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Google Discover has publisher profile pages. They live at profile.google.com/cp/ and appear when someone taps a publisher’s name on a Discover card. These pages aren’t new. They launched in August 2025 with the Follow button rollout, and by November 2025 Google’s documentation referred to them as “source overviews.” For most of the 47,000+ publishers we monitored, the pages are auto-generated: a name, follower count, social links pulled from the Knowledge Graph, recent posts, and a footer label that reads “Profile generated by Google.” Since March 2026, though, something changed for a small subset of publishers. A group gained access to enhanced profiles: custom banner images, a configurable links shelf, and the ability to pin posts (labeled “Pinned” in the publisher interface, formerly “Featured Posts”). They also gained control over the order of their social links, website, and content tabs — something standard profiles don’t allow. On standard profiles, social links are sorted algorithmically by follower count, with the website listed last. On claimed profiles, the publisher decides. The “Profile generated by Google” label also disappeared entirely, replaced by nothing — a quiet signal that the profile had been claimed. There’s no public documentation explaining how to get access. No Search Console toggle. No application form. Google appears to have hand-selected participants for what is effectively an invitation-only pilot program. We identified 54 publishers in this cohort. All are U.S.-based. All publish in English. And what they have — and haven’t — done with the feature over two months of monitoring reveals patterns every publisher should watch before the program scales. How we found the 54 Our Profile Features Monitor tracks 46,926 publishers across seven languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese. To isolate the enhanced cohort, we filtered for publishers that showed persistent enhanced-profile signals across multiple snapshots: active links, full banner headers, or both. The result: 54 domains with stable access to the enhanced profile surface. The composition of that group offers clues about Google’s intentions: TierPublishersExamplesNational15WSJ, Fox News, NY Post, Newsweek, InquirerRegional Paper13Boston Globe, SFGate, CT Insider, Times UnionLocal TV14KTLA, PIX11, MyFox8, WSMV, Atlanta News FirstLifestyle Brand6Delish, The Dodo, Country Living, House BeautifulSpecialty6Pew Research, The Athletic, Gothamist, Civil Beat The skew toward local news and community publishers is striking and aligns with Google’s public emphasis on supporting local journalism. Nearly half the cohort — 27 of 54 publishers — consists of regional newspapers and local TV stations. National brands are included too, but they’re not the majority. The two-tier profile system Under the hood, Google operates two distinct profile architectures. Understanding the difference matters because this isn’t just a cosmetic upgrade. It’s a structural split. Standard profile (99.9% of publishers): Auto-generated from public sources. “Profile generated by Google” label visible. No publisher control over content or layout. Claimed profile (the 54 publishers): No generation label. Publisher can configure the banner, links shelf, and pinned post. Publisher controls the order of social links, website, and content tabs (standard profiles sort them by follower count). This isn’t Search Console verification, structured data markup, or any existing publisher tool. It’s a separate, invitation-only system. What the 54 publishers actually did This is where it gets interesting. Access to a feature and its effective use are different. Here’s what the data shows across each configurable surface. Banners: professional, deliberate, tier-predictive Forty-one of the 54 publishers uploaded a banner image. The remaining 13 have the capability — a “prepared” state — but haven’t used it yet. What stands out is the production quality. There are no amateur banners in the cohort. Every uploaded image reflects clear professional design investment. Five distinct visual archetypes emerged: Brand-pattern: No photography, just the wordmark or abstract identity repeated as a tile. Pure prestige. WSJ Barron’s Pew Research Editorial content: The banner shows what the publisher covers. A food shot, a puppy, a stock chart. Delish The Dodo Fox Business Local landmark: City skylines, local scenery, and regional identity anchors. KTLA Atlanta News First Boston Globe Brand-statement: Curated collages with taglines or portfolio displays: SecretNYC NY Magazine Front-page archive: A grid of 12 iconic covers. Tabloid heritage as visual identity. Unique in the cohort. NY Post Tier predicts archetype. National publishers cluster around brand-pattern banners. Local outlets lean into civic identity and city imagery. Lifestyle brands showcase their content directly. One anomaly: The Athletic uploaded a solid black square — 656×656 pixels. Whether that reflects deliberate minimalism aligned with The Athletic’s dark UI or simply a broken upload is unclear. It’s the only non-image banner in the cohort. The format split is revealing: 71% used square banners — likely Google’s recommended ratio — while 29% used wide landscape formats. None used portrait layouts. Based on CDN serving patterns, the minimum recommended resolution appears to be 512 pixels on the longest side. Publishers that chose wide formats made deliberate design decisions: SecretNYC uses a manifesto-style collage, the New York Post uses a headline grid, and Barron’s uses a geometric pattern. Square appears to be the default safe option. Links: local TV dominates, nationals ignore it Thirty-three of the 54 publishers enabled the links feature. Of those, 31 added at least one link, for a total of 65 configured links across the cohort. The content is overwhelmingly focused on on-site navigation: 85% of links point to the publisher’s own sections, weather pages, live streams, or app downloads. This functions more like a mini site navigation layer than a promotional surface. The tier gap is enormous: Local TV: 31 links across 14 hosts (average 2.2 per publisher). Fox affiliates consistently shelve: Watch Live, Weather, Local News, Sub-region, Contact. National: 9 links across 15 hosts (average 0.6 per publisher). Most nationals didn’t bother. Three outliers worth noting: PIX11 published “How to make PIX11 a preferred source on Google,” meta-promoting Discover follows from within the Discover profile itself. Gothamist funneled donations through `pledge.wnyc.org` with a purpose-specific utm_campaign=discover-profile tag. Fox Nation placed a direct subscription conversion link (“Subscribe to Fox Nation”) on what most publishers treat as a navigational surface. Pinned posts (formerly Featured Posts): capability granted, rarely used Fifty-two of the 54 publishers enabled the Pinned feature. Only 13 currently use it with an active pinned post. Lifestyle brands were the strongest adopters: five of six had the feature active. Among national publishers, only 2 of 15 used it. The capability exists across nearly the entire cohort. Adoption does not. About text: Wikipedia out, self-branding in On standard profiles, the “About” section is auto-generated by Google, usually sourced from Wikipedia. On claimed profiles, publishers write their own. Within the cohort, 38 of 54 use a custom-written description, while only 16 retain a Wikipedia-sourced version — a surprisingly low number for publishers of this size and prominence. The tone splits cleanly by publisher tier. Local TV stations lean promotional (“Your trusted source for breaking news, accurate weather forecasts and local sports across Greensboro…” ). National and digital-native publishers stay more factual (“Gothamist is a website about New York City news, arts, events and food, brought to you by New York Public Radio”). One publisher takes a mission-driven approach: Delish — “you don’t have to know how to cook, you just have to love to eat!” The implication for publishers preparing for this feature: once you claim the profile, you take control of the About section. It becomes your pitch on a Google-owned page. Notably, the most visible publishers in the cohort chose factual descriptions over promotional copy. UTM tracking: the blind spot Only three of the 65 configured links include analytics parameters. Gothamist tagged its donation link with utm_campaign=discover-profile, making it the only publisher in the cohort treating the profile as a measurable acquisition channel. The Philadelphia Inquirer instrumented two links, but one reused an Instagram bio campaign tag (mktg_acq_ig_organic_bio_offer), meaning Discover traffic from that link will be misattributed to Instagram in analytics. The other 62 links have no tracking at all. In practice, 95% of the cohort has no way to measure whether profile links generate traffic. Social platform priorities On claimed profiles, publishers control the display order of social links and content tabs. Standard profiles don’t: Google sorts links algorithmically by follower count and places the website last. That means the ordering we observe on claimed profiles reflects deliberate editorial choices, not algorithmic defaults: Local TV stations list Facebook first: 86% (12 of 14). Zero list X/Twitter first. National publishers spread their bets: Facebook 33%, Instagram 20%, X 20%, YouTube 13%. Specialty/digital-native outlets lean Instagram-first (67%). Concrete examples: Newsweek places YouTube first and Articles second. Delish leads with Website, followed by Instagram. These are active editorial decisions about which audience channel matters most. The local TV finding is particularly notable. Despite news media’s historical reliance on X/Twitter, not a single local station in this cohort places it as their primary social link. Sister-site coordination For media groups with multiple properties in the cohort, setup patterns reveal whether profile management is centralized or handled locally: Hearst Connecticut, which has five papers in the cohort, shows near-identical configuration across all profiles. The links structure is the same, including a shared Hearst checkout funnel with publication-specific site IDs. The setup points to a centralized digital team managing profile operations across the group. Even so, each masthead still uses distinct banner art. Dow Jones, across The Wall Street Journal and jp.wsj.com, uses shared banner artwork: the same wordmark tile, confirmed through perceptual hashing. That points to brand coordination at the asset level. Everyone else Everyone else — including Fox affiliates, Dotdash Meredith properties, and the Fox News group — shows completely different setups across properties, even within owned-and-operated chains. Profile management appears to be handled locally rather than centrally. The rollout is still active Comparing snapshots #9 and #12 — taken 19 days apart — confirms this isn’t a frozen experiment. During that window, four publishers added banners (jp.wsj.com, New York Post, SecretNYC, and Everyday Health), one activated Links for the first time (New York Post), and jp.wsj.com (The Wall Street Journal’s Japanese edition) entered the cohort entirely. No publishers lost features. The program is still expanding within the cohort, and new participants continue to appear. The adoption paradox We scored each publisher on a composite 0–6 scale, assigning one point for each of the following: Banner uploaded Links feature active Featured Posts active At least one configured link Four or more social platforms listed Any UTM tracking present Nobody scored 6. The distribution: ScorePublishers%22241%31019%41426%5815%600% National publishers with the largest audiences are the least engaged with the configurable surface, with a mean score of 2.93. Most uploaded a banner and stopped there. Local TV stations — despite having the smallest Discover footprints — are the most engaged, with a mean score of 3.57. Lifestyle brands score highest overall at 3.83, yet their Discover visibility trajectory is the flattest in the cohort. And here’s the critical finding: feature adoption shows no correlation with visibility trajectory. Across the cohort, the 180-day late/early capture ratio ranges from 0.23x for Prevention — down 77% — to 4.27x for NewsNation — up 327%. Variance is massive within every tier. KTLA scores high on adoption, with seven links, a full banner, and active profile engagement, and grew 3.69x. But Delish also scores high and declined to 0.90x. MyFox8 configured five links and fell to 0.52x. Publishers that fully utilized the configurable surface show no better visibility trajectory than those who used it minimally. This feature gives publishers a controlled surface for branding and navigation, not a ranking lever. It’s a profile page, not an algorithm input. What this means for publishers The program is U.S.-only and invitation-only for now. Across the six other language markets we monitor — French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese — we found zero enhanced profile deployments: not a single banner or configured link outside the English-language cohort. But the underlying infrastructure is already in place. All 47,000+ publishers we track already have profile pages with follower counts, social links, and content feeds. The enhanced features sit on top of that existing architecture. Google isn’t rebuilding the system. It’s selectively unlocking capabilities within it. If — or when — Google scales this, here’s how publishers should prepare: Audit your structured data now. Profile social links are pulled from your sameAs/JSON-LD markup. Errors there will carry over to your profile. Verify what Google will display before you’re given control. Design a banner. Use a square format (1:1 ratio) with a minimum resolution of 512px, and treat it as a professional brand asset. The 54 publishers in this cohort set a clear standard: there were no amateur images. Think about which archetype fits your brand: a wordmark tile for prestige brands, local landmarks for regional publishers, or content-driven imagery for vertical and lifestyle outlets. Plan your link strategy. The data suggests that section navigation and utility content — weather, live streams, and similar recurring destinations — drive the most engagement. Local TV stations treating the profile as a mini site navigation layer are the clearest power users. Decide now which five to seven links represent your most valuable entry points. Instrument from day one. Almost nobody in the current cohort tracks profile link performance. Adding a dedicated UTM campaign parameter — utm_campaign=discover-profile, for example — would put you ahead of 95% of the pilot group on attribution alone. If you’re a media group, decide your operating model. Should profile management be centralized or handled newsroom by newsroom? The cohort shows both models. Hearst Connecticut runs one coordinated setup across five papers, while Fox affiliates manage profiles independently at the station level. The important part is that the choice is deliberate — not something decided accidentally when individual newsrooms start receiving invitations. Methodology Data comes from the 1492.vision Profile Features Monitor, which tracks roughly 47,000 publishers across seven languages through recurring snapshots of profile metadata. The 54-publisher cohort was identified through persistent enhanced-feature signals observed across multiple snapshots between March and May 2026. Visibility trajectories are based on proprietary capture data. All findings are descriptive only: the cohort reflects Google’s selection criteria, not a random sample, and this dataset does not support causal claims about feature impact. The full analysis — including the complete 10-phase timeline, banner image gallery, snapshot-by-snapshot evolution, and tier-by-tier breakdowns — is available at 1492.vision/research/discover-publisher-profiles-en. View the full article

A reader writes: I work in a healthcare-adjacent job with a pretty generous leave policy. When folks are going to take a sick day, it’s our practice to drop a note into Teams and say, “Not feeling well, taking a sick day, contact X about Y if it’s urgent, see you tomorrow I hope.” Sometimes folks will add a bit more info — saying they have a migraine or they caught the flu going around, etc. — but there’s nothing along the lines of needing to justify it to your manager or your team. If you’re sick, you’re sick and you take your leave. What I’m wondering about: quite often younger employees will specifically note that they are taking a mental health day when they call (or rather, message) in sick. Is that advisable? I’ve spoken with peers about this and they were also taken aback by the (mostly) Zoomers who often do this and felt that it’s an overshare. On one hand, I appreciate that they are taking care of themselves and I suppose it’s nice to normalize self-care around mental health, especially since we work in an adjacent field. On the other hand, it seems like an overshare to me. I’ve had my struggles with mental health and totally support people using PTO however they want. But it seems … weird to share this info. Does “mental health day” mean you are dealing with suicidal ideation (or similar) or it’s just been a rough month? If you took a mental health day on Monday, do I need to treat you with kid gloves on Tuesday? What if there’s a tough conversation that needs to be had, or a ton of work that needs to be done quickly? I would hold back on doing that if it was a person’s first day back from something like bereavement leave. But if it was after a physical sick day, I’d assume that the person is back in the office and prepared to carry on as usual. Do managers owe it to employees, especially more junior ones, to say, “Hey, you never owe an explanation about PTO, and sometimes saying ‘mental health day’ can read a little unprofessional, even if it shouldn’t”? You can read my answer to this letter at New York Magazine today. Head over there to read it. The post should you tell your boss you’re taking a mental health day? appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Cove Kaz Capital has already secured up to $1.6bn in government support for project in Kazakhstan View the full article

