Consumers scour the internet in hopes of finding the perfect product to meet all their needs. This attempt to be good financial stewards of their money gets undermined at every turn by major brands.

Corporate giants use planned obsolescence to make sure your dreams of product longevity are shortened to null. Check out this guide to understanding planned obsolescence and what it means for our environment.

The Forced Upgrade

When your appliances break, all you can think is how you’re going to make sure you buy the right version next time so it lasts longer. You consider the number of years it’ll likely last and divide that by the total cost hoping for some consolation that it’s only ‘X’ amount per year. 

But this logic implies that you actually know how long your product or service will last. Planned obsolescence says that your product will last only as long as the brand is ready to release a new model.

An average from 1970 or how long refrigerators last have nothing to do with today’s consumer market. Average product lifespans no longer matter and brands feel no shame about it.

There are some exceptions to this rule based on the type of product it is and it’s pricepoint, but things like cell phones can have new releases throughout the year. 

Apple never apologizes for it’s latest and greatest devices. It’s a forced upgrade people enjoy being a part of.

Less sexy forced upgrades usually include things you can barely afford or barely use. No one wants to spend more than a few minutes looking at a new printer when the old one no longer works.

You just want an occasional document printed at home for that rare occasion email isn’t possible. This forced upgrade you hate because knowing that it’s a printer feels like the right amount of information you should need before making a purchase.

Planned obsolensce isn’t just bad when it’s annoying though. It’s bad year round when you consider the impact to both your personal finances and the environment. 

No Take Backs

The biggest problem with planned obsolescence is that companies won’t take the item back. Apple’s attempt at a recycling program for old phones is at least a start towards realizing people have no idea how to upcycle and old iPhone.

But most companies won’t even acknowledge the waste. This is a major problem because it puts the ownice on the consumer to figure out whether it’s a good item for a landfill.

Without really understanding its components, you can’t really make a decision about recycling or trashing an item. There’s no chance that you’d have an alternative to say, reuse or upcycle an old fridge once it broke down.

At some point, you’d give up trying and resort adding more E-waste on environment. Companies can play a much bigger role in cleaning up their product waste.

They’re best equipped to understand how products can be reused and the safest method of trashing the item. Yes, consumers technically own the item once they bring it home, but once they’re sold something new (that they don’t need) the company needs to take responsibility.

That’s the cost of turning a profit. Creating perceived and planning obsolescence fills up landfills while companies are rewarded for creating waste.

Before you believe that people can simply refuse to buy anything new, here are a few ways planned obsolescence is forced on consumers. 

No Customer Support

You may have noticed that you can no longer can a company with questions about your older model electronics. You’ll get basic common sense support but not much more.

Big electronic manufacturers realized that helping customers fix old products is just bad business. After all, the best way to fix a broken washing machine is to buy another one, right?

Sales departments are available by phone, chat or email 24/7. But the service department has very limited contact information and even shorter hours.

Some brands have even started charging customers for technical help with their products. 

Customer frustration leads to new purchases every time. It’s much easier to rid yourself of the long hold times and failed troubleshoots than to just buy a new product.

Apple faced lawsuits for recent claims that it not only released new models every year, but made sure the software on older model phones sabotaged their performance. This means consumers had no choice after their internet or email slowed to a crawl to upgrade to a new phone. 

There’s nothing wrong with consumers wanting the latest and greatest models. But if a company is forcing you to spend, you’re trashing landfills with toxic waste at no fault of your own. 

Patented Parts

If you’re a Tesla owner, you know that service for your car is an exclusive activity. Or at least the company thinks so by not letting you use third party mechanics claiming patent protection.

It’s fair for the company to protect it’s intellectual property, but what does this mean for cars that are too expensive for Tesla to repair. The patented parts move means the company can declare vehicles total losses if they don’t want to foot the bill.

They can also pass on their overhead to customers so they’re more likely to see the value in simply replacing the car. This is forced obsolesce that leaves Tesla drivers with a hefty bill at the end.

Planning for Planned Obsolescence

Believe it or not, there are ways planned obsolescence makes everyone use. Manufacturers waste natural resources when precious materials are added to landfills.

