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Scheduling may seem like a simple administrative task, but for many small businesses, it plays a much bigger role in the customer journey than owners realize. When booking a meeting is slow, confusing, or dependent on back-and-forth emails, it can create friction at the exact moment a prospect is ready to take the next step. Recent survey data from Zoho highlights just how common those challenges still are. In the U.S., many small and medium-sized businesses continue to rely on email and phone calls to schedule appointments, even as manual processes contribute to delays, no-shows, double bookings, and lost time. At the same time, the data suggests that scheduling software can do more than improve efficiency. It can also strengthen customer experience and support sales growth. To dig deeper into what the numbers mean for small business owners, Small Business Trends spoke with Bharath Kumar, Head of Marketing and Customer Experience for Zoho Bookings. In the conversation below, Kumar explains why scheduling should be treated as a business-critical function, why manual methods still dominate, and how small businesses can think differently about the hidden costs of booking appointments. Below is the full interview transcript. Leland McFarland All right. I am here with Bharath Kumar, the head of marketing and customer experience for Zoho Booking. And recently Zoho has released a survey that goes over appointments and scheduling trends and challenges among small and medium businesses in the United States and also worldwide. But we’re going to focus on the data here in the US. Well, thank you, Bharath, for coming on. Bharath Kumar My pleasure, Leland. Thank you for the opportunity. Leland McFarland All right, so in the US report, 72.83 % of SMBs say that scheduling meetings daily or weekly, or say that they schedule meetings weekly or daily. Does this number tell you appointment booking is no longer a back office task, but a core business flow that directly affects how SMBs operate? Bharath Kumar Definitely yes, we also look at it as it’s the final step in the conversion like for example If I take a very colloquial Purchase process I figure out that I need shoes I do a lot of research and then I figure out what one I need to buy and I visit the store I’m about to get the shoes and I’m showing my card and it says card declined right the same thing like I am nurturing a lead I’m showing the right set of content I’m generating the interest the lead is now ready to purchase or want to have a conversation with me they come to me and at that time like back and forth on email saying okay can we talk today can we talk tomorrow can we have this in the morning evening you missed the opportunity so it is a business critical function because it converts that the final step like when someone is ready to purchase ready to become your customer you’re using bookings as an opportunity to make the deal happen so hence it is a definite business critical function Leland McFarland Mm-hmm. Leland McFarland Alright, perfect. The US data also shows that 72.83 % still rely on email and 57.09 % still rely on phone calls for scheduling. While only 34.65 % use dedicated scheduling software, why do you think the manual channels are still dominating when the friction seems so obvious? Bharath Kumar couple of reasons predominantly one is the the perceived convenience and ease of use. For example, when I am opening a scheduling link, that means the control is in the customer’s hand. Like I don’t decide when to meet. I’m just being an open book and say, hey, I am available during these times, let’s say 12 hours into five days a week, et cetera. And then I let the customer choose. So while if I am doing a proposal saying, hey, can we talk tomorrow at 5 p.m., then the control is predominantly with me. So that convenience, perceived convenience, Leland McFarland Hmm. Bharath Kumar because actually if you put customer at the center of your transactions, then it is actually not a good thing. But when I am assuming that I am in control of when I am gonna go for this meeting, then the perceived convenience is one important thing. People don’t realize that they give the control in customers’ hands, so that is one important thing. Second aspect is cost. think awareness of cost. assume one, the software cost is one, obvious, yes. But… the sunk cost of missing appointments, the sunk cost of losing a transaction over a back and forth email. I think people are not putting an opportunity cost to that. That’s the right word. So I think because of those two reasons. Leland McFarland In the US, 46.1 % say back and forth scheduling is their biggest challenge. What does that tell you about how much time small businesses are losing before a meeting even gets on the calendar? Bharath Kumar Definitely yes. One is like you rightly said a meeting on the calendar and also other aspects like let’s say collecting payments, triggering other follow-up emails etc. So all of those things can be eliminated if there is a proper scheduling process that happens. Like I said We shouldn’t look at scheduling as a simple final task that is just fixing a meeting. It is much more than that. Like I touched upon earlier, in the complete purchase process, this is the final step that actually converts a lead to a deal. The person is interested, he or she wants to talk to you, do not miss out on that opportunity. So that final step where that conversation is established and the person actually commits saying, OK, I am going to spend the next 30 minutes. talking to you to understand your service or a product and hence may look at a purchase process later. I think that final conversion is happening so hence this is much much important. Leland McFarland So just to go a little off of the script a little bit, do you think that there might be a little bit of an element of impersonalization, like when it comes to using booking software, and maybe that’s why people are resistant a little bit. So you’re doing an email back and forth trying to sell, and then all of a sudden you’re pushing a link to say, hey, go and book a software instead of just saying, hey, I want to work with you to find a good time. Do think there might be a little bit of an element there? Bharath Kumar Definitely yes, definitely yes because I’ve I’ve also heard very rarely like a one two percent conversation where some people Mention this point that by putting a booking link. I am putting the owners on the customer Leland McFarland Mm-hmm. Bharath Kumar Instead of me initiating on me owning the closure saying when are you available? Can we talk today tomorrow? Instead I’m just giving a link. It feels like okay till now you were there with me over an email conversation then now suddenly I’m being transferred to a tool and I am as a customer I need to figure out when to talk and all that. Is there a bit of impersonalization is a very nice word. If I have to be very crude is there a bit of a disrespect in like okay the onus is now on you we have had this email conversation. Here is a link you figure out a time to talk to me. But I think It’s a culture thing maybe the initial friction but once someone uses especially some of the tools like Zoho bookings when the personalization happens at the booking interface itself in terms of the brand look and feel, RAA capabilities ensure that the conversation that you had on an email or the website that you browsed and then the bookings page that you go all feel in sync some of the efforts that we take to ensure that that impersonal effect is not felt it feels like okay I was talking to Leila and all along and then here is a personal page of him which makes it easy for me to continue the conversation to get on a call so how the tool and how the user manages that I think that is very important if you just say hey here is a link book an appointment when you have time yes it will come across a little rude but if you can put it as I leave it to you I am available all the time anytime that you are available please feel free to book a time here the user will feel empowered Leland McFarland Mm-hmm. Leland McFarland All right, great. So the US report showed 34.65 % cite no shows and 31.89 % cite double bookings as a major problem. When you look at those numbers, do you see reminders and calendar syncing as a convenient feature or as a revenue protection tool? Bharath Kumar No, it is definitely an important revenue, augmenting revenue generation tool. Very frankly, when we get into sales conversations, when prospects evaluate us, these are some capabilities that they are very curious about in terms of these calendar syncing and reminders. They explicitly ask us questions on how good is your tool in terms of these aspects? How good does your tool sync with other calendar options and all that? Because that is a definite… revenue support, revenue generation tool in the whole scheme of things. Leland McFarland Perfect. All right. So the US finding suggests that many businesses are spending far too long just to lock in one meeting. How should small business owners think about the hidden labor costs of scheduling when what looks like a quick task is actually repeated over and over and over all week long? Bharath Kumar This is a very, very nice question, Leland. I would answer it a little philosophically, in the sense that not just a scheduling software, a booking software, what is the purpose of any software? It is actually giving you time. Leland McFarland Mm-hmm. Bharath Kumar It can be any tool like can be a CRM, could be an accounting solution any tool that you use if can you not do it manually? Yes, what will happen you will have errors you will take a lot more time you may take 5x 10x more time than what you would do with the so Any software for that matter is actually reducing your possibility of errors giving you more time in hand to do much more value added work. You should look at scheduling also like that. I have had the conversation and at the last minute if I am going to go back and forth on an email waiting for someone else to reply and if you are operating across different time zones maybe your morning could be someone else’s afternoon or evening then all that overlap your mail may be sitting in the in their mailbox when they wake up the next day morning and all that right. So to avoid all of these the last step instead of making that mistake the simple and the easiest thing to do is to look at a software including a scheduling software as a tool that saves you time that saves you avoids you from stops you from wasting time then naturally I think this adoption will happen. Leland McFarland you Leland McFarland All right, perfect. Bharath Kumar It’s not the features, it’s not the capabilities, it’s actually the benefit to the business I think that should be put at the front. Leland McFarland All right. In the US report, 56.82 % say scheduling software improves customer experience. Why do you think customer service came out even more strongly than some purely operational benefits? Bharath Kumar I mean that is very obvious to us also because at the end of the day these tools put the customers need at the front and center based on the severity, based on the criticality, when the customer wants to talk, how important, how critical it is for the customer to have this conversation. it naturally sort of makes the culture feel like an open book. I am an organization, I am engaging with you for some let’s say a sales process, you are evaluating my tool and when I am putting it out and open saying I am available for so many hours, so many days of a week, some companies say 24, 14 hours into 6 days, 12 hours into 5 days etc. So that sort of sends that signal to the customer that whenever you want you can always reach out to me, not just today, this is a permanent link that I am going to use in future if you have something also you can always stay in touch with me anytime that you want you don’t even have to check with me the link is going to available if you see I’m not available at 2 p.m. if I’m available at 3 p.m. go ahead and block the time I will always be available for you I think that culture signal happens that we are open and we are always available for you when you need. I think that is the biggest. And then when you bring the group dynamics, if it is one person, you and I having a conversation is one thing. Let’s say I represent a department, I represent the solutioning department. And when I give you a link of the whole solutioning department, that gives you even more confidence that if not for Bharat, if there is an Ila, if there is a Kumar, someone else is going to be available and they will ensure my needs are taken care of, that gives a lot of confidence to customers. That’s why customer service is the most important aspect that is being serviced by these scheduling solutions. Leland McFarland I know I’ve had that happen to where I’ve given a customer my meeting schedule link and you know just later down the road all of sudden it came up like they scheduled a meeting with me. I’ve also had it the opposite where someone I had no idea I’ve never talked to in my life all of a sudden schedule a meeting so Bharath Kumar Yeah. Leland McFarland And that one wasn’t necessarily a good meeting. They were trying to sell me something more so than the opposite way. Bharath Kumar Okay, okay. Leland McFarland So yeah, it can be very beneficial. I agree. Bharath Kumar Definitely, definitely. Leland McFarland All right, the US report shows that 31.82 % say scheduling software improves sales and revenue. Why do you think something as simple as making booking easier can make it can end up affecting growth that directly? Bharath Kumar Exactly, I think The most important aspect that is not gatekeeping your availability by clearly saying that here is the different, I’m available for so many hours across so many days, making it convenient for the user to decide when they want to have the conversation. And most importantly, how you use a scheduling link also. For example, not just over an email, it can even be at a website. Someone is browsing through your website, reads, let’s say a white paper or like a product capability document and is very interested. Then you ask, them to fill a form, collect that information, then you trigger an automated email saying, okay, these are the different times you whenever you want to talk, let’s talk instead. Just imagine at the website interface itself, there is a scheduling that is available. So it closes the thread faster. When, when the, when the iron is hot, you strike the same thing happens. The customer or the prospect has read through what you have to offer. He or she is very interested in evaluating this further, maybe having a demo conversation before the purchase happens instead of making them wait or instead of going through back and forth on an email at the website itself let’s say if you’re if you’re showing a link for Someone to schedule a meeting with you the next day then there is a commitment that happens the prospect is like okay I’ve read through whatever I want now. Let me spend the next one hour. Maybe tomorrow I’ll spend a one hour with them to understand this further That’s the second level of maturity in the purchase process and it’s a clear indication that When someone books a meeting and shows the probability of them purchasing is 50 times more than what happens without a bookings meeting. those are indications that the prospect is willing to go to the next step if your product offers what you committed on the website or like in other communication. Then naturally the conversion is higher and naturally it gravitates to higher sales and revenue opportunities. Leland McFarland It’s good to know. right, Zoho Bookings talks about letting customers self-schedule through a branded booking page. You covered that a little bit earlier. When more than seven out of ten US SMBs are still using email to book meetings, do you think many owners still underestimate how much the booking experience shapes the customer’s first impression? Bharath Kumar 100 % I think what we have learnt over time is leave the vendor it could be Zoho it could be some other vendor also but what we have learnt over time is the aha moment happens after you use a scheduling solution like if you’re always used to emails, if you’re always used to this back and forth and maybe you don’t realize there is a better way to do it, you may still continue doing it. But once you use a booking solution, the churn rates in our solutions are very, very minimal because… you either have to worst case go to some other competitor for some reason or you will have to use a booking solution forever because that experience transforms how you see your overall the sales purchase process in completion. What we have learned over time is that initial exposure using a scheduling link and then having those conversations with customer once you get used to it Then naturally the adoption will continue then you will stick to that as your standard operating procedure forever So that’s the benefit. I think that’s what small and medium businesses also Will learn so typically what happens it is not even a scheduling problem if you if you step back and really look at what happens in our space in a lot of small medium the focus is on the core business right like I am I am a small organization I am trying to do something let’s say I’m trying to sell a product I’m trying to make a living I’m trying to excel by doing a certain business Bharath Kumar All my focus is on that, on the core operations, on let’s say the core making of whatever is the produce that I have and then taking it to the market. So software typically takes a backseat. Typically what happens is I have an idea, I come up with a prototype, I do something and then I launch, I find customers. At some point I feel like I’m getting stuck, I’m not able to scale, I’m not having the visibility, I’m not able to manage my pipeline, I’m not able to manage my leads. Then I start to think of where do I use my software and then gradually you use different solutions. Leland McFarland Mm-hmm. Bharath Kumar and in that order a scheduling booking solution also will come. I think that is something that we need to relook at. When you buy a solution is different but that clarity when you start that okay for me to scale I would need a different set of software solutions including a CRM, including a bookings. If that becomes a part of a small medium businesses thought process itself when they start to grow I think that will add a lot of value to how they scale and how they grow faster. Leland McFarland All right. So even with these benefits that we’ve been talking about, all these benefits, only 34.65 % of US SMPs are using dedicated scheduling software. Is the biggest barrier here awareness, habit, set up friction, or the fact that many businesses still do not realize how expensive manually booking appointments really is? Bharath Kumar Yeah, it is predominantly awareness because let’s say an email solution when you start a business when you want to engage with customers you will need an email solution it’s not an optional thing you need an email provider you need an email ID for you to interact with someone at some point a website becomes a mandate it’s not like you whatever be your industry, whatever work you doing for an identity, you will definitely need a site, a simple site at least. A tool like bookings or scheduling software is not in that league. Until a point where you miss appointments where you are missing out on customers when the problem happens It is not it is definitely a must-have but from a business point of view It just feels like a good to have and not a must-have unless they go through a problem Experience so I think that awareness that that maturity and okay this helps my life makes my life better So that happens at different stages for different organizations. So that is one reason Definitely provide us like us also have some responsibility in ensuring that the adoption can happen faster in the sense that like like a test upon like our AI capabilities now ensuring that the look and feel the ease of creating a booking space that looking very similar to your overall branding and messaging guidelines and all that those are things that we are also investing on but as providers as service providers as software providers if we also are very conscious in ensuring that the adoption is at the focus naturally I think it will make it easy for the user also to expand like I want to try for let’s say two three of my team first then I feel this is good enough then I can scale it across my department then I can scale it across my organization that definitely happens over time Leland McFarland Perfect. So yeah, that first part that you’ve talked about, I totally get, know, don’t, people don’t want to deal with it until something’s broken, until it becomes a kind of, you know, a fire that needs to be put out. All right. So U.S. users say that they want AI capabilities added, 40.91%. More integrations at 39. Bharath Kumar Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Leland McFarland 37.77 % and better customer support at 37.5%. What do these numbers, what do these three numbers tell you about SMBs, what SMBs think? Currently, scheduling tools are still missing. Bharath Kumar We touched upon the AI capabilities. think yes, using AI not just because there has to be some AI force fit into the system, that’s not what providers should do, but genuinely seeing how it can add value to the overall user experience, which I think a lot of us are doing now. Very interesting aspect that you mentioned is the integration part. How seamlessly these tools connect with other aspects or other tools in your ecosystem like calendar, like a video booking solution to your chat interface. How easy it is for you to just at a click of a button connect your bookings solution to different search entities, to your CRM, maybe to your accounting solution to cross check some of these insights. Because… you are introducing this tool to eliminate the manual work of email back and forth but if this tool brings a set of manual work for you to consolidate, do a separate analytics, take dashboard or data from this bookings tool and then go map it again something else and manually figure out how many of your bookings actually converted as customers, how many of your bookings actually gave good revenue or what is the percentage of revenue that came through customers who came through booking channel and all that all of that should be seamless it should happen at a click of a button and not like you download data, import somewhere else and do some analysis, paralysis in some other place, then literally what you’re doing is eliminating email manual work and introducing some integration manual work. So that is one thing that because maybe we are a part of Zoho which operates with this integration, privacy, security and user focus. These are some of the fundamental tenets of how we operate. Also because we have 55 plus applications and naturally it is in our tendency to ensure that Zoho CRM connects easily with the Zoho bookings and so on. So we see a lot of benefit in that. The integration component that you mentioned in addition to AI, AI is one aspect of making the whole user experience, user journey seamless and faster. But integration is much, much more powerful, especially for a space like scheduling. Only then a user will actually get a benefit Bharath Kumar of introducing a tool like this and not get into a new set of manual work replacing the old email manual work. Leland McFarland So could you see that with the possibility of like integrating into multiple aspects, could that actually be kind of a little bit of a deterrent, like information overload a little bit? it’s like, well, I just wanted something that booked. Yeah. But now I’m going to get like reports and I’m going to, it’s going to go all in on to CRM. Do I have to manage that? Do you think that that could be a little bit of a barrier? Bharath Kumar Honestly, no. Primarily why is that is because initially what is the problem you are trying to solve. I am sending emails to my 10 prospects. Leland McFarland Okay. Bharath Kumar And I’m getting confused on when I am available when they are available and in the process I’m missing out three prospects only seven are actually having a conversation with me that problem is easily solved or That’s the straightforward benefit you get from a bookings like tool where you are ensuring that anybody who is ready to have a conversation with you will have a conversation with you your availability or Email when you send an email when this user sees the email those things are not going to impact this whole process So that is taken care of The second level of maturity is what I talked about. Okay, I solved that problem, but then how do I get maximum benefit out of investing in a system like this is when the system connects to multiple other solutions in your ecosystem. If you are someone who feels like as long as I am able to meet 10 out of 10 customers and I’m not worried about from this 10 how many became, how many prospects became customer, what is the dollar value revenue that I made from those. If those are the insights that I’m not very particular about, it’s optional for or you don’t have to worry or you don’t have to get into those. Leland McFarland Well, that sounds great. Thank you for coming on with me and I appreciate you putting up with all my questions. Leland McFarland Thank you. The interview makes one point especially clear: scheduling is not just about finding an open time slot. For small businesses, it can shape first impressions, influence customer confidence, and determine whether a sales conversation happens at all. Kumar’s comments also highlight a challenge many owners will recognize. Businesses often keep using manual systems until missed appointments, wasted time, or stalled growth force them to look for a better option. That helps explain why dedicated scheduling tools are still underused, even when the benefits appear obvious once a business adopts them. For small business owners, the takeaway is straightforward. If appointment booking still depends heavily on email chains, phone calls, or manual calendar management, it may be worth looking at the process more closely. What feels like a minor operational task can carry real costs in time, customer experience, and revenue opportunities. As more SMBs look for ways to operate efficiently without losing the personal touch, scheduling may become one of those foundational systems that matters more than it first appears. If you’d like, I can also turn this into a more polished intro/outro pair that matches your usual Small Business Trends editorial style more closely. This article, "Interview with Bharath Kumar | Head of Marketing and Customer Experience for Zoho Bookings" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