Google has confirmed a bug with the Discover report within Google Search Console. Google had a data “logging” error that caused a decrease in clicks and impressions for the Discover report between the dates of May 7, 2026 until May 8, 2026. Google said this is just a “data logging only” and your positioning in Google Discover was not impacted. The issue. Google again said a data logging issue caused reporting issues with the Discover report between May 7, 2026, and May 8, 2026. This may have resulted in a “decrease in clicks and impressions in the Discover performance report,” Google posted. Why we care. There were a number of publishers noticing a drop in clicks and impressions based on this report, keep in mind, if you do also, it is likely related to this reporting bug. Annotate your reporting and update your stakeholders that May 7 – May 8 data for Discover was broken and should be disregarded. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Garmin has unveiled two new entry-level running watches: the Forerunner 70 and Forerunner 170. Both are available starting May 15, 2026, priced at $249.99 and $299.99 respectively, with a Forerunner 170 Music edition coming in at $349.99. Right off the bat, the big selling points are the AMOLED touchscreen displays, along with a suite of training tools that go beyond what I’d call “entry-level.” On paper, these watches are positioned as upgrades to the Forerunner 55 and Forerunner 165—but whether they actually deliver on that promise is more complicated. Here's what we know so far. What we know about the Garmin Forerunner 70To quote Lifehacker senior health editor Beth Skwarecki, “It's about time Garmin offered a modern-looking watch under $250.” The Forerunner 70 is certainly a glow-up over the Forerunner 55 (originally $199.99), adding a touchscreen AMOLED display, Garmin Run Coach, advanced training features, acute load and load ratio tracking, sleep score, morning and evening reports, and a quick workout option. The run/walk workout feature is a particularly nice touch for beginners easing into a running routine. That said, context matters. At $249.99, is the Forerunner 70 really competitive with other brands in this price range? The Coros Pace 4 is also $249 and includes dual-band GPS and 4 GB of offline music storage. The Suunto Run is even more affordable at $199, and it, too, manages to offer dual-band GPS and 4 GB of music storage. The Forerunner 70, by comparison, has single-band GPS and just 0.5 GB of storage. Now, where the 70 does make a name for itself is with Garmin's software ecosystem. Some features that neither Suunto nor Coros typically offer include glances with battery data, sleep coaching with suggested bedtimes, lifestyle logging, weight tracking, sports scores, and a fitness coach that blends strength training with cardio without requiring you to commit to a specific sport. Like with all things Garmin, this is for people looking for more than just to track runs. (Even though watches that “just track runs” are exactly what the London Marathon winners wear.) One small note here: Garmin's website currently lists the 70 and 170 as a single product, which is a little odd. Whether that's a placeholder or something more intentional, I’ll keep an eye on it. What we know about the Garmin Forerunner 170Like the 70 is an upgrade of the 55, the Forerunner 170 is positioned as an upgrade to the Forerunner 165 (originally $249.99 at launch in April 2024, with the Music edition at $299.99). However, it might be more accurate to compare this watch to the fan-favorite Forerunner 265, which was $449 originally, but now regularly goes on sale for $349.99 (which is the current MSRP of the 170 Music). Garmin Forerunner 265 Running Smartwatch (Black/Grey) $348.99 at Walmart $449.99 Save $101.00 Get Deal Get Deal $348.99 at Walmart $449.99 Save $101.00 The 170 actually has shorter battery life than the 165: It has 10 days versus 11-13. It’s not a crazy trade-off, considering all the software updates. As Garmin puts it, the Forerunner 170’s advantage is the expanded feature set. However, the 170 is missing a few features that the 265 had. It doesn't have dual-band GPS, supports fewer GPS networks overall, doesn't have cycling workouts or multisport support, and it's unclear whether it can connect to a power meter (the 265 could; the 165 could not). These are more complicated trade-offs to weigh for anyone who was hoping for a straightforward upgrade. Now, what the 170 does bring to the table are the kind of software features the Forerunner 570 has been receiving, which the -65 series missed out on. That means things like the Garmin Run Coach (a newer, more capable version), advanced training features, quick workout functionality, a calculator, and lifestyle logging. Advanced training features, for context, include Training Readiness (which scores your recovery), Training Status (which monitors training load), HRV Status (heart rate variability tracking), and Daily Suggested Workouts. The heart rate sensor is the same as the 165, which is perfectly solid and on par with its competitors. Still, the Forerunner 570 and 970 have a noticeably better optical HR sensor than the 165/265 generation. The bottom line (for now)On paper, both watches have their merits, particularly for true beginners who want a trustworthy GPS smartwatch with solid Garmin software support. But for runners upgrading from previous Garmin models, or for anyone considering Coros or Suunto, the value proposition isn’t ideal. To quote a Google Chat from Beth to me: "I'm unimpressed." Luckily, we'll be putting both to the test soon. Beth will be comparing the Forerunner 70 with other low-priced running watches to see how it stacks up. And I have the Forerunner 165 Music, so I'll be able to see how the 170 Music fares as a direct successor. Stay tuned for our in-depth verdicts. View the full article

Six steps to take. By Jody Padar Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA Go PRO for members-only access to more Jody Padar. View the full article

Four experts provide their insights. By Martin Bissett Passport to Partnership Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

Food delivery service DoorDash is quick to hold restaurants accountable for their mistakes—but not without evidence. Dissatisfied customers have to provide proof that something was wrong with their order, be it a missing item, late delivery, or improperly prepared food, before the company will issue a refund (potentially on the restaurant’s dime, depending on the nature of the mistake). But in the AI era, verifiable proof is harder to come by, and one customer’s viral post about tricking DoorDash into giving her a refund shows that despite the company’s best efforts, its anti-fraud measures aren’t foolproof. On TikTok, a user named Starr (@mi5under5t00d) posted a montage of images showing how she used an AI-doctored image to get a full refund on her DoorDash order. First, an actual picture of her order of chicken wings, including a piece with a bite taken out of it. Next, that same image, but edited with AI to make the bitten chicken wing appear raw. Finally, a screenshot from her DoorDash app, showing that the company issued her $39.24 of credit to use on future DoorDash orders. “Shout out to ChatGPT,” reads text overlaid on the video. Starr’s refund strategy went viral on TikTok, garnering 4.4 million views and thousands of comments—including one from DoorDash itself. ‘This gets people fired’: Social media responds Though Starr seemed flippant about using AI to make her food look undercooked, social media wasn’t on her side. “This gets people fired btw,” one commenter wrote. “Some people’s [lives] depend on DoorDash or Uber and [you’re] gonna get [them] fired over a few dollars? Selfish.” “This is honestly a disgusting thing to do, why would you take advantage of small businesses?!” commented another. DoorDash itself even chimed in with a comment that went viral in its own right. “Oop should’ve blocked us!” the company commented. “Now why would I do that if my chicken was raw?” Starr replied. In the video’s caption, Starr explained that she did have problems with her order, including two missing items and that her chicken was cold when it arrived—but the chicken being raw, a much more serious issue, was apparently her own invention. DoorDash has policies in place to protect merchants from fraudulent claims like Starr’s, including flagging users who repeatedly request refunds and conducting manual review of those customers’ claims. But as AI images become more and more convincing, even manual review can fall through. DoorDash’s love-hate relationship with AI Though DoorDash’s comment may imply it’s anti-AI, the company uses AI throughout its business practice, including a newly announced suite of AI tools for merchants. One of DoorDash’s more controversial AI uses is enhancing and editing images of food. As DoorDash explains on its Photo FAQs page, any photos on the app labeled “AI-enhanced” have been altered by AI to re-plate dishes, replace background elements, fill in missing portions of images, or change the perspective to make food more visible. DoorDash writes that these AI-generated changes are meant to “better showcase menu items and create a more consistent browsing experience.” DoorDash has not responded to Fast Company’s request for comment. View the full article

As operating costs rise and consumers curb spending in the wake of an affordability crisis, restaurants of all stripes are feeling the pinch from multiple directions. Five Guys Burgers and Fries is not immune to such industry-wide headwinds. Even as it has seen its overall U.S. footprint grow in recent years, it has also closed multiple restaurants, including locations in several states so far in 2026. The recent closures have mostly impacted California, but Five Guys restaurants in Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Georgia, and Nebraska have also shuttered this year, according to a review of local media reports, online review platforms, and the Five Guys store locator tool. In all, at least 14 locations have closed or will close at some point in the first half of 2026, although that figure may not be a complete count. It’s also unclear if the closures will amount to a net decline in the chain’s footprint this year. As a privately held company, Five Guys closely guards its financials and does not routinely report store counts. According to a franchise disclosure document filed last year, as reported by QSR Magazine, Five Guys ended 2024 with a net gain of 37 locations over the previous year, but it also closed 14 corporate-owned and 14 franchised restaurants that year. According to its website, Five Guys has over 1,900 locations worldwide. Fast Company reached out to Five Guys for comment. Which Five Guys stores have closed? According to our analysis, the following Five Guys stores have already closed this year: California 2970 W Grant Line Rd, Tracy, CA 95304 2701 Ming Ave, Bakersfield, CA 93304 71-800 Hwy 111 Rancho Mirage, CA 92270 24201 Valencia Blvd #3672, Valencia, CA 91355 Florida 6431 E County Line Rd, Tampa, FL 33647 Illinois 2856 S Rte 59, Naperville, IL 60564 Iowa 3450 Dodge St Suite B, Dubuque, IA 52003 Louisiana 2950 Ryan St, Lake Charles, LA 70601 Georgia 3393 Peachtree Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30326 Nebraska 2525 Pine Lake Rd, Lincoln, NE 68512 Which Five Guys stores will close later in 2026? Reports of Five Guys closures in California began to surface last month after local media outlets learned of a handful of state-level Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filings, or WARN notices, which had indicated that dozens of jobs would be lost as a result of the closings. As first reported last week by local media outlets, the following Five Guys locations in California are expected to close later this month and into July: 10140 Carmenita Rd, Whittier, CA 90605 (closing May 25) 1552 S Azusa Ave, City of Industry, CA 91748 (closing May 26) 3572 G St, Merced, CA 95340 (closing June 26) 1693 W Lacey Blvd Suite A, Hanford, CA 93230 (closing July 2) It’s unclear if additional store closures are expected. We’ve asked Five Guys for more information and will update this story if we hear back. Why are Five Guys closing? Restaurants can close for any number of reasons, and it’s not unusual for a large chain or individual franchisee to shutter locations for underperformance or other issues specific to a marketplace. Even chains that may be otherwise growing often optimize their footprint during any given year. Broadly speaking, the quick service restaurant (QSR) segment continues to face challenges from rising costs and diners being more price conscious. According to a recent report from Revenue Management Solutions, which tracks spending trends, traffic to fast food restaurants remained negative during the first quarter of this year, down 1.2% for the quarter compared to the same period last year. But net sales were up 2.1%, which represents a rebound of sorts from the fourth quarter. Five Guys consistently ranks among the top fast food brands in terms of food quality, but the chain is also known for being among the priciest in its competitive set. View the full article

When the history of the internet is written, the story of Digg might be one of its most fascinating chapters. The site that established the template later popularized by Reddit has ebbed in and out of relevance for much of its existence. Two months ago, it shut down. Now it’s back once again, and it wants to keep users up to speed on the fast-growing world of artificial intelligence. Like an overly determined game of whack-a-mole, the Digg website is live once more, with a headline reading “Hello Again” on its home page and a new mission statement. “The bet is simple: the internet has more noise than ever, and the people who can sort signal from it have never been more valuable,” reads the note from founder Kevin Rose. “We’re starting with AI. It’s the noisiest, fastest-moving space on the internet right now. Papers, launches, threads, hot takes flying past faster than anyone can keep up with. If we can surface what actually matters here, we can do it anywhere.” Digg says it plans to monitor the 1,000 “most thoughtful voices in AI” to see what they’re paying attention to. It will then rank those stories to let users know what matters most. Among the sources the site is following are Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Andrej Karpathy, and Geoffrey Hinton. The list also includes professors, investors, researchers, and reporters focused on the AI beat. Rather than using the site’s well-known URL, though, the home page currently refers users to a secondary site: di.gg/ai. That’s only temporary, Digg says. “When things are ready, we’ll move home to digg.com,” the website reads. Also, other areas of focus beyond AI will be forthcoming, Rose said. Déjà vu If you’re viewing this latest direction for Digg with skepticism, that’s understandable. Last year, Rose and Alexis Ohanian bought Digg back with plans to revive it. Backed by True Ventures, where Rose is a partner, and Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, the revived Digg said it would offer a more human-centered experience. That proved challenging. Justin Mezzell, who was CEO at the time but has seemingly stepped away from the company, announced in March that the relaunch, which had launched just two months earlier, had been scrapped after the site was quickly overwhelmed by bots and AI agents. Spammers, meanwhile, sought to boost their SEO rankings by exploiting Digg’s still-considerable authority with Google. “Within hours, we got a taste of what we’d only heard rumors about,” he wrote. “The internet is now populated, in meaningful part, by sophisticated AI agents and automated accounts. We knew bots were part of the landscape, but we didn’t appreciate the scale, sophistication, or speed at which they’d find us.” Digg also said it underestimated the loyalty users had built with competing sites. Luring them back after such a long absence proved difficult, especially as bots dominated the platform. The latest version of Digg makes no mention of how it plans to overcome those challenges. Something new, something old Like the original Digg, the new site eschews the bells and whistles of modern platforms in favor of a bare-bones approach. The newsfeed sits against a beige background reminiscent of a 1980s computer screen. The site offers headlines and stripped-down summaries of the news, generally just one or two sentences long, followed by what appear to be X.com profiles of the people discussing the story. The site refreshes in real time, and top stories are displayed for both the current and previous day. Rose’s goal is to return Digg to the prominence it once enjoyed. When it was founded in 2004, the repository of internet links quickly became a must-visit destination, with users upvoting and downvoting stories they liked or loathed. That formula has since become commonplace across the web. Digg grew to an estimated valuation of $160 million by 2008. A 2010 redesign was so unpopular, however, that much of its audience migrated to Reddit, which offered a similar voting system. Rose sold the company in 2012 and remained absent until he repurchased it alongside former rival Ohanian last year. View the full article

