. File Necessary Tax Information and Documents Filing the necessary tax information and documents is a vital step in establishing your business, as it guarantees compliance with federal and state regulations. First, you need an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS, important for tax reporting and hiring employees. Next, understand your state’s specific tax forms, which can differ based on your business structure. Don’t forget to register for a sales tax permit if you’re selling taxable goods or services. Furthermore, some states require franchise tax forms. Finally, keep accurate records of all submitted documents to make sure you’re prepared for future audits. Tax Requirement Description Employer Identification Number (EIN) Required for tax reporting and hiring. State Tax Forms Varies by business structure and state. Sales Tax Permit Needed for selling taxable goods/services. Franchise Tax Forms Required by some states based on business type. Record Keeping Vital for maintaining compliance. Register Your Business With the Secretary of State To successfully register your business with the Secretary of State, you need to first determine your business structure, whether it’s an LLC, corporation, or sole proprietorship. After that, follow these vital steps: Confirm your business name is unique and complies with state naming rules. Complete the required registration forms and submit them along with the necessary filing fees, which can range from $50 to $500 or more, depending on your state. Consider obtaining an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS, especially if you plan to hire employees. Maintain ongoing compliance by filing any required annual or biennial reports to keep your business in good standing. Each step is critical for securing your business’s legal status. Obtain Required Licenses and Permits Once you’ve registered your business, it’s essential to identify the specific licenses and permits you need based on your industry and local regulations. Each sector has its own requirements, so make sure you gather all necessary documentation before applying to streamline the process. Keeping up with renewals is equally important to avoid any compliance issues that could disrupt your operations. Identify Necessary Licenses When starting your business, identifying the necessary licenses and permits is crucial, as these requirements can vary widely depending on your industry and location. To guarantee you meet all legal obligations, consider the following steps: Consult state and local regulations to determine specific requirements. Check with local government offices or their websites for application processes. Identify common permits, such as health permits for food businesses and sales tax permits for retail. Regularly review and renew licenses, as many have expiration dates. Utilizing resources like the Small Business Administration (SBA) can likewise provide valuable tools and guides. Apply for Permits Having identified the necessary licenses and permits for your business, the next step involves applying for these required approvals. It’s essential to determine the specific licenses based on your industry and location, as different sectors have unique regulatory requirements. Common permits include health permits for food-related businesses, signage permits for physical locations, and sales tax permits for retail operations. Permit Type Level of Application Typical Approval Time Health Permit Local 2-4 weeks Signage Permit Local 1-3 weeks Sales Tax Permit State 1-2 weeks Business License Local/State 4-6 weeks Remember to apply early and regularly review your permits to maintain compliance. Comply With Additional State Requirements Managing additional state requirements is essential for successfully registering your business and ensuring long-term compliance. Each state has unique regulations that you must follow, adding extra steps to your registration process. Here are some common requirements to keep in mind: Publish a notice of formation in local newspapers to notify the public. File initial reports detailing your business structure and operations shortly after registration. Obtain specific industry-related permits or undergo inspections, depending on your state. Utilize compliance platforms like Mosey to help navigate state-specific requirements. Maintain Ongoing Compliance After Registration Maintaining ongoing compliance after registering your business is vital for avoiding penalties and ensuring smooth operations. You’ll need to file annual or biennial reports as required by your state to keep your business in good standing. Stay informed about any changes to state-specific regulations that may necessitate additional filings or updates. Designate a registered agent to receive legal documents, which helps you respond swiftly to compliance-related matters. It’s important to track and fulfill your tax obligations, such as sales tax and franchise tax, to avoid fines. Regularly review and update your business licenses and permits, as neglecting this can lead to legal issues or operational shutdowns. Staying proactive will keep your business running smoothly. Frequently Asked Questions What Are the Steps to Registering Your Business? To register your business, start by choosing the right structure, like an LLC or corporation, considering liability and taxes. Next, select a unique name and check its availability. After that, file formation documents with your state, such as Articles of Organization or Incorporation, and pay any fees. Don’t forget to obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS and secure needed licenses or permits based on your business type and location. What Are the Steps to Establish a Business? To establish a business, start by choosing a suitable business structure, like a sole proprietorship or LLC, since this impacts liability and taxes. Next, pick a unique name and verify its availability. After that, file the necessary formation documents with your state’s Secretary of State and pay the required fees. Don’t forget to obtain any needed licenses and register for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) for tax purposes and compliance. What Are the Four Main Steps Required to Establish a Business? To establish a business, you’ll first need to choose a legal structure, like an LLC or corporation, which affects liability and taxes. Next, register your business name to guarantee it’s unique and file any necessary documents with the state. After that, obtain required permits and licenses relevant to your business activities. Finally, register for taxes by applying for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) and any applicable state taxes to guarantee compliance. Is Registering a Business the Same as LLC? No, registering a business isn’t the same as forming an LLC. When you register a business, you create a legal entity but may choose various structures, like a sole proprietorship or partnership. An LLC, or Limited Liability Company, is a specific structure that separates personal and business liabilities. To establish an LLC, you must file Articles of Organization with your state, which provides liability protection not available with other business types. Conclusion By following these seven crucial steps, you can successfully register your business and set a solid foundation for its future. Start by determining your business structure and choosing a unique name, then move on to file the necessary tax documents and register with the Secretary of State. Don’t forget to secure the required licenses and permits, comply with state regulations, and maintain ongoing compliance. These actions will help you avoid penalties and guarantee your business operates smoothly. Image via Google Gemini This article, "7 Essential Steps for Registering Your Business Successfully" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is now available at a $100 discount for Black Friday, bringing the Bluetooth model down to $399.99 from its original $499.99, and the LTE version to $449.99 from $549.99. That extra $50 for LTE only really matters if you plan to use the watch without your phone nearby. For most people who keep their phone close, the Bluetooth version is more than enough. Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic (46mm, Bluetooth, Black Band) $399.99 at Amazon $499.99 Save $100.00 Get Deal Get Deal $399.99 at Amazon $499.99 Save $100.00 The physical rotating bezel makes a return with the Classic and remains one of the easiest ways to navigate the interface, particularly when your hands are sweaty or occupied. The display is brighter and more readable in direct sunlight, the case has been trimmed slightly for a sleeker fit, and the battery comfortably lasts through a full day and a night of sleep tracking. The watch also gets Google’s Gemini assistant and an updated sleep dashboard, so even if you don’t dive deep into data, the summaries are easier to understand. Samsung has added a few smart touches this year. The updated health sensors feel more accurate in everyday use, the dual-band GPS locks onto routes faster, and the gesture controls make one-handed navigation easier when you’re on the move. The AI running coach also feels more grounded, offering small adjustments to your stride or pace instead of vague motivational fluff. None of these are headline-grabbing changes, but they’re the kind that make a difference in daily use. Reviews (including this “excellent” PCMag review and our own hands-on review) agree that the Classic version feels more like a traditional watch while still packing in full smartwatch features. That said, the 46mm size may not suit everyone, particularly those who prefer a smaller or lighter option. And serious workout folks may want a longer battery life than the 30-ish hours you get here. But for an everyday smartwatch with a fitness angle, it strikes a strong balance. If you’re weighing your options, we’ve also compared the Google Pixel Watch 4 with the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic in detail so you can see how they match up. Our Best Editor-Vetted Early Black Friday Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $219.99 (List Price $249.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $279.00 (List Price $349.00) Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023) — $69.99 (List Price $139.99) Sony WH-1000XM5 — $248.00 (List Price $399.99) Blink Outdoor 4 1080p Wireless Security Camera (5-Pack) — $159.99 (List Price $399.99) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus — $24.99 (List Price $49.99) NEW Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones — $298.00 (List Price $429.00) Shark AI Ultra Matrix Clean Mapping Voice Control Robot Vacuum with XL Self-Empty Base — $249.99 (List Price $599.00) Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band) — $349.00 (List Price $399.00) Western Digital 14TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive — $169.99 (List Price $279.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