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Ginny Wright, CEO of beauty conglomerate Orveon Global—owner of BareMinerals and Laura Mercier—is no stranger to the beauty business. She spent much of her career rising through the ranks of L’Oreal, eventually becoming president of legacy skincare brand Kiehl’s. Then, in 2021, she pivoted to work in luxury as one of the few female CEOs in the luxury watch business when she took the helm of Audemars Piguet Americas. During her tenure, she prioritized marketing to women, raising the percentage of women purchasing watches for themselves from 14% to more than 30% in just over four years. Now back in the beauty industry, Wright is using her knowledge of the luxury consumer to find new areas of growth for Orveon’s premium brands. In particular, the company is moving quickly in India with prestige brand Laura Mercier. Ginny WrightFast CompanyElizabeth Segran At a recent summit at Harvard University’s Loeb House—organized by The Shift, a media platform devoted to women shifting culture—Wright spoke to Fast Company senior staff writer Elizabeth Segran about discussed what she learned from the male-dominated luxury watch industry, how young people should think about their careers and what beauty consumers are looking for now. This interview has been edited and condensed. You spent a long time at L’Oreal—what was your trajectory to the beauty industry, and what led you to shift to luxury watches? I thought I was going to go into politics or become a lawyer. I started down that path for about a year, and then I wanted to be a press secretary. I’ve always been the kind of person who hears something interesting and thinks, “I’ll try that road.” I moved to Atlanta and worked in PR for a while. One of my clients was [consumer product conglomerate] Georgia-Pacific, and I remember pitching Walmart to the Today Show and thinking, “There has to be more to life than this.” That’s when I realized what I was really passionate about: luxury and beauty. So I found an MBA program in Paris sponsored by L’Oréal and LVMH. I told my husband, who I had just married, “We’re moving to Paris.” He said, “Cool. I don’t speak French, but we’ll figure it out.” So we did. After that, I was fortunate to get hired by L’Oréal. Eventually I moved to New York, rose through the ranks, and after COVID I was serving as president of Kiehl’s, which is such an amazing brand. Then I got a call from an executive recruiter about a high-end luxury firm looking for a CEO. It turned out to be Audemars Piguet. I literally made the decision to take that job while on a SoulCycle bike during COVID, wearing a mask and listening to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” During the line about “you only get one shot,” I decided to do it and leave the beauty industry for watches. The watch industry has traditionally been very male-dominated. A big part of your work there was appealing to women—how did you make women less of an afterthought in that industry? It’s interesting, because many of the great innovations in watchmaking trace back to women, including figures like Queen Victoria. Women wore pendant watches, and early watchmaking involved extraordinary craftsmanship. Over time, watches became associated with men as they became status symbols. In more recent years, men really got deeply into watches. Women, on the other hand, were never really marketed to in the right way. The messaging was often something like: “Here’s the real watch culture for men—and women can join too.” [The marketing message] was never truly built for women from the start. I wanted to change that. I knew that brands like Audemars Piguet and Rolex watches often retain or increase in value, and I didn’t think women fully understood that. At the same time, the economic shift toward women is massive. Women now make up the majority of undergraduates and a huge share of postgraduates. Wealth is shifting, and brands need to be ready for that. So I focused on women entrepreneurs, founders, and executives. We also worked more intentionally with Serena Williams. Men didn’t always understand her value after retirement, but I did. She’s not just an athlete; she’s a mother, philanthropist, investor, and entrepreneur. She represented the full modern identity of a powerful woman. By the time I left, we had increased self-purchasing women from 14% to over 30%. What was it like being a woman in such a male-dominated industry? Were you treated differently? It was brutal. [Luxury is] one of the most brutal industries outside of tech in terms of gossip and scrutiny. The watch world treated executive moves like a soap opera, and it was mostly men driving that culture. More women did come into senior leadership while I was there, which helped. But yes, it was harder. If you’re a Swiss or French man in that world, it’s much easier. People questioned whether I could do the job, especially because I came from beauty. They didn’t understand that beauty is actually an incredibly complex industry. But I had a strong retail background, and the brand was shifting from wholesale to direct retail, which was exactly where my strengths were. Watches aren’t just about the product. They’re about access, experience, and emotion. There are only so many watches in the world, and many more people want them than can have them. So we built extraordinary experiences around the brand—private dinners, intimate events, unique access. That became a powerful new kind of luxury. Then beauty came calling again. What led you back? I was at a Baby2Baby event in Los Angeles and ran into Artemis Patrick from Sephora North America. I’ve known her for years, and her whole team was there saying, “We miss you. You need to come back to beauty.” I don’t know whether that was manifestation or coincidence, but after that I started thinking: I’ve been here four and a half years, I’ve done what I came to do, the strategy is in place, and I’m ready for something new. I knew I wanted to do private equity, and I knew I wanted to do beauty. Then several opportunities came up at once, and Orveon really stood out. It had three heritage brands, all founded about 30 years ago and all created by women: Laura Mercier, bareMinerals, and Buxom. I felt these were beloved brands that had lost some attention, and I love reviving love brands and helping them grow again. Laura Mercier especially felt personal to me. It was one of the first prestige beauty brands I ever spent my own money on. I felt like this was my calling. You’ve worked in ultra-luxury and in beauty brands aimed at a broader market. What do those experiences tell you about the economy right now? There’s clearly a huge wealth divide right now. At Audemars Piget, our clients were recession-resistant. No matter what happened, they were willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a watch. That’s very different from asking someone to spend $68 on foundation or loose powder. What I’ve learned is that people will still spend—but they’ll spend on brands they trust and products they believe in. That matters even more in uncertain times. At BareMinerals, for example, there’s a very strong repeat customer base. The challenge is bringing in new customers while continuing to serve the loyal ones. We’re deliberately targeting women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s—professionals who have their own money and some level of disposable income. That aligns with the brand and gives us some resilience. I think it would be much harder right now to build a brand that relies heavily on Gen Z consumers who are just coming out of school and dealing with financial uncertainty. It sounds like today’s shopper is very focused on value. Does that favor established brands? Yes, absolutely. For years, the direct-to-consumer movement was great at grabbing attention. Now, in a tougher environment, people don’t want to waste money on something untested. That gives established brands an advantage because people know what they’re getting. They know the products work. If they’re going to spend, they want confidence in the purchase. We haven’t grown consistently in recent years, so I want to be honest about that. But now we are growing again, and that’s exciting. We’re positive in March, which is fantastic. I’m really proud of the team. You made a major pivot in your 20s and early 30s. What advice do you have for people who realize the path they chose may not be the right one? If your heart isn’t in it, get out. That doesn’t mean your earlier work was wasted. I started in PR, and I still use those skills every day. I learned how to communicate, influence, manage clients, and evaluate messaging. Those abilities carried forward into everything I’ve done since. No experience is wasted if you learn from it. But you can absolutely tell the difference between waking up excited to do your work and waking up dreading it. If you feel that difference, pay attention to it. View the full article