If you’re considering turning your business into a franchise, you’re initiating an expedition that can greatly expand your reach and profitability. Franchising requires a clear comprehension of operational standards, legal compliance, and financial planning. It’s not just about replicating your business model; it’s about creating a cohesive brand that franchisees can successfully operate. Grasping the crucial steps involved will help you navigate this complex process and set you up for long-term success. What’s the first step? Key Takeaways Assess your business’s profitability and operational processes to ensure it can be replicated by franchisees effectively. Protect your brand by registering trademarks and creating comprehensive brand guidelines to maintain consistency across franchises. Prepare a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) detailing essential business information and comply with legal requirements for franchise disclosure. Draft a Franchise Agreement outlining the rights, responsibilities, and financial obligations of both franchisor and franchisee to ensure clarity. Create a detailed Operations Manual that includes training materials and standard operating procedures to guide franchisees in daily operations. Understanding Franchising: What It Means for Your Business Franchising represents a strategic opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to enter the market with a proven business model. By partnering with franchisees, you can license your successful concept, allowing others to operate under your established brand while paying royalties. To make your business a franchise, you’ll need a solid franchise business plan that outlines operational standards, training, and support. This differs from licensing, as it encompasses the entire business system. Franchising not merely enables quicker market entry but additionally utilizes franchisee capital for expansion, greatly impacting the economy, with the industry generating over $890 billion annually. Comprehending how to turn your business into a franchise involves ensuring consistency in operations and brand representation across multiple locations, which is essential for success. Types of Franchises: Which One Suits You? When considering which type of franchise might work best for you, it’s vital to grasp the various categories available. Business format franchises offer a complete operational blueprint, ideal for those who want to replicate a successful model, like McDonald’s fast-food chains. If you prefer managing one location, a single-unit franchise might suit you, whereas a multi-unit franchise allows you to operate several locations, boosting your potential revenue. Area development franchises enable rapid expansion in a designated region, and master franchises let you sub-franchise within a territory, managing new franchisees. Your choice depends on factors like scalability, desired control, and financial commitment. Grasping these options is fundamental when you learn how to make a franchise business plan that aligns with your goals. Assessing Your Business Readiness for Franchising Before franchising your business, it’s important to evaluate its overall health, focusing on profitability and consistent revenue. You likewise need to assess whether your business model can be easily replicated and taught, as this is critical for franchisees’ success. Finally, protecting your intellectual property is significant, ensuring that your brand and operations remain secure as you expand. Evaluate Business Health Evaluating your business health is a vital step in appraising your readiness for franchising, and it involves several key components. Start by analyzing your financial statements to guarantee consistent revenue and a solid customer base, which are fundamental for attracting potential franchisees. Next, evaluate your business model’s scalability; it should be replicable across multiple locations without significant operational challenges. Consider your brand strength and market presence, as these factors improve franchise appeal. Moreover, review customer demand and feedback to gauge interest in your products or services in other markets, indicating potential for new franchise locations. Finally, verify established systems and processes are in place, as they’re indispensable for training franchisees and maintaining operational consistency across all locations. Assess Replication Capability Analyzing your business’s replication capability is a vital step in determining its readiness for franchising. Start by evaluating your profitability and operational consistency; a successful franchise needs a reliable income stream and efficient systems. Next, evaluate customer interest in potential new locations to confirm there’s a market for expansion. It’s important to determine if your business model can be effectively taught to others; clear, documented processes are necessary for franchisees. Review your operational practices to verify they can be standardized across multiple locations, maintaining brand integrity and quality. Finally, conduct a feasibility analysis to validate that your business can support the additional costs of franchising, including legal fees, training materials, and ongoing franchisee support systems. Protect Intellectual Property Protecting your intellectual property is critical when preparing your business for franchising. You need to evaluate your trademarks and proprietary processes to guarantee brand integrity as you expand. Start by registering your trademarks with the USPTO, safeguarding your brand name and logo, which are fundamental assets in the franchise model. Moreover, create non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) for potential franchisees to protect sensitive information and proprietary training materials during the franchising process. It’s also essential to regularly review and update your intellectual property protections, adapting to market changes and guaranteeing compliance with legal standards. Protecting Your Intellectual Property: Essential Steps Protecting your intellectual property (IP) is crucial for your franchise’s success, as it safeguards your brand and its unique elements. By registering trademarks, you secure exclusive rights and strengthen brand recognition. At the same time, implementing guidelines guarantees uniformity across all franchise operations. Furthermore, maintaining confidentiality with trade secrets and business processes through non-disclosure agreements helps protect your competitive edge in the market. Importance of Trademark Registration Even though you may have a great business idea, securing your brand’s identity through trademark registration is crucial for establishing a solid foundation in the marketplace. Trademark registration protects your business name, logo, and slogan from unauthorized use, ensuring your brand integrity. It can greatly improve your franchise’s value, attracting potential franchisees and investors. Consider the following benefits of trademark registration: Provides legal presumptions of ownership and exclusive rights. Makes it easier to enforce your rights against infringers. Helps prevent loss of brand recognition. Allows you to claim damages in case of infringement. The application process requires proper documentation and fees, so it’s wise to start early. Safeguarding Trade Secrets When you own a franchise, safeguarding your trade secrets is essential for maintaining a competitive edge in the market. Start by identifying and documenting your trade secrets, such as recipes, processes, and customer lists, to establish a clear comprehension of what needs protection. Implement non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with employees and provide training on confidentiality to guarantee proprietary information stays secure. Furthermore, consider registering trademarks for your brand names, logos, and slogans to prevent unauthorized use that might dilute your brand identity. Regularly auditing your intellectual property practices can help identify vulnerabilities and assure your protective measures are effective. Consulting legal counsel specializing in intellectual property can provide valuable guidance on best practices and maneuvering any potential legal challenges. Developing Brand Guidelines Establishing brand guidelines is a fundamental step in protecting your intellectual property and ensuring consistency across all franchise locations. These guidelines provide a framework for how your brand assets should be used, which is critical for maintaining brand integrity and reputation. To effectively create brand guidelines, consider the following: Secure trademarks for your brand name, logo, and slogan to prevent unauthorized use. Document proprietary processes and training materials to safeguard trade secrets. Establish clear protocols for franchisees regarding the use of brand assets in marketing and operations. Regularly review and update your intellectual property protections to comply with legal standards. Preparing Your Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) Preparing your Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) is a fundamental step in launching a successful franchise. This legally required document provides potential franchisees with important information about your business, including its history, financial performance, and obligations. The FDD typically consists of 23 sections covering topics like franchise fees, territory rights, and your obligations to franchisees. Preparing the FDD usually takes 30-60 days, so it’s vital to make sure all information is accurate and up-to-date to avoid legal issues. Moreover, fourteen states require the FDD to be registered, which involves state-specific requirements and fees. It’s critical to work with legal counsel experienced in franchise law to create a compliant FDD, as mistakes can lead to significant penalties and jeopardize your franchising efforts. Drafting a Comprehensive Franchise Agreement Drafting a thorough franchise agreement is crucial for establishing a clear understanding between you and your franchisees. This document defines the rights and responsibilities of both parties, ensuring compliance with operational standards, fees, and territory rights. A detailed agreement typically covers a 5 to 10-year term, including renewal conditions, termination clauses, and non-compliance provisions. Key elements include: Royalty structures and payment timelines Penalties for late payments Adherence to federal and state regulations Guidelines for brand and operational standards Creating an Operations Manual for Franchisees An operations manual serves as a foundational tool for franchisees, providing them with the guidance needed to run their businesses effectively. This thorough document typically ranges from 100 to 300 pages, detailing vital day-to-day operations, brand standards, and procedures. It’s imperative to keep the manual confidential, granting access only to franchisees, concurrently regularly updating it to reflect evolving practices. Incorporate digital resources, like links to training videos, to improve the learning experience. The manual should cover key areas such as marketing strategies, customer service protocols, inventory management, and quality control measures. Moreover, solicit regular feedback from franchisees to continuously improve the manual, ensuring it remains relevant and addresses real-world challenges they face in the field. Financial Considerations: Costs and Budgeting When considering a franchise, it’s essential to understand the financial terrain, starting with initial investment costs that can range from $10,000 to $5 million. You’ll need to account for ongoing operational costs, which include royalty fees typically between 4-8% of your revenues, in addition to budgeting for working capital to cover early expenses. Having a clear financial plan helps guarantee you’re prepared for the costs associated with franchise development and state-specific registration requirements. Initial Investment Breakdown Comprehending the initial investment required to start a franchise is fundamental for anyone considering this business model. Typically, this investment ranges from $10,000 to $5 million, but most franchises fall between $100,000 and $300,000. You should likewise account for franchise development costs, including: Legal fees and documentation Marketing assets Training materials Additional working capital These costs can total between $15,000 and $100,000, so budgeting carefully is significant. The Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) provides a detailed cost breakdown in Item 7, which is critical for grasping your financial obligations. Ongoing Operational Costs Grasping ongoing operational costs is critical for franchisees to maintain profitability and guarantee the long-term success of their business. You’ll face royalty fees, typically ranging from 4-8% of gross sales, paid to the franchisor for continued support. Furthermore, budget for marketing contributions, usually 1-3% of revenue, to fund national advertising campaigns. Regular expenses like lease or rent, utilities, insurance, employee salaries, and inventory can vary based on location and business type. It’s important to have a financial cushion for unexpected costs; studies recommend keeping 20-30% of your initial investment as working capital for at least the first six months. Comprehending both initial and ongoing expenses is critical for ensuring your franchise’s long-term sustainability and profitability. Financial Planning Strategies Effective financial planning strategies are essential for franchisees aiming to navigate the intricacies of costs and budgeting successfully. Start by calculating your initial investment, which typically ranges from $10,000 to $5 million. Develop a thorough financial model that includes: Legal fees and training materials Marketing assets and operational costs Ongoing royalty payments of 4-8% of revenues Additional working capital for the first 2-3 years Understanding state requirements for Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDD) is equally important, as some states mandate registration before selling franchises. Developing a Franchise Sales Strategy How can you effectively develop a franchise sales strategy that attracts the right entrepreneurs? Start by showcasing the unique value of your business model, shifting focus from traditional product sales techniques. Utilize franchise brokers, online portals, and referrals from satisfied franchisees to widen your reach. Initially, target local entrepreneurs; having 2-3 franchisees nearby allows for easier support and system refinement. The success of these early franchisees will greatly influence your franchise’s reputation, so select and support them wisely. Finally, implement a robust strategy that includes compelling marketing materials, testimonials from successful franchisees, and clear communication about the support provided to new franchise owners. This approach guarantees you attract motivated individuals who align with your brand’s vision. Navigating Legal Requirements and Compliance Steering through the legal requirements and compliance for franchising can feel overwhelming, especially since multiple regulations exist at both federal and state levels. You’ll need to prepare a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), which outlines your financial health and obligations. Some key elements to take into account include: FDD Preparation: It usually takes 30-60 days to draft your FDD. State Registration: Fourteen states, including California and New York, require FDD registration with unique requirements. Legal Expertise: Hiring a franchise attorney is essential to navigate compliance and avoid penalties. Budgeting: Initial legal costs typically range from $18,000 to $45,000 for drafting the FDD and other documents. Understanding these aspects will streamline your franchising process and guarantee compliance. Evaluating the Pros and Cons of Franchising When considering franchising, it’s crucial to weigh both the advantages and disadvantages to determine if it’s the right business model for you. On the one hand, franchising allows for rapid growth without you needing to invest in every new location, as franchisees provide the capital. You’ll also benefit from ongoing royalties, typically between 4-8% of their revenues, creating a passive income stream. Nevertheless, significant upfront costs can range from $50,000 to $100,000 or more. Furthermore, legal intricacies can arise, and misclassifying a franchise or failing to comply with laws may lead to penalties. Finally, keep in mind that you’ll have limited control over franchisee operations, which could affect brand consistency if not managed properly. Frequently Asked Questions How Do I Turn My Business Into a Franchise? To turn your business into a franchise, start by evaluating its readiness, including profitability and market demand. Calculate development costs, which can range from $15,000 to $100,000, factoring in legal fees and necessary registrations. Protect your brand by registering trademarks and documenting processes. Create a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) outlining your company’s details, and develop thorough franchise systems, including an operations manual that covers training and quality standards. What Are the 4 P’s of Franchising? The 4 P’s of franchising are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Product refers to the goods or services that need a proven demand. Price involves setting competitive franchise fees and royalties, typically between 4-8% of revenues. Place focuses on selecting strategic locations based on market demand and demographics. Finally, Promotion encompasses marketing strategies to build brand awareness and drive sales, utilizing both local and national advertising efforts to support franchisees effectively. What Is the 7 Day Rule for Franchise? The 7 Day Rule mandates that franchisors must provide you with the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) at least seven days before you make any financial commitments or sign a franchise agreement. This rule guarantees you have enough time to review essential details about fees, obligations, and the franchisor’s financial performance. Use this period wisely to conduct thorough due diligence, consulting with legal and financial advisors to inform your investment decision effectively. Why Is It Only $10,000 to Open a Chick-Fil-A? Chick-fil-A charges only $10,000 to open a franchise since it greatly subsidizes startup costs. This includes expenses for restaurant construction, equipment, and inventory, which can exceed $1 million. By doing so, the company alleviates financial burdens on franchisees. Nevertheless, franchisees must operate their locations daily and can’t own multiple franchises. Although the 15% royalty fee is high, franchisees benefit from strong brand recognition and marketing support, enhancing their profitability. Conclusion Transforming your business into a franchise can reveal significant growth opportunities. By following the outlined steps—understanding franchising, evaluating readiness, protecting your intellectual property, and preparing crucial documents—you set a strong foundation for success. Remember to analyze financial implications and legal requirements during the development of a robust support system for franchisees. With careful planning and execution, you can create a thriving franchise network that maintains brand integrity and drives profitability, ensuring your business thrives in the competitive marketplace. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "Make Your Business a Franchise: A Step-by-Step Guide" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