Consumers overspend leaving them with little disposable income to stimulate the economy. The cycle goes on and on.

The best thing for anyone to do is move back to simple machines that we can service on our own without fail. For more information and tips, visit our blog for updates. 

Are you trying to find the best payroll service for your company? If so, we’re here to help. 

Keep reading this guide to learn more about what you should keep in mind when researching payroll services. Use these tips and tricks to narrow down your options and find the best service for your company’s needs. 

Integration Capabilities 

When looking for a payroll service, it’s smart to look for a modern and updated version that allows for integration capabilities. This is especially true if your business has point of sale systems, or additional investment benefits, such as retirement packages. Finding a payroll system that can integrate with your existing systems is not only easier for everyone, but it can also make sure data is accurate and up to date. 

Finding an option that will integrate with your existing software can save you tons of time and stress, as it can reduce the time you spend on paperwork and point in time reporting. It can also help you avoid having to make duplicated data entries. Look at companies that have portfolios on their site that showcase their integration work with other established companies. 

If a company owns and develop its own payroll software, they may be able to adjust their technologies, as they have the flexibility to develop integration solutions to tailor their program to your needs. It may help to find a company that offers a free trial, like SPS payroll services australia, so that you can see how well the software works with your existing systems. 

Customer Support 

Going with a payroll service that offers customer support can be a huge perk. Look into what level of customer service is offered to clients of different payroll services. This can help you feel more assured that someone will be available to assist you as you adjust to using your new system, and can help with any troubleshooting down the road. 

Some companies may even have specialists on staff that can help you with more complicated questions, such as those related to your employee’s benefits or ADA compliance. You may also receive a dedicated account manager or team that you can work with as you navigate the payroll process.

Having a dedicated point of contact can allow you access to a specialist that is familiar with how your business uses their payroll system. This can help you find out the best payroll options for you as your company grows or changes. 

Check to see the average response time of support to make sure you’ll be able to reach the company when you need them most. Look to see if the customer support is offered through chat, email, or phone call to find a communication meathod that will work best for you. Having a professional to assist you with your payroll system is priceless, as it can help you solve problems and figure out the best payroll solutions for your company. 

Payroll Services: What to Look for

When reviewing different payroll services, keep this advice in mind to find the best option for your company’s needs. 

For related advice, head to the “Buisness” section of our site. 

Has hunting for jobs on the internet left you frustrated? If you’re sick of still getting ghosted after months of searching, join the club.

A single job listing, even for a small company, can receive thousands of applications. This means that unless your resume is exceptional, a recruiter won’t even read it.

Even though applying for jobs online is a stacked numbers game, building a bot to auto-apply to every relevant listing will only get you so far. If you really want to stand out from the crowd, read on to learn how to improve your resume and stop relying on the shotgun approach.

How Online Applications Work

“How can I improve my resume quality?” is a common question among people who are new to the job search or are used to submitting paper applications. The characteristics that make a “quality” resume are different when you’re applying online, so the first step toward resume improvement is understanding how online applications work.

Most online jobs don’t reach a real person until they’ve already made it through a rigorous screening algorithm. Known as an applicant tracking system (ATS), this software looks for key features in resumes and cover letters.

If the resume isn’t in a readable format, is missing key terms, or contains too much irrelevant info, the ATS throws it out. Only the ones that check all the pre-programmed boxes will get sent on to a recruiter.

How to Improve Your Resume With Keywords

The good news about having an ATS scan your resume is that if you do include the right keywords, you boost your chances of making it through to a recruiter. These keywords may include years of experience, a college degree, or a specific license. Also, the hard and soft skills listed in the job title and description are almost guaranteed to be on the required keyword list.

No matter what, make sure your keywords are accurate and contextual—don’t try to “game the system”. If you haven’t written an internet-friendly resume on your own before, it’s worth seeking out resume writing assistance so someone with more experience can help fine-tune your keyword choice.

Getting the Formatting Right

Along with key terms, optimizing the format is the best way to improve your resume.

The goal here is to make sure your document is easily-scannable and attractive to both recruiters and an ATS. First, make sure to save your resume as a .docx or .pdf file unless otherwise specified. You can use Google Docs to save your files in these formats for free.