World shares and U.S. futures were mixed on Monday after Wall Street was buoyed by revived hopes for an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was nearly unchanged. Germany’s DAX gained 0.5% to 23,201.85, while the CAC 40 edged less than 0.1% lower to 7,978.77. Britain’s FTSE 100 inched up 0.1% to 9,547.77. Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday. Hong Kong’s benchmark, the Hang Seng, rose 2% to 25,716.50. It got a boost from a 4.7% gain for e-commerce giant Alibaba, which has reported strong demand for its updated Qwen AI app. Alibaba is due to report earnings on Tuesday. The Shanghai Composite index rose less than 0.1% to 3,836.77. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.3% to 8,525.10. In South Korea, the Kospi reversed early gains, falling 0.2% to 3,846.06 on heavy selling of automakers. Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.3% and the Sensex in India shed 0.4%. This week, U.S. markets will be closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, which will be followed by the Black Friday and Cyber Monday retail rushes. After last week’s ups and downs over AI and Nvidia, traders will focus more on “the backbone of U.S. growth, the consumer, whose spending still drives two-thirds of GDP,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. Data on the U.S. economy was scarce during the 6-week U.S. government shutdown, leaving investors struggling to parse trends in the economy. “This makes any sniff of holiday activity — foot traffic, discount depth, card authorizations — disproportionately important. In a data desert, even a puddle looks like a lake,” he said. On Friday, the S&P 500 gained 1% and the Dow climbed 1.1%. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.9%. Nearly 90% of stocks in the S&P 500 advanced. It was a fitting finish for a week that left the S&P 500 just 4.2% below its record but also forced investors to stomach the sharpest hour-to-hour swings since a sell-off in April. The jarring moves are testing investors following a monthslong and remarkably smooth surge for stocks, and they come down to two basic as-yet unanswered questions. Have prices for Nvidia, bitcoin and other stars of Wall Street shot too high? And is the Federal Reserve done with its cuts to interest rates, which would boost the economy and prices for investments? Markets took heart from a speech by the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, John Williams, who told a conference in Chile that he sees “room for a further adjustment” to interest rates. Other Fed officials have argued against a December cut, saying inflation is still too high. In the bond market, Treasury yields eased Friday on hopes for cuts from the Fed. Traders are now betting on a nearly 72% probability of a December cut, up sharply from 39% a day before, according to data from CME Group. That helped send the yield on the 10-year Treasury to 4.06% from 4.10% late Thursday. In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 43 cents to $57.63 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 38 cents to $61.56 a barrel. The U.S. dollar rose to 156.75 Japanese yen from 156.47 yen. The euro climbed to $1.1537 from $1.1516. Bitcoin was up 1.6%, near $86,000. On Friday, it briefly plunged below $81,000 before pulling back toward $85,000. That’s down from nearly $125,000 last month and brought it back to where it was in April, when markets were shaking because of President Donald The President’s higher tariffs. —Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer View the full article

Price increases show that western restrictions are limiting Moscow’s capabilities, Bank of Finland research findsView the full article

Findings are respite for German conglomerate facing sliding sales of blockbuster drugs and US legal challenges View the full article

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Being a life sciences CEO is not for the faint of heart. Drug discovery and patent approvals are costly and time-consuming, and even if an executive can steer a company to clinical trials, there’s a very small chance the product will be commercialized. One study says that 90% of clinical drug development fails because the treatment didn’t have its intended impact, had the wrong formulations, or harmed patients. “You have a business challenge, a science challenge, a clinical trial challenge, and a regulatory challenge,” says Kevin Conroy, CEO of the colorectal cancer screening company Exact Sciences. “It’s like solving a complex puzzle, and there’s simply no guarantee of success.” When companies do solve that puzzle, the rewards can be huge: As Modern CEO went to press, Exact Sciences announced it was selling to Abbott in a deal valued at $21 billion. Still, biotech and health technology companies are now confronting an additional burden: simmering science skepticism. Pew Research Center found that in 2024, 76% of Americans believed that scientists act in the public’s best interest, up slightly from 2023 but down 10 points from pre-pandemic levels. A new survey from Pew shows that 24% of parents of school-age children question whether vaccines have undergone enough safety testing. Rebuilding trust in science Some lawmakers are fanning the flames. Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called for changes in the ways vaccines are tested. The White House has cut budgets at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, and moved to terminate federal funding to universities, all of which participate in the funding of medical and science research. Conroy says the current environment is a call to action to the biosciences industry to help rebuild trust with the public and lawmakers. “How can we in this field show success that brings back a stronger belief in science, in data, in clinical studies, in evidence generation?” he asks. “I think it’s our responsibility to do that.” According to Conroy, Exact Sciences isn’t facing any societal or political headwinds. It makes a colon cancer test (if you’re a certain age, you’ve probably been served ads for its Cologuard Kit) that will screen five million people for cancer this year. “Science skepticism hasn’t touched cancer screening,” he says. “People on the left and right are touched equally by cancer.” Still, Exact Sciences and other science companies have benefited from an ecosystem of government-funded research, rigorous approvals, and endorsements that make the U.S. a biotech innovation powerhouse. Exact Sciences was founded in 1995 by an engineer who wanted to develop an alternative to colonoscopies, but the company struggled for years to develop a test. Conroy joined in 2009 after meeting with David Ahlquist, a Mayo Clinic physician who had spent 20 years researching noninvasive colon cancer detection—research funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. Exact Sciences collaborated with Ahlquist on an approach that tests a patient’s stool for abnormal DNA or blood cells that might indicate the presence of colon cancer. Cologuard received FDA approval in 2014, after a huge clinical trial involving 10,000 patients; that same year the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it intended to cover the test, and the American Cancer Society included the test in its colon cancer screening guidelines—a key recommendation that helped build public trust in the at-home kit. “Exact Sciences would not be here without federally funded research at the Mayo Clinic,” Conroy says. Follow the data Conroy notes that all businesses can gain from a scientific approach—running experiments, conceding when something doesn’t work (even if you’ve invested time and money in the research), and following the data. At Exact Sciences, such rigor extends beyond the lab. Before the company launched its kits, the team tested two different product designs for sample collection—a scoop and a container. The team thought consumers would favor the scoop, but research showed 85% of users preferred the container. “We would have made a big mistake if we had trusted our gut,” Conroy says. “A lot of times you’re so passionate as a CEO, you skip all of those steps and just bulldoze your way toward the answer you’d like to see. I’m as guilty of that as the next CEO.” I asked Conroy how biotech executives can help restore trust in science and rally support for the broader system of grants and research funding now under fire. He notes that he travels to Washington from Exact Sciences’ headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, every quarter to meet with lawmakers, largely to advocate for early detection of diseases but also to talk about innovation and discovery. “Every CEO in this field should be doing the same thing. It’s too important for America’s competitiveness,” he says. Deadline extended We’re extending the deadline for Modern CEO of the Year nominations by a few days. If you or someone you know has had a standout 2025, please fill out this nomination form by November 28. We’ll name the Modern CEO of the Year on December 29. Read more: science in focus This Sam Altman–backed CEO is using AI to get drugs to market faster The most innovative biotech companies of 2025 Why Jennifer Doudna is one of the 10 most innovative people of the last 10 years View the full article

