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There’s often a focus on online businesses.

This week, there seemed to be a concerted effort to help local small businesses get online and even one instance where an online behemoth plans to enter into a very traditionally local, seasonal business.

Earlier this week, USA Today announced a new tool to help local small businesses, often called the Main Street businesses, enhance their online presence and launch effective targeted marketing campaigns. Be on the lookout for the newspaper company’s new LOCALiQ service.

On the back end of many local small businesses are usually some antiquated systems for dealing with customers and clients. That’s where something new from Womply is designed to fit. The new Womply CRM is designed specifically for mom-and-pop shops that are more likely to be complicated by traditional CRM systems.

And finally, Amazon is reportedly planning to insert itself into another local business, just in time for the holidays. The latest suggests Amazon is planning to sell and deliver Christmas trees, just like it does with clothing, tools, and just about everything else. Of course, this could be an opportunity for Amazon to partner with one or several local Christmas tree sellers where this move might actually benefit some sellers.

That’s just a small portion of what was making news this week for small businesses. Literally just the business on one street. Check out the rest of the week in small business news in our news roundup below.

For those accustomed to This Week in Small Business appearing at this time, check back next week when host Brent Leary brings you his take on the news. Don’t miss that next show by subscribing to the Small Business Trends YouTube channel today.

Economy

73% of Gen Z Freelancers Do So By Choice, Report Says

Upwork’s Freelancing in America: 2017 survey reports there will be more Gen Z people than Millennials in the workforce within a year. They are the generation that is most likely to freelance. In fact, the data shows that 73% of this generation freelances by choice.

Employment

The Cost of Hiring a New Employee Could be as Much as $7,645 Per Recruit, Report Says

Did you know the cost of hiring a new employee can be as much as $7,645? In his exploration of the costs associated with hiring and training new recruits, Amr Ibrahim, CEO of ULTATEL, a telecom solutions provider, cites an Industrial Distribution report titled ‘Distribution Hiring Process: The $7,645 Letter’.

Franchise

NLRB Proposes Rule Change to Restore Joint Employer Standard

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced it was going forward with a proposal for re-establishing rulemaking in the joint employer standard. New Joint Employer Standard Proposal The NLRB issued a proposed rule (PDF) to establish an updated standard to determine joint employer status under the National Labor Relations Act.

Management

Week Plan App Aims to Stop Small Business Owners from Feeling Overwhelmed

Week Plan is a weekly planner and task manager being marketed to small business owners who may feel like they have a bit too much on their plate. The app seeks to ratchet down that overwhelmed feeling by steering you to the tasks that matter most, instead of trying to get everything done.

Retail Trends

Free is Better Than Fast for Ecommerce Consumers

When it comes to consumers who shop online, the ability to return the items they buy for free is hugely important. Free Shipping Is Better Than Fast According to the 2018 annual eCommerce survey by Dotcom Distribution, more than 90% of the respondents placed a high value on free returns when they make an online purchase.

Startup

Catholic Business Owners Urged to Cut Tithes to Vatican

The main organization for Catholic owners of multi-million dollar businesses announced it placed its annual Vatican tithe in escrow following recent scandals.

Technology Trends

Shopify Launches New App Store to Connect Merchants with the Best Apps

Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) has launched a new app store with the goal of making the more than 2,400 apps in the store easier to find. According to Shopify, 85% percent of the merchants who use the company’s platform rely on apps to run their business. And the number of apps the average merchant uses has grown six-fold since 2012.

Vimeo Launches Stock Video Marketplace for Small Businesses, Creators

Online video platform Vimeo has launched a new stock footage marketplace that could benefit small businesses seeking material for video content. The videos on Vimeo Stock are sourced from the community of filmmakers on its platform — so for creators there is also an opportunity here. The collection offers royalty-free videos with starting prices small businesses can afford.

Mastercard and Microsoft Team Up to Help Small Businesses Become Exporters

In order to solve the problems of cross-border trade and payments small businesses face, Mastercard (NYSE: MA) and Microsoft have created a new solution to simplify the process of doing business around the world. Mastercard Track Mastercard Track integrates with the existing procure-to-pay process system a business has in place.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “USA Today, Womply Lend Help to Main Street Businesses” was first published on Small Business Trends

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The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced it was going forward with a proposal for re-establishing rulemaking in the joint employer standard.

New Joint Employer Standard Proposal

The NLRB issued a proposed rule (PDF) to establish an updated standard to determine joint employer status under the National Labor Relations Act. This move was to counteract a decision in 2015 the Obama-era board made to change the definition of the employer-employee relationship.

Based on a 3-2 decision, the NLRB concluded Browning-Ferris Industries could be considered a joint employer with another company which provided contracted employees. This essentially meant anyone exerting indirect control over the terms and conditions of employment for a particular worker is an employer.

At that time the decision was attacked by business groups, especially franchisees and small business owners who could potentially be subject to more financial liability and regulations. For the tens of thousands of franchise owners and many other small businesses, being labeled a joint-employer was a disaster in the making.

Joint Employer

Before the 2015 decision, the NLRB had considered two or more employers “joint employers” only if they had actual, direct, and immediate control over terms and conditions of the employment of their workforce. This was the case for more than 30 years.

The 2015 decision said sharing indirect or potential control over another workforce could be considered joint employers. This introduced a lot of uncertainty for franchises, independent contractors, as well as small and large businesses doing business together.

The New Rules

In the press release, the NLRB explained, “Rulemaking in this important area of the law would foster predictability, consistency, and stability in the determination of joint-employer status.”

