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How Do Freelancers Get Ready to Use AI?

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Artificial Intelligence continues to expand its presence in the business operations of companies large and small as it delivers to users numerous advantages. That said, business owners and leaders are advised to be mindful that integrating AI into their operations is more complex than installing Software as a Service products; both SaaS and AI require prospective users to determine where and why certain capabilities are desired. For example, there should be a clear understanding of which business function(s) could enhance productivity, perhaps, or save significant time, if it/they operated more efficiently. However, ramping up for the introduction of AI requires a deeper dive than what is required for introducing an SaaS application. A good place to begin your AI decision-making is to answer these questions:

  • What problems do you think AI will solve?
  • Which business functions do you think AI will improve?
  • Which key performance indicator metrics will be chosen to evaluate the impact of AI on your organization?

Business functions that often benefit from AI

Artificial Intelligence is a powerful tool that, when used strategically, can significantly improve the operational efficiency of business processes and in particular, can enhance the ability to make data-driven decisions that can guide your response to critical business questions or opportunities. AI also has many other useful capabilities, from automating repetitive tasks such as inventory management, by calculating optimal inventory levels, to enhancing the customer experience by way of a website chat bot that quickly and accurately answers questions posed by prospective customers and also deliver personalized messages to customers that encourage engagement and loyalty.

Begin your company’s assessment of AI by examining the role AI might have in your business operations—where and how do you envision it can potentially benefit your company? Addressing the above questions should be helpful. Furthermore, studying AI use cases across major industries will provide insight into where your organization might focus. Starting with small and easily measured processes will allow you to gauge both the effectiveness of AI in your operations and your (or your team’s) ability to work with the technology. AI has produced good results in these business functions:

• In marketing, AI will support market research, including data analysis, marketing content creation, generating marketing campaign visuals and marketing campaign support, such as personalized content creation and automating lead generation tasks. More than 90% of companies begin their AI journey with marketing.

• In sales, AI supports competitive analysis, predicts trends and may possibly lead you discover a potentially lucrative niche market.

• In technology, AI will assist in software development and system architecture design, speeds-up innovation and improves outcomes.

• Freelancers will find AI tools useful for project management, budgeting, invoicing and automating customer emails.

• In manufacturing, AI monitors machinery conditions, predicts failures and analyzes real-time data, enabling preventive measures that reduce costly downtime.

Advance planning helps AI implementation

Once you decide which business function will benefit from AI and would also be a good place to start, create an AI onboarding plan to support the success of your roll-out. Furthermore, if you have employees, factor in the attitude your staff may have regarding AI, which is an important consideration that can help or hinder your plan to introduce AI. Transparency is a must as you consider, and then decide, which business function(s) you’d like to see become AI-powered.

  1. Ensure that AI will seamlessly integrate into business processes

AI is considered a disruptive technology, but integrating AI should not disrupt how your business operates. Implementing AI is meant to improve your existing business processes. A well-planned AI