If you’re considering turning your business into a franchise, you’re initiating an expedition that can greatly expand your reach and profitability. Franchising requires a clear comprehension of operational standards, legal compliance, and financial planning. It’s not just about replicating your business model; it’s about creating a cohesive brand that franchisees can successfully operate. Grasping the crucial steps involved will help you navigate this complex process and set you up for long-term success. What’s the first step? Key Takeaways Assess your business’s profitability and operational processes to ensure it can be replicated by franchisees effectively. Protect your brand by registering trademarks and creating comprehensive brand guidelines to maintain consistency across franchises. Prepare a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) detailing essential business information and comply with legal requirements for franchise disclosure. Draft a Franchise Agreement outlining the rights, responsibilities, and financial obligations of both franchisor and franchisee to ensure clarity. Create a detailed Operations Manual that includes training materials and standard operating procedures to guide franchisees in daily operations. Understanding Franchising: What It Means for Your Business Franchising represents a strategic opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to enter the market with a proven business model. By partnering with franchisees, you can license your successful concept, allowing others to operate under your established brand while paying royalties. To make your business a franchise, you’ll need a solid franchise business plan that outlines operational standards, training, and support. This differs from licensing, as it encompasses the entire business system. Franchising not merely enables quicker market entry but additionally utilizes franchisee capital for expansion, greatly impacting the economy, with the industry generating over $890 billion annually. Comprehending how to turn your business into a franchise involves ensuring consistency in operations and brand representation across multiple locations, which is essential for success. Types of Franchises: Which One Suits You? When considering which type of franchise might work best for you, it’s vital to grasp the various categories available. Business format franchises offer a complete operational blueprint, ideal for those who want to replicate a successful model, like McDonald’s fast-food chains. If you prefer managing one location, a single-unit franchise might suit you, whereas a multi-unit franchise allows you to operate several locations, boosting your potential revenue. Area development franchises enable rapid expansion in a designated region, and master franchises let you sub-franchise within a territory, managing new franchisees. Your choice depends on factors like scalability, desired control, and financial commitment. Grasping these options is fundamental when you learn how to make a franchise business plan that aligns with your goals. Assessing Your Business Readiness for Franchising Before franchising your business, it’s important to evaluate its overall health, focusing on profitability and consistent revenue. You likewise need to assess whether your business model can be easily replicated and taught, as this is critical for franchisees’ success. Finally, protecting your intellectual property is significant, ensuring that your brand and operations remain secure as you expand. Evaluate Business Health Evaluating your business health is a vital step in appraising your readiness for franchising, and it involves several key components. Start by analyzing your financial statements to guarantee consistent revenue and a solid customer base, which are fundamental for attracting potential franchisees. Next, evaluate your business model’s scalability; it should be replicable across multiple locations without significant operational challenges. Consider your brand strength and market presence, as these factors improve franchise appeal. Moreover, review customer demand and feedback to gauge interest in your products or services in other markets, indicating potential for new franchise locations. Finally, verify established systems and processes are in place, as they’re indispensable for training franchisees and maintaining operational consistency across all locations. Assess Replication Capability Analyzing your business’s replication capability is a vital step in determining its readiness for franchising. Start by evaluating your profitability and operational consistency; a successful franchise needs a reliable income stream and efficient systems. Next, evaluate customer interest in potential new locations to confirm there’s a market for expansion. It’s important to determine if your business model can be effectively taught to others; clear, documented processes are necessary for franchisees. Review your operational practices to verify they can be standardized across multiple locations, maintaining brand integrity and quality. Finally, conduct a feasibility analysis to validate that your business can support the additional costs of franchising, including legal fees, training materials, and ongoing franchisee support systems. Protect Intellectual Property Protecting your intellectual property is critical when preparing your business for franchising. You need to evaluate your trademarks and proprietary processes to guarantee brand integrity as you expand. Start by registering your trademarks with the USPTO, safeguarding your brand name and logo, which are fundamental assets in the franchise model. Moreover, create non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) for potential franchisees to protect sensitive information and proprietary training materials during the franchising process. It’s also essential to regularly review and update your intellectual property protections, adapting to market changes and guaranteeing compliance with legal standards. Protecting Your Intellectual Property: Essential Steps Protecting your intellectual property (IP) is crucial for your franchise’s success, as it safeguards your brand and its unique elements. By registering trademarks, you secure exclusive rights and strengthen brand recognition. At the same time, implementing guidelines guarantees uniformity across all franchise operations. Furthermore, maintaining confidentiality with trade secrets and business processes through non-disclosure agreements helps protect your competitive edge in the market. Importance of Trademark Registration Even though you may have a great business idea, securing your brand’s identity through trademark registration is crucial for establishing a solid foundation in the marketplace. Trademark registration protects your business name, logo, and slogan from unauthorized use, ensuring your brand integrity. It can greatly improve your franchise’s value, attracting potential franchisees and investors. Consider the following benefits of trademark registration: Provides legal presumptions of ownership and exclusive rights. Makes it easier to enforce your rights against infringers. Helps prevent loss of brand recognition. Allows you to claim damages in case of infringement. The application process requires proper documentation and fees, so it’s wise to start early. Safeguarding Trade Secrets When you own a franchise, safeguarding your trade secrets is essential for maintaining a competitive edge in the market. Start by identifying and documenting your trade secrets, such as recipes, processes, and customer lists, to establish a clear comprehension of what needs protection. Implement non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with employees and provide training on confidentiality to guarantee proprietary information stays secure. Furthermore, consider registering trademarks for your brand names, logos, and slogans to prevent unauthorized use that might dilute your brand identity. Regularly auditing your intellectual property practices can help identify vulnerabilities and assure your protective measures are effective. Consulting legal counsel specializing in intellectual property can provide valuable guidance on best practices and maneuvering any potential legal challenges. Developing Brand Guidelines Establishing brand guidelines is a fundamental step in protecting your intellectual property and ensuring consistency across all franchise locations. These guidelines provide a framework for how your brand assets should be used, which is critical for maintaining brand integrity and reputation. To effectively create brand guidelines, consider the following: Secure trademarks for your brand name, logo, and slogan to prevent unauthorized use. Document proprietary processes and training materials to safeguard trade secrets. Establish clear protocols for franchisees regarding the use of brand assets in marketing and operations. Regularly review and update your intellectual property protections to comply with legal standards. Preparing Your Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) Preparing your Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) is a fundamental step in launching a successful franchise. This legally required document provides potential franchisees with important information about your business, including its history, financial performance, and obligations. The FDD typically consists of 23 sections covering topics like franchise fees, territory rights, and your obligations to franchisees. Preparing the FDD usually takes 30-60 days, so it’s vital to make sure all information is accurate and up-to-date to avoid legal issues. Moreover, fourteen states require the FDD to be registered, which involves state-specific requirements and fees. It’s critical to work with legal counsel experienced in franchise law to create a compliant FDD, as mistakes can lead to significant penalties and jeopardize your franchising efforts. Drafting a Comprehensive Franchise Agreement Drafting a thorough franchise agreement is crucial for establishing a clear understanding between you and your franchisees. This document defines the rights and responsibilities of both parties, ensuring compliance with operational standards, fees, and territory rights. A detailed agreement typically covers a 5 to 10-year term, including renewal conditions, termination clauses, and non-compliance provisions. Key elements include: Royalty structures and payment timelines Penalties for late payments Adherence to federal and state regulations Guidelines for brand and operational standards Creating an Operations Manual for Franchisees An operations manual serves as a foundational tool for franchisees, providing them with the guidance needed to run their businesses effectively. This thorough document typically ranges from 100 to 300 pages, detailing vital day-to-day operations, brand standards, and procedures. It’s imperative to keep the manual confidential, granting access only to franchisees, concurrently regularly updating it to reflect evolving practices. Incorporate digital resources, like links to training videos, to improve the learning experience. The manual should cover key areas such as marketing strategies, customer service protocols, inventory management, and quality control measures. Moreover, solicit regular feedback from franchisees to continuously improve the manual, ensuring it remains relevant and addresses real-world challenges they face in the field. Financial Considerations: Costs and Budgeting When considering a franchise, it’s essential to understand the financial terrain, starting with initial investment costs that can range from $10,000 to $5 million. You’ll need to account for ongoing operational costs, which include royalty fees typically between 4-8% of your revenues, in addition to budgeting for working capital to cover early expenses. Having a clear financial plan helps guarantee you’re prepared for the costs associated with franchise development and state-specific registration requirements. Initial Investment Breakdown Comprehending the initial investment required to start a franchise is fundamental for anyone considering this business model. Typically, this investment ranges from $10,000 to $5 million, but most franchises fall between $100,000 and $300,000. You should likewise account for franchise development costs, including: Legal fees and documentation Marketing assets Training materials Additional working capital These costs can total between $15,000 and $100,000, so budgeting carefully is significant. The Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) provides a detailed cost breakdown in Item 7, which is critical for grasping your financial obligations. Ongoing Operational Costs Grasping ongoing operational costs is critical for franchisees to maintain profitability and guarantee the long-term success of their business. You’ll face royalty fees, typically ranging from 4-8% of gross sales, paid to the franchisor for continued support. Furthermore, budget for marketing contributions, usually 1-3% of revenue, to fund national advertising campaigns. Regular expenses like lease or rent, utilities, insurance, employee salaries, and inventory can vary based on location and business type. It’s important to have a financial cushion for unexpected costs; studies recommend keeping 20-30% of your initial investment as working capital for at least the first six months. Comprehending both initial and ongoing expenses is critical for ensuring your franchise’s long-term sustainability and profitability. Financial Planning Strategies Effective financial planning strategies are essential for franchisees aiming to navigate the intricacies of costs and budgeting successfully. Start by calculating your initial investment, which typically ranges from $10,000 to $5 million. Develop a thorough financial model that includes: Legal fees and training materials Marketing assets and operational costs Ongoing royalty payments of 4-8% of revenues Additional working capital for the first 2-3 years Understanding state requirements for Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDD) is equally important, as some states mandate registration before selling franchises. Developing a Franchise Sales Strategy How can you effectively develop a franchise sales strategy that attracts the right entrepreneurs? Start by showcasing the unique value of your business model, shifting focus from traditional product sales techniques. Utilize franchise brokers, online portals, and referrals from satisfied franchisees to widen your reach. Initially, target local entrepreneurs; having 2-3 franchisees nearby allows for easier support and system refinement. The success of these early franchisees will greatly influence your franchise’s reputation, so select and support them wisely. Finally, implement a robust strategy that includes compelling marketing materials, testimonials from successful franchisees, and clear communication about the support provided to new franchise owners. This approach guarantees you attract motivated individuals who align with your brand’s vision. Navigating Legal Requirements and Compliance Steering through the legal requirements and compliance for franchising can feel overwhelming, especially since multiple regulations exist at both federal and state levels. You’ll need to prepare a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), which outlines your financial health and obligations. Some key elements to take into account include: FDD Preparation: It usually takes 30-60 days to draft your FDD. State Registration: Fourteen states, including California and New York, require FDD registration with unique requirements. Legal Expertise: Hiring a franchise attorney is essential to navigate compliance and avoid penalties. Budgeting: Initial legal costs typically range from $18,000 to $45,000 for drafting the FDD and other documents. Understanding these aspects will streamline your franchising process and guarantee compliance. Evaluating the Pros and Cons of Franchising When considering franchising, it’s crucial to weigh both the advantages and disadvantages to determine if it’s the right business model for you. On the one hand, franchising allows for rapid growth without you needing to invest in every new location, as franchisees provide the capital. You’ll also benefit from ongoing royalties, typically between 4-8% of their revenues, creating a passive income stream. Nevertheless, significant upfront costs can range from $50,000 to $100,000 or more. Furthermore, legal intricacies can arise, and misclassifying a franchise or failing to comply with laws may lead to penalties. Finally, keep in mind that you’ll have limited control over franchisee operations, which could affect brand consistency if not managed properly. Frequently Asked Questions How Do I Turn My Business Into a Franchise? To turn your business into a franchise, start by evaluating its readiness, including profitability and market demand. Calculate development costs, which can range from $15,000 to $100,000, factoring in legal fees and necessary registrations. Protect your brand by registering trademarks and documenting processes. Create a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) outlining your company’s details, and develop thorough franchise systems, including an operations manual that covers training and quality standards. What Are the 4 P’s of Franchising? The 4 P’s of franchising are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Product refers to the goods or services that need a proven demand. Price involves setting competitive franchise fees and royalties, typically between 4-8% of revenues. Place focuses on selecting strategic locations based on market demand and demographics. Finally, Promotion encompasses marketing strategies to build brand awareness and drive sales, utilizing both local and national advertising efforts to support franchisees effectively. What Is the 7 Day Rule for Franchise? The 7 Day Rule mandates that franchisors must provide you with the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) at least seven days before you make any financial commitments or sign a franchise agreement. This rule guarantees you have enough time to review essential details about fees, obligations, and the franchisor’s financial performance. Use this period wisely to conduct thorough due diligence, consulting with legal and financial advisors to inform your investment decision effectively. Why Is It Only $10,000 to Open a Chick-Fil-A? Chick-fil-A charges only $10,000 to open a franchise since it greatly subsidizes startup costs. This includes expenses for restaurant construction, equipment, and inventory, which can exceed $1 million. By doing so, the company alleviates financial burdens on franchisees. Nevertheless, franchisees must operate their locations daily and can’t own multiple franchises. Although the 15% royalty fee is high, franchisees benefit from strong brand recognition and marketing support, enhancing their profitability. Conclusion Transforming your business into a franchise can reveal significant growth opportunities. By following the outlined steps—understanding franchising, evaluating readiness, protecting your intellectual property, and preparing crucial documents—you set a strong foundation for success. Remember to analyze financial implications and legal requirements during the development of a robust support system for franchisees. With careful planning and execution, you can create a thriving franchise network that maintains brand integrity and drives profitability, ensuring your business thrives in the competitive marketplace. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "Make Your Business a Franchise: A Step-by-Step Guide" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Amazon can deliver anything—including, increasingly, eyeballs to advertisers. And now, its upcoming slate of content, including an adaptation of the best-selling novel Fourth Wing and a list of young adult content, is sure to have advertisers excited. The e-commerce giant held its annual Upfront event at the Beacon Theater in New York City on Monday night, showcasing new TV shows, movies, sports, and podcasting content destined for its Prime Video streaming platform and podcasting platforms. While there were big names in attendance—the event included appearances by Oprah Winfrey, Chris Pratt, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Michael B. Jordan, among others—what stole the show was the immensity of Amazon’s advertising apparatus. Alan Moss, vice president of global advertising sales at Amazon Ads, said users watched 17% more content on its streaming platforms over the past year than during the preceding year. Tanner Elton, VP of advertising sales at Amazon, noted that the company had penetrated 90% of U.S. households in one form or another, and as a result, had reams of data and customer insights to draw on for advertisers. One Amazon exec even noted that it actively “works backwards from the customer” to create content, analyzing their consumption habits, and then working to create content that’s likely to resonate. That content is in theory more likely to convert for advertisers. And in an ongoing expansion of its entertainment offerings, Amazon is continuing to up the ante on sports content, for instance, and expanding its exclusive podcast offerings, producing more TV shows and movies. Amazon said that the NFL Wild Card playoff game, streamed exclusively on Prime earlier this year, drew a record 31.6 million viewers. Not only that, but those who watched it were on average seven years younger than viewers of NFL playoff games broadcast on linear TV, and 41% more likely to engage with advertiser content in some shape or form. What new programming is coming to Prime? As for the new and upcoming content? Here’s a brief rundown of some of the projects announced at the event: The Oprah Podcast will be distributed exclusively on Wondery starting in July, and produce two new episodes per week. Duke University basketball signed an exclusive streaming deal with Prime, and next season, three high-profile games will be shown via the platform: Matchups against UConn, Michigan and Gonzaga. Amazon is leaning hard into young adult (YA) content, with new seasons or content for Off-Campus, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and others. The hit show The Terminal List, starring Chris Pratt, is getting a second season. An adaptation of the 1980s series Voltron is in the works, as is an adaptation of the video game series God of War. A new series based on Bladerunner is also in the works, called Bladerunner 2099. Oscar-winning actor Michael B. Jordan announced a trio of projects: The Greatest, a series focused on Muhammad Ali; Delphi, a series set in the Creed and Rocky universe; and an adaptation of the best-selling novel Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros. View the full article

As a small business owner, comprehension vital accounting services can streamline your operations and improve financial performance. These services, like bookkeeping and payroll processing, help maintain accuracy in financial records and guarantee timely tax compliance. By leveraging financial statement preparation and accounts management, you can make informed decisions that promote growth. Curious about how each service can directly impact your business? Let’s explore these significant components in more detail. Key Takeaways Accurate bookkeeping ensures financial health by maintaining precise records of transactions and facilitating timely financial statements. Payroll processing guarantees correct employee compensation, compliance with regulations, and timely paycheck distribution, enhancing employee satisfaction. Tax preparation and compliance minimize liabilities by adhering to deadlines and local regulations, ensuring professional engagement for potential savings. Financial statement preparation provides insights into business profitability and cash flow, aiding decision-making and securing funding from investors or lenders. Effective accounts management, including receivables and payables, stabilizes cash flow through timely collections and strategic payment scheduling. Bookkeeping Services: The Backbone of Financial Management Bookkeeping services are vital for maintaining the financial health of small businesses. These services involve daily recording of financial transactions, including sales, payments, and receipts, providing an organized overview of your finances. Regular bookkeeping guarantees timely preparation of important financial statements, like income statements and balance sheets, which help you assess your business performance. Effective bookkeeping practices, such as bank reconciliation, identify discrepancies and unauthorized transactions, promoting accurate cash management. By utilizing professional bookkeeping services, you can reduce errors in financial reporting and tax filing, guaranteeing compliance with regulatory requirements during the process of minimizing tax liabilities. Investing in these accounting services for small businesses allows you to concentrate on core activities without the hassle of maintaining your financial records. With an organized system in place, your records will be IRS-ready year-round, providing peace of mind as you grow your accounting service small business. Payroll Processing: Ensuring Accurate Employee Compensation In the realm of payroll processing, getting employee compensation right is essential. You need to calculate wages accurately, guarantee proper tax withholding, and distribute paychecks on time. Accurate Wage Calculations Accurate wage calculations are vital for effective payroll processing, as they guarantee employees receive the correct compensation for their work hours, including any overtime and applicable deductions like taxes and benefits. Adhering to federal and state regulations is imperative, as you must comply with minimum wage laws and timely payment schedules to avoid penalties. Utilizing payroll software can simplify this process by automating tax withholdings, generating pay stubs, and ensuring compliance with changing tax laws. Conducting regular audits of payroll records helps identify discrepancies and aligns employee compensation with company policies. In the end, accurate payroll processing boosts employee satisfaction and retention and reduces the risk of costly audits and legal disputes related to wage calculations. Tax Withholding Compliance Payroll processing doesn’t stop at accurate wage calculations; it also includes the vital task of tax withholding compliance. You need to accurately calculate and withhold federal, state, and local taxes to avoid penalties. Staying updated with the latest tax rates and regulations, such as the IRS’s federal income tax withholding tables, is critical. Moreover, you must report and remit payroll taxes, including Social Security and Medicare contributions, which total 15.3% of wages, shared equally between you and your employees. Regular payroll audits help you identify discrepancies and guarantee that compensation aligns with agreed-upon wages. Timely Paycheck Distribution Ensuring timely paycheck distribution is essential for maintaining employee satisfaction and motivation, as over 50% of workers report that receiving their pay on time directly affects their overall job contentment. Payroll processing involves calculating wages, withholding taxes, and issuing paychecks in compliance with federal and state regulations to avoid penalties. Paycor minimizes financial errors, as even minor mistakes can lead to significant discrepancies in employee compensation and tax reporting. Utilizing payroll software can streamline this process, cutting administrative time by up to 40% and improving tracking of employee hours and overtime. Furthermore, regular payroll audits help maintain accuracy and compliance, identifying potential issues before they escalate, ensuring employees receive the correct compensation swiftly. Tax Preparation and Planning: Navigating Compliance and Savings In regard to tax preparation and planning, comprehending your compliance requirements is key to minimizing your tax liabilities. You’ll want to stay informed about filing deadlines and leverage tax-saving strategies that apply to your specific business situation. Tax Compliance Requirements Steering through tax compliance requirements can feel overwhelming for small business owners, especially as regulations vary considerably by state and industry. In Texas, for instance, if your annual revenue exceeds $1,230,000, you’re subject to the Texas Franchise Tax, which necessitates careful planning to avoid penalties. Furthermore, businesses face an 8.25% combined Sales and Use Tax on taxable goods and services, requiring diligent record-keeping to guarantee compliance and avoid audits. It’s also crucial to understand industry-specific taxes, like hotel occupancy tax for hospitality businesses. Engaging in regular tax planning helps minimize overall tax liability throughout the year, as strategic year-end moves and proper management of deductions can greatly affect your tax outcomes, assuring your business remains compliant and financially healthy. Tax Savings Strategies Tax savings strategies play a crucial role in helping small businesses minimize their overall tax liability and navigate the intricacies of tax preparation and planning. Here are some key strategies to reflect on: Utilize Section 179 Deduction: Deduct the full purchase price of qualifying equipment and software. Conduct Regular Financial Reviews: Make informed decisions throughout the year that positively affect tax outcomes. Understand Local Tax Regulations: Be aware of Texas Franchise Tax for businesses with revenue over $1,230,000. Engage Professional Accounting Services: Guarantee compliance with current tax laws as you identify potential savings. Filing Deadlines Awareness Awareness of filing deadlines is crucial for small businesses, as it directly impacts compliance and potential tax savings. Federal income tax returns are due by April 15, with partnerships and S corporations needing to file by March 15. If you’re self-employed or own certain corporations, keep in mind that estimated tax payments are due quarterly on April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15 of the following year. Texas businesses with revenues over $1,230,000 should note that the Texas Franchise Tax has similar deadlines. Furthermore, Sales and Use Tax returns are due on the 20th of each month for monthly filers, whereas annual filers have a January 20 deadline. Staying organized with these dates helps avoid penalties and optimize tax savings. Financial Statement Preparation: Key Insights for Decision Making When you prepare financial statements, you’re not just creating documents; you’re developing critical tools that inform your business decisions. These statements, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements, provide a thorough overview of your financial health. Accurate financial statements are crucial for evaluating your operational performance, allowing you to track revenues and expenses effectively. Here are four key insights to reflect on: Profitability Evaluation: A well-prepared income statement helps you analyze your profitability over specific periods. Regulatory Compliance: Regularly prepared statements guarantee compliance with necessary regulations. Cash Flow Insights: Timely insights into cash flow enable effective decision-making. Funding Opportunities: Well-crafted financial statements can help secure financing from lenders and investors by demonstrating your stability and growth potential. Utilizing these statements strategically can greatly impact your business’s success. Accounts Receivable and Payable Management: Maintaining Cash Flow Financial statements provide a clear picture of your business’s financial health, but managing accounts receivable and payable is equally important for maintaining cash flow. Effective accounts receivable management guarantees you’re collecting payments on time, which can reduce your days sales outstanding (DSO) and stabilize cash flow. By implementing clear invoicing processes and follow-up reminders, you could decrease late payments by up to 30%, improving your liquidity. On the other hand, a healthy accounts payable system allows you to manage cash outflows strategically. It helps you capitalize on vendor discounts as well as avoiding late fees. Regularly reviewing accounts receivable aging reports can help you identify slow-paying customers and tackle potential collection issues proactively. Furthermore, utilizing accounting software can automate invoicing and payment tracking, streamlining these processes to save you time and reduce errors, ultimately enhancing your business’s financial management efficiency. Bank Reconciliation: Keeping Financial Records Accurate Maintaining accurate financial records is vital for any small business, and monthly bank reconciliation plays a key role in this process. By ensuring that your bank statements align with your accounting records, you can identify discrepancies such as lost checks or unauthorized transactions. Here are four key benefits of regular bank reconciliation: Detects embezzlement: Spotting unusual transactions helps protect your business from potential fraud. Minimizes bank charges: It reduces the risk of erroneous fees that could negatively impact your cash flow. Facilitates cash management: You gain a clear picture of available funds and upcoming liabilities, aiding in better financial planning. Provides peace of mind: Knowing your financial records are accurate and up to date is fundamental for tax preparation. Engaging in monthly bank reconciliation not merely improves accuracy but additionally allows for timely adjustments and informed decision-making, boosting your overall financial performance. Unlimited Consultations: Support for Your Financial Questions Having access to unlimited consultations as part of your accounting service package can greatly improve your grasp of your business’s financial setting. With these consultations, you can ask any financial questions without worrying about additional fees, allowing you to gain clarity on complex issues. This support is beneficial regardless of your accounting knowledge level, ensuring you feel comfortable discussing your concerns and inquiries. Open communication is emphasized during these consultations, helping you stay informed about your financial health and the implications of your choices. Regularly engaging with your accountant encourages proactive financial management, allowing you to address potential issues before they escalate. Frequently Asked Questions What Accounting Services Do Small Businesses Need? Small businesses typically need several key accounting services to guarantee financial health. You’ll require bookkeeping for daily transactions, accounts payable and receivable management, and payroll processing for accurate employee compensation. Financial statement preparation, including balance sheets and income statements, is vital for evaluating performance. In addition, tax preparation and planning help minimize liabilities, whereas regular bank reconciliations maintain accurate records. Finally, unlimited consultations with accounting professionals provide ongoing support for financial decision-making. What Accounting Is Needed for a Small Business? For a small business, you need thorough accounting practices to guarantee financial accuracy and compliance. Key services include bookkeeping to track daily transactions, payroll processing for employee payments, and tax preparation to meet legal obligations. Regular financial statement preparation allows you to assess profitability and performance. Furthermore, maintaining a clean general ledger minimizes errors, whereas monthly Bank of America reconciliations help detect discrepancies, guaranteeing your financial records remain accurate and up-to-date. What Is the Average Cost of a CPA for a Small Business? The average cost of a CPA for a small business varies considerably, typically ranging from $150 to $300 per hour, depending on their expertise and your location. Monthly retainers can fall between $300 to $3,000 or more, influenced by your business’s complexity. For specific tasks, like tax preparation, fees often start at around $500. Be aware of potential hidden costs for additional services, so clarify pricing structures upfront with your CPA. Which Accounting Package Is Best for a Small Business? Choosing the best accounting package for your small business depends on your specific needs. Consider the complexity of your transactions and required services, like bank reconciliation, financial statements, and consultations. Packages typically range from $300 to over $3,000 monthly. Look for providers with expertise in your industry and verify their credentials. A thorough package won’t just guarantee compliance but will additionally provide strategic guidance to help you make informed decisions for growth. Conclusion By utilizing these crucial accounting services, you can greatly improve your small business’s financial health. Accurate bookkeeping, efficient payroll processing, and thorough tax preparation not only guarantee compliance but additionally promote strategic planning. Managing accounts receivable and payable effectively helps maintain cash flow, whereas regular bank reconciliations keep your records precise. Furthermore, unlimited consultations provide ongoing support for your financial queries. Embracing these services can streamline your operations and empower you to make informed decisions for your business’s future. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "7 Essential Accounting Services for Small Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