Multimedia and experiential brand Sunnie is turning over a new page with the announcement of its first zine, launching in Target stores and online on April 7. The limited edition, 50-page print issue will feature actress Kiernan Shipka on the cover. Target stores will sport a Sunnie endcap through July. The zine will be available for purchase alongside Sunnie Reads book picks, an exclusive tote, and products from Sunnie brand partners like e.l.f., Gimme Beauty, OFF!, and Not Your Mother’s haircare. The zine itself will feature classic teen-mag pieces like personal essays, advice, quizzes and horoscopes, and the Shipka cover story. In her interview, the actress discusses how she prioritizes wellness. Sunnie’s mission centers on creating a community for young women to find joy and self-expression. The zine aims to deliver the teen mag the team behind it always wanted. “It’s such an honor to be on the very first cover of the Sunnie Zine,” Shipka said in a statement. “What I love about Sunnie is that it creates space for young people to really connect with themselves and with each other in a way that feels honest and real. It’s thoughtful, creative, and genuinely supportive, which is rare.” Shipka isn’t a Sunnie newbie: In 2025, she gave a fireside chat about cultivating meaningful friendships to maintain your true self at the inaugural Sunniefest—a one-day festival for Gen Z girls to connect offline. Sunnie is an offshoot of Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s media company, whose mission is to platform women’s stories. The brand’s emphasis on offline connection and interest in creating a print issue is evident of its focus on the younger generation, whose interest in physical media has brought retro tech and zines back into fashion in recent years. “This limited-edition zine reimagines the teen magazines we grew up with for a new generation—one that’s craving more intention, creativity, and real connection,” Maureen Polo, CEO of Hello Sunshine, told Fast Company in an email. “That’s the heart of Sunnie: following your curiosity, stepping into your power, and finding your people along the way.” While the full endcap is available now, the brand is hosting an in-person celebration at the Target Whitebridge Store in Nashville on April 12 from 12-4 p.m. The event will feature gifting, a book signing by March Sunnie Select author Kristin Dwyer, and more. View the full article

Who are you selling to? By Jody Padar Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA Go PRO for members-only access to more Jody Padar. View the full article

Who are you selling to? By Jody Padar Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA Go PRO for members-only access to more Jody Padar. View the full article

Yesterday, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen became the first humans in over 50 years to see the far side of the moon. Artemis II launched at 6:35 p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 1. The 10-day mission is a slingshot around the moon, paving the way for a moon landing with Artemis IV in 2027. (Artemis III, scheduled for 2026, will test out systems to land humans on the surface of the moon in orbit next year.) While there are satellites around the moon, and rovers and landers on the lunar surface, unaided human eyes have not seen the moon’s surface details since Apollo 17 in 1972. That changed on Monday, April 6. The crew surpassed the distance record for the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth at 1:56 p.m. ET. The previous record, 248,655 miles, was held by Apollo 13 astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert. The lunar observation period, which is when the four forward-facing windows of Orion spacecraft were oriented toward the moon, began at 2:45 p.m. ET. (Normally the tail of Orion faces the sun to avoid cabin heating and to charge the solar panels). The closest the capsule traveled to the moon’s surface was approximately 4,070 miles, and at that distance the moon appeared about the size of a basketball held at an arm’s length. Approximately 20% of the moon’s far side was lit during the flyby. At 6:41 p.m., the crew snapped an “Earthset” photo, which is a companion to the iconic Earthrise photo taken by William Anders on Apollo 8 in 1968. The photo shows a brilliant blue Earth setting behind the gray lunar surface, as the astronauts head home. At 7:02 p.m., the crew reached their maximum distance from Earth, 252,756 miles, and at 8:35 p.m. they observed a solar eclipse, with the moon moving in front of the sun. Because of the relative size of the moon in their window, the event lasted around 54 minutes, unlike the totality durations here on Earth. The crew observed the sun’s corona and were able to see stars and planets normally obscured by the sun’s brightness. The bright dash on the left of this photo is Venus. The Artemis II crew will continue on their journey, checking out systems on this test flight, for the next few days. Their splashdown near San Diego, California, is scheduled to occur on Friday at 8:07 p.m. ET, bringing their almost 10-day journey to a close. [carousel_block id=”carousel-1775570455516″]View the full article

Focus on your client’s concerns, not yours. By Martin Bissett Winning Your First Client Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

Focus on your client’s concerns, not yours. By Martin Bissett Winning Your First Client Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

Why did Toyota‘s design firm build a model American dining room in Japan back in 1986, and then invite the company’s top brass to spend some time there? The easy answer, and the one you see in headlines and social media posts, is that they were trying to teach Toyota executives just how much bigger Americans are than Japanese people. While that’s certainly part of the explanation, it isn’t all of it. If you look at the whole picture, it can teach you a lot. That’s especially true if you hope to bring your company’s product to new markets. Today, Toyota is the world’s biggest carmaker. Back then it trailed badly behind both GM and Ford. Toyota had big ambitions, and to make them come true, the company would have to do better in the U.S. market. Calty, Toyota’s U.S. design firm, was trying to help the automaker do that. And that’s why its executives arranged to ship an American dining room set, along with a mockup of an American dining room, complete with windows, curtains, candle holders, and a chandelier, to Japan. To celebrate Calty’s 50th year, the design firm released a limited-edition book of photographs, including one of the Japanese executives standing in that fake dining room and taking it all in. Americans are bigger. But there was more to learn Think about it. The point of all this couldn’t have been just to teach the Japanese about American size. Calty could have done that better and more easily by bringing over some typical sizes of American clothes, or introducing the Toyota execs to a few American football players. The larger point was to teach them about who we are. And the dining room did that perfectly. It showed them our size, but also our expectation of a certain kind of luxury and comfort. It was a fairly large dining table with six chairs arranged around it. That’s probably a typical setup in an American home, but those chairs likely seemed far apart to the Japanese execs. Our nation is large with relatively low population density. Even when we’re at home with our families, we like a fair amount of elbow room. Japanese people, on the other hand, live on a space-restricted island. They have a tradition of eating at a kotatsu, or heated table, where they gather in close. A typical kotatsu might be half or two-thirds the size of the table in Calty’s model dining room. These differences in furniture preferences also reflect different societal values. The first Europeans in the United States were pioneers, and to this day, our culture values self-reliance and rugged individualism. Japanese culture values the collective and group togetherness. Where we strike out boldly on our own, they make decisions by consensus. Learning how customers think To succeed in our market, the Japanese executives first needed to understand Americans. Not just our size, but how we think, what we wish for, and what we expect. That’s what Calty set out to teach them with its model dining room. The number of Toyotas you see today on American roads tells you just how well they learned that lesson. Are you trying to reach new customers in a new market, whether they’re in a different country or a different community, come from a different culture, or live a lifestyle different from yours? Think about what those Toyota executives learned in that mock dining room. Should you consider putting yourself into these new people’s shoes, or sitting down to eat at their table? It just might give you the insight you need. —Minda Zeitlin This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister website, Inc.com. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy. View the full article