Stephen Miran’s old shop reckons that stocks are ‘not even close’ to a bubbleView the full article

Sector deemed resilient even as a wave of investment raises fears over future vulnerabilityView the full article

Outcome is blow to one of Europe’s largest listed companiesView the full article

Marry one of the world’s most powerful business software platforms with AI capabilities. The result allows businesses of all types and sizes to create new workspaces. It enables teams to integrate native and third party apps. And it frees your employees to share data easily across your organization while maintaining critical security features. Witness the remarkable new iteration of Zoho One. And reimagine your business as teams share insights across over 50 applications and third party apps from Google, Microsoft, Quickbooks and more. “Now we have about 75,000 customers using Zoho One,” explains Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist at Zoho. “These customers are distributed all over the world and the average number of applications they use is around 22 to 23 and that has been growing and that option has been pretty significant across various org sizes, small to mid-size to enterprises as well.” The new AI enhanced Zoho One unifies features across 50+ Zoho apps and third party integrations in a variety of ways. One layer of integration involves Spaces, divided into Personal, Organization and Department. Take a look at how these are arranged below. Get the Personal Touch Say you operate a Seattle-based coffee roaster – with national distribution. Each member of your marketing department needs personal productivity tools. Think design tools to work on the elements of a campaign and file storage to upload those assets. They also likely need a chat feature to discuss projects with other members of the team. “You know, sometimes we want to just put our head down and do the work … and we need our own space for ourselves, that is the personal space.” adds Vegesna. “So we created a personal space with relevant tools that you may use.” Each member of your sales team needs email to receive leads and video-call features to follow up with potential cafes or supermarket chains potentially interested in carrying your coffee. But instead of popping in and out of 10 or 20 applications, Zoho One’s new integration offers a magic trick. Abracadabra and each member creates a Personal Space where emails can be read and sent, calls made and files stored and shared. All this happens within a dashboard created to improve productivity. Expect to compete with big brands like Starbucks and Peet’s Coffee in no time, as Zoho One supercharges your sales and marketing teams. These individuals require personal space to do their work but also they look for ways to share quickly with other members of the team. Fortunately other aspects of Zoho One’s unified new approach fill just this need. Stay tuned. Keep Your Organization Communicating Of course, you also need a way to communicate and collaborate across your organization. “If you’re in a collaboration mode within your entire organisation, well you get into the Organisation Space where there are a lot of tools out there that can help with various collaborations that you may do – various forms of collaboration.” Vegesna adds. Say you operate a real estate brokerage in Reading, Pennsylvania. But you have regional agents throughout several counties in the Southeastern part of the state. You need tools to help you bring those agents together on a regular basis, even when spread out over 50 miles or more. Town Halls The Organization Space enables you to set up town halls with your agents wherever they are located. Set up your town halls with clearly defined durations and agendas. For example, establish a Monday morning session to update agents on new listings and the progress on existing listings. Share exciting news on offers received as well as successful closings and other landmark accomplishments. Set up another town hall midweek, perhaps an ask me anything session for new agents who are just learning the ropes. Forums Use Forums to help agents collaborate on projects, do more showings and ultimately make more sales. For example, encourage agents in one county to post their listings, photos, asking price and other details. This allows realtors in another county who might have the perfect buyer to set up a showing or request more information on the listing with just a few clicks. Or suppose one realtor has an open house coming up this weekend. Forums provide a place to announce the event and ask other realtors to attend and possibly bring clients who might be interested. Other Tools Town Halls and Forums both reside within Zoho Connect. But make no mistake. Our hypothetical real estate brokerage need not get siloed within one application. You see, the new Zoho One seeks to ease boundaries between apps with simple dashboards allowing collaborating teams to enable or disable apps at will. “While you may be navigating multiple applications, it feels like a single unified interface across the board,” Vegesna points out. So our southeastern Pennsylvania real estate company likely also uses Zoho Projects to manage staging of properties or closings on property sales to ensure nothing gets missed. But the company also uses Zoho Social to create campaigns for individual properties – or to bring in new listings. “So users can create multiple dashboards, pulling data across multiple applications and the default dashboards that we create themselves pull data across the operating system,” Vegesna adds. Cool, huh? Improve Departmental Efficiency But most importantly, the new Zoho One’s philosophy of unification tackles the big daddy of all business challenges, departmental efficiency. Miss this important detail and your business always ends up throwing more money out the window than you take in at the door. The new Zoho One allows teams to create dashboards for any department you can imagine – using any tools they need. “They are organized whether it is CRM related, whether it is HR related, support related,” Vegesna begins. “If you want to add any of these, like a help desk overview, you pin it in or you add that and it kind of shows up here.” Imagine the accounts receivable department of a collection agency in Santa Fe, New Mexico working mainly with local hospitals and other healthcare providers. Few businesses better exemplify the connection between departmental efficiency and profitability. Fail to track delinquent accounts, schedule calls to make payment arrangements or track and process payments made? You soon face angry clients and the possibility of cancelled contracts. Fortunately, a variety of Zoho tools provide the perfect solution. Use Zoho Billing’s Accounts Receivable Aging Summary to identify delinquent accounts. Employ Zoho Projects to create a ticket system for contact and payment negotiations. Then use Zoho Payments to make paying down that debt effortless. Zoho Books helps track incoming payments from customers – as well as the cost of collection. Create a dashboard – or multiple dashboards – and give your team a 40,000 foot view of your collection operations. This allows piling up delinquent accounts, delays in contact, delayed payments and excessive costs in the collection process to stick out more clearly. “What if we can take all of these applications … and make them behave like a single application – and where you remove the boundaries between these applications on the data and make the entire thing behave like a single unified experience where the context becomes the king?” Vegesna muses. Can you see the potential? New Zoho One Puts Ghost in Machine with Zia Another important change in the new version of Zoho One happens to be the further integration of Zia – Zoho’s AI assistant. AI already featured prominently in Zoho’s offerings. But the new Zoho One incorporates Zia into almost everything. “So Zia is kind of sprinkled throughout the operating system,” Vegesna explains. For example, Zia helps Zoho take its famous low code app building feature in Zoho Creator to a whole new level. Zoho Creator already makes app creation a breeze with its simple drag and drop elements. But now give Zia a prompt and it builds what you want and even installs it. Say you needed a checklist of CRM or other tasks for the day. Or, as in the example of our imaginary accounts receivable department above, you need outstanding invoices ordered by the due date. This allows your team to track accounts to determine when they have reached delinquency – or when payments are late. Perhaps you just need a simple way to create a meeting schedule for the day or for the week. This represents just a sampling of the kinds of widgets Zia can whip up for you, according to Zoho. “It will create a widget for you and plug that right in,” Vegesna explains. Equally important, Zia helps you sift through reports for important insights. Vegesna adds, “ For example, in this case, I’m looking at a report. I can expand into it, zoom into it, ask Zia to do some analysis where Zia will give me a summary on that particular report.” So, Zia parses through huge volumes of information surfacing only the important bits for your project. Suppose you need the sales numbers on your ecommerce site from 2024 and the first half of 2025. Or perhaps you need a summary of traffic and engagement from your last social media campaign. Zia scours reports from Zoho Commerce, Zoho Social or any other applications to provide the summaries you need. Unification of