As a small business owner, comprehension vital accounting services can streamline your operations and improve financial performance. These services, like bookkeeping and payroll processing, help maintain accuracy in financial records and guarantee timely tax compliance. By leveraging financial statement preparation and accounts management, you can make informed decisions that promote growth. Curious about how each service can directly impact your business? Let’s explore these significant components in more detail. Key Takeaways Accurate bookkeeping ensures financial health by maintaining precise records of transactions and facilitating timely financial statements. Payroll processing guarantees correct employee compensation, compliance with regulations, and timely paycheck distribution, enhancing employee satisfaction. Tax preparation and compliance minimize liabilities by adhering to deadlines and local regulations, ensuring professional engagement for potential savings. Financial statement preparation provides insights into business profitability and cash flow, aiding decision-making and securing funding from investors or lenders. Effective accounts management, including receivables and payables, stabilizes cash flow through timely collections and strategic payment scheduling. Bookkeeping Services: The Backbone of Financial Management Bookkeeping services are vital for maintaining the financial health of small businesses. These services involve daily recording of financial transactions, including sales, payments, and receipts, providing an organized overview of your finances. Regular bookkeeping guarantees timely preparation of important financial statements, like income statements and balance sheets, which help you assess your business performance. Effective bookkeeping practices, such as bank reconciliation, identify discrepancies and unauthorized transactions, promoting accurate cash management. By utilizing professional bookkeeping services, you can reduce errors in financial reporting and tax filing, guaranteeing compliance with regulatory requirements during the process of minimizing tax liabilities. Investing in these accounting services for small businesses allows you to concentrate on core activities without the hassle of maintaining your financial records. With an organized system in place, your records will be IRS-ready year-round, providing peace of mind as you grow your accounting service small business. Payroll Processing: Ensuring Accurate Employee Compensation In the realm of payroll processing, getting employee compensation right is essential. You need to calculate wages accurately, guarantee proper tax withholding, and distribute paychecks on time. Accurate Wage Calculations Accurate wage calculations are vital for effective payroll processing, as they guarantee employees receive the correct compensation for their work hours, including any overtime and applicable deductions like taxes and benefits. Adhering to federal and state regulations is imperative, as you must comply with minimum wage laws and timely payment schedules to avoid penalties. Utilizing payroll software can simplify this process by automating tax withholdings, generating pay stubs, and ensuring compliance with changing tax laws. Conducting regular audits of payroll records helps identify discrepancies and aligns employee compensation with company policies. In the end, accurate payroll processing boosts employee satisfaction and retention and reduces the risk of costly audits and legal disputes related to wage calculations. Tax Withholding Compliance Payroll processing doesn’t stop at accurate wage calculations; it also includes the vital task of tax withholding compliance. You need to accurately calculate and withhold federal, state, and local taxes to avoid penalties. Staying updated with the latest tax rates and regulations, such as the IRS’s federal income tax withholding tables, is critical. Moreover, you must report and remit payroll taxes, including Social Security and Medicare contributions, which total 15.3% of wages, shared equally between you and your employees. Regular payroll audits help you identify discrepancies and guarantee that compensation aligns with agreed-upon wages. Timely Paycheck Distribution Ensuring timely paycheck distribution is essential for maintaining employee satisfaction and motivation, as over 50% of workers report that receiving their pay on time directly affects their overall job contentment. Payroll processing involves calculating wages, withholding taxes, and issuing paychecks in compliance with federal and state regulations to avoid penalties. Paycor minimizes financial errors, as even minor mistakes can lead to significant discrepancies in employee compensation and tax reporting. Utilizing payroll software can streamline this process, cutting administrative time by up to 40% and improving tracking of employee hours and overtime. Furthermore, regular payroll audits help maintain accuracy and compliance, identifying potential issues before they escalate, ensuring employees receive the correct compensation swiftly. Tax Preparation and Planning: Navigating Compliance and Savings In regard to tax preparation and planning, comprehending your compliance requirements is key to minimizing your tax liabilities. You’ll want to stay informed about filing deadlines and leverage tax-saving strategies that apply to your specific business situation. Tax Compliance Requirements Steering through tax compliance requirements can feel overwhelming for small business owners, especially as regulations vary considerably by state and industry. In Texas, for instance, if your annual revenue exceeds $1,230,000, you’re subject to the Texas Franchise Tax, which necessitates careful planning to avoid penalties. Furthermore, businesses face an 8.25% combined Sales and Use Tax on taxable goods and services, requiring diligent record-keeping to guarantee compliance and avoid audits. It’s also crucial to understand industry-specific taxes, like hotel occupancy tax for hospitality businesses. Engaging in regular tax planning helps minimize overall tax liability throughout the year, as strategic year-end moves and proper management of deductions can greatly affect your tax outcomes, assuring your business remains compliant and financially healthy. Tax Savings Strategies Tax savings strategies play a crucial role in helping small businesses minimize their overall tax liability and navigate the intricacies of tax preparation and planning. Here are some key strategies to reflect on: Utilize Section 179 Deduction: Deduct the full purchase price of qualifying equipment and software. Conduct Regular Financial Reviews: Make informed decisions throughout the year that positively affect tax outcomes. Understand Local Tax Regulations: Be aware of Texas Franchise Tax for businesses with revenue over $1,230,000. Engage Professional Accounting Services: Guarantee compliance with current tax laws as you identify potential savings. Filing Deadlines Awareness Awareness of filing deadlines is crucial for small businesses, as it directly impacts compliance and potential tax savings. Federal income tax returns are due by April 15, with partnerships and S corporations needing to file by March 15. If you’re self-employed or own certain corporations, keep in mind that estimated tax payments are due quarterly on April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15 of the following year. Texas businesses with revenues over $1,230,000 should note that the Texas Franchise Tax has similar deadlines. Furthermore, Sales and Use Tax returns are due on the 20th of each month for monthly filers, whereas annual filers have a January 20 deadline. Staying organized with these dates helps avoid penalties and optimize tax savings. Financial Statement Preparation: Key Insights for Decision Making When you prepare financial statements, you’re not just creating documents; you’re developing critical tools that inform your business decisions. These statements, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements, provide a thorough overview of your financial health. Accurate financial statements are crucial for evaluating your operational performance, allowing you to track revenues and expenses effectively. Here are four key insights to reflect on: Profitability Evaluation: A well-prepared income statement helps you analyze your profitability over specific periods. Regulatory Compliance: Regularly prepared statements guarantee compliance with necessary regulations. Cash Flow Insights: Timely insights into cash flow enable effective decision-making. Funding Opportunities: Well-crafted financial statements can help secure financing from lenders and investors by demonstrating your stability and growth potential. Utilizing these statements strategically can greatly impact your business’s success. Accounts Receivable and Payable Management: Maintaining Cash Flow Financial statements provide a clear picture of your business’s financial health, but managing accounts receivable and payable is equally important for maintaining cash flow. Effective accounts receivable management guarantees you’re collecting payments on time, which can reduce your days sales outstanding (DSO) and stabilize cash flow. By implementing clear invoicing processes and follow-up reminders, you could decrease late payments by up to 30%, improving your liquidity. On the other hand, a healthy accounts payable system allows you to manage cash outflows strategically. It helps you capitalize on vendor discounts as well as avoiding late fees. Regularly reviewing accounts receivable aging reports can help you identify slow-paying customers and tackle potential collection issues proactively. Furthermore, utilizing accounting software can automate invoicing and payment tracking, streamlining these processes to save you time and reduce errors, ultimately enhancing your business’s financial management efficiency. Bank Reconciliation: Keeping Financial Records Accurate Maintaining accurate financial records is vital for any small business, and monthly bank reconciliation plays a key role in this process. By ensuring that your bank statements align with your accounting records, you can identify discrepancies such as lost checks or unauthorized transactions. Here are four key benefits of regular bank reconciliation: Detects embezzlement: Spotting unusual transactions helps protect your business from potential fraud. Minimizes bank charges: It reduces the risk of erroneous fees that could negatively impact your cash flow. Facilitates cash management: You gain a clear picture of available funds and upcoming liabilities, aiding in better financial planning. Provides peace of mind: Knowing your financial records are accurate and up to date is fundamental for tax preparation. Engaging in monthly bank reconciliation not merely improves accuracy but additionally allows for timely adjustments and informed decision-making, boosting your overall financial performance. Unlimited Consultations: Support for Your Financial Questions Having access to unlimited consultations as part of your accounting service package can greatly improve your grasp of your business’s financial setting. With these consultations, you can ask any financial questions without worrying about additional fees, allowing you to gain clarity on complex issues. This support is beneficial regardless of your accounting knowledge level, ensuring you feel comfortable discussing your concerns and inquiries. Open communication is emphasized during these consultations, helping you stay informed about your financial health and the implications of your choices. Regularly engaging with your accountant encourages proactive financial management, allowing you to address potential issues before they escalate. Frequently Asked Questions What Accounting Services Do Small Businesses Need? Small businesses typically need several key accounting services to guarantee financial health. You’ll require bookkeeping for daily transactions, accounts payable and receivable management, and payroll processing for accurate employee compensation. Financial statement preparation, including balance sheets and income statements, is vital for evaluating performance. In addition, tax preparation and planning help minimize liabilities, whereas regular bank reconciliations maintain accurate records. Finally, unlimited consultations with accounting professionals provide ongoing support for financial decision-making. What Accounting Is Needed for a Small Business? For a small business, you need thorough accounting practices to guarantee financial accuracy and compliance. Key services include bookkeeping to track daily transactions, payroll processing for employee payments, and tax preparation to meet legal obligations. Regular financial statement preparation allows you to assess profitability and performance. Furthermore, maintaining a clean general ledger minimizes errors, whereas monthly Bank of America reconciliations help detect discrepancies, guaranteeing your financial records remain accurate and up-to-date. What Is the Average Cost of a CPA for a Small Business? The average cost of a CPA for a small business varies considerably, typically ranging from $150 to $300 per hour, depending on their expertise and your location. Monthly retainers can fall between $300 to $3,000 or more, influenced by your business’s complexity. For specific tasks, like tax preparation, fees often start at around $500. Be aware of potential hidden costs for additional services, so clarify pricing structures upfront with your CPA. Which Accounting Package Is Best for a Small Business? Choosing the best accounting package for your small business depends on your specific needs. Consider the complexity of your transactions and required services, like bank reconciliation, financial statements, and consultations. Packages typically range from $300 to over $3,000 monthly. Look for providers with expertise in your industry and verify their credentials. A thorough package won’t just guarantee compliance but will additionally provide strategic guidance to help you make informed decisions for growth. Conclusion By utilizing these crucial accounting services, you can greatly improve your small business’s financial health. Accurate bookkeeping, efficient payroll processing, and thorough tax preparation not only guarantee compliance but additionally promote strategic planning. Managing accounts receivable and payable effectively helps maintain cash flow, whereas regular bank reconciliations keep your records precise. Furthermore, unlimited consultations provide ongoing support for your financial queries. Embracing these services can streamline your operations and empower you to make informed decisions for your business’s future. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "7 Essential Accounting Services for Small Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

In a trial featuring a clash between Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, neither of the tech titans has emerged as an overly sympathetic character. But nobody has more to lose than Altman, who is expected to take the stand this week to defend himself. Already, testimony about Altman’s turbulent tenure at the ChatGPT maker has become prime fodder for internet jokes. One piece of evidence that has inspired countless memes was a text exchange between Altman and a company officer, Mira Murati, in 2023 during his short-lived ouster as CEO, when Altman asked if things were moving “directionally good or bad” and she wrote back: “Sam this is very bad.” Musk, the world’s richest man, is seeking Altman’s second ouster from the company leadership as part of a civil lawsuit accusing him of betraying their shared vision for OpenAI. Since its start as a nonprofit funded primarily by Musk, Open AI has evolved into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion. Even if Musk loses, the trial has invited further scrutiny of Altman’s leadership at a pivotal time for the company and its competition with Musk’s own AI firm and another rival, Anthropic, formed by a group of seven ex-OpenAI leaders. All three firms are moving toward planned initial public offerings that are expected to be some of the largest ever. A jury that’s already heard about Altman’s character from a parade of his former allies and adversaries will ultimately decide the verdict. But the repercussions could reverberate widely. “This is not looking good for any of them and I think that that’s a little bit unfortunate for the AI industry at a time when the public perception of AI is quite negative and seems to be getting worse,” said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute. Musk warned Altman would be one of America’s ‘most hated’ men The lawsuit accuses Altman and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, of double-crossing Musk by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be an altruistic steward of a revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges they shifted into a moneymaking mode behind his back. Shortly before the trial began, Musk abandoned a bid for damages for himself and instead is seeking an unspecified amount of money to be paid to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI’s charitable arm. In a text exchange with Brockman proposing a possible settlement, Musk warned that Brockman and Altman “will be the most hated men in America” as a result of the trial. While Musk, the head of SpaceX, Tesla and a slew of other companies, was well known by the San Francisco Bay Area jury pool, fewer knew who Altman was before the start of the trial, even if they were familiar with ChatGPT. As the trial has played out in a federal courtroom in Oakland, California over the last two weeks, jurors have heard from witnesses including OpenAI ex-board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley, who spoke about the decision to fire Altman in 2023 before they were themselves ousted from the board of directors when Altman returned to his role. In video testimony last week, Toner said a starting point for the decision to oust Altman was when OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, a respected AI scientist, reached out to confide some of his own concerns. “A phrase we used was ‘a pattern of behavior,’ so no one single cause,” Toner said. “The pattern of behavior related to his honesty and candor, his resistance of board oversight.” Sutskever was instrumental in the unsuccessful attempt to oust Altman but later said he regretted his role in the shakeup. In his own testimony Monday, Sutskever confirmed that he wrote a 2023 memo to OpenAI’s board that characterized Altman as pitting his executives against one another and exhibiting a “consistent pattern of lying” that was causing a loss of trust and productivity. Sutskever said Altman’s behavior contributed to an environment that was “not conducive” to the company’s goals, including its mission to safely build artificial general intelligence. He said he later backtracked and supported Altman’s reinstatement because he was concerned about what would happen to a company he worked hard to create and “cared very much about.” “I felt that, had I not done this, the company would have been destroyed, and I felt that this was a Hail Mary,” he testified. OpenAI begins presenting its side The trial has carried risks also for Musk, who is pursuing an initial public offering this summer for his rocket ship maker, SpaceX, which could make him the world’s first trillionaire. Among the witnesses has been Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member who served as a conduit between Musk and OpenAI’s leaders and also didn’t disclose that Musk was the father of her two young twins, according to trial testimony. Not until midday Monday, on the third week of the trial, did OpenAI begin calling its own witnesses, starting with Bret Taylor, the current chair of OpenAI’s board who painted a more positive portrait of Altman’s leadership. “I think Sam has done a great job as CEO,” Taylor said. “He’s been forthright with me and the other board members.” Syracuse University professor Shubha Ghosh, an expert in business and technology law, said regardless of the outcome of the case, he has doubts about Altman staying on as CEO of OpenAI in the long run. “A lot this of might depend upon a testimony,” he said. “And I don’t know what he’s going to say or how he’s gonna say it. But even like the best case, movie theater type performance, with all the music playing and the angels descending or whatnot, I don’t see him coming off as a fairly strong leader, especially (since) this case has gone this far.” —Barbara Ortutay and Matt O’Brien, AP Technology Writers View the full article