Next, organize your work experience in reverse chronological order, only including information that’s relevant to the position you’re applying for. Keep the font large enough to read, organize sections so they read from left to right, and don’t include photos or fancy graphics.

Try These Ways to Improve Your Resume

If you’ve been wondering how to improve your resume enough to get it in front of a recruiter’s eyes, give these tips a try. It’s likely to take some trial and error, but knowing how the online application system works increases your chances of landing an interview.

Make sure to read through the rest of our site for more tips on landing a job online.

Information technology has grown to reach new levels in just about every facet of business today. And when it comes to your product line, digitalization of that information is imperative to stay competitive in today’s market. 

From streamlining data entry to strategic maintenance of that data quality and storage, you need a better system. So, if you sell products then you need a robust database for your product information. And you can get this in a product information management (PIM) software program. 

Don’t worry if you don’t know what that is, we’ve got you covered. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about what PIM is, why you need, and how to best use this valuable software.

What Is Product Information Management? 

You want your business to scale. And you want your product line to expand. But if you’re still using an Excel sheet to track your product information it might make you cringe each time you grow. 

If this is you, then you need to upgrade to a software program that will make your inventory tracking much easier. There is a better way, and that is having a powerful database house all your product facts and figures.

Your product line isn’t static, it’s dynamic and constantly changing. So the way you store the information about your products needs to be able to keep up with your business.

Do you have one centralized location to collect and manage all the information about your products? If not, then you need a software database that can do this for you.

A good product information management software program will do three things for your business and your product list: 

1. Collect all the important information, documents, and media files for each item in your product list
2. Maintain and organize that information while also maintaining quality control over the information
3. Distribute that information to external third-party retailer’s websites, apps, and social media platforms

A good PIM database will be robust enough to not only house all the pertinent information about the products in your product line. But it should also be able to distribute that information externally. 

With a product information management software program, you can enter your product descriptions, specifications, prices, and upload the images one time. Then the software will distribute that information to the various sales channels where you sell online.

Stop duplicating data entry and risking natural errors. And start automating and systematizing your efforts so you can start scaling your business today. 

Who Needs PIM? 

As a business owner, you have several tools you need to successfully run your business. Unfortunately, one important tool you might be neglecting is one that manages your product information.

If you sell a product, then you need a PIM. Product information management software can make your business life so much easier. It allows you to track what you’re selling and catalog it for easy reference. 

Do you sell your product on various online seller websites? What happens when you add a new online distributor? Do you have an employee manually enter all the information about each product in your entire product line into that retailer’s database? 

Or would you rather be able to connect your database with your new retailer and eliminate the entire onboarding process? If you answered yes, then you need a PIM for your business. 

So, whether you’re a digital marketer or an eCommerce manager or a store owner, you need a quality PIM software to streamline your work. 

What Are the Benefits Of PIM? 

A PIM gives one central location to keep all the pertinent information about your products. It also gives you one streamlined way to send that information upstream to your online sellers such as Google, Amazon, and any other retailer you work with. 

By having your product information in a database you can also link images, videos, product guides, and buyers guides. This way you can see at a glance all your digital assets for each product in your product line. 

Automate the process of data entry for each of your online retailers. Never duplicate your work again, enter it once and send it everywhere it needs to go immediately. Not only do you eliminate the manual entry but you also eliminate duplicating manual updating each time you update a product or image. Update once in your database, and that information is automatically conveyed upstream immediately. 

Increase productivity, reduce overhead, eliminate waste, and create a lean system to keep your product list updated and optimized. 

Not only will your team benefit from eliminating all their duplicate and manual data entry, but your customers will benefit as well. Don’t create confusion if they see your product on Amazon and the specifications or descriptions are different from other online retailers.

Discrepancies will create doubt and destroy trust with your brand. Instead, ensure one unified product description across all channels. This will ensure your customers can trust what they’re getting when they purchase your products.

What Is the ROI of a Quality PIM?

It can be difficult to calculate a quantitative return on investment for your product information management software. As you can see there are several qualitative benefits. These include eliminating redundancy and improving customer experience. 