Experience, Intelligence and Integration Think of the way AI removes barriers between apps and data as a unification of experience. No longer do you work in Zoho Service Plus or Zoho People Plus or Zoho Marketing Plus. No longer do you work in sales or finance or HR. Instead, you collaborate across applications with the help of AI. You find the data you need regardless in which department it resides. Then think of the way Zia works across all applications. It delivers widgets and surfaces and summarizes data to help you better understand what happens across your business not just in one little silo. Consider this unification of intelligence. Bringing Third Party – To the Party This brings us to unified integration. This integration happens not only between Zoho applications. The new Zoho One also integrates with third party applications – like QuickBooks, Mailchimp, HubSpot and more. And it allows integration between these third-party applications themselves. So your business gets to choose the tools that work best for you – whether they exist in the Zoho ecosystem or not. Imagine an SEO firm in Silver Springs, Florida. Perhaps they use Zoho Projects to manage ongoing activities. Perhaps they use tickets for ongoing tasks like optimization of clients’ sites, link building and keyword research activities, for example. Maybe they also use Zoho CRM to nurture leads from marketing campaigns and bring in new clients. But when it comes to bookkeeping, they prefer Quickbooks – even though they use Zoho Invoice to bill clients and Zoho Payments to collect fees. Fortunately, with the new Zoho One, this presents no problem. “You can bring in third party dashboards as well, plug them right in with single sign-on enable,” Vegesna explains. “You get a complete overview of it, and then the concept of boards and removing the boundaries is a critical piece and we don’t restrict it to dashboards themselves.” Perhaps our Florida SEO company also uses GoDaddy to host the websites it builds for clients and for the domain name registration that goes along with this. Vegesna further explains how this integration in particular works. “So to make it really simple, we have also partnered with GoDaddy, where within the domain unification, all you need to do is login to GoDaddy, authorize changes to some of these records, and we will make these changes to their domain with their permission automatically,” he says. Final Thoughts No matter what your business needs, the new Zoho One offers over 50 applications to help you achieve your business goals. More to the point, the new iteration of Zoho One eliminates boundaries that once siloed data and app functionality. It allows businesses to create their own dashboards combining app functionality and moving data seamlessly as needed. New AI functionality including use of Zoho’s AI assistant Zia across the platform, allows businesses to build widgets and manipulate and summarize data. The platform upgrade even allows seamless integration with other third party software outside the Zoho ecosystem. This gives your business ultimate flexibility to choose the tools you want and integrate them the way you want. Visit the new Zoho One today. This article, "New Zoho One Uses AI to Reminagine Your Business" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Marry one of the world’s most powerful business software platforms with AI capabilities. The result allows businesses of all types and sizes to create new workspaces. It enables teams to integrate native and third party apps. And it frees your employees to share data easily across your organization while maintaining critical security features. Witness the remarkable new iteration of Zoho One. And reimagine your business as teams share insights across over 50 applications and third party apps from Google, Microsoft, Quickbooks and more. “Now we have about 75,000 customers using Zoho One,” explains Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist at Zoho. “These customers are distributed all over the world and the average number of applications they use is around 22 to 23 and that has been growing and that option has been pretty significant across various org sizes, small to mid-size to enterprises as well.” The new AI enhanced Zoho One unifies features across 50+ Zoho apps and third party integrations in a variety of ways. One layer of integration involves Spaces, divided into Personal, Organization and Department. Take a look at how these are arranged below. Get the Personal Touch Say you operate a Seattle-based coffee roaster – with national distribution. Each member of your marketing department needs personal productivity tools. Think design tools to work on the elements of a campaign and file storage to upload those assets. They also likely need a chat feature to discuss projects with other members of the team. “You know, sometimes we want to just put our head down and do the work … and we need our own space for ourselves, that is the personal space.” adds Vegesna. “So we created a personal space with relevant tools that you may use.” Each member of your sales team needs email to receive leads and video-call features to follow up with potential cafes or supermarket chains potentially interested in carrying your coffee. But instead of popping in and out of 10 or 20 applications, Zoho One’s new integration offers a magic trick. Abracadabra and each member creates a Personal Space where emails can be read and sent, calls made and files stored and shared. All this happens within a dashboard created to improve productivity. Expect to compete with big brands like Starbucks and Peet’s Coffee in no time, as Zoho One supercharges your sales and marketing teams. These individuals require personal space to do their work but also they look for ways to share quickly with other members of the team. Fortunately other aspects of Zoho One’s unified new approach fill just this need. Stay tuned. Keep Your Organization Communicating Of course, you also need a way to communicate and collaborate across your organization. “If you’re in a collaboration mode within your entire organisation, well you get into the Organisation Space where there are a lot of tools out there that can help with various collaborations that you may do – various forms of collaboration.” Vegesna adds. Say you operate a real estate brokerage in Reading, Pennsylvania. But you have regional agents throughout several counties in the Southeastern part of the state. You need tools to help you bring those agents together on a regular basis, even when spread out over 50 miles or more. Town Halls The Organization Space enables you to set up town halls with your agents wherever they are located. Set up your town halls with clearly defined durations and agendas. For example, establish a Monday morning session to update agents on new listings and the progress on existing listings. Share exciting news on offers received as well as successful closings and other landmark accomplishments. Set up another town hall midweek, perhaps an ask me anything session for new agents who are just learning the ropes. Forums Use Forums to help agents collaborate on projects, do more showings and ultimately make more sales. For example, encourage agents in one county to post their listings, photos, asking price and other details. This allows realtors in another county who might have the perfect buyer to set up a showing or request more information on the listing with just a few clicks. Or suppose one realtor has an open house coming up this weekend. Forums provide a place to announce the event and ask other realtors to attend and possibly bring clients who might be interested. Other Tools Town Halls and Forums both reside within Zoho Connect. But make no mistake. Our hypothetical real estate brokerage need not get siloed within one application. You see, the new Zoho One seeks to ease boundaries between apps with simple dashboards allowing collaborating teams to enable or disable apps at will. “While you may be navigating multiple applications, it feels like a single unified interface across the board,” Vegesna points out. So our southeastern Pennsylvania real estate company likely also uses Zoho Projects to manage staging of properties or closings on property sales to ensure nothing gets missed. But the company also uses Zoho Social to create campaigns for individual properties – or to bring in new listings. “So users can create multiple dashboards, pulling data across multiple applications and the default dashboards that we create themselves pull data across the operating system,” Vegesna adds. Cool, huh? Improve Departmental Efficiency But most importantly, the new Zoho One’s philosophy of unification tackles the big daddy of all business challenges, departmental efficiency. Miss this important detail and your business always ends up throwing more money out the window than you take in at the door. The new Zoho One allows teams to create dashboards for any department you can imagine – using any tools they need. “They are organized whether it is CRM related, whether it is HR related, support related,” Vegesna begins. “If you want to add any of these, like a help desk overview, you pin it in or you add that and it kind of shows up here.” Imagine the accounts receivable department of a collection agency in Santa Fe, New Mexico working mainly with local hospitals and other healthcare providers. Few businesses better exemplify the connection between departmental efficiency and profitability. Fail to track delinquent accounts, schedule calls to make payment arrangements or track and process payments made? You soon face angry clients and the possibility of cancelled contracts. Fortunately, a variety of Zoho tools provide the perfect solution. Use Zoho Billing’s Accounts Receivable Aging Summary to identify delinquent accounts. Employ Zoho Projects to create a ticket system for contact and payment negotiations. Then use Zoho Payments to make paying down that debt