Running a productive team requires more than assigning tasks and holding meetings. The right team management templates create structure around communication, accountability and onboarding so managers can coordinate daily work, reduce confusion and keep projects moving without wasting time on administrative setup or inconsistent processes across departments and teams. If you want to guide your team towards success, try ProjectManager. This award-winning project management software helps teams across industries plan, schedule and track work from start to finish. Create detailed schedules, manage resources, monitor costs and compare planned versus actual performance with a full suite of powerful tools. Get started for free today. /wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Light-mode-portfolio-dashboard-CTA-1600x851.pngLearn more 1. Roles and Responsibilities Template Clear roles and responsibilities prevent duplicated work, missed deadlines and confusion during execution. Teams perform more consistently when every person understands their authority, assigned tasks and reporting structure. Establishing accountability early also improves communication between departments, speeds up decision-making and reduces conflicts that can delay projects, operations or client deliverables. /wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Roles-and-Responsibilities-Template-600x211.png Built with organized role assignment fields, this template tracks departments, contact information, reporting relationships, responsibilities, key tasks and deliverables for every team member. Managers can quickly identify ownership across operations, procurement, finance and field teams while creating a centralized accountability document that supports staffing coordination, project execution and communication planning. 2. Meeting Agenda Template A meeting agenda is a structured document used to organize discussion topics, presenters, timelines and action items before a meeting begins. Teams use agendas to keep conversations focused, manage time effectively and ensure important decisions are addressed. Consistent agendas also improve accountability by documenting priorities and expected meeting outcomes clearly. /wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Meeting-agenda-template-screenshot-600x525.png Designed for recurring team coordination, this template includes sections for meeting details, leadership roles, attendees, objectives and scheduled agenda items. Teams can document chairpersons, secretaries and participant contact information while organizing discussions into timed segments that keep meetings structured, productive and aligned with project priorities or operational updates. 3. 30-60-90 Day Plan Template A 30-60-90 day plan is a structured roadmap used to define goals, priorities and performance expectations during an employee’s first three months. Managers commonly use these plans for onboarding, leadership transitions and performance alignment. Breaking objectives into phases helps teams measure progress while giving employees a clear direction from day one. /wp-content/uploads/2024/11/30-60-90-day-template-full-table-600x359.png Organized into 30-day phases, this template helps managers map SMART goals, action steps, deliverables, performance indicators and resource requirements for new employees or transitioning team leaders. Each section supports milestone tracking and structured onboarding by connecting measurable objectives with practical tasks, reporting expectations and operational performance benchmarks. 4. SMART Goals Template SMART goals are structured objectives designed to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. Teams use SMART goals to create realistic performance targets, track measurable progress and improve accountability during projects, onboarding and operational planning. Breaking goals into measurable criteria also helps managers evaluate performance, prioritize work and monitor deadlines. /wp-content/uploads/2023/08/smart-goals-template-image-600x603.jpg This SMART goals template organizes objectives into five structured categories with guided prompts for documenting success criteria, measurement methods, required resources, business relevance and completion deadlines. Teams can use the worksheet to build actionable goals, align employee expectations and create consistent performance tracking across projects, departments and operational improvement initiatives. 5. Performance Improvement Plan Template A performance improvement plan is a structured document used to correct employee performance issues through measurable goals, timelines and management support. Organizations use these plans when employees fail to meet expectations, productivity standards or behavioral requirements. Defined milestones and documented evaluations help managers monitor progress while creating formal accountability procedures. /wp-content/uploads/2024/10/performance-improvement-plan-template-for-Word-600x516.png This performance improvement plan template includes sections for documenting performance issues, SMART goals, action steps, support resources, review timelines, evaluation criteria and final assessments. Managers can use it to create structured improvement plans, communicate expectations clearly and track employee progress through measurable milestones, review meetings and signed performance agreements consistently. 6. Skills Matrix Template A skills matrix is a workforce management tool used to document employee skills, proficiency levels and training gaps across a team. Managers use skills matrices to allocate work, identify development needs and plan training initiatives. Comparing capabilities across departments also helps organizations improve staffing decisions, succession planning and operational coverage. /wp-content/uploads/2025/04/skills-matrix-template-600x109.png This skills matrix template tracks employee competencies, departments, proficiency gaps, assessment sources and recommended training actions in a centralized spreadsheet. Managers can compare technical and operational capabilities across teams while identifying certification needs, missing skills and development priorities. The template also supports workforce planning, cross-training initiatives and performance reviews processes. 7. Task Tracker Template Tracking task progress helps teams identify delays, manage workloads and maintain accountability throughout project execution. Without visibility into assignments and deadlines, small issues can quickly disrupt schedules and priorities. Monitoring task status also improves communication between managers and team members while helping organizations respond faster to operational risks and changing project demands. /wp-content/uploads/2025/02/task-tracker-dashboard-template-final-600x446.png This task tracker template organizes assignments by priority, owner, status, deadlines and completion progress in a centralized dashboard. Built-in charts summarize task distribution and workflow status, giving managers a quick visual overview of team activity. The template also helps monitor overdue work, paused assignments and active tasks across ongoing projects. 8. RACI Matrix Template A RACI matrix is a responsibility assignment chart used to define who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed for project tasks. Teams use RACI matrices to eliminate confusion during execution, improve communication between departments and establish decision-making authority. Clear accountability structures also help reduce delays, duplicated work and approval bottlenecks. /wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RACI-Matrix-Screenshot-600x237.jpg Structured by project phases and functional roles, this RACI matrix template maps accountability across planning, execution and control activities. Teams can assign responsibility levels for tasks involving leadership, finance, design and product management while creating a centralized reference for approvals, communication workflows and stakeholder involvement throughout the project lifecycle. 9. RASCI Matrix Template A RASCI matrix is a project management framework used to define who is responsible, accountable, supportive, consulted and informed for specific tasks. Organizations use RASCI matrices when projects involve multiple departments, subcontractors or stakeholders requiring coordinated responsibilities. Adding the supportive role improves collaboration by clarifying operational assistance during execution activities. /wp-content/uploads/2026/04/RASCI-Matrix-Template-for-Excel-600x256.png Designed around project phases and specialized construction roles, this RASCI matrix template assigns accountability across initiation, design, pre-construction and field operations tasks. Teams can coordinate architects, contractors, engineers, inspectors and clients within one responsibility chart while improving communication, approval tracking and collaboration throughout complex project execution workflows. 10. Training Matrix Template A training matrix is a workforce management tool used to track employee training requirements, certifications, skill levels and compliance status. Organizations use training matrices to monitor workforce readiness, schedule recertifications and identify development gaps across departments. Maintaining accurate training records also helps managers support safety standards, operational consistency and regulatory compliance. /wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Training-Matrix-Template-for-Excel-600x100.png This training matrix template tracks employee roles, required training programs, certification deadlines, proficiency levels and completion status within one centralized spreadsheet. Managers can monitor active certifications, training methods, expiration dates and assessment responsibilities while identifying employees with incomplete or overdue training requirements across operational, compliance and technical workforce categories. How to Manage Projects and Teams with ProjectManager ProjectManager is an online project management solution that provides a complete set of work planning, scheduling and tracking tools, including Gantt charts, kanban boards, task lists and real-time dashboards and reports. With these features, teams across industries can build detailed schedules, assign resources and monitor progress, costs and timelines. ProjectManager also delivers AI-powered project insights to support better decision-making and connects with over 100 tools like Microsoft Project, Acumatica and Power BI. With its open API and wide range of integrations, organizations can seamlessly link ProjectManager to their existing systems. Watch the video below to learn more about how our software supports construction teams! If you need a tool to help you manage projects, then sign up for our software now at ProjectManager. Our online software helps teams across industries plan, track and oversee projects as they unfold. Sign up for a free 30-day trial today! The post 10 Free Team Management Templates for Excel & Word appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

Draft statement of intent seen as first step towards potential bigger ‘drone deal’View the full article

As the job market shifts dramatically under the influence of artificial intelligence, small business owners may wonder how to adapt and thrive. Salesforce’s recent initiative to recruit AI-native graduates could provide a significant blueprint for success in an era defined by technological progress and evolving workforce needs. Today’s college graduates are navigating perhaps the toughest job landscape in years, with AI predicted to disrupt traditional work roles substantially. In fact, entry-level hiring has already dropped by 6%, prompting small businesses to reevaluate how they build their teams. Recognizing this shift, Salesforce is stepping up its efforts to harness emerging talent, launching a new Builder program aimed at recruiting 1,000 graduates and interns to facilitate the development of its AI platform, Agentforce. Graduates now entering the workforce are often not just consumers of AI but innovators shaping its future. “The AI-native generation entering the workforce today isn’t threatened by AI. They’re the ones building it,” said Nathalie Scardino, Chief People Officer at Salesforce. This cohort displays remarkable proficiency with AI tools—reportedly being four times more likely to engage with AI daily, which enables them to deliver results three times faster than their more traditional counterparts. Small businesses could significantly benefit from this trend by considering the following key takeaways: Adaptation to AI: The incorporation of AI-native talent can enhance operational efficiencies and improve service delivery. These individuals are versed in AI technologies and can help drive productivity in ways that older managerial staff might not. Fostering Innovation: By employing AI-native graduates, small businesses can create an environment ripe for collaboration and innovation, with new workflows designed to harness the advantages of AI capabilities. Real-World Implementation of AI: Salesforce’s Builder program encourages its participants to engage in hands-on projects in areas like engineering and product development, offering small businesses a roadmap for facilitating similar experiences. Engaging emerging talent through practical projects, such as hackathons and collaborative workspaces, can attract dynamic individuals ready to make impactful contributions. While the potential benefits are substantial, small business owners should also be aware of potential challenges. Cultural Fit: AI-native workers may come with a different working style or expectations. A clash of generational work ethics and practices could pose hurdles. Small businesses need to create inclusive environments that accommodate diverse approaches to work. Skill Adaptation: Integrating new technology and training staff may require upfront investment in time and resources. Small firms may question how to navigate these changes without compromising operations. Retention Strategies: As demand for skilled AI talent rapidly increases, retaining these workers could become challenging. Organizations should consider developing mentorship programs and career pathways to maintain morale and commitment. Salesforce isn’t just recruiting talent; it’s actively reshaping how work gets done through its Emerging Talent Playbook. This guide offers strategies for small businesses to attract and engage AI-savvy individuals. According to the playbook’s 3As framework—Attract, Assess, and Activate—companies should engage emerging talent right from their educational experiences, evaluate their adaptability to evolving AI technologies, and integrate them through structured onboarding processes. The principles laid out in the playbook aim to prepare small businesses for a future in which adaptability to AI will be crucial. “Businesses can’t afford to wait for their workforce to catch up to AI,” Scardino added, reinforcing the urgency for organizations to act now. With the correct strategies and an emphasis on integrating AI-native talent, small businesses can position themselves not just to survive in an AI-driven landscape, but to thrive. For more detailed insights from Salesforce’s initiatives and findings, visit the original post here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Salesforce Launches Initiative to Hire 1,000 AI-Native Graduates" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