However, how can you put a number on whether or not a PIM software program will benefit your company? One way to do this is to look at your current conversion rates and your current product returns. 

If you even improved your conversion rate by one percent and decreased your product returns by one percent, what would that do for your bottom line? And we would argue that you could reasonably expect to see both of these numbers improve much more than one percent with the help of a streamlined information database. 

Your product line is your biggest asset. You need to organize and catalog all the information about your products in one central location. And a PIM is the perfect answer for your business. 

We urge you to look at your current numbers if you want to put a quantitative value on your ROI for an investment such as a PIM. Then you can see what it will mean for your business to improve them without adding new products, increasing staff, or pushing your sales department to close more clients. 

Why You Need PIM Systems

Data consistency and data quality can be hard to manage without proper tools or systems. Redundant systems and software programs can make your data management a nightmare as you grow your business. 

Are you relying on an employee (or worse, doing it yourself) to enter all the information each time you bring on a new retailer? By using a PIM, you can eliminate redundancy for your team. But you can also streamline the onboarding process and provide a uniform experience to all your customers who come across your product on various platforms. 

When you systematize the entire information management process for your product line you will reach a place you can scale your business to the next level. Don’t ever again feel that pit in the bottom of your stomach when your team tells you they closed another distributor account.

Instead, celebrate the additional platform to sell your product while you quickly add your new retailer to your PIM. Watch as your entire product line is automatically uploaded to their website and mobile app. Sit back knowing that everything is streamlined and correctly classified and organized. 

This is what a PIM system can do for your business. And this is why a PIM can lead to being able to scale your business. So, if you’re ready to move up to the next level in your business then you need a robust PIM system today. 

What Can You Do With PIM? 

Businesses today are inundated with big data every day. Streamlining and analyzing that data has become an industry of its own. But what is a business like yours to do when managing all this data? You need a way to catalog and access this information and data quickly and easily. 

The more products you have in your product line, and the more people you have managing your product line, the greater your chances for errors and inconsistencies. This is what a PIM can do for you. It can take out the inconsistency and it can negate the need for redundant and duplicate data entry. 

You enter your product data one time and it is available for everyone on your team immediately. You update that product information over time and all your retailers are automatically updated as well. Stop worrying about whether or not the information about your product is up to date or accurate and start getting back to running your successful business today. 

So, don’t shy away from the investment in a software program that will streamline your efficiency and improve your productivity for all your teams. This is what you can do with a quality product information management software program. Your business is growing and that is good, but if you’re constantly needing to go back to previous product listings to update them then you’re not making good use of your time. 

Instead, you need to streamline your systems and manage your processes so that you can get back to growing your business. 

How to Choose the Right PIM for Your Business

There are several different types of product information software programs available. And it doesn’t matter if you choose one that is open-source, SaaS, cloud-based, or a standalone software program. The most important thing is that you choose the right option for your specific business. 

What does matter is that your chosen software program has the features you need to properly manage the data and information about your product line. In order to choose the right software program to properly catalog your product line, look for these important features: 

• One centralized system rather than several software programs and file sharing systems
• Streamlined database management without any duplicate data entry
• Standardized content publication
• Integration with all the major online retailers’ platforms and apps
• Ability to manage and create categories seamlessly
• Capability for bulk editing, optimizing, uploading, and distribution
• Capability for scaling on a large level

You want to grow your business. So start getting your product line into a quality product information management software system today. Don’t wait until you have hundreds of products in your line, do it now so you can grow and scale with ease. 

Don’t Struggle With Your Product Line Information Any Longer

As a business owner, you need a way to manage all the information about your product line. And you don’t want to cringe every time you add a new product or strike up a new relationship with an additional retailer.

After all, growing your product line is great for business. And now your product information management software program can take care of all the details for you. You and your team can save time, money, and several headaches by having all your product information in one centralized database.

So, don’t wait any longer, invest in a software that is powerful enough to do all this for you so you can get back to running your business. And if you’re not the decision-maker in your company, bookmark this article so you can share it with the right person to make this important upgrade so you can scale your business today.

For more great information on this and other topics, check out the rest of our blog.