You don’t need all the answers to be a leader—but you do need this mindset. Emma Grede explains why excellence is non-negotiable and why trying to please everyone will hold you back. This is the leadership advice nobody tells you. View the full article

When defining the roles of franchisors and franchisees, it’s crucial to clarify their distinct responsibilities and the nature of their relationship. The franchisor, as the brand owner, provides the framework and support for success, whereas the franchisee manages day-to-day operations within that framework. Comprehending these roles helps establish a solid partnership. As you explore these aspects further, you’ll uncover critical elements that contribute to a thriving franchising business model. Key Takeaways A franchisor is the brand owner who creates and manages the franchise system, offering support and resources to franchisees. Franchisees purchase rights to operate a business under the franchisor’s brand, managing daily operations independently. The Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) outlines responsibilities, obligations, and operational guidelines for both franchisor and franchisee. Legal compliance is essential for both parties, ensuring adherence to federal and state franchising laws and regulations. Franchise agreements define the relationship, rights, and responsibilities, making legal support crucial for understanding and navigating these contracts. Understanding the Franchisor Role Comprehending the role of a franchisor is vital for anyone considering entering the franchise business. A franchisor is the original brand owner who develops the business model and operational systems that franchisees replicate. To define franchisor and franchisee clearly, the franchise relationship involves the franchisor providing training, ongoing support, and resources to guarantee franchisee success during maintaining brand integrity. They likewise collect initial franchise fees and ongoing royalties, which are critical for their revenue. Through the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), the franchisor discloses its responsibilities and the operational framework of the franchise. This structured approach guarantees compliance with established systems, allowing franchisees to deliver a consistent customer experience across all locations, reinforcing the brand’s reputation and reliability. Key Responsibilities of a Franchisor The foundation of a successful franchise system lies in the key responsibilities of a franchisor, which are essential for guaranteeing consistent brand performance and franchisee success. Here are four primary responsibilities you should know: Develop a Proven Business Model: Create and document a business model in the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) to verify brand credibility. Provide Training and Support: Offer thorough training and ongoing support to equip franchisees with the tools and knowledge they need to succeed. Protect the Brand: Maintain and safeguard the registered trademark, which differentiates your franchise from competitors. Establish Operational Systems: Set up business systems that yield reliable results, helping franchisees maintain brand standards and achieve profitability. The Franchisee’s Role Explained Understanding the role of a franchisee is crucial for anyone considering this business model. As a franchisee, you purchase the right to operate a franchise, utilizing the established brand and business model of the franchisor. You’re responsible for managing daily operations independently as you follow the franchisor’s operational guidelines and brand standards. To maintain this relationship, you’ll pay an initial franchise fee and ongoing royalty fees, typically ranging from 4% to 8% of gross sales. The franchisor provides thorough training covering operational procedures and marketing strategies, along with access to proprietary systems. Furthermore, you’ll contribute to national advertising campaigns and manage local marketing efforts within the franchisor’s framework, ensuring your business aligns with the overarching brand. Responsibilities of the Franchisee Even though operating a franchise offers numerous benefits, it also comes with specific responsibilities that franchisees must diligently fulfill. To succeed, you need to focus on the following key areas: Financial Obligations: Pay the initial franchise fee and ongoing royalty fees to maintain your rights to operate under the brand. Operational Management: Manage day-to-day expenses, including employee salaries, rent, and other costs vital for running your business effectively. Brand Standards: Uphold the brand’s reputation by ensuring consistency and quality across all franchise locations. Adherence to Guidelines: Follow the operational systems and guidelines outlined in the franchise operations manual, while contributing to national advertising campaigns and handling local marketing efforts. Meeting these responsibilities is critical for your franchise’s success. The Franchisor-Franchisee Relationship In the franchisor-franchisee relationship, both parties play crucial roles that contribute to mutual success. The franchisor sets the framework with a proven business model and provides fundamental support, whereas the franchisee brings local knowledge and manages daily operations. Comprehending these dynamics can improve collaboration and guarantee the franchise thrives within its market. Symbiotic Partnership Dynamics The franchisor-franchisee relationship thrives on a symbiotic partnership, where each party plays a crucial role in the overall success of the brand. This dynamic relies on four key factors: Brand Recognition: Franchisors provide a recognizable brand, helping franchisees attract customers. Operational Support: Franchisors offer systems and guidelines, enabling franchisees to manage daily operations efficiently. Local Insight: Franchisees contribute valuable knowledge of their local markets, tailoring strategies to meet community needs. Communication: Effective communication between franchisors and franchisees nurtures clarity, preventing confusion and enhancing productivity. Roles and Responsibilities Defined Understanding the roles and responsibilities within the franchisor-franchisee relationship is essential for a successful partnership. The franchisor develops and supports the business model, meanwhile you, as the franchisee, implement it in your local market. This creates a symbiotic relationship that benefits both parties. You’re responsible for daily operational expenses and must adhere to the brand standards established by the franchisor, ensuring consistency and reputation. The franchisor, in turn, provides thorough training and ongoing support, equipping you with the necessary tools and knowledge to thrive. Clear definitions of these roles help mitigate potential legal issues, facilitating smoother operations. Furthermore, the franchisor collects initial fees and ongoing royalties, allowing you to benefit from an established brand and a proven business model. Operational Support Structure Operational support serves as the backbone of the franchisor-franchisee relationship, guaranteeing that both parties can effectively collaborate toward shared business goals. This support not only aids franchisees thrive but also preserves brand integrity. Here’s what you can expect: Training Programs: Extensive training equips you with vital skills for managing your franchise effectively. Ongoing Assistance: Regular evaluations and updates to the operations manual guarantee adherence to brand standards and best practices. Marketing Support: Access to marketing materials and strategic guidance aids in maintaining consistent brand messaging. Clear Communication: Defined roles and open lines of communication prevent misunderstandings and align business objectives. Legal Framework in Franchising When you enter the realm of franchising, comprehending the legal framework is crucial. You’ll need to familiarize yourself with the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), which lays out critical information about fees, obligations, and the franchise agreement itself. Compliance with federal and state laws is key, as it safeguards your interests and guarantees a smooth partnership with the franchisor. Franchise Disclosure Document Essentials The Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) serves as a significant legal instrument in the franchising environment, providing fundamental information to potential franchisees. Comprehending the FDD is essential as it outlines important aspects of the franchise relationship. Here are some key components you should know: Disclosure Items: The FDD contains 23 specific items detailing franchise agreements, fees, and obligations. Timing: You must receive the FDD at least 14 days before signing any agreements or making payments. Updates and Registration: The FDD needs annual updates and registration in states with franchise laws, including specific state modifications. Risks of Non-Compliance: Failing to follow FDD regulations can lead to serious legal repercussions for franchisors, including lawsuits. Compliance With Franchise Laws Maneuvering through compliance with franchise laws is essential for both franchisors and franchisees, as it guarantees a clear comprehension of legal obligations and protections. Franchisors must adhere to federal and state laws, making sure their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) includes 23 required items and is provided to prospective franchisees at least 14 days before any agreements are signed or fees are collected. Updating the FDD annually is necessary, along with registering it in states where you plan to offer franchises. Multi-state compliance often requires state-specific addendums and modifications. To navigate these intricacies, seeking legal assistance is imperative, as it helps ascertain that franchise agreements and documentation are properly prepared and compliant with various regulations. Franchise Agreement Requirements A franchise agreement is an important document that establishes the legal framework for the relationship between a franchisor and a franchisee. This binding contract outlines various aspects significant to both parties. Here are some key requirements: Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD): Must be provided at least 14 days before signing, detailing 23 required disclosure items. Scope of Franchise: Clearly defines what the franchise entails, including operational guidelines. Fees and Royalties: Specifies the financial obligations, including initial fees and ongoing royalties. Training and Support: Outlines the training provided by the franchisor and the franchisee’s commitment to maintaining brand standards. Compliance with federal and state laws is crucial, ensuring the FDD is registered where necessary. Advantages of Franchising for Franchisees When you consider franchising, you’ll find several advantages that can make it an attractive option for aspiring business owners. First, you gain immediate access to an established brand name, boosting consumer trust and leading to higher initial sales than starting a new business. By using the franchisor’s proven business model, you reduce your risk of failure, as the concept is already validated in the market. In addition, you’ll receive extensive training and ongoing support, equipping you with necessary skills, even without prior experience. You can also benefit from the franchisor’s purchasing influence, resulting in cost savings on supplies. Finally, you’ll participate in national marketing campaigns funded by the franchisor, enhancing brand visibility and attracting more customers to your location. Disadvantages of Franchising for Franchisors Franchising can come with significant disadvantages for you as a franchisor. You might find that you lose some control over franchise locations since franchisees operate independently, which can lead to inconsistencies in how your brand is represented. Furthermore, the ongoing support demands can be taxing, as you’ll need to allocate resources and time to train and assist franchisees, ensuring they meet your standards. Loss of Control As franchisors expand their networks, they often face a significant challenge: the loss of control over individual franchise locations. Franchisees operate independently, which can lead to inconsistencies in brand representation and service quality. This situation can impact your brand’s overall reputation and success. Here are some key issues you might encounter: Inconsistent customer experiences across locations. Difficulty maintaining uniform standards and practices. Potential disputes over operational guidelines, leading to legal issues. Challenges in managing compliance with franchise agreements. As you scale your system, these factors can leave you vulnerable to breaches and negatively affect your market position, complicating your ability to uphold the brand’s integrity. Ongoing Support Demands The loss of control over franchise locations often leads to significant ongoing support demands for franchisors. You’re obligated to provide ongoing training and assistance to franchisees, which can strain your operational capacity. This continuous demand for support can increase your operational costs, impacting profitability and strategic focus. You’ll need to regularly update training materials and operational systems to keep up with industry changes, requiring ongoing investment. Furthermore, ensuring franchisee compliance with brand standards creates an additional burden, as you must monitor performance and proactively address issues. Standardizing support across diverse franchise locations can be challenging, leading to inconsistencies that may affect your brand reputation and overall franchise performance. Balancing these demands is essential for effective franchisor management. Steps to Franchise Your Business When considering how to franchise your business, it’s vital to first evaluate its readiness for such an expansion. Follow these important steps to get started: Assess scalability, profitability, and operational systems to guarantee your business can be effectively replicated by franchisees. Prepare a compliant Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) with all required disclosure items, making sure it’s provided to potential franchisees 14 days before any agreements or payments. Create a confidential operations manual that details your brand’s purpose, operational standards, and guidelines for franchisees to uphold consistency and quality. Register your trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and establish a legal entity to manage franchise operations, protecting your brand as you expand. Importance of Brand Consistency Franchising your business opens up opportunities for growth, but it additionally requires a strong emphasis on brand consistency to guarantee success. A consistent brand image is vital, as it guarantees every franchise location delivers a uniform experience. This uniformity strengthens customer loyalty and recognition across different markets. As a franchisee, you’re obligated to follow the franchisor’s established branding standards, which include logo usage, product offerings, and marketing materials. Adhering to these guidelines protects the overall brand equity. Regular brand audits and training sessions conducted by franchisors help you maintain these standards. Research shows that businesses with strong brand consistency can see a 20% increase in sales, making brand consistency critical for long-term success in franchising. Navigating Real Estate in Franchising Steering through the real estate environment in franchising can be a complex task, especially since choosing the right location is crucial to your franchise’s success. Here are key points to reflect on as you navigate this setting: Site Selection: Work closely with your franchisor’s team to evaluate potential locations based on market analysis. Lease Negotiation: Negotiate and sign leases, ensuring they align with your franchisor’s guidelines for consistency. Local Insights: Balance your local market knowledge with the franchisor’s brand objectives to make informed decisions. Lease Management: Stay compliant with lease terms through regular oversight from your franchisor, including site inspections and assistance during renewals. Following these steps can streamline your real estate decisions and contribute to your franchise’s overall success. Legal Support for Franchisees Maneuvering the legal terrain of franchising can be challenging, so having robust legal support is important for franchisees. Legal assistance helps you navigate franchise agreements, ensuring compliance with federal and state laws that define your rights and obligations. You’ll need guidance in preparing and reviewing the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), which is significant to receive 14 days before signing any contracts or making payments. Furthermore, legal support is critical during lease negotiations, as you’ll be responsible for managing lease agreements in spite of franchisor guidelines. Ongoing legal help can likewise be beneficial in resolving disputes with franchisors or landlords, which safeguards your investment and maintains operational continuity. Consider reaching out to specialized firms like LPJ Legal for customized advice. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Difference Between a Franchisee and a Franchisor? A franchisor owns the brand and business model, granting you, the franchisee, the right to operate under that name. During you pay initial fees and ongoing royalties, the franchisor provides training, support, and brand standards. You manage daily operations and expenses at your location. The relationship is mutually beneficial, with the franchisor relying on your local execution and you benefitting from an established brand and proven business practices to grow your venture. Which Is Correct, Franchiser or Franchisor? The correct term is “franchisor,” which identifies the brand owner granting rights to franchisees. “Franchiser” isn’t recognized in the industry and can cause confusion, especially in legal documents like the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). Using “franchisor” emphasizes the role of the entity creating and supporting the franchise system. It’s essential to use accurate terminology to guarantee clarity in agreements and discussions within the franchising environment. What Is the Definition of a Franchisor in the Context of Franchising? A franchisor is the original business owner who establishes a brand and operational system for others to operate under its name. You’ll find that a franchisor provides training, support, and resources to guarantee that franchisees maintain brand integrity. In return, the franchisor collects initial fees and ongoing royalties. Moreover, they develop marketing strategies and guidelines that franchisees must follow, protecting the brand’s reputation and promoting consistency across all locations. Which Document Provides Comprehensive Information About the Franchisor and the Franchise System to Potential Franchisees? The document you’re looking for is the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). It provides essential details about the franchisor, the franchise system, and the obligations of both parties involved. You’ll find information on financial performance, fees, and the franchise agreement within its 23 disclosure items. Conclusion In conclusion, comprehending the roles of franchisors and franchisees is vital for a successful partnership. The franchisor provides fundamental support and resources, whereas the franchisee manages daily operations within established guidelines. By recognizing these responsibilities and maintaining brand consistency, both parties can thrive. Moreover, maneuvering legal frameworks and real estate considerations can improve the franchise’s success. A clear comprehension of these elements will empower you to effectively engage in the franchising environment. Image via Google Gemini This article, "How to Define Franchisor and Franchisee in a Comprehensive Guide" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Google is rolling out new Google Maps features that make it easier to contribute photos, reviews, and local insights, while adding Gemini-powered caption suggestions. Local Guides redesign. Contributor profiles are getting more visibility. Total points now appear more prominently, Local Guide levels are easier to spot, and badge designs have been refreshed. Top contributors will also stand out more in reviews with new gold profile indicators. AI caption drafts. Google is also introducing AI-generated caption drafts. Gemini analyzes selected images and suggests text you can edit or discard. Caption suggestions are available in English on iOS in the U.S., with Android and broader global expansion planned. Media sharing. Google Maps now shows recent photos and videos directly in the Contribute tab, making uploads faster. If you enable media access, Google Maps will suggest images from your camera roll that are ready to post with a tap. This feature is now live globally on iOS and Android. Why we care. Google is making it easier to create and scale fresh local content, which can directly affect rankings and visibility. At the same time, stronger contributor signals may influence which reviews users trust and which businesses win clicks. View the full article