As the job market shifts dramatically under the influence of artificial intelligence, small business owners may wonder how to adapt and thrive. Salesforce’s recent initiative to recruit AI-native graduates could provide a significant blueprint for success in an era defined by technological progress and evolving workforce needs. Today’s college graduates are navigating perhaps the toughest job landscape in years, with AI predicted to disrupt traditional work roles substantially. In fact, entry-level hiring has already dropped by 6%, prompting small businesses to reevaluate how they build their teams. Recognizing this shift, Salesforce is stepping up its efforts to harness emerging talent, launching a new Builder program aimed at recruiting 1,000 graduates and interns to facilitate the development of its AI platform, Agentforce. Graduates now entering the workforce are often not just consumers of AI but innovators shaping its future. “The AI-native generation entering the workforce today isn’t threatened by AI. They’re the ones building it,” said Nathalie Scardino, Chief People Officer at Salesforce. This cohort displays remarkable proficiency with AI tools—reportedly being four times more likely to engage with AI daily, which enables them to deliver results three times faster than their more traditional counterparts. Small businesses could significantly benefit from this trend by considering the following key takeaways: Adaptation to AI: The incorporation of AI-native talent can enhance operational efficiencies and improve service delivery. These individuals are versed in AI technologies and can help drive productivity in ways that older managerial staff might not. Fostering Innovation: By employing AI-native graduates, small businesses can create an environment ripe for collaboration and innovation, with new workflows designed to harness the advantages of AI capabilities. Real-World Implementation of AI: Salesforce’s Builder program encourages its participants to engage in hands-on projects in areas like engineering and product development, offering small businesses a roadmap for facilitating similar experiences. Engaging emerging talent through practical projects, such as hackathons and collaborative workspaces, can attract dynamic individuals ready to make impactful contributions. While the potential benefits are substantial, small business owners should also be aware of potential challenges. Cultural Fit: AI-native workers may come with a different working style or expectations. A clash of generational work ethics and practices could pose hurdles. Small businesses need to create inclusive environments that accommodate diverse approaches to work. Skill Adaptation: Integrating new technology and training staff may require upfront investment in time and resources. Small firms may question how to navigate these changes without compromising operations. Retention Strategies: As demand for skilled AI talent rapidly increases, retaining these workers could become challenging. Organizations should consider developing mentorship programs and career pathways to maintain morale and commitment. Salesforce isn’t just recruiting talent; it’s actively reshaping how work gets done through its Emerging Talent Playbook. This guide offers strategies for small businesses to attract and engage AI-savvy individuals. According to the playbook’s 3As framework—Attract, Assess, and Activate—companies should engage emerging talent right from their educational experiences, evaluate their adaptability to evolving AI technologies, and integrate them through structured onboarding processes. The principles laid out in the playbook aim to prepare small businesses for a future in which adaptability to AI will be crucial. “Businesses can’t afford to wait for their workforce to catch up to AI,” Scardino added, reinforcing the urgency for organizations to act now. With the correct strategies and an emphasis on integrating AI-native talent, small businesses can position themselves not just to survive in an AI-driven landscape, but to thrive. For more detailed insights from Salesforce’s initiatives and findings, visit the original post here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Salesforce Launches Initiative to Hire 1,000 AI-Native Graduates" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Your backlog has 50 requests. Half of them are just variations of the same connection between two project management tools, but without a system to recognize patterns, each request is treated as unique. Some actually have complex requirements, and others have been in your backlog for so long that the original requester has already built their own workaround, whether that’s with CSV exports, manual copying and pasting, or a rogue Zapier account no one in IT knows about. This backlog might be IT’s responsibility, but it’s not their fault. It’s caused by a structural problem. According to a market study by IDG and TeamDynamix, 89% of businesses have a data integration backlog, even if they rely on third-party support. The demand for integrations grows with every new tool the company adopts, but IT’s headcount doesn’t. Your backlog is the gap between these two trends. Here’s why, and what you can do about it. Why your integration backlog keeps growing Organizations use an average of 106 SaaS apps. Even if each app only had to integrate with a single other app, the number of integrations you need scales exponentially. While a lot of these apps have built-in integrations with logical pairings (e.g., Jira and Azure DevOps), they can’t cover every integration request. Either the tools you need to integrate just aren’t available or the integrations themselves aren’t deep enough (i.e., they don’t support enough fields or actions). It goes beyond the sheer number of integration requests, though. Most requests are rarely one-and-done. A seemingly simple request to pair Asana and Jira, for example, might spawn sub-requests like syncing statuses or supporting custom fields. When the scope of each request has the potential to grow from a few hours to a workday to even a full week, it’s hard to properly gauge the depth of your backlog, and it’s growing that entire time. Another key factor contributing to that growth? Repetitive requests. Most of the integrations you get follow the same essential pattern (e.g., connecting one project management tool to another). But without a system for recognizing these patterns, there’s no efficient method for systemizing or templating your response to them. You have to address every integration request from scratch, like it’s completely distinct from the others. That leads to a lot of lost time spent on these requests. Finally, when integration requests sit in your backlog for too long, the original requester typically figures out a workaround. But these workarounds (e.g., CSV exports, rogue automation accounts) can create technical debt as they lead to more problems than solutions. For example, an automation that IT never approved could accidentally edit fields in an Asana project and delete critical information. Then IT gets a ticket to fix the problem (which takes resources away from the initial integration request). These factors, combined, create a perfect storm for a never-ending integration backlog. Why hiring doesn’t solve the backlog If your backlog is constantly growing, the solution is to keep hiring IT professionals, right? Not quite. Finance sees IT as a cost, and that cost can’t easily be linked with revenue generation. Everyone knows IT keeps the company running. But tying additional headcount to revenue growth is a harder sell. Hiring to fix your integration backlog is an uphill battle right out of the gate. Even if you get the headcount you think you need, you won’t see a lasting impact on your integration backlog. Even a full-time integration engineer can make a dent in it but not fully address it. The rate at which your backlog grows can outpace that engineer’s work, meaning hiring can’t eliminate the backlog. Engineers can create custom-built integrations to address integration requests, and some of them can even handle batches of requests. But every custom integration creates a maintenance burden, until most of an engineer’s time is spent maintaining existing integrations rather than addressing new integration requests. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire integration engineers. You need the headcount to address complex, mission critical integration needs — not for every Jira-to-Asana integration request. Hiring more engineers doesn’t address the core issues behind your growing backlog. Why enterprise iPaaS isn’t the answer for most teams When you start searching for a non-hiring solution to your integration backlog, enterprise iPaaS like Workato, Boomi, or MuleSoft quickly start coming up. But while these platforms have deep customization and tooling that IT teams can appreciate, they’re rarely the right solution for solving your backlog problems. Most integration strategy advice is directed at a specific kind of problem: merging tech stacks, usually after a merger or acquisition. IT teams have to bridge the gap between two sets of tools while minimizing impacts on existing workflows. An enterprise iPaaS becomes the connective tissue between these two, potentially very different, stacks. But it’s not the right solution for a backlog with 40 integration requests, all covering the same tool stack. For one, only IT has the keys to these platforms, making them a bottleneck in the queue you’re trying to clear. If you don’t have an engineer who knows how to use Workato, you’ll need to compensate for the learning curve involved before you start seeing a return on your investment in this platform. And that investment can be significant. Enterprise iPaaS is priced for enterprise organizations, which can put it out of reach for most IT teams. Finally, enterprise iPaaS is overkill for most integration requests you’re actually dealing with. A temporary project involving two project management tools doesn’t need the robust customization — or lengthy implementation times — of an enterprise iPaaS. The self-serve model: Shift from building to approving With neither hiring nor enterprise iPaaS being the right approach to attacking your backlog, what’s left? Self-serve. Instead of IT building every single integration the rest of the company needs, IT is the gatekeeper. They review requests and hand the keys off to the initial requester if their request is appropriate. In practice, that means they get access to a no-code platform, easy enough for anyone to use, with guardrails set up by IT. That comes with significant advantages. Your backlog transforms from tasks requiring build time to a list of approvals. Approving an integration will always be faster than building one, meaning this shift addresses the core issue behind your growing backlog rather than just trying to keep up with requests. There’s also less back-and-forth between IT and requesters, since requesters know what they need to build. A robust integration governance framework allows IT to keep control over how integrations get built without building them all. This is a framework with four essential elements: Authentication, which validates which tools can and can’t be integrated. Authorization, defining which fields and work items can be synced. Validation, pre-approving integration patterns by tool pairing and use case. Audit, building visibility into your integrations so IT can audit them when things go wrong. Many companies with a self-serve model ignore this framework. While self-serve tools are incredibly powerful for business users, using them without any oversight can create more problems than it resolves. Sure, you’ve offloaded your integration backlog, but you’ve created a potential deluge of IT tickets for troubleshooting problematic integrations or isolating data breaches. But with the right framework, self-serve integration platforms are the vehicle for dealing with your backlog. What to look for in a platform that enables this Not all self-serve integration platforms are created equal. The right platform has to strike a balance between ease-of-use for business users and control for IT. Here’s how you can evaluate these platforms. No-code configuration If an integration platform requires coding, it’s not truly self-serve. Users throughout the company need to be able to build integrations without help from a developer. Centralized authentication IT needs to hold the keys for the integration platform you use, without needing to authenticate accounts on an individual basis. Security measures like role-based permissions and single sign-on can help IT maintain control of integrations without excess admin work. Field-level permissions Just because IT approves a specific tool for an integration doesn’t mean all the data in it should be synced. Field-level permissions gives IT an additional layer of control, so they can still empower business users to build their own integrations without accidentally syncing sensitive data. Two-way sync capability A two-way sync keeps data consistent across multiple tools automatically, rather than requiring distinct automations for each direction. Most no-code automation tools support one-way automation, which is enough for simple workflows or one-time data transfers. A two-way sync can support more integrations without extensive IT or development work. Audit trails and activity logs A self-serve model requires auditability. That way, IT knows who built an integration and where to start if something goes wrong. It also gives them more visibility on the data flowing between tools, ensuring no one is syncing sensitive data. Pre-built connectors Pre-built connectors and pre-configured flows allow users to get their integrations up-and-running quicker. It also allows IT to approve integrations faster, since they meet pre-approved templates. How Unito clears the backlog Unito is a two-way sync platform with the deepest integrations for 60 of the most popular tools on the market, from Asana to Jira, ServiceNow to Google Sheets. You can set up a no-code flow in minutes, centralize authentication and data security, and build a foundation for integration governance. By making Unito your one, central platform for software integration, you can start clearing your integration backlog by shifting to a self-serve model without sacrificing data security and best practices. Want to see what Unito can do? Meet with a product expert for a demo. Talk with sales Take control of your backlog Your integration backlog isn’t going away. Teams are going to keep adopting new tools. New workflows will need new integrations. You won’t build your way out — you’ll just keep falling behind. Shift to a self-serve model with the right tools, and you’ll actually be able to manage the backlog. Want to see the kinds of integrations a platform like Unito can support? Check out these use cases. View the full article

The AI engine pipeline runs 10 gates from discovered through won. Discovered is the bot finding your page. Alongside selected, crawled, rendered, and indexed, those five infrastructure gates get you legible to the machine. Annotated, recruited, grounded, and displayed are the four competitive gates where the algorithm decides whether your brand is the brand it’s prepared to put in front of a buyer. Won is the gate that pays for everything: the click happens, the recommendation lands, and the agent transacts. Won has changed beyond recognition in the last 24 months. It used to mean a click on a search result, the human doing the picking, the brand competing for attention against nine blue links. It still means that, sometimes. It can also mean an assistive engine naming your brand to a user who accepts the recommendation. Or it can mean an Agent transacting on the user’s behalf. All of this is about delegation: how much we delegate to machines, and when. Delegation in the context of search and AI is far from new. We’ve delegated “finding the books to the librarian” since AltaVista. What’s new is that the boundary of what and where we delegate is now flexible: the user can hand more of the journey to the engine than ever before, and the brand that wants to win has to be ready for every option on the delegation spectrum. What hasn’t changed: The point of search Underneath the three mechanisms sits the same commercial truth that’s been the point of search since Sergey Brin first articulated it: get the user to the best solution to their problem as efficiently as possible. AI hasn’t changed the point of search. AI assistive engines and agents simply get the user to the best solution to their problem significantly more efficiently than search: a 15-minute purchase journey through ChatGPT that would have taken a week through traditional Search. In essence, AI removes an enormous amount of friction inherent in search. The delegation boundary is the line between what the user does for themselves and what they hand to the engine. The further the user pushes it toward the engine, the less work the user does, and the faster won arrives. The further the user holds it back, the longer won takes. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with From problem to purchase in 15 minutes with ChatGPT I’m a double bass player, and I have a huge bass amp in my living room. I also have a guitar my father gave me when I was 18, which I’ve never played much, because I became a professional double bass player in the 1990s, so the guitar has lived as a keepsake for most of its life. A few months back, I got an offer to play a solo gig at the jazz club opposite my flat. I had a guitar, but no guitar amp, and I didn’t want to buy a guitar amp for one gig. I figured I could just use the bass amp. Here’s my conversation with ChatGPT: Me: Can I play guitar through my bass amp? Will I break it? ChatGPT: No, you won’t break it. But it’ll sound terrible. Me: How do I make it sound good? ChatGPT: Three pedals: reverb, compression, equalization. Me: Which ones? ChatGPT: Boss, JHS, TC Electronic. Me: Price? ChatGPT: Around $250 for the set. Me: Cheaper. I’m more of a singer than guitarist. ChatGPT: I can get you there for $125. Me: I need delivery by Friday, guaranteed. Saturday gig. ChatGPT: Thomann in Europe, Sweetwater in the US. Both will hit Friday. Me: Europe. ChatGPT: [Thomann link] Me: Clicks. Buys. The Google team specifically asked me to make this point in the keynote, and I want to land it here too because they care about it for a reason most marketers haven’t worked out yet. The engine made decisions for me all the way down the funnel. It decided whether the question even had an answer, which pedals were worth shortlisting at which price tier, and who could meet a Friday deadline. My delegation boundary sat at the perfect click. ChatGPT owned the entire research-and-recommendation funnel. I owned the buy button, and only because Thomann doesn’t yet have an agential checkout. If they had, the agent would have transacted while I was making coffee. The point isn’t that the funnel compressed from a week to fifteen minutes. The point is what happened inside the compression: the engine made dozens of small decisions on my behalf, each one quietly closing off options that might otherwise have stayed open. A different engine might have surfaced different brands, recommended a different price tier, or picked a different supplier. The brand that wins isn’t the one the user chose. It’s the one that survived every one of those upstream decisions the engine made before the user ever saw a recommendation. Two things put my boundary that far to the right. Emotional weight: The pedals just needed to be good enough, not perfect. Domain expertise: I’m not a guitarist. I have no opinions about boutique pedal brands. The comparison work a serious guitarist would relish is friction I’d happily have someone else do. A working professional would have approached the same purchase entirely differently. A studio musician whose tone is their living would have gone into the shop, plugged the pedals in, and decided in the room. A geeky enthusiast would have spent the week on Reverb forums comparing JHS to Strymon to Walrus, because for them, the research is the fun, the comparing is the point. The point here is that you have the same purchase made by three buyer personas, each with a completely different position on the delegation boundary, and Thomann needs to be ready to win all three. I’ve bought over €2,000 of equipment from Thomann since. The single-mode assumption is dead, three modes coexist now For two decades, “optimize for search” was the whole of the job: get in the top 10 and win the click at each stage of the funnel. Exhausting work, and it’s no longer enough. That single approach has been replaced with three modes running in parallel. Search hasn’t gone anywhere. It just has assistive and agential sitting alongside as alternatives for all or part of the journey for each use. Search tolerates a fuzzy or unclear brand because the human will do the sorting. Assistive tolerates less of it, because the AI is recommending you to the user, and the AI’s credibility is on the line every time it uses your name. Agent tolerates none of it, because the agent transacts without asking, and a fuzzy brand is exactly the kind of risk the agent will quietly route around, and the user will never know. Won looks different in each mode. In search, won is the click, and then the user finishes the journey on your site, and you need to deal with friction (objections, questions, and clarifications). In assistive, won is the AI engine naming you and the user accepting the name without further verification, and so most of the friction has already been dealt with. In agent, won is the transaction completed without anyone consulting the user, friction reduced to zero from the user’s point of view. The pedal-buying journey sat at the assistive end, and could have been at the agential end. The professional studio musician sits at the search end. The geeky enthusiast sits at the search end too, because for him, the friction is the entertainment. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. The delegation boundary moves with every purchase, person, and culture A user might delegate a coffee order to an agent without thinking, ask an assistive engine for advice on a kitchen renovation but make the final supplier call themselves, then spend an hour happily window-shopping for a bracelet that’s “just what I always wanted.” Same person, same week, three positions on the boundary, and all three engines doing useful work. The diagram shows that one person sets the delegation boundary at completely different positions depending on the purchase. A wedding venue lives at the far left of search mode, because the decision is emotional and irreversible, and you wouldn’t want AI to make that journey for you. A few notches to the right, still in search mode, you’ve got someone who’s a sock collector and is window-shopping the listings because the choosing is the point. Further right, still in search mode but inching toward assistive, you’ve got the strategic business contract where only the human holds the strategic context that the AI doesn’t have access to. Cross over into assistive mode, and you’ve got the holiday I’m planning, where I’m asking the AI for advice but cross-checking through search to challenge the results before I commit. A notch further right, still inside assistive mode, you’ve got the kitchen renovation where I’m taking the AI’s advice on what’s possible, but I’m picking the supplier myself, because the supplier relationship is one I’m going to live with for years. Cross again into agent mode, and you’ve got the holiday I already know: the agent books the cheapest familiar hotel without consulting me, because I’ve stayed there before and it’ll be fine. Further right, the pragmatic sock purchase where I just need the right pair in the right size by Tuesday, and the brand doesn’t matter a great deal. And right at the far end, the taxi from A to B, where I genuinely don’t think about it, the agent picks the ride, the agent pays, and I get to my destination with zero fuss or thought. Same person, eight different positions on the boundary. The variability is the whole AAO game: you have to have a strategy that will win the click at every stage across the Delegation Boundary. The boundary tracks risk, human preference, emotional weight, reversibility, and a half-dozen other things. You have to wrap that into your strategy on top of the cascading confidence, the 10 gates, the entity home, the push-layer entry modes, the framing gap, and the funnel flip this series has been piling up since February 2026. 7 factors tell you where the delegation boundary sits in your category Score yourself against seven broad factors (and add your own, if you like): Emotional weight: The more the purchase touches identity, family, or values, the harder to delegate. Domain expertise required: The more specialized the decision, the more users either delegate fully (because they know they don’t know) or refuse to delegate (because they think they do). Price relative to income: A $2 coffee delegates easily, a $20,000 car doesn’t. Purchase frequency: Habitual purchases delegate readily, one-offs need scrutiny. Reversibility: Returnable goods delegate easily, wedding venues don’t. Regulatory context: Financial, medical, and legal categories carry compliance constraints. Cultural context: Trust in agents varies by market and demographic. Evaluate your category and you get a credible read of where your audience sits, how much friction they’re willing to hand to the engine, and where you need to focus your work. You’ve also done something less obvious, but even more important than scoring: you’ve grouped your audience by behavior at the decision moment rather than by demographic or category labels. For two decades, we built paid and organic strategies based on how humans see the world: by category, by demographic, by geography. In Google Ads, five-star hotels in Bali went in one ad group, hostels in Bali in another, and five-star hotels in Thailand in a third, because that’s how a marketer thinks. With AI, the engines stopped thinking that way. For Performance Max and AI Max, you absolutely must group by intent to get performance. Five-star hotels in Bali sit in the same cohort as five-star hotels in Thailand, because the intent (luxury accommodation) holds the cohort, and the geography doesn’t. Gemini thinks in intent cohorts, not human categories, and the same lesson applies across Organic, ChatGPT, Claude, and other LLMs. What matters here: AI groups by intent, AI builds the cohorts, and the brand optimizing against the old human structure is competing in categories the engines have left behind. For years, Google representatives have told us that SEO (or assistive agent optimization, the newer discipline that extends SEO to cover assistive engines and agents) is all about intent, and the point they perhaps didn’t make clear enough is: that’s because it’s how AI thinks. The user delegates, the engine commits Here’s the point most brands haven’t seen yet: the user and the engine work in tandem, and your strategy needs to account for that. Nothing happens without the user’s mandate. The agent doesn’t take over because the assistive engine has decided it’s time. The user pushes the boundary by handing the engine a mandate, and the engine acts within that mandate. The delegation boundary isn’t drifting toward the engine on its own: it is being intentionally moved by the user on a case-by-case basis. Every engine has been delegated to, and delegation forces commitment. We hand search the job of finding the 10 best links for our query, and Search has to commit to which 10. We hand the assistive engine the job of recommending one brand from a comparison set, and it has to commit to which one. We hand the agent the job of executing the transaction, and it has to commit to which transaction. Different layers of delegation, different consequences when the commitment is wrong, but the act of commitment is universal across the delegation spectrum, because every engine has been handed a job that ends in an answer (even if that answer is giving us a choice of 10). The algorithms learn at three levels, and they learn differently across the three engines (search, assistive, and agential): Individual level: What this specific user has accepted, overridden, ignored, repeated. The narrowest scale, fully personalized. Heaviest in Agent mode (where the agent acts on this specific user’s behalf), significant in Assistive mode, negligible in Search. Cohort level: What users with this combination of intent signals have accepted on average across thousands of comparable journeys. Wider than the individual, narrower than everyone. Decisive in Assistive mode (the engine needs to know “what works for users like this one”), important in Agent mode as a fallback when individual signal is sparse, lighter in Search. Global level: What the algorithmic trinity has encoded about the brand from the world’s record. Not user behavior but encoded knowledge, stored in three places simultaneously: the LLM as parameters baked into model weights during training, the search engine as the indexed corpus and ranking signals, and the knowledge graph as entity nodes, relationships, and attributes. Three storage layers, three update cadences, three signal types, all encoding the same fundamental thing: what the AI has come to believe about the brand from everything brands publish and everything others say about them. Three concentric circles. The user at the center. The cohort around the user. The global world around the cohort. The first two layers are about behavior: what users do with you. The third layer is about knowledge: what the algorithmic trinity has encoded about you across LLM parameters, search index, and knowledge graph. The brand has direct leverage at the third layer (everything you publish, everything written about you, everything that becomes part of the corpus the trinity reads from) and indirect leverage at the first two (through the experiences that shape what users do). Important: The third level is the one that compounds the longest. Every won event Thomann has earned across every customer in every cohort over the last 28 years isn’t just training the cohort signal: it’s feeding the global priors that every future model trained on widely available data will inherit. Brand confidence work done today (and every “today” past and present) compounds into future models on substrates the brand never directly trains. That’s the deeper structural reason systematic effort compounds in the AI era. Train the substrate, not just the signal. Why the cohort signal isn’t destiny, and where your opportunity lies If the engines weighted what they had already learned as the only voices that mattered, no challenger brand could ever break in. The dominant brands would dominate forever, the individual histories, the cohort patterns, and the global priors would lock in, and AAO would be a closed game where only the incumbents win. Luckily, that isn’t the reality. What the engine has already learned is heavy, but it isn’t absolute. The brand that establishes a stronger claim than the brands the engine recommends and advocates for can break in, and the layers the brand can move are cohort and global. (The individual layer can be influenced through other communications channels, but is effectively closed in the AI engines because they are increasingly walled gardens.) The route in is to claim, frame, and prove. Make your claim, frame the claim, and prove it with evidence across enough sources that the engine has the corroboration to move you up. Underneath that work sits the understandability, credibility, and deliverability process: Understandability built through clear knowledge of who you are and what you do. Credibility built through N-E-E-A-T-T. Deliverability built through topical ownership. Get all three. Once your confidence clears the threshold: The cohort signal that currently favors your competitor stops being the only voice the engine hears. The global layer starts absorbing your contribution alongside the incumbents’. Your claim becomes framed and proved in a way the engine can resolve and prioritize. That’s the only way an outsider gets in. It’s also the route every dominant brand took to become dominant in the first place. What wins at won is confidence When push comes to shove, what decides the outcome at won is the confidence the algorithm has in your brand at the moment of decision. Confidence at the moment of: Ranking in search. Recommending in assistive. Action in agent. The mode, channel, and cohort change, but the question doesn’t. Content and context are table stakes today. Content is what you’ve published, where, in what structure: every brand doing digital marketing seriously has been doing it for years, since Bill Gates wrote “Content is king” in 1996. Context is the match between your content and the user’s intent at the moment they’re asking. Both are table stakes, so neither differentiates at the recruitment, grounding, display, and won gates. Confidence is what’s left, and confidence is what we can measure at the bottom of the funnel. Three things, you measure at the bottom of the funnel brand results (the due diligence rabbit hole): You measure the accuracy of the results about your brand. You measure the positive sentiment in the results about your brand. You measure the consistency of the results about your brand across all of the engines. How right, how positive, how consistent: that is your measurement of confidence across the AI spectrum. This is exactly where Thomann won my pedal purchase. ChatGPT was confident enough in Thomann’s information to commit to a Friday delivery on Thomann’s behalf, on a Tuesday, with my Saturday gig riding on it. Hundreds of European suppliers could, in theory, have gotten those pedals to me by Friday. ChatGPT picked Thomann because they had published the stock data, shipping times, warehouse logistics, country-by-country delivery commitments, returns policy, price, and credibility signals, in the kind of structured, accurate, consistent detail that makes an algorithm willing to put its name behind a recommendation. Confidence work laid down years before the moment ChatGPT needed it was compounded into a single won event in 15 minutes flat. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with Who’s making the decision at won — and when Map your intent cohorts. Score each one against the seven factors. Work out which mode each cohort will use to make which decision. Then train the seven AI employees (Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, Siri, and Alexa) to represent you with positive sentiment, accurate facts, and consistent narrative across every one of those moments, because they’re already working 24/7, they’re already talking to your customers, and the only question left is whether they’re recommending you or your competitor. Untrained employees cost you money every day they’re untrained. Trained employees generate revenue every day they’re trained. Won is the moment you’ve trained them for, or the moment they’ve handed to your competition. The next question is how you measure all of this, and it turns out my answer rewrites how brands should think about measuring AI-era search-assistive-agential success entirely. That’s the next article in the series. This is the 11th piece in my AI authority series. Part 1, “Rand Fishkin proved AI recommendations are inconsistent – here’s why and how to fix it,” introduced cascading confidence. Part 2, “AAO: Why assistive agent optimization is the next evolution of SEO,” named the discipline. Part 3, “The AI engine pipeline: 10 gates that decide whether you win the recommendation,” mapped the full pipeline. Part 4, “The five infrastructure gates behind crawl, render, and index,” walked through the infrastructure phase. Part 5, “5 competitive gates hidden inside ‘rank and display’,” covered the competitive phase. Part 6, “The entity home: The page that shapes how search, AI, and users see your brand,” mapped the raw material. Part 7, “The push layer returns: Why ‘publish and wait’ is half a strategy,” extended the entry model. Part 8, “How AI decides what your content means and why it gets you wrong,” covered annotation — the last gate where you’re alone with the machine. Part 9, “Why topical authority isn’t enough for AI search,” opened the competitive phase proper with topical ownership. Part 10, “The funnel flip: Why AI forces a bottom-up acquisition strategy,” named the process. Part 11, “The framing gap: Why AI can’t position your brand” exposed the gap between evidence and recommendation. Part 12, “The 10-gate AI search pipeline: Find where your content fails,” showed you how to find (and repair) your F grades in the AI engine pipeline. Up next: The funnel query pathway: How to measure what matters in the AI era. View the full article