effortless. Zoho Books helps track incoming payments from customers – as well as the cost of collection. Create a dashboard – or multiple dashboards – and give your team a 40,000 foot view of your collection operations. This allows piling up delinquent accounts, delays in contact, delayed payments and excessive costs in the collection process to stick out more clearly. “What if we can take all of these applications … and make them behave like a single application – and where you remove the boundaries between these applications on the data and make the entire thing behave like a single unified experience where the context becomes the king?” Vegesna muses. Can you see the potential? New Zoho One Puts Ghost in Machine with Zia Another important change in the new version of Zoho One happens to be the further integration of Zia – Zoho’s AI assistant. AI already featured prominently in Zoho’s offerings. But the new Zoho One incorporates Zia into almost everything. “So Zia is kind of sprinkled throughout the operating system,” Vegesna explains. For example, Zia helps Zoho take its famous low code app building feature in Zoho Creator to a whole new level. Zoho Creator already makes app creation a breeze with its simple drag and drop elements. But now give Zia a prompt and it builds what you want and even installs it. Say you needed a checklist of CRM or other tasks for the day. Or, as in the example of our imaginary accounts receivable department above, you need outstanding invoices ordered by the due date. This allows your team to track accounts to determine when they have reached delinquency – or when payments are late. Perhaps you just need a simple way to create a meeting schedule for the day or for the week. This represents just a sampling of the kinds of widgets Zia can whip up for you, according to Zoho. “It will create a widget for you and plug that right in,” Vegesna explains. Equally important, Zia helps you sift through reports for important insights. Vegesna adds, “ For example, in this case, I’m looking at a report. I can expand into it, zoom into it, ask Zia to do some analysis where Zia will give me a summary on that particular report.” So, Zia parses through huge volumes of information surfacing only the important bits for your project. Suppose you need the sales numbers on your ecommerce site from 2024 and the first half of 2025. Or perhaps you need a summary of traffic and engagement from your last social media campaign. Zia scours reports from Zoho Commerce, Zoho Social or any other applications to provide the summaries you need. Unification of Experience, Intelligence and Integration Think of the way AI removes barriers between apps and data as a unification of experience. No longer do you work in Zoho Service Plus or Zoho People Plus or Zoho Marketing Plus. No longer do you work in sales or finance or HR. Instead, you collaborate across applications with the help of AI. You find the data you need regardless in which department it resides. Then think of the way Zia works across all applications. It delivers widgets and surfaces and summarizes data to help you better understand what happens across your business not just in one little silo. Consider this unification of intelligence. Bringing Third Party – To the Party This brings us to unified integration. This integration happens not only between Zoho applications. The new Zoho One also integrates with third party applications – like QuickBooks, Mailchimp, HubSpot and more. And it allows integration between these third-party applications themselves. So your business gets to choose the tools that work best for you – whether they exist in the Zoho ecosystem or not. Imagine an SEO firm in Silver Springs, Florida. Perhaps they use Zoho Projects to manage ongoing activities. Perhaps they use tickets for ongoing tasks like optimization of clients’ sites, link building and keyword research activities, for example. Maybe they also use Zoho CRM to nurture leads from marketing campaigns and bring in new clients. But when it comes to bookkeeping, they prefer Quickbooks – even though they use Zoho Invoice to bill clients and Zoho Payments to collect fees. Fortunately, with the new Zoho One, this presents no problem. “You can bring in third party dashboards as well, plug them right in with single sign-on enable,” Vegesna explains. “You get a complete overview of it, and then the concept of boards and removing the boundaries is a critical piece and we don’t restrict it to dashboards themselves.” Perhaps our Florida SEO company also uses GoDaddy to host the websites it builds for clients and for the domain name registration that goes along with this. Vegesna further explains how this integration in particular works. “So to make it really simple, we have also partnered with GoDaddy, where within the domain unification, all you need to do is login to GoDaddy, authorize changes to some of these records, and we will make these changes to their domain with their permission automatically,” he says. Final Thoughts No matter what your business needs, the new Zoho One offers over 50 applications to help you achieve your business goals. More to the point, the new iteration of Zoho One eliminates boundaries that once siloed data and app functionality. It allows businesses to create their own dashboards combining app functionality and moving data seamlessly as needed. New AI functionality including use of Zoho’s AI assistant Zia across the platform, allows businesses to build widgets and manipulate and summarize data. The platform upgrade even allows seamless integration with other third party software outside the Zoho ecosystem. This gives your business ultimate flexibility to choose the tools you want and integrate them the way you want. Visit the new Zoho One today. This article, "New Zoho One Uses AI to Reminagine Your Business" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Every good salesperson knows the 7-step process in which you identify and qualify a prospect to understand their needs, then present your offer, overcome objections, close the sale and follow up. It’s proven so consistently effective that its concepts have been the standard for training salespeople for decades. Many business leaders come up through sales and marketing, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they try to use similar persuasion techniques for large-scale change. They work to understand the needs of their target market, craft a powerful message, overcome any objections and then follow-through on execution. Unfortunately, that’s a terrible strategy. The truth is that the urge to persuade is often a red flag. It means you either have the wrong people or the wrong idea. Effective change strategy focuses on collective dynamics. Rather than trying to shape opinions, you’re much better off empowering people who are already enthusiastic about the idea and working to shape networks. The power of persuasion Experts have a lot of ideas about persuasion. Some suggest leveraging social proof, to show that people have adopted the idea and had a positive experience. Others emphasize the importance of building trust and using emotional rather than analytical arguments. Still others insist on creating a unified value proposition. For 35 years, psychologist Robert Cialdini researched which types of communication were effective and which were not. He found that influence is based on six key principles: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. More recently, Wharton Professor Jonah Berger has used data analysis to come up with his SPEACC framework. In recent years, a number of conversation-based practices, such as Deep Canvassing, Street Epistemology, and the Change Conversation Pyramid, have emerged that focus on a method called technique rebuttal. These focus on listening empathetically to build rapport and identifying common ground, then encouraging the target to engage in metacognition to examine how they arrived at their own conclusions. These all are, for the most part, worthwhile and can be effective. However, it’s also important to remember that the first two steps in the sales process are identifying and qualifying prospects so that when you are presenting your offer, it is to people who are eager, or at least open, to what you’re trying to sell. Nobody would recommend wasting time and effort on trying to sell to those who have no interest in buying. Yet with large-scale change, that’s not an option. Your environment will include the entire spectrum, from active supporters to active resistors. That means that for a significant portion of people, persuasive techniques will not be effective. The limits of communication We like to think that our minds work like computers, taking in evidence through our five senses and then processing that information in our brains to arrive at conclusions. Persuasion techniques tend to focus on glitches in that machinery in the form of cognitive biases, in order to get us to see things in another light. Yet we are wired to be social creatures. As we engage in collective action with others, we form group identities and seek to build status amongst our own tribe. Part of achieving the status we desire is showing loyalty and adherence to collective principles, so we take steps to signal to others that we remain loyal members in good standing and expect the same of them. That’s why we are greatly shaped by the people around us. Decades of studies indicate that we tend to conform to the opinions and behaviors of those around us and this effect extends out to three degrees of relationships. So not only do our friends’ friends influence us deeply, but their friends too—people that we don’t even know—affect what we think. That’s why communication strategies will always be limited. We can carefully craft messages to align with the influence techniques of Cialdini and Berger, listen with empathy and employ the methods of technique rebuttal to successfully persuade someone to come to