Fights over regulation could reshape the US federal system of governmentView the full article

Modern accounting systems offer a variety of crucial features that greatly improve financial management. They automate invoicing and transaction entries, which reduces manual errors and saves time. With real-time reporting and customizable dashboards, you can make informed decisions quickly. Furthermore, these systems integrate seamlessly with ERP and CRM applications, enhancing workflow efficiency. As we explore these key features further, you’ll discover how they can transform your approach to financial operations. Key Takeaways Modern accounting systems automate invoicing and payment reminders, significantly reducing manual tasks and errors while saving time for employees. They provide real-time financial insights with customizable reporting options, enabling informed decision-making and trend analysis for better business management. Integration with ERP and CRM systems enhances operational efficiency by centralizing financial data and streamlining workflows across departments. Compliance management features ensure adherence to financial regulations, with automated updates and secure data protection measures such as encryption and multi-factor authentication. Cloud-based benefits improve accessibility for remote teams, facilitating real-time collaboration and automatic upgrades while lowering IT costs. Core Features of Modern Accounting Systems Modern accounting systems are essential tools for businesses looking to improve their financial management. These systems define accounting system processes that guarantee accuracy through methods like double-entry accounting. You’ll find two types of accounting—financial and managerial—each serving different purposes but both benefiting from modern systems. Key features include accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) functionalities, which automate invoice processing and payment tracking, augmenting cash flow management. Advanced accounting software often includes optional tools for payroll management, inventory control, and project management, allowing you to tailor the system to your specific needs. Moreover, real-time reporting and analytics provide customizable financial statements and performance metrics, aiding in informed decision-making. Integration with other business applications, like ERP and CRM systems, further improves data sharing and minimizes manual data entry, eventually enhancing overall operational efficiency. These core features make modern accounting systems indispensable for today’s businesses. Automation and Streamlining Financial Processes In today’s fast-paced business environment, automating financial processes is crucial for efficiency. With solutions like automated invoicing, real-time financial insights, and streamlined expense tracking, you can save time and reduce errors in your accounting tasks. Embracing these modern tools not just simplifies your workflows but likewise improves accuracy, allowing you to focus on more strategic initiatives. Automated Invoicing Solutions Automated invoicing solutions transform the billing process by eliminating the need for manual invoicing tasks, which can be both time-consuming and prone to errors. These systems automatically generate and send invoices, considerably reducing the time spent on tedious manual entries. Featuring recurring invoices and automated payment reminders, they help guarantee timely revenue collection and can reduce overdue payments by up to 30%. Integration with accounting software allows for seamless tracking of customer payments, enhancing financial accuracy and cash flow management. Moreover, automated invoicing decreases errors linked to manual data entry, leading to more reliable financial records and fewer disputes with customers. Studies indicate that businesses utilizing these solutions can save an average of 10 hours per month per employee, enabling a focus on strategic initiatives. Real-Time Financial Insights Even though many businesses struggle with outdated financial reporting methods, real-time financial insights provided by advanced accounting systems can greatly improve decision-making processes. These systems automate data collection and analysis, allowing you to swiftly identify trends and performance metrics. You’ll reduce the time spent on manual entry and minimize errors through streamlined invoicing, expense tracking, and bank reconciliation. Continuous access to updated financial data means you can respond timely to opportunities or issues. Advanced reporting features offer customizable dashboards, making it easy to interpret performance at a glance. Integration with other business applications provides an all-encompassing view of business health. Feature Benefit Importance Automated Reporting Saves time on data entry Boosts efficiency Custom Dashboards Quick performance overview Aids in strategic decisions Continuous Updates Immediate access to data Supports timely responses Error Reduction Fewer mistakes in records Improves accuracy Cross-Application Links Holistic view of finances Streamlines workflows Streamlined Expense Tracking Effective expense tracking is essential for any business aiming to maintain financial health and optimize operations. Modern accounting systems automate this process by syncing with your Chase accounts, allowing automatic transaction reconciliation. This reduces manual entry time and minimizes errors. They often include automated invoicing features, enabling you to set up recurring invoices and reminders, which streamlines cash flow management. Advanced tools categorize transactions in real-time, giving you immediate visibility into spending patterns and helping identify cost reduction opportunities. Many systems offer mobile access, allowing you to capture and upload receipts on-the-go, enhancing accuracy in reporting. Real-Time Financial Insights and Reporting In today’s fast-paced business environment, having immediate access to financial data is critical for making informed decisions. Modern accounting systems excel in providing real-time financial insights by integrating data from various business applications. This allows you to instantly access key performance metrics and cash flow status, enhancing agility in your operations. With customizable reporting features, you can generate customized reports like income statements and balance sheets to meet specific analytical needs. Graphical summaries within these reporting tools visually represent financial data, making it easier to identify trends and patterns. Furthermore, advanced analytics capabilities support cost predictions and financial forecasting. Here’s a summary of the key features: Feature Description Real-Time Insights Immediate access to financial data Customizable Reporting Customized reports for specific needs Graphical Summaries Visual representation of financial trends Advanced Analytics Support for cost predictions and forecasting Continuous Monitoring Quick identification of performance issues Cloud-Based Architecture and Benefits As businesses increasingly embrace digital transformation, cloud-based accounting systems have emerged as a crucial solution for managing financial operations. These systems markedly lower IT costs and reduce technology risks by eliminating the need for on-premises hardware and maintenance. With automatic upgrades and easier management, you can improve productivity, allowing your team to focus on core activities instead of IT issues. Cloud architecture provides the flexibility to choose best-in-class solutions, avoiding the limitations of traditional software suites. By centralizing financial information in the cloud, you streamline processes, reduce manual data entry, and boost operational efficiency. Accessing your financial data through cloud platforms enables real-time collaboration and decision-making from any location, improving accessibility for remote teams. Integration With Other Business Applications Even though you may be focused on optimizing your financial operations, integrating modern accounting systems with other Intuit applications can greatly enhance your overall efficiency. These systems seamlessly connect with CRM and ERP platforms, providing a unified view of your financial health. Real-time data exchange allows for accurate and up-to-date financial reporting, markedly reducing manual data entry and the potential for errors. Advanced Features for Enhanced Management In today’s fast-paced business environment, advanced accounting systems offer significant advantages through automation and efficiency. By streamlining tasks like invoicing and payment processing, you can minimize errors and save valuable time. Moreover, real-time financial insights and customizable reporting options enable you to make informed decisions quickly, enhancing your overall management capabilities. Automation and Efficiency Modern accounting systems improve automation and efficiency, fundamentally transforming how Intuit businesses manage their financial processes. By automating transaction entry, invoicing, and payment tracking, these systems considerably increase operational efficiency and cut labor costs associated with manual tasks. Automation in addition reduces data entry errors by up to 80%, ensuring greater accuracy in financial reporting and compliance with accounting standards. Features like automatic bank reconciliations and recurring invoicing can save accountants an average of two hours daily, enhancing productivity. Moreover, integration with SAP systems streamlines workflows and eliminates redundant data entry, improving the return on investment for accounting functions. Automated reporting capabilities provide customizable dashboards, enabling quick decisions and effective trend analysis for better business management. Real-Time Financial Insights Real-time financial insights are vital for businesses aiming to stay agile in today’s fast-paced market. Modern accounting systems provide immediate access to cash flow and performance metrics, enabling swift decision-making. Advanced reporting tools create customizable dashboards that visually represent important data, making it easier to spot trends and anomalies. Integration with other business applications improves data analysis, allowing you to capitalize on new opportunities and adapt to market changes quickly. By centralizing financial data, these systems eliminate silos, providing a single source of truth that supports collaboration and strategic planning across teams. Feature Benefit Instant Data Access Quick decision-making Custom Dashboards Easy identification of trends Centralized Information Improved collaboration Customizable Reporting Options Customizable reporting options are essential features in accounting systems that empower businesses to present financial data in a way that aligns with their unique needs. With these advanced features, you can create role-based dashboards that allow real-time monitoring of key metrics customized for different departments or management levels. Not only can you generate standard reports like income statements and balance sheets, but you have the flexibility to design unique reports focusing on specific financial areas or projects. Moreover, the capability to perform trend analysis through customizable reports helps in identifying performance metrics over time. Many modern accounting systems even support integration with other business applications, ensuring thorough data gathering that improves reporting accuracy and depth of insights. Compliance and Security Measures in Accounting Systems As businesses navigate the intricacies of financial regulations, effective compliance and security measures in accounting systems become vital. Modern systems integrate compliance management features that automate adherence to both regional and international financial regulations. This automation reduces the burden on your organization as it grows. To protect sensitive financial data from unauthorized access and cyber threats, these systems implement robust security measures, including encryption and multi-factor authentication. Regular updates and patches are fundamental for maintaining compliance, ensuring that your software stays aligned with evolving tax laws and accounting standards. Moreover, many platforms offer audit trails that track changes and access to financial data, enhancing transparency and accountability. Compliance reporting features streamline the generation of necessary documents and reports, making it easier for you to meet regulatory requirements efficiently. Implementing these measures not only safeguards your business but furthermore nurtures trust with stakeholders and clients. Frequently Asked Questions What Are the Features of the New Accounting System? The new accounting system includes several crucial features. It automates invoicing and payment processing, making accounts receivable and accounts payable management efficient. You’ll benefit from real-time financial insights through advanced reporting capabilities, which allow you to customize reports easily. The cloud integration provides flexibility and cost savings, letting you access data from anywhere. Furthermore, routine tasks like payroll calculations are automated, reducing errors and manual effort in your financial operations. What Is the Modern System of Accounting? The modern system of accounting leverages cloud technology, providing real-time access to financial data. You’ll notice automation plays a vital role, minimizing manual data entry and simplifying tasks like invoicing and expense tracking. Advanced analytics tools offer insights into financial performance, supporting informed decision-making. Integration with other business applications improves operational efficiency, as well as scalability guarantees that the system meets the needs of both small businesses and larger enterprises as they expand. What Are the 5 Main Components of an Accounting System? The five main components of an accounting system include the general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, chart of accounts, and reporting tools. The general ledger acts as the central hub for financial data, whereas accounts receivable and accounts payable manage incoming and outgoing payments. The chart of accounts categorizes transactions for reporting, and reporting tools generate financial statements and analyses, helping you make informed decisions about your business’s performance. What Are Key Features of Accounting Software? When considering key features of accounting software, you’ll find functionalities like automated invoicing, which streamlines billing processes and improves cash flow. The software likewise supports accounts receivable and accounts payable tracking, allowing efficient management of customer payments and vendor invoices. Furthermore, customizable reporting tools enable you to generate specific financial reports, helping you analyze performance. Integration with other business applications further boosts operational efficiency by providing a complete view of your financial data. Conclusion In summary, modern accounting systems offer crucial features that improve financial management. By automating processes, providing real-time insights, and ensuring secure cloud access, these systems streamline operations. Their ability to integrate with other business applications further enhances efficiency, as advanced features support better decision-making. Prioritizing compliance and security, these systems empower businesses to adapt to evolving financial environments. Adopting such technologies can greatly benefit organizations, making financial management more effective and reliable. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Key Features of Modern Accounting Systems" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Agentic search is AI that evaluates and acts on behalf of users. Learn how it works and what it means for your brand visibility. View the full article