Prebiotic soda brand Poppi has come a long way since it first appeared on Shark Tank under its original name, “Mother Beverage,” in 2018. Allison Ellsworth cofounded Poppi with her husband Stephen Ellsworth—but before becoming multimillionaires, though, the Ellsworths were maxing out their credit cards to launch Poppi. “My husband told me I was absolutely crazy, but he trusted the vision,” Ellsworth said. “So we maxed out our credit cards, sold one of our cars to buy bottles [and] opened our own manufacturing facility.” The pair invested $90,000 into the business in the first year, while her husband worked various gigs to cover their mortgage. In 18 months of launching what was then “Mother Beverage,” the Ellsworths generated half a million dollars in revenue. Allison EllsworthFast Company After locking in a deal with Rohan Orza on Shark Tank, the Ellsworths rebranded “Mother Beverage” to Poppi. All the while, Ellsworth was pregnant and the couple was raising their kids, juggling school dropoff with early morning Zoom meetings. “I think it’s OK to live in chaos, and to like it,” Ellsworth told the Wall Street Journal. “A lot of people talk about work-life balance. I think if you want to be successful, you kind of have to sacrifice that.” While some see long hours and endless availability as a badge of honor, that’s not the case for all—and can come with the risk of burnout. Last year, a survey found that 85% of people said work-life balance was more important to them than pay. Still, another 2025 survey found that two-thirds (65%) believed that sacrificing work-life balance is necessary to be successful. While workers want balance, they believe that grinding is the price of success. For the Ellsworths, that risk seems to have paid off. In the years since its rebrand, Poppi’s TikTok marketing during the pandemic—combined with the drink’s vibrant packaging and flavor options—created a loyal following by billing itself as a healthier choice to other sodas. Last year, the Ellsworths became centimillionaires when they sold Poppi to PepsiCo for nearly $2 billion. After the exit, Ellsworth said she felt a sense of sadness. “People don’t talk about the post-exit blues,” she said. One year after the sale, though, Ellsworth feels content and prepared to start her next business venture with her husband. “It almost takes a year, when you get that amount of wealth, to set it up correctly,” Ellsworth said. “We didn’t know how rich we were,” Ellsworth added. “You don’t know how rich you are until you start spending money. I was like, ‘am I spending too much money on clothes? Are we spending too much money on travel?’ And my financial adviser kept saying, ‘you guys are fine.’ But it’s so hard to make that big of a jump.” Since the exit, Ellsworth told the Journal that she’s upgraded her home, bought two more for her mom and aunt, splurged on a $1 million monthlong family vacation to Europe, hired a private chef, spent $27,000 on a stylist and more. “Some might call it materialistic, but I worked really hard for those things,” Ellsworth said. The couple has also opened investment accounts with $5,000 each for their three children between the ages of 4 and 9. “They did buy Pepsi stock […] They said ‘now we can be investors in Poppi.’ It was really cute,” Ellsworth said. In the interview, Ellsworth talked WSJ reporter Gunjan Banerji through her favorite heels, from Prada to Christian Louboutin. “What’s the point of having all this money if we can’t have fun with it?” Ellsworth asked. View the full article

A reader writes: I work for a large company and am my manager’s (“Sharon”) only direct report. Sharon is professional and high-performing the three days a week she is in the office. However, on her work-from-home days and even on her scheduled days off, her behavior becomes deceptive, erratic, and deeply disruptive. I choose to work in the office five days a week and arrive at 7 am — an hour before the rest of the team — which has made me the “face” of the team while Sharon has become a digital ghost. Some examples of her erratic behavior: • On a remote day, Sharon claimed she couldn’t work due to a failure in our software. Since our department manages that software, I checked the logs; no such failure existed. • She once manufactured a “critical emergency” on her scheduled day off, calling me at 7:30 am claiming she couldn’t click a link because her cat was sitting on her phone, and asking me to submit a compliance report for her. Peer managers later confirmed that there was no urgency to this request, and it could have waited until the next day when she was back at work. • Despite an HR policy mandating that cameras be on during remote meetings, Sharon remains camera-off at home but camera-on in the office. • She sometimes skips our team’s mandatory morning status meetings, later calling me for “debriefs” that interrupt my own work. Minutes for these meetings are uploaded daily by a dedicated note-taker to a shared digital document accessible by our entire team, so there shouldn’t be a need for her to call me about them when she can simply check this document. Recently, this has turned into what feels like active career sabotage: • I have led a high-profile app project since long before Sharon arrived. She asked me to cancel the twice-weekly status meetings about it that I had been leading since before she arrived; these meetings were an essential tool for staying in the loop about development and testing progress, and without them I feel like I don’t have a proper grasp on progress, even as the app has grown in complexity in recent months • She frequently cancels our scheduled 1:1s, instead relying on phone calls out of nowhere on WFH days or asking me to “swing by” her desk with zero notice. I never know what she’s going to ask about, and it feels designed to keep me off-balance. • During these calls, she has explicitly told me not to take notes and to “just listen.” Note-taking is essential for my focus, but she seems determined to eliminate any audit trail of her instructions. • She is questioning my “bandwidth” to continue as project lead on the app. Yet she refuses to delegate my low-level grunt work, despite me providing full documentation for a hand-off to other team members • In the two years she has managed me, I have received the lowest performance scores of my time at this company. During a recent “swing by” session where she claimed my performance had “dropped sharply,” I offered to show her my detailed weekly task logs. She waved me off, said the data wasn’t relevant, and continued to insist I lacked bandwidth. • She recently told me that if our next release is delayed, she will have to “justify” to a high-level VP stakeholder why she gave me such a “high” score (the score was actually quite low). I have a great long-term relationship with this VP, and this felt like a direct threat to my reputation. How do I handle a manager who makes formal accusations about my performance but refuses to look at the evidence that disproves them? Also, how do I protect my reputation with the VP when my manager is actively trying to eliminate my audit trails? And finally, what do you make of her erratic behavior? I have my own thoughts and suspicions, but I would love to have your input on it in case there’s an angle I’m not considering. Yeah, something is up with Sharon, although I don’t know what it is. If she weren’t professional and high-performing on the days she’s in the office, I’d suspect this was just garden-variety incompetence and disorganization, combined with a low work ethic, and that she was trying to hide her own ineptness by painting you as the problem. But if she’s good at her job when she’s in the office, that falls apart. I do wonder if, due to whatever’s going on during her days away, she’s feeling threatened by your competence and that’s why she told you to cancel your app status meetings and is making what sound like baseless threats. But what is it that’s creating such a different Sharon when she’s not there? Is she working a second job / hiding a meth problem / possessed by a Dybbuk? I have no idea. For what it’s worth, some of this on its own wouldn’t be that big of a deal. There are plenty of managers out there who skip or cancel meetings and then want updates at inconvenient times later (and it’s not usually designed to keep you off-balance) or who stay camera-off at home. But lying about an easily checked software failure? Claiming her cat sitting on her phone was a “critical emergency” when the report she asked you to do in her place wasn’t even urgent? Forbidding you from taking notes when you talk to her? Refusing to look at actual facts (like your weekly task logs) when she criticizes your performance and your bandwidth? Something is up here. She may indeed be actively trying to sabotage you, but she also may be flailing so badly at her job that that’s just a secondary effect. Regardless, I don’t see good solutions that include you continuing to work for Sharon long-term. Do you have the ear of anyone senior who you can discreetly talk to about what’s going on — maybe that high-level VP who you mentioned you have a great relationship with? You could explain Sharon’s erratic behavior on her out-of-office days and that she’s been making unwarranted accusations about your work while refusing to look at actual data that would disprove them, and ask for their help navigating it. Or, in theory, you could ask HR for their help with that last part (responding to performance concerns when Sharon won’t look at actual data), but on something like this I’d rather loop in someone with more capital and influence than HR usually has when there are problems with a manager. The post my manager’s erratic behavior is sabotaging my work appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Most of the executive teams I work with have been investing in AI for a few years. The ones who are frustrated are not the skeptics. They are the believers whose programs have not connected to the P&L. They have the pilots, the internal momentum, the board slide showing everything in flight. What they do not have is a clear line between that activity and business performance, and at this point in the AI cycle, that gap is no longer acceptable. I spent several years running AI at scale inside Kroger and its data science subsidiary 84.51°, where we processed millions of predictions per second across thousands of store locations. We measured work in margin, basket size, and customer retention rather than how many models were in production, whether the pilots were impressive, or if the work moved the business. That experience shaped how I think about what AI requires from leadership, and what most leadership teams are still getting wrong. The executives I work with are not confused about whether AI matters. They are managing tighter margins, more expensive capital, and boards that want results rather than roadmaps. In my experience, closing that gap comes down to three things. 1. Value has to show up on the P&L Most companies can tell you exactly how many AI models they have running. Very few can tell you what those models are worth to the business. AI can improve both sides of the income statement through better personalization and smarter pricing that support revenue. Automation and sharper forecasting cut costs and waste, but most companies are spreading investment across too many initiatives with too little connection to enterprise value. They are generating activity without changing their economics. The question worth asking is not where the company is using AI. It is where AI is changing the unit economics of the business. Most organizations cannot answer the second one. 2. Velocity is an underrated strategic advantage Almost every large organization knows more than it can act on. Data and insight exist, but the distance between signal and response is slow. Decision cycles drag, functions operate from different assumptions, and by the time internal alignment happens, the moment has often passed. I watched this play out firsthand in financial services. A team built models to identify customers of competing firms most likely to switch in a specific line of business. The analysis was sound and the models performed. What followed was months of organizational hesitation and revisited governance questions long after the pilot had proven viable. By the time leaders made a decision, the market conditions had shifted, and they exited the business. Someone inside summed it up perfectly, “The surgery was successful, but the patient was dead.” The technology worked. The moment was gone. AI can close that gap through faster reporting, better forecasting, and earlier anomaly detection. It is not about doing things cheaper. It is about being able to move when it matters, and that is as much a leadership problem as a technology one. 3. Confidence is not a soft outcome Today, executives are managing risk in a compressed timeframe that most have never experienced. Markets shift quickly, reputational risk moves faster, and the leaders who hold up tend to be the ones with genuine visibility into what is happening and enough discipline to act decisively. AI can extend that visibility by leveraging earlier signals, better scenario modeling, and a clearer line of sight into where problems are building. It does not replace judgment. It raises the premium on judgment, because faster decisions with better information still require someone who knows what matters and is willing to act. When it works, it shows up in how the leadership runs the business and how they are perceived by boards, investors, and the teams being led. Risk does not disappear with caution. It accumulates when decisions are delayed. OWN THE AGENDA None of this happens because a company acquires the right platform or adds AI to someone’s title. It happens because the CEO owns AI as a business agenda, not a technology agenda. That means being specific about where AI changes the economics of the business, measuring outcomes rather than effort, and being willing to cut work that generates activity without generating value. That last part is harder than it sounds when there is internal momentum behind programs and people whose identities are tied to them. The companies that understand where the connection between the work and the results shows up in the numbers are setting a standard for AI use that is worth following. Todd James is the founder and CEO of Aurora Insights. View the full article