our way of thinking. But when they go back and get embedded in their social networks once again, they’re very likely to return to their earlier way of thinking. To wit, when David McRaney, while researching his book How Minds Change, sought out people who left cults or turned their backs on conspiracy theories he found that, invariably, the change in their opinion was preceded by a significant change in their social networks. Why incentives backfire Another common persuasion tactic is the use of incentives, based on the belief that changing incentives will automatically change behaviors. However, incentives frequently fall short and can even backfire dramatically. Sometimes this is due to the same identity and dignity issue that make people resistant to influence techniques, but also because people often act in unpredictable ways that aren’t immediately obvious. Consider what happened in an experiment where daycare centers imposed fines for parents who were late picking up their children. Instead of cutting down on late pickups, they increased. As it turned out, parents saw the fine as a fee for convenience which they were happy to pay. There is also significant evidence that extrinsic incentives crowd out intrinsic and reputational motivations. For example, in an experiment in which subjects were asked to solve a puzzle, those who were paid a flat fee were much more likely to continue to work during free time than those who were paid for each puzzle solved. Yet there is one kind of incentive that does seem to work consistently and it taps into the same forces of group identity that make people resistant to other forms of influence. It’s called prosocial behavior. We are more likely to perform when we understand and identify with who our work benefits than when they are given financial incentives or fed some slogan. In a study by Adam Grant, the performance of call center employees more than doubled when they had regular conversations with people who benefited from their work. Lisa Earle McLeod and Elizabeth Lotardo report in an article in Harvard Business Review that similar results have been found in studies of lifeguards, hospital workers, and sales teams. Going to where the energy is Transformation efforts often center on communication, aiming to build awareness, desire, and knowledge about change, while building a sense of urgency and excitement. So leaders craft persuasive messages and broadcast them widely. Yet, after months of happy talk, they often find their efforts not only fell on deaf ears but also provoked deep, intense resistance. The truth is that change isn’t about persuasion, but collective dynamics. Decades of research has shown that change spreads through peer networks rather than communication campaigns. Or, as network science pioneer Duncan Watts once put it to me, ideas propagate through “easily influenced people influencing other easily influenced people.” That’s why you need to be wary about the urge to persuade. You want to go where the energy already is, not try and create and maintain it yourself. Find people who are already enthusiastic, empower them to succeed and they can bring in others, who can bring in others still. As Watts’ research has found, even a small initial shift can cascade into massive transformation. The evidence is clear: You don’t need to win over everyone at once. If you find yourself spending most of your energy trying to convince the skeptical or overpowering resistance, you are either focusing on the wrong people or you have the wrong idea. Instead of trying to push through, you need to regroup, reassess and identify where your efforts can be better placed. View the full article

The line had just died down at Hong Kong’s Apple flagship store on Canton Road when I arrived on what happened to be the release day for the iPhone Pocket, the company’s new and very buzzed-about design collaboration between Apple and Issey Miyake Design Studio. I purchased it immediately—a short one in Sapphire blue, as the cross-body version was already sold out. I observed neither pomp nor circumstance with the overwrought packaging, which I shed on the spot despite its velum-bound elegance and prominent Miyake branding. I was on a working vacation after all, and so I simply looped the Pocket around the strap of my nylon cross-body bag and went about my day in a city whose entire experience is all but governed by smartphone technology. I was going to have to use the thing, not just look at it. Awkwardness ensued. Bouncing around on my thigh beneath the weight of my phone, the Pocket felt like a surprising, unwanted appendage. An attempt to access the Mass Trasnsit Railway (MTR) system by tapping my phone through the Pocket failed, which meant I had to remove the phone from the pocket altogether. (I accidentally dropped my phone while trying to quickly slip it back into the Pocket amidst the throngs of fellow passengers hustling past me.) On a quick trip to Shenzhen, China the following day, I experienced a moment of panic before I realized that my Pocket hadn’t been pickpocketed, but rather I had simply intuitively placed my phone in my bag, its familiar location, rather than fiddling with my newest accessory. At an eyebrow-raising $229.95 for the crossbody version and $149.95 for the shorter version, the limited-edition iPhone Pocket might simply be dismissed as an overpriced marketing gimmick, despite Apple’s long history of collaborating with luxury fashion brands. In my case, I am an inveterate fan of the late Issey Miyake’s work, which I collect in various vintages and frequently wear. I can simply look at the iPhone Pocket and see its potential for abject failure as a functional design object, and yet the Issey lover in me deeply appreciates the way his studio’s clothing and accessories challenge commonly held notions around how a piece of cloth should behave. Miyake’s designs are infamous, in part, for the way they play against the body, allowing the wearer exceptional freedom in how they position the garment. There is no “right” way to wear Miyake. The iPhone Pocket’s pleats not only allow the accessory to morph in shape according to its contents, but it allows that alteration to remain visible. (Similarly, the shape of the ubiquitous Lucent bag, for example, is designed to distort as the bag is filled with objects.) The relationship between Apple founder Steve Jobs and Issey Miyake himself is the stuff of legend: Miyake personally designed the black, mock-neck turtleneck that Jobs infamously paired with his Levi’s 501 jeans and New Balance shoes. Jobs, like many tech executives since, preferred to adopt a uniform as a means of reducing the cognitive load associated with choosing one’s clothing on a daily basis. Indeed, many Miyake megafans, myself included, are drawn to the kind of strangely unique uniformity one may achieve in wearing his clothing. The Pleats Please line, in particular, can be styled endlessly and sits effortlessly against the body in a way that begs for common wear. The iPhone Pocket, in contrast, offers friction—and a lot of it. The Miyake Design Studio team knows it, too: Recently quoted in The New York Times, Yoshiyuki Miyamae, the studio’s design director, said that “design should be leaving things a little bit less defined to allow more creativity from the user side.” He also questioned whether the American market was ready for such a development. While it’s true that Americans are less likely to follow the trend of wearing their phones across their bodies, as is commonly seen in Asia, the iPhone Pocket simply looks strange in a way that may bristle against more practical sensibilities. The sensationalization of the iPhone Pocket—it has already been panned by the popular press and meme-ified across the internet—poses a stranger version of the initial fervor that surrounded the iPhone itself. (The last time I waited in line to purchase something from Apple was in San Francisco, the day the first iPhone was released!) People don’t quite know what to make of it yet, even though Apple does hold a precedent in its 2004 iPhone Sock, a much cheaper and similarly intentioned, if less intentionally designed object. As Miyake Design Studio apparently planned, the onus for the design success of the iPhone Pocket seems to be placed squarely on its owner, which is—a risky proposition given the tension it poses, as an object, with the sleek minimalism of Apple’s design philosophy. In terms of branding, it could be argued that the heavier lift lies with Miyake over Apple, as Miyake holds strong name recognition in Asia, where the iPhone Pocket sold out immediately and where the demand for phone accessories is markedly higher. Its 1994 Pleats Please line has enjoyed a recent surge in popularity in the United States, yet Miyake is a far cry from a household name in America. Apple, on the converse, has a built-in, global audience for everything it produces. Will the iPhone Pocket catch fire, or will it slip into design obscurity alongside so many other tech accessories gone by? Now freshly arrived back in New York City, I’ve looped my Pocket yet again onto a sturdy leather bowler handbag along with a few other small charms for added flair. I’m willing to give it another try, and am ready for the conversation (and the criticism) that will inevitably follow me. View the full article