Mike Kortas will be adding a separate mortgage servicing company and hiring NEXA loan officers to assist with the process and give them customer insights. View the full article

Salesforce has unveiled an enhanced version of Slack, a widely recognized communication platform, aiming to help small businesses streamline their operations and enhance collaboration. The updated features come at an opportune moment for small business owners who are navigating challenges ranging from remote work to the need for better team communication. One of the standout improvements is an advanced user interface designed to make navigation more intuitive. This simplification can mean a significant reduction in the time employees spend searching for information, boosting overall productivity. “We’re focused on creating a seamless experience that helps teams focus on what really matters,” said a Salesforce representative, emphasizing the importance of efficiency in the often hectic lives of small business owners. For small businesses, the practical applications of Slack’s new capabilities are plentiful. The integration of a customizable sidebar allows users to access frequently used tools and channels faster, which can enhance focus and minimizes distractions. Additionally, with the introduction of improved search features, team members can find the information they need swiftly, a time-saver for those juggling multiple responsibilities. Collaboration is further enhanced through the platform’s improved channel organization. Teams can categorize conversations and projects, making it easier to locate discussions relevant to various business functions. This organizational strategy can be particularly beneficial for small enterprises where team members often wear multiple hats and may need to switch context quickly. Slack’s revised interface also includes new automation features that help streamline repetitive tasks. Small business owners could automate notifications for project updates or deadlines, improving communication efficiency without adding to their workload. As one small business owner pointed out, “The ability to automate those little reminders means I can focus on growth rather than administration.” Despite these benefits, small business owners should be cautious about potential challenges while adopting the new Slack. Transitioning to any new system takes time, and team members may initially face a learning curve. Training employees to effectively use the updated features will require investment and commitment, which may be a concern for businesses operating on tight budgets. Another consideration is the risk of information overload. With easier access to channels and information, team members might find themselves bombarded with notifications and updates. Establishing guidelines on how to use Slack efficiently is crucial, ensuring that team members are not overwhelmed by messages that could distract them from their core tasks. Interim user feedback on the updated Slack is encouraging, with many early users praising the effort to keep the user experience simple and engaging. “Slack has become the nerve center for our communication. The new changes make everything so much easier to handle,” said another user. Their experience highlights how effective tools can significantly enhance team dynamics and productivity. For small business owners considering a shift to the new Slack, it is essential to evaluate your specific communication needs. Integrating a communication tool that truly fits your team’s workflow can not only improve collaboration but also drive overall business performance. In addition, with the increased focus on remote working arrangements, the upgraded Slack can serve as a virtual hub for teams spread across different locations. By facilitating open communication, small businesses can better foster team cohesion, even when team members are geographically dispersed. In summary, the new Slack offers exciting features tailored to enhance productivity and collaboration for small businesses. While there may be challenges in implementation, the potential benefits for communication and team efficiency could set businesses on a path to growth. As Salesforce continues to innovate, small business owners have an opportunity to leverage such tools to adapt and thrive in an ever-evolving landscape. For more information, you can read the full Salesforce announcement here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Slack Unveils Major Overhaul to Enhance Team Collaboration" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

San Francisco's median house price jumped to a record $2.15 million in March, up 18% from a year earlier as wealth generated by artificial intelligence startups flooded the city, according to brokerage Compass Inc. View the full article