It goes on to say, “The National Labor Relations Act’s intent is best supported by a joint-employer doctrine that does not draw third parties, who have not played an active role in deciding wages, benefits, or other essential terms and conditions of employment, into a collective-bargaining relationship for another employer’s employees.”

Labor policy analyst Trey Kovacs of The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), said, “The proposed new standard will create greater certainty for businesses, which will allow employers to plan for the future and be confident in knowing what kinds of business-to-business relationship will establish a joint employer relationship.”

While the NLRB hasn’t said it outright, it is highly likely new rules will be issued to reverse the 2015 decision and return to the previous joint employer standard with direct and immediate control.

Legislatively the House of Representatives already passed the Save Local Business Act (H.R. 3441) in November of 2017. The bill is currently pending in the Senate.

The bill will among other things, “Restore a commonsense definition of employer to provide certainty and stability for workers and employers, and protect workers and local employers from future overreach by unelected bureaucrats and activist judges.”

If you want to comment in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, you have until November 13, 2018. You can find the link for the NLRB page here.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “NLRB Proposes Rule Change to Restore Joint Employer Standard” was first published on Small Business Trends

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Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) has launched a new app store with the goal of making the more than 2,400 apps in the store easier to find.

According to Shopify, 85% percent of the merchants who use the company’s platform rely on apps to run their business. And the number of apps the average merchant uses has grown six-fold since 2012.

With so many specialized industry and task-specific apps, finding the right one amongst thousands of apps can be time-consuming and more complicated than it has to be. For the more than 600,000 merchants who use Shopify, most of whom are small businesses, the app store was overdue for an overhaul.

According to Brandon Chu, General Manager of App & Partner Platform, who addressed the state of the old app store on the company blog, said “It just simply wasn’t designed for the diversity of merchants that we have today to be able to find the diversity of apps that now exist”

One of the biggest problems the store was facing was the issues of scale, which according to Chu were causing problems for both merchants and developers. When you take into account the Shopify App Store had less than a dozen apps at launch in 2009, the 2,400 plus apps it has now represents an increase of thousands of percentage points.

Improvements in the New Shopify App Store

Shopify started by completely overhauling its app store to provide a better experience for users whether they are on their desktop or mobile device.

The user interface is, according to the company, simpler and easier to navigate. This was in part achieved from the feedback merchants and app developers submitted to Shopify.

This includes using a search function which understands the language you use to find what you are looking for, as well as making the results of your query more accurate. Based on your query, the result will discover available solutions in the most relevant order.

The search result will also have key pieces of information up front and center, such as free trial details, ratings, and an easy to understand description of the app.

The listing of apps has been improved by providing the most relevant information for each merchant. This includes side by side comparisons of apps and a more transparent and easy to understand price listing.

Recommendations

With over 2,400 apps, going through the whole catalog to find a useful app would take more time than any small business owner had.

A new smart app recommendation engine has been integrated into the store to suggest solutions based on patterns that drive success for your business.

The engine will recommend apps which you may not have considered before based on prior purchases. Using the new apps together can introduce new levels of efficiency in running your store, marketing to your customers, analyzing data and more.

You can visit the new and improved Shopify App Store here.

Image: Shopify

This article, “Shopify Launches New App Store to Connect Merchants with the Best Apps” was first published on Small Business Trends

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The Womply CRM has been launched as the first customer relationship management (CRM) solution designed specifically for American small businesses.

Womply says it designed its CRM to solve the customer-facing challenges of small businesses without the complexities of traditional CRM solutions used by large enterprises.

According to Womply Founder Toby Scammell, this means working out of the box without wasting time and needing technical expertise. These are critically important factors for mom and pop shops who need to capitalize on the benefits CRM offers, but who don’t have the resources, expertise or time to implement complex solutions.

In an emailed press release to Small Business Trends, Scammell says these small shops can’t use traditional CRM system. He adds, “Small businesses don’t have effective ways to collect customer information, which means they don’t know their customers and can’t keep them engaged after they leave. It’s time for small businesses to get the significant benefits of CRM, which large companies and online businesses have enjoyed for decades.”

Womply CRM

The company says Womply CRM can be used by customer-facing small businesses like restaurants, salons, retailers, auto shops, medical offices, dental offices and more.

The new CRM platform will collect valuable information about each of your customers so you can get to know them better, create personalized marketing campaigns, and form long-term relationships.

Womply CRM can create and update customer records automatically from its database of 200 million consumers in the United States. Once your customers have been identified properly, the CRM will connect transaction histories to their profiles.

These profiles can then be segmented by who’s new, who’s loyal, who spends the most, and more. You can even send personalized marketing messages to them with special offers and new promotions.

During every level of engagement, the Womply CRM system collects feedback from your customers by text or email. This information is also analyzed to generate additional insights into what customers like or don’t like. This lets you make improvements to the product and services a business provides.

Affordability of CRM

During the early days of CRM, the technology was used by large enterprises. But with the advent of the internet, social media and cheap computing prices, CRM has become affordable for the smallest of businesses.

This has allowed small companies to better understand their customers and provide a more personalized service.

Price and Availability

Womply CRM is available now in select Womply software packages.

The company has three subscription-based tiers for each business location.  The Womply Basic is $49 per month for two users, followed by Womply Boost at $149 per month with unlimited users, and Womply Engage for $299 per month, also with unlimited users.

If you have more than three locations, the company says it can create packages specific to your needs. And the purchase comes with a 14-day money back guarantee.

Images: Womply

This article, “Womply Debuts a CRM for Mom and Pop Businesses” was first published on Small Business Trends

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