At 3:20 a.m. on January 8, Steve Gibson and his wife were jolted awake by a phone call: the Eaton fire was approaching their home in Altadena, California, and they had to evacuate. “We left in about 15 minutes,” Gibson says. “So we only took our passports, our insurance papers, three pairs of underwear, and our little dog, Cantinflas.” They thought that they’d be able to come back within a few hours. But they soon learned that their house—and their entire block—had been destroyed. They spent the next few weeks moving from short-term rental to short-term rental, and finally moved into an apartment, though they knew that insurance would only cover the cost temporarily. Then they faced the next challenge: what would it take to rebuild their home? More than 10 months after the L.A. fires, the rebuilding process in the fire zone is painfully slow. In Altadena, where more than 5,000 houses burned in the Eaton fire, only a few hundred are currently being rebuilt. (Only one, an ADU, has been completed as of mid-November.) But some—including Gibson’s—are moving faster than others because homeowners have turned to prefab construction. Prefab companies like Villa, Cover, and Samara are all working on projects in the fire zone, as well as in the nearby burn areas in Pacific Palisades and Malibu. Some companies that initially focused on making backyard ADUs have expanded into full single-family prefab homes in the area, helping fire survivors rebuild more quickly. And as more homeowners choose prefab after the disaster, the approach could become a more mainstream option for new construction, even outside fire-prone areas. “Before the fire, I had never thought of a prefab home,” Gibson says. The small house that he and his wife lost, where they’d lived for 24 years, was built in the 1920s. They’d always lived in traditional homes. But when they started to research the timelines for a new traditional build, they were told it would take two or three years. A prefab home, in theory, could take months. A faster way to build The couple started working with a company called Cover, which builds components like wall panels in a factory in the nearby city of Gardena, and then assembles the pieces on the building site. After getting permits, building all of the parts for Gibson’s house took roughly a month in the factory; assembling it on the lot is taking a little more than two months. Gibson and his wife hope to move in before the end of the year. Prefab is “much faster because we move most of the complexity into the factory,” says Alexis Rivas, CEO of Cover. “Our wall panels, floor panels, roof panels are made in the factory with insulation, with waterproofing, with a lot of the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, already fabricated. And then what’s happening on site is primarily assembly work.” The design process can also happen quickly. While some companies, like Cover, offer more customization, others offer preset designs. And while traditional construction moves in a strict sequence, and a delay from one subcontractor slows down the whole process, factory-built homes run multiple production lines in parallel. Pouring the foundation and other site work can also happen at the same time. Inside the factory, each step is also more efficient. Instead of having to reach at an awkward angle to install a duct in a ceiling, for example, a work station is set up ergonomically, and the work can happen faster. Right now, relatively few homes have started construction in the fire zone. But more than 2,300 are at some stage of the permitting process, and next year, building a traditional house will also face the additional challenge of trying to find construction crews. “If you fast-forward six months, nine months, 12 months down the road, with a lot of construction activity, the labor base of trades and subcontractors is going to be really, really, really stretched,” says Sean Roberts, CEO of Villa, another prefab company working with homeowners in Altadena and Pacific Palisades. “That’s going to make building traditionally on site really hard, if you can even do it. That will drive cost up. It will drive speeds way slower. It will create a lot of uncertainty. So our approach is do it in the factory. The benefit of that is the amount of labor that we need on site in Altadena basically acts as a force multiplier.” Villa takes a different approach than Cover, building modules that arrive fully constructed rather than flat panels. “The blinds are on the windows, the appliances are in—it comes pretty much close to done,” Roberts says. A range of options There are a wide range of prefab options for homeowners to pick from, both in terms of style and price. Because many homeowners aren’t necessarily familiar with prefab housing, UCLA’s cityLAB, a design research organization, has temporarily installed a showcase of six different homes on an empty lot in Altadena. “Our sense was that folks are sort of arriving at this conversation with a bias,” says Ryan Conroy, cityLAB’s director of architecture. “Manufactured and prefab homes carry a sort of stigma often that doesn’t track with the quality of the building construction or the diverse architectural styles they come in, and really just the way technology has changed. In one sense, that needs to be seen for itself: folks need to be able to walk through. They need to understand the quality and the livability of some of the homes.” Many options, like Cover’s, have a modern aesthetic inspired by California’s Eichler and Case Study homes. Others, including some models that Villa designed specifically for Altadena, nod to the traditional 1920s Craftsman homes that were common in the neighborhood. Some are higher end. Villa’s are affordable, with the base cost before site work starting as low as $147,000. “These are simple homes,” says Roberts. “These are not high-end, luxury builds. But they are representative of what the neighborhood was.” The more affordable options can help homeowners who don’t have enough insurance coverage to rebuild an exact replica of the home they lost. In a couple of cases, prefab home companies are donating some homes to fire victims who couldn’t otherwise afford to rebuild. Many of the options are more sustainable than what was lost. Cosmic, a startup that uses a mobile “micro factory” to build homes with robots, is building ultra-efficient all-electric homes in the fire zone. Like other new construction in California, everything comes with solar on the roof to help reduce emissions and electric bills. The new builds are also safer in fires. Cover, for example, builds with steel instead of wood. Some projects are also using prefab to rebuild multifamily buildings. Beacon Housing, for example, recently got a grant from the Altadena Builds Back Foundation and Pasadena Community Foundation to build a small prefab bungalow court with 14 units for low-income residents. The bungalows will be built by Clayton Homes, which makes manufactured housing—what used to be known in the past as a trailer home, though the quality is very different now. The UCLA team also created a guide that homeowners can use to learn about relative costs and timelines and how prefab construction works, including the fact that it can offer more certainty. “I think what’s as attractive as this sort of expedited format is actually just knowing exactly when it will be done, which doesn’t necessarily track with traditional construction,” Conroy says. A long road to rebuild—but a turning point for the industry Even with faster construction timelines, prefab homes still face challenges. Although the local government has tried to streamline the post-fire paperwork process—for example, L.A. County set up a one-stop center for permitting in Altadena—builders told me that they still face bureaucratic delays. On some blocks, depending on how much infrastructure was destroyed in the fire, homeowners might face other delays connecting to utilities. Others may need to do more work to remediate their lot to make it safe to build. But several prefab projects are underway in Altadena, and it’s likely that many more people will choose that path. “This is a multiyear effort here,” says Roberts. “But doing at least some portion of the rebuild with factory-built homes is going to help get the community back up on its feet a heck of a lot faster than doing everything traditionally and on site.” As it expands, it could help the industry become more mainstream. “This feels like a catalytic moment for the industry,” says UCLA’s Conroy. “More than anything, it’s a chance to pull prefab into a building scale that actually matches how infill gets built across Southern California. Before the fires, prefab was basically split: either a single ADU box, or big multifamily projects with enough repetition to justify the factory work. Now we’re seeing builders get comfortable using prefab for larger single-family homes and smaller multifamily projects, and that familiarity is what will push prefab beyond the burn area.” View the full article

As I said in previous articles, executives like to say they’re “integrating AI.” But most still treat artificial intelligence as a feature, not a foundation. They bolt it onto existing systems without realizing that each automation hides a layer of invisible human work, and a growing set of unseen risks. AI may be transforming productivity, but it’s also changing the very nature of labor, accountability, and even trust inside organizations. The future of work won’t just be about humans and machines collaborating: It will be about managing the invisible partnerships that emerge when machines start working alongside us . . . and sometimes, behind our backs. The illusion of automation Every wave of technological change begins with the same illusion: once we automate, the work will disappear. However, history tells a different story. The introduction of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems promised “end-to-end efficiency,” only to create years of “shadow work” fixing data mismatches and debugging integrations. AI is repeating that pattern at a higher cognitive level. When an AI drafts a report, someone still has to verify its claims (please, do not forget this!), check for bias, and rewrite the parts that don’t sound right. When an agent summarizes a meeting, someone has to decide what actually matters. Automation doesn’t erase labor; it just moves it upstream, from execution to supervision. The paradox is clear: The smarter the system, the more attention it requires to ensure it behaves as expected. A new McKinsey