Google once attributed two of Barry Schwartz’s Search Engine Land articles to me — a misclassification at the annotation layer that briefly rewrote authorship in Google’s systems. For a few days, when you searched for certain Search Engine Land articles Schwartz had written, Google listed me as the author. The articles appeared in my entity’s publication list and were connected to my Knowledge Panel. What happened illustrates something the SEO industry has almost entirely overlooked: that annotation — not the content itself — is the key to what users see and thus your success. How Google annotated the page and got the author wrong Googlebot crawled those pages, found my name prominently displayed below the article (my author bio appeared as the first recognized entity name beneath the content), and the algorithm at the annotation gate added the “Post-It” that classified me as the author with high confidence. This is the most important point to bear in mind: the bot can misclassify and annotate, and that defines everything the algorithms do downstream (in recruitment, grounding, display, and won). In this case, the issue was authorship, which isn’t going to kill my business or Schwartz’s. But if that were a product, a price, an attribute, or anything else that matters to the intent of a user search query where your brand should be one of the obvious candidates, when any aspect of content is inaccurately annotated, you’ve lost the “ranking game” before you even started competing. Annotation is the single most important gate in taking your brand from discover to won, whatever query, intent, or engine you’re optimizing for. 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 What annotation is and why it isn’t indexing Indexing (Gate 4) breaks your content into semantic chunks, converts it, and stores it in a proprietary format. Annotation (Gate 5) then labels those chunks with a confidence-driven “Post-It” classification system. It’s a pragmatic labeler and attaches classifications to each chunk, describing: What that chunk contains factually. In what circumstances it might be useful. The trustworthiness of the information. Importantly, it’s mostly unopinionated when labeling facts, context, and trustworthiness. Microsoft’s Fabrice Canel confirmed the principle that the bot tags without judging, and that filtering happens at query time. What does that mean? The bot annotates neutrally at crawl time, classifying your content without knowing what query will eventually trigger retrieval. Annotation carries no intent at all. It’s the insight that has completely changed my approach to “crawl and index.” That clearly shows you that indexing isn’t the ultimate goal. Getting your page indexed is table stakes. Full, correct, and confident annotation is where the action happens: an indexed page that is poorly annotated is invisible to each of the algorithmic trinity. The annotation system analyzes each chunk using one or more language models, cross-referenced against the web index, the knowledge graph, and the models’ own parametric knowledge. But it analyzes each chunk in the context of the page wrapper. The page-level topic, entity associations, and intent provide the frame for classifying each chunk. If the page-level understanding is confused (unclear topic, ambiguous entity, mixed intent), every chunk annotation inherits that confusion. Even more importantly, it assigns confidence to every piece of information it adds to the “Post-Its.” The choices happen downstream: each of the algorithmic trinity (LLMs, search engines, and knowledge graphs) uses the annotation to decide whether to absorb your content at recruitment (Gate 6). Each has different criteria, so you need to assess your own content for its “annotatability” in the context of all three. And a small but telling detail: Back in 2020, Martin Splitt suggested that Google compares your meta description to its own LLM-generated summary of the page. When they match, the system’s confidence in its page-level understanding increases, and that confidence cascades into better annotation scores for every chunk — one of thousands of tiny signals that accumulate. Annotation is the key midpoint of the 10-gate pipeline, where the scoreboard turns on. Everything before it is infrastructure: “Can the system access and store your content?” Everything after it is competition: When you consider what happens at the annotation gate and its depth, links and keywords become the wrong lens entirely. They describe how you tried to influence a ranking system, whereas annotation is the mechanism behind how the algorithmic trinity chooses the content that builds its understanding of what you are. The frame has to shift. You’re educating algorithms. They behave like children, learning from what you consistently, clearly, and coherently put in front of them. With consistent, corroborated information, they build an accurate understanding. Given inconsistent or ambiguous signals, they learn incorrectly and then confidently repeat those errors over time. Building confidence in the machine’s understanding of you is the most important variable in this work, whether you call it SEO or AAO. “Confiance” (confidence) is the signal that drives how systems understand content. Slide from my SEOCamp Lyon 2017 presentation. In 2026, every AI assistive engine and agent is that same child, operating at a greater scale and with higher stakes than Google ever had. Educating the algorithms isn’t a metaphor. It’s the operational model for everything that follows. For a more academic perspective, see: “Annotation Cascading: Hierarchical Model Routing, Topical Authority, and Inter-Page Context Propagation in Large-Scale Web Content Classification.” 5 levels of annotation: 24+ dimensions classifying your content at Gate 5 When mapping the annotation dimensions, I identified 24, organized across five functional categories. After presenting this to Canel, his response was: “Oh, there is definitely more.” Of course there are. This taxonomy is built through observation first, then naming what consistently appears. The [know/guess] distinctions follow the same logic: test hypotheses, eliminate what doesn’t hold up, and keep what remains. The five functional categories form the foundation of the model. They are simple by design — once you understand the categories, the dimensions follow naturally. There are likely additional dimensions beyond those mapped here. What follows is the taxonomy: the categories are directionally sound (as confirmed by Canel), while the specific dimension assignments reflect observed behavior and remain incomplete. Level 1: Gatekeepers (eliminate) Temporal scope, geographic scope, language, and entity resolution. Binary: pass or fail. If your content fails a gatekeeper (wrong language, wrong geography, or ambiguous entity), it is eliminated from that query’s candidate pool instantly. The other dimensions don’t come into play. Level 2: Core identity (define) Entities, attributes, relationships, sentiment. This is where the system decides what your content means: Who is being discussed. What facts are stated. How entities relate. What the tone is. Without clear core identity annotations, a chunk carries no semantic weight in any downstream gate. Level 3: Selection filters (route) Intent category, expertise level, claim structure, and actionability. These determine which competition pool your content enters. Is this informational or transactional? Beginner or expert? Wrong pool placement means competing against content that is a better match for the query, and you’ve lost before recruitment or ranking begins. Level 4: Confidence multipliers (rank) Verifiability, provenance, corroboration count, specificity, evidence type, controversy level, and consensus alignment. These scale your ranking within the pool. This is where validated, corroborated, and specific content outranks accurate but unvalidated content. The multipliers explain why a well-sourced third-party article about you often outperforms your own claims: provenance and corroboration scores are higher. Confidence has a multiplier effect on everything else and is the most powerful of all signals. Full stop. Level 5: Extraction quality (deploy) Sufficiency, dependency, standalone score, entity salience, and entity role. These determine how your content appears in the final output. Is this chunk a complete answer, or does it need context? Is your entity the subject, the authority cited, or a passing mention? Extraction quality determines whether AI quotes you, summarizes you, or ignores you. Across all five levels, a confidence score is attached to every individual annotation. Not just what the system thinks your content means, but how certain it is. Clarity drives confidence. Ambiguity kills it. Canel also confirmed additional dimensions I had not initially mapped: audience suitability, ingestion fidelity, and freshness delta. These sit across the existing categories rather than forming a sixth level. In 2022, Splitt named three annotation behaviors in a Duda webinar that map directly onto the five-level model. The centerpiece annotation is Level 2 in direct operation: “We have a thing called the centerpiece annotation,” Splitt confirmed, a classification that identifies which content on the page is the primary subject and routes everything else — supplementary, peripheral, and boilerplate — relative to it. “There’s a few other annotations” of this type, he noted. Annotation runs before recruitment, which means a chunk classified as non-centerpiece carries that verdict into every gate that follows. Boilerplate detection is Level 3: content that appears consistently across pages — headers, footers, navigation, and repeated blocks — enters a different competition pool based on its structural role alone. “We figure out what looks like boilerplate and then that gets weighted differently,” Splitt said Off-topic routing closes the picture. A page classified around a primary topic annotates every chunk relative to that centerpiece, and content peripheral to the primary topic starts its own competition pool at a disadvantage before Recruitment begins. Splitt’s example: a page with 10,000 words on dog food and a thousand on bikes is “probably not good content for bikes.” The system isn’t ignoring the bike content. It’s annotating it as peripheral, and that annotation is the routing decision. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. The multiplicative destruction effect: When one near-zero kills everything In Sydney in 2019, I was at a conference with Gary Illyes and Brent Payne. Illyes explained that Google’s quality assessment across annotation dimensions was multiplicative, not additive. Illyes asked us not to film, so I grabbed a beer mat and noted a simple calculation: if you score 0.9 across each of 10 dimensions, 0.9 to the power of 10 is 0.35. You survive at 35% of your original signal. If you score 0.8 across 10 dimensions, you survive at 11%. If one dimension scores close to zero, the multiplication produces a result close to zero, regardless of how well you score on every other dimension. Payne’s phrasing of the practical implication was better than mine: “Better to be a straight C student than three As and an F.” The beer mat went into my bag. The principle became central to everything I’ve built since. The multiplicative destruction effect has a direct consequence for annotation strategy: the C-student principle is your guide. A brand with consistently adequate signals across all 24+ dimensions outperforms a brand with brilliant signals on most dimensions and a near-zero on one. The near-zero cascades. A gatekeeper failure (Level 1) eliminates the content entirely. A core identity failure (Level 2) misclassifies it so badly that high confidence multipliers at Level 4 are applied to the wrong entity. An extraction quality failure (Level 5) produces a chunk that the system can retrieve but can’t deploy usefully. The failure doesn’t have to be dramatic to be fatal. At the annotation stage, misclassification, low confidence, or near-zero on one dimension will kill your content and take it out of the race. Nathan Chalmers, who works at Bing on quality, told me something that puts this in a different light entirely. Bing’s internal quality algorithm, the one making these multiplicative assessments across annotation dimensions, is literally called Darwin. Natural selection is the explicit model: content with near-zero on any fitness dimension is selected against. The annotations are the fitness test. The multiplicative destruction effect is the selection mechanism. How annotation routes content to specialist language models The system doesn’t use one giant language model to classify all content. It routes content to specialized small language models (SLMs): domain-specific models that are cheaper, faster, and paradoxically more accurate than general LLMs for niche content. A medical SLM classifies medical content better than GPT-4 would, because it has been trained specifically on medical literature and knows the entities, the relationships, the standard claims, and the red flags in that domain. What follows is my model of how the routing works, reconstructed from observable behavior and confirmed principles. The existence of specialist models is confirmed. The specific cascade mechanism is my reconstruction. The routing follows what I call the annotation cascade. The choice of SLM cascades like this: Site level (What kind of site is this?) Refined by category level (What section?) Refined by page level (what specific topic?) Applied at chunk level (What does this paragraph claim?) Each level narrows the SLM selection, and each level either confirms or overrides the routing from above. This maps directly to the wrapper hierarchy from the fourth piece: the site wrapper, category wrapper, and page wrapper each provide context that influences which specialist model the system selects. The system deploys three types of SLM simultaneously for each topic. This is my model, derived from the behavior I have observed: annotation errors cluster into patterns that suggest three distinct classification axes. The subject SLM classifies by subject matter — what is this about? — routing content into the right topical domain. The entity SLM resolves entities and assesses centrality and authority: who are the key players, is this entity the subject, an authority cited, or a passing mention? The concept SLM maps claims to established concepts and evaluates novelty, checking whether what the content asserts aligns with consensus or contradicts it. When all three return high confidence on the same entity for the same content, annotation cost is minimal, and the confidence score is very high. When they disagree (i.e., the subject SLM says “marketing,” but the entity SLM can’t resolve the entity, and the concept SLM flags the claims as novel), confidence drops, and the system falls back to a more general, less accurate model. The key insight? LLM annotation is the failure mode. The system wants to use a specialist. It defaults to a generalist only when it can’t route to a specialist. Generalist annotation produces lower confidence across all dimensions. The practical implication Content that’s category-clear within its first 100 words, uses standard industry terminology, follows structural conventions for its content type, and references well-known entities in its domain triggers SLM routing. Content that’s topically ambiguous or terminologically creative gets the generalist. Lower confidence propagates through every downstream gate. Now, this may not be the exact way the SLMs are applied as a triad (and it might not even be a trio). However, two things strike me: Observed outputs act that way. If it doesn’t function this way, it would be. First-impression persistence: Why the initial annotation is the hardest to correct Here is something I’ve observed over years of tracking annotation behavior. It aligns with a principle Canel confirmed explicitly for URL status changes (404s and 301 redirects): the system’s initial classification tends to stick. When the bot first crawls a page, it selects an SLM, runs the annotation, assigns confidence scores, and saves the classification. The next time it crawls the same page, it logically starts with the previously assigned model and annotations. I call this first-impression persistence. The initial annotation is the baseline against which all subsequent signals are measured. The system doesn’t re-evaluate from scratch. It checks whether the new crawl is consistent with the existing classification, and if it is, the classification is reinforced. Canel confirmed a related mechanism: when a URL returns a 404 or is redirected with a 301, the system allows a grace period (very roughly a week for a page, and between one and three months for content, in my observation) during which it assumes the change might revert. After the grace period, the new state becomes persistent. I believe the same principle applies to content classification: a window of fluidity after first publication, then crystallization. I have direct evidence for the correction side from the evolution of my own terminologies. When I first described the algorithmic trinity, I used the phrase “knowledge graphs, large language models, and web index.” Google, ChatGPT, and Perplexity all picked up on the new term and defined it correctly. A month later, I changed the last one to “search engine” because it occurred to me that the web index is what all three systems feed off, not just the search system itself. At the point of correction, I had published roughly 10 articles using the original terminology. I went back and invested the time to change every single one, updating every reference, leaving zero traces. A month later, AI assistive engines were consistently using “search engine” in place of “web index.” The lesson is that change is possible, but you need to be thorough: any residual contradictory signal (one old article, one unchanged social post, and one cached version) maintains inertia proportionally. Thoroughness is the unlock, rather than time. A rebrand, career pivot, or repositioning is the practical example. You can change the AI model’s understanding and representation of your corporate or personal brand, but it requires thoroughly and consistently pivoting your digital footprint to the new reality. In my experience, “on a sixpence” within a week. I’ve done this with my podcast several times. Facebook achieved the ultimate rebrand from an algorithmic perspective when it changed its name to Meta. The practical implication Get your annotation right before you publish. The first crawl sets the baseline. A page published prematurely (with an unclear topic or ambiguous entity signals) crystallizes into a low-confidence annotation, and changing it later requires significantly more effort than getting it right the first time. Annotation-time grounding: The bot cross-references three sources while classifying your content The system doesn’t annotate in a vacuum. When the bot classifies your content at Gate 5, it cross-references against at least three sources simultaneously. This is my model of the mechanism. The observable effect — that annotation confidence correlates with entity presence across multiple systems — is confirmed from our tracking data. The bot carries prioritized access to the web index during crawling, checking your content against what it already knows: Who links to you. What context those links provide. How your claims relate to claims on other pages. Against the knowledge graph, it checks annotated entities during classification — an entity already in the graph with high confidence means annotation inherits that confidence, while absence starts from a much lower baseline. The SLM’s own parametric knowledge provides the third cross-reference: each SLM compares encountered claims against its training data, granting higher confidence to claims that align, flagging contradictions, and giving lower confidence to novel claims until corroboration accumulates. This means annotation quality isn’t just about how well your content is written. It’s about how well your entity is already represented across all three of the algorithmic trinity. An entity with strong knowledge graph presence, authoritative web index links, and consistent SLM-domain representation gets higher annotation confidence on new content automatically. The flywheel: better presence leads to better annotation, which leads to better recruitment, which strengthens presence, and which improves future annotation. Once again, better to have an average presence in all three than to have a dominant presence in two and no presence in one. And this is why knowledge graph optimization (what I’ve been advocating for over a decade) isn’t separate from content optimization. They are the same pipeline. Your knowledge graph presence directly improves how accurately, verbosely, and confidently the system annotates every new piece of content you publish. If you’re thinking “Knowledge graph? That’s just Google,” think again. In November 2025, Andrea Volpini intercepted ChatGPT’s internal data streams and found an operational entity layer running beneath every conversation: structured entity resolution connected to what amounts to a product graph mirroring Google Shopping feeds. OpenAI is building its own knowledge graph inside the LLM. My bet is that they will externalize it for several reasons: a knowledge graph in an LLM doesn’t scale, an LLM will self-confirm, so the value is limited, a standalone knowledge graph can be easily updated in real time without retraining the model, and it’s only useful at scale when it stays current. The algorithmic trinity isn’t a Google phenomenon. It’s the architectural pattern every AI assistive engine and agent converges on, because you can’t generate reliable recommendations without a concept graph, structured entity data, and up-to-date search results to ground them. Why Google and Bing annotate differently from engines that rent their index Google and Bing own their crawling infrastructure, indexes, and knowledge graphs. They can afford grace periods, schedule rechecks, and maintain temporal state for URLs and entities over months. OpenAI, Perplexity, and every engine that rents index access from Google or Bing operate on a fundamentally different model. They have two speeds: A slow Boolean gate (Does this content exist in the index I have access to?) A fast display layer (What does the content say right now when I fetch it for grounding?) The Boolean gate inherits Google’s and Bing’s annotations. Whether your content appears at all depends on whether it was recruited from the index those engines draw from, and that recruitment depends on annotation and selection decisions made by the algorithmic trinity. But what these engines show when they cite you is fetched in real time. The practical implication For Google and Bing, you’re optimizing for annotation quality with the benefit of grace periods and gradual reclassification. For engines that don’t own their index, the Boolean presence is inherited from the rented index and is slow to change, but the surface-level display changes every time they re-fetch. That means what you are seeing in the results is not a direct measure of your annotation quality. It’s a snapshot of your page at the moment of fetch, and those two things may have nothing to do with each other. How to optimize for annotation quality: The six practical principles The SEO industry has spent two decades optimizing for search and assistive results — what happens after the system has already decided what your content means. We should be optimizing for annotation. If the annotation is wrong, everything downstream suffers. When the annotation is accurate, verbose, and confident, your content has a significant advantage in recruitment, grounding, display, and, ultimately, won. 1. Trigger SLM routing Make your topic category obvious within the first 100 words. Use standard industry terminology. Follow structural conventions. Reference well-known entities. The goal: specialist model, not generalist. 2. Write for all three SLMs Clear signals for subject (what is this about?), entity (who is the authority?), and concept (what established ideas does this connect to?). Ambiguity on any axis reduces confidence. 3. Get it right before publishing First-impression persistence means the initial annotation is the hardest to change. Publish only when topic, entity signals, and claims are unambiguous. 4. Build the flywheel Knowledge graph presence, web index centrality, LLM parameter strengthening, and correct SLM-domain representation all feed annotation confidence for new content. Invest in entity foundation, and every future piece benefits from inherited credibility. 5. Eliminate noise when correcting Change every reference. Leave zero contradictory signals. Noise maintains inertia proportionally. 6. Audit for annotation, not just indexing A page can be indexed and still misannotated. If the AI response is wrong about you, the problem is almost certainly at Gate 5, not Gate 8. Annotation is the gate where most brands silently lose. The SEO industry doesn’t yet have a vocabulary for it. That needs to change, because the gap between brands that get annotation right and brands that don’t is the gap between consistent AI visibility and permanent algorithmic obscurity. 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 Why annotation matters so much and why it should be your main focus You’ve done everything within your power to create the best possible content that maps to intent of your ideal customer profile, you have methodically optimized your digital footprint, your data feeds every entry mode simultaneously: pull, push discovery, push data, MCP, and ambient, so they are all drawing from the same clean, consistent source So, content about your brand has passed through the DSCRI infrastructure phase, survived the rendering and conversion fidelity boundaries, and arrived in the index (Gate 4) intact. Phew! Now it gets classified. Annotation is the last moment in the pipeline where you have the field to yourself. Every decision in DSCRI was absolute: you vs. the machine, with no competitor in the frame. Annotation is still absolute. The system classifies your content based on your signals alone, independently of what any competitor has done. Nobody else’s data changes how your entity is annotated. But this is the last time you aren’t competing. From recruitment onward, everything is relative. The field opens, every brand that passed annotation enters the same competitive pool, and the advantage you carried through the absolute phase becomes your starting position in the competitive race you have to win. That means: Get annotation right, and you start ahead, with confidence that compounds through every downstream gate in RGDW. Get it wrong, and the multiplicative destruction effect does its work — a near-zero on one annotation dimension cascades through recruitment, grounding, display, and won. No amount of excellent content, structural signals, or entry-mode advantage recovers it. Warning: First-impression persistence (remember, the first time you are annotated is the baseline) means you don’t get a clean retry. Changing the baseline requires thoroughness, time, and more effort than getting it right on the first crawl. Annotation isn’t the gate that most brands focus on. It’s the gate where most brands silently lose. This is the eighth piece in my AI authority series. The first, “Rand Fishkin proved AI recommendations are inconsistent – here’s why and how to fix it,” introduced cascading confidence. The second, “AAO: Why assistive agent optimization is the next evolution of SEO,” named the discipline. The third, “The AI engine pipeline: 10 gates that decide whether you win the recommendation,” mapped the full pipeline. The fourth, “The five infrastructure gates behind crawl, render, and index,” walked through the infrastructure phase. The fifth, “5 competitive gates hidden inside ‘rank and display’,” covered the competitive phase. The sixth, “The entity home: The page that shapes how search, AI, and users see your brand,” mapped the raw material. The seventh, “The push layer returns: Why ‘publish and wait’ is half a strategy,” extended the entry model. Up next: “The engine’s recruitment decision: What topical ownership actually means.” View the full article

