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Business Genius: Omnichannel

According to McKinsey, the pandemic has cemented “omnichannel” interactions as the predominant path for B2B sales. Even as in-person engagement reemerged as an option, buyers made clear they prefer a cross-channel mix, choosing in-person, remote, and digital self-serve interactions in equal measure.

As purchasing goes omnichannel, sales models will go hybrid. Hybrid sales reps will soon become the most common sales role. With omnichannel established as the new buying norm, 64 percent of B2Bs intend to increase the number of hybrid sellers over the next six months, making this model—representatives who interact with customers via video, phone, apps, and occasional in-person visits—the lead sales role.
Hybrid sellers are representatives who interact with customers via video, phone, apps, and occasional in-person visits.

  • 8% of B2b organizations have hybrid sales roles today
  • 77% of those introduced hybrid sales roles during 2020s pandemic
  • 85% expect hybrid sellers will be the most common sales role in their organization over the next 3 years

Embracing Community

Mentors change the world one child at a time.

We’re aunts, uncles, and parents. Brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends. We are also volunteers with a passion for helping children in our community thrive. But meeting Esma Dennis through the West Orange Chamber of Commerce changed our perspective on what that looks like.

As a Foster Parent Recruiter for Embrace Families, Esma is fierce and friendly Fairy Godmother for children, teens, and young adults in need. Though she is quick to share that Central Florida certainly needs more foster and foster-to-adopt families, these kids also need mentors. That’s where we can help!

Mentors come from all walks of life, and have a unique role that allows them to be a trusted friend, voice of encouragement and listening ear. Mentors spend quality time with their mentees, introducing them to activities that expand their horizons; often teaching life skills that are typically passed on by one’s mother or father; and listening to their stories with a compassionate heart.

“Mentors have a chance to make a real difference in the lives of others and at Embrace Families, we rely on mentors to help local youth in the child welfare system,” Esma shares. If your New Year’s Resolution is to give back, consider becoming a mentor.

To learn more, visit embracefamilies.org/mentor or reach out to Esma directly at esma.dennis@embracefamilies.org.


Facts & Figures

4 days

The amount of time it takes to launch a business in the United States.

SOURCE: SOURCE: WorldBank

59.5 Million

the number of Americans currently employed by small businesses.

SOURCE: SOURCE: nav.com

99 Percent

The amount of time it takes to launch a business in the United States.

SOURCE: SOURCE: Guidant Financial

2-3%

The amount a typical healthy small business can expect to grow each year.

SOURCE: SOURCE: nav.com


Feel Good News: Eagle Eye

Once nearly extinct, American bald eagle populations have quadrupled in last decade.

In 1963, there were just 417 known bald eagle nesting pairs in the lower 48 states. But according to a new report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the United States’ beloved national symbol is now thriving, with more than 71,4000 nesting pairs.

Scientists say there are now an estimated 316,700 individual bald eagles in the contiguous United States — a rapid increase in recent years. For comparison, the population was estimated to be 72,434 individuals, including 30,548 breeding pairs, in 2009.


Highlight

“The barriers to entry have probably never been lower. It is literally over a thousand times cheaper to start up a business today as compared to 15 years ago. …And it’s a strong funding environment, which we think we’ll see at least through 2022, if not longer. This bodes really well for startups.” —Stephen Markwell, JP Morgan


Going for the goal

Inspiring stories of real go-getters filling a need in their community.

FARMGIRL FLOWERS

Farmgirl Flowers is our kind of success story. Founder Christina Stembel never enrolled in college but worked for eight years at Stanford, first as general manager of catering and then for a few years at the law school. She originally thought flowers were a “waste of money,” but because her work required it, she began digging deeper into the industry. In 2010, working out of her San Francisco apartment, she parlayed her $49,000 in savings into a $32 million business, disrupting the floral delivery industry along the way.

Farmgirl works to reduce the wasteful practices that are prevalent in the floral industry. by skipping cellophane wrap altogether, opting instead for burlap or paper. “The model for Farmgirl allows for, at most, two percent waste,” says Stembel. “In the nine years we’ve been open it’s never gone above this and, in most cases, is below 1 percent.”

The company also chooses quality over customization to reduce flower waste. “Customers can choose the size or the price point—we choose what to fill those bouquets with based on what looks best and is freshest from the growers we work with,” she says. “I also know it feels great at the end of the day not to be trashing loads of flowers and greens that have gone bad and can’t ship to customers.”
Last year alone, the company saved over a ton of plastic from going into the landfill.

JEFF’S BAGEL RUN

How far will you go for a good bagel? If you’re Jeff and Danielle Perera, the hunt for a decent New York–style bagel in Florida might be schmeared with disappointment—so much disappointment, in fact, that the Danielle realized that her husband alone could probably do so much better.

Their frustration ignited a business, and Jeff’s hobby turned into sharing joy with the Winter Garden community in the form of hand-rolled, always boiled, fresh daily, delicious bagels.

Turns out, they weren’t the only ones hungry for more, and the newly formed Jeff’s Bagel Run frequently sold out in minutes. They started doing pop-ups and added four more refrigerators to their house to keep up with demand.

Now the pair is on the rise to fund their first brick-and-mortar location via Kickstarter. Whether you have a love for bootstrapping entrepreneurs or you simply want a better bagel, you can find all the details at jeffsbagelrun.com


Trend Report

Acronym know-how

What exactly are ETFs?

ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, are investment products that give you a way to buy and sell a basket of assets without having to buy all the components individually. The cooler part is they trade on an ~exchange~ like any stock, making them easy to buy and sell.

The first ETF launched in the US in 1993 under the ticker “SPY.” It tracks the S&P 500.
Most ETFs are like SPY—they track indexes. But there are many other kinds of ETFs, including sector ETFs, bond ETFs, commodity ETFs, and even inverse ETFs, which seek to cash in on an industry’s decline.

ETFs are attractive because they’re easy to access and allow you to invest in many different assets at once, plus they’re often more tax-efficient than mutual funds. And in recent years, ETFs have been one of the most disruptive forces in investing. They topped $5 trillion in assets under management last November, and Bank of America projects the market will hit $50 trillion by 2030.
Not to be confused with NFTs.

What is an NFT?

Non-Fungible Tokens are unique, easily verifiable digital assets that can represent items such as GIFs, images, videos, music albums, and more. Anything that exists online can be purchased as an NFT, theoretically.

Is it a cryptocurrency?

Yes, and no. An NFT is “a type of cryptographic token,” but are different from cryptocurrencies because they’re not interchangeable. Think of Pokémon cards: You can trade them, but a Gastly is not the same as a holographic Charizard. But a bitcoin is indistinguishable from another bitcoin.

Why would I want to own an NFT? Can I make money on it?

One reason to buy an NFT is for its emotional value, which isn’t so different from physical objects…unless you’re a total utilitarian. No one buys lip gloss because they need it. They buy it for the way it makes them feel. The same can be true for a GIF, image, video, or other digital asset.
The other reason is because you think it’s valuable…and will only increase in value. And yes, you can make money off of an NFT by buying and reselling it for more. The process varies based on what platform you use. And there are a lot of platforms, such as Top Shot and OpenSea.

Go Figure Accounting