report calls this “the age of superagency,” where people spend less time performing tasks and more time overseeing intelligent systems that do. The smarter the system, the more attention it requires to ensure it behaves as expected. The rise of the hidden workforce A recent analysis found that more than half of workers already use AI tools secretly, often without their managers’ knowledge. Similarly, another investigation warned that employees are quietly sharing sensitive data with consumer-grade chatbots, exposing companies to compliance and privacy risks. This is the new silent workforce: algorithms doing part of the job, unseen and unacknowledged. For employees, the temptation is obvious: AI offers instant answers. For companies, the consequences are dangerous. If those “silent partners” are consumer-grade models, employees might be sending confidential data to unknown servers, processed in data centers located in countries with different privacy laws. That’s why, as I warned in a previous article about BYOAI, organizations must ensure that any questions employees ask, and any prompts they use are directed to properly licensed, enterprise-grade systems. The problem isn’t that employees use AI. It’s that they do it outside the data governance. When intelligence goes underground Unapproved AI use creates more than data risk: it fractures collective learning. When employees each rely on their own AI assistant, corporate knowledge becomes fragmented. The company stops learning as an organization because insights are trapped in personal chat histories. The result is a paradoxical kind of inefficiency: everyone gets smarter individually, but the institution gets dumber. Organizations need to treat AI access as shared infrastructure, not a personal tool. That means providing sanctioned, well-audited systems where employees can ask questions safely without leaking intellectual property or violating compliance. The right AI model, as Microsoft knows extremely well, is not just the most powerful one: It’s the one that keeps your data where it belongs. The hidden human labor of ‘intelligent’ workflows Even when AI use is authorized, it introduces a layer of invisible human effort that companies rarely measure. Every “AI-assisted” workflow hides three forms of manual oversight: Verification work: humans checking whether outputs are correct and compliant Correction work: editing, reframing, or sanitizing content before publication Interpretive work: deciding what the AI’s suggestions actually mean These tasks aren’t logged, but they consume time and mental energy. They are the reason that productivity statistics often lag behind automation hype. AI makes us faster, but it also makes us busier: constantly curating, correcting, and interpreting the machines that supposedly work for us. The ethics of invisible labor Invisible labor has always existed: in care work, cleaning, or customer service. AI extends it into cognitive and emotional domains. Behind every “smart” workflow is a human ensuring that the output makes sense, aligns with brand tone, and doesn’t violate company values. If we ignore that labor, we risk creating a new inequality: those who design and sell AI systems are celebrated, while those who quietly fix their errors remain invisible. Productivity metrics improve, but the real cost, the human vigilance keeping AI credible, goes unrecognized. Even executives experimenting with AI “digital clones” admit they don’t fully trust their virtual doubles. Trust, as it turns out, remains stubbornly human. Managing the silent partnership When AI becomes embedded in everyday workflows, leadership must evolve from managing people to managing collaboration between people and systems. That requires new governance principles: Authorized intelligence only: Employees must use licensed, enterprise-grade AI systems. No exceptions. Every query sent to a public model is a potential data leak. Data residency clarity: Know where your data lives and where it’s processed. “The cloud” is not a place, it’s a jurisdiction. Transparency by design: Any AI-assisted output should be traceable. If an AI helped generate a report, label it clearly. Transparency breeds trust. Feedback as governance: Employees must be able to report errors, hallucinations, and ethical concerns. The real safeguard against model drift isn’t a compliance checklist, it’s a vigilant workforce. AI without governance isn’t innovation. It’s negligence. The cognitive supervision era We are witnessing the emergence of a new human skill: cognitive supervision, or the ability to guide, critique, and interpret machine reasoning without doing the work manually. It’s becoming the corporate equivalent of teaching someone how to manage a team they don’t fully understand. Training employees in this skill is urgent. It requires awareness of bias, logic, and the limits of automation. It’s not prompt engineering, it’s critical thinking. And it’s what separates organizations that collaborate with AI from those that merely consume it. The best companies understand this already. They are investing in education, not just tools, and treating “AI literacy” as strategic infrastructure. A recent profile of Viven’s AI-employee clones revealed that the real question is not whether AI can replicate workers, but whether organizations can govern the replicas they create. What executives must do now If you lead a company, assume that AI is already part of your workflows, whether you approved it or not. The task ahead is not to prevent its use but to domesticate it responsibly. Audit your AI exposure: Map where your people are already using tools. Provide safe alternatives: If you don’t, they’ll use whatever works, secure or not. Recognize hidden labor: Build metrics that reward verification, correction, and interpretation. Make transparency cultural: No AI-generated output should hide its origin. Done right, AI can become a trusted colleague, one that accelerates learning and amplifies creativity. Done poorly, it becomes a silent, unaccountable partner with access to your data and none of your ethics. A quiet revolution AI’s arrival in the workplace is not loud or cinematic: It’s silent, gradual, and pervasive. It hides behind polished interfaces, automating just enough to convince us it’s working on its own. But beneath that silence lies an expanding layer of human effort keeping the system ethical, explainable, and aligned. As leaders, our job is to make that effort visible, measurable, and safe. The most dangerous AI is not the one that replaces people: it’s the one that quietly depends on them, without permission, oversight, or acknowledgment. When AI becomes your silent partner, make sure it’s one you actually know, trust, and license properly. Otherwise, you may discover too late that the partnership was never yours at all. View the full article

As a parent, shopping for holiday gifts for your kids can be a dilemma. Of course you want to surprise the little ones with exciting presents, but you also know that most flashy toys won’t hold their attention for very long. They’ll likely lose interest in them within a few days and you’ll be stuck with plastic toy cluttering up their rooms, destined for the donation bin. In addition to being a waste of money, it’s terrible for the planet. What if you could surprise them with something that’s both beautiful and practical? Here’s some ideas for gifts that they’ll be able to use for years. A purse of their own State, $60 At some point, your child will need their own bag to carry a little bit of pocket money or a snack. But if you get them a purse or tote, they’re likely to leave it behind somewhere. The solution: a cute bag you can strap onto them. State’s fanny pack is thoughtfully sized for a child’s body and comes in great designs like rainbow sequins. It is cleverly designed to go over their shoulder, so it is always in front of them. New art for their room Minted, prices vary Why not upgrade your child’s room with a piece of art they love? Minted offers a wide range of designs that are child-friendly, but won’t make you cringe. You could have fun picking a design together. You can order it as a framed poster print, or a canvas. It’s something that they’ll always associate with their childhood bedroom. A colorful, artistic umbrella Original Duckhead x Meri Meri Umbrella, $36 Kids love playing in the rain, and they love having their very own umbrella. Original Duckhead, a brand known for its durability and quality, has made a collection of kid’s umbrellas with the brand Meri Meri. The designs are fun, colorful, but also tasteful. Pick from cherries and smiley faces, dinosaurs, or rainbows. They’ll be perfect to stash in a backpack for a rainy walk back from school. A suitcase for all their adventures Away, $250 If you have upcoming travel, why not get them a suitcase they’ll love. This one from Away is designed from the same durable materials as the adult bags, but they’re perfectly sized for the under 7 set. Your kid will love packing it and wheeling it through the airport themselves. For the holidays, it comes with a Paw Patrols design in pink and blue. Pajamas fit for a prince or princess Petite Plume, $60 Holiday pajamas have become a trend, but who wants to wear Santa jammies in January? Petite Plume offers gorgeous, high quality nightgowns and pajamas that are so soft and beautiful, your kid will be excited to see them under the tree. (Some of the nightgowns are pretty enough that your child might want to wear them to school.) They come in classic designs, like toile and stripes, that can be worn all year around. A blanket for sleepovers and picnics Baublebar, $78 While you may not think your child will get excited about a blanket, wait till they see these. They’re designed in child friendly patterns and colors, and you can customize it with their name. It’s the perfect thing for them to bring to sleepovers or the park, or just to decorate their room. View the full article