It’s hard to get real-world information about what jobs pay. Online salary websites are often inaccurate, and people can get weird when you ask them directly. So to take some of the mystery out of salaries, it’s the annual Ask a Manager salary survey. Fill out the form below to anonymously share your salary and other relevant info. (Do not leave your info in the comments section! If you can’t see the survey questions, try this link instead.) When you’re done, you can view all the responses in a sortable spreadsheet. Loading… The post how much money do you make? appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Market performance tends to dominate the conversation about risks to a retirement plan. But spending shocks can also curb a retirement portfolio’s longevity. In Morningstar’s research, we examined the implications of two major types of spending shocks: unanticipated early retirement and uninsured long-term care expenses at the end of life. The former may necessitate spending over a longer period, often with higher healthcare costs in the pre-Medicare years, while the latter can translate into an effective “balloon payment” toward the end of life. Early retirement Early retirement — before the standard age of 65 — is an increasingly common scenario. While Social Security’s full retirement age is currently between 66 and 67, the average retirement age is 62, according to a study from MassMutual. That’s corroborated by Social Security filing data, which show that roughly 25% of retirees take Social Security when it’s first available at age 62, and 15% file at 63 or 64. Nearly half of the retirees surveyed by MassMutual said they had retired earlier than planned; commonly cited reasons included layoffs, being able to retire sooner than expected, or illness or injury. Early retirement has significant implications for retirement spending, with longer drawdown periods necessitating lower spending to maintain a high likelihood of not running out later on. In our base-case spending simulation, expanding the drawdown period from 30 to 35 years reduces the starting safe withdrawal rate from 3.9% to 3.5%. Stretching the time spending horizon to 40 years takes the starting safe withdrawal rate to 3.2%. Keeping withdrawals low in early retirement may be challenging on a few levels, however. First, individuals aren’t eligible for Medicare coverage until age 65, so bridging healthcare coverage in the intervening years has the potential to increase spending. Insurance coverage for 62- to 65-year-olds from the ACA marketplace averaged between $800 and $1,200 a month in 2025, according to data from Boldin. Meanwhile, Cobra coverage (extending workplace-provided coverage) for people 62 to 65 averaged $700 to $1,500 a month. For a 62-year-old taking a safe withdrawal rate of 3.5% ($35,000) from her $1 million portfolio, healthcare costs would consume roughly a third of those withdrawals. Further complicating matters for young retirees is that many individuals wish to delay Social Security to increase their eventual benefits. At the same time, delaying Social Security can necessitate higher withdrawals in the early part of retirement, thereby imperiling the portfolio’s ability to last over the longer time horizon. Long-term care spending Just as early retirement can cause a spending shock at the front end of retirement, long-term care costs can prompt a spending shock later in life. A 2025 report authored by Spencer Look and Jack VanDerhei of the Morningstar Center for Retirement & Policy Studies found that 43% of baby boomers will incur long-term care costs, with the average cost of that care $242,373. The likelihood of needing care correlates with longevity: While just 24% of men and 27% of women who die at age 75 will require long-term care, 52% of men and 60% of women who die at age 95 will require long-term care. Incurring sizable long-term care costs can have catastrophic effects for a financial plan: The Morningstar study found that when long-term care costs are included in the analysis of the viability of retirement assets, 41% of older-adult households that incur long-term care costs are likely to run out of funds. Older adults can take different approaches to address this risk. They might set aside a separate long-term care “bucket,” separate from their spending portfolios. Others may plan to use home equity. Alternatively, those with very tight finances might create a spending plan to cover their costs during their healthy years, then rely on government resources if they require long-term care after that. The final option for handling the cost of long-term care is to build it into the spending plan, spending less throughout retirement to account for the possibility of a spike later in life. To help model a long-term care shock, we assumed spending in years 29 and 30 to be twice what spending was in year 28. Factoring in that type of shock, the starting safe withdrawal percentage for the person retiring and claiming Social Security at age 67 is 3.5%, versus 3.9% for our base case without that shock. This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more retirement content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/retirement. ChristineBenz is director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar and co-host of The Long View podcast. Related Links What to Do in the Five Years Before You Retire https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/emily-guy-birken-what-do-five-years-before-you-retire What You Need to Know About Annuities https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/what-you-need-know-about-annuities 10 Sources of Emergency Cash, Ranked From Best to Worst https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/10-sources-emergency-cash-ranked-best-worst —Christine Benz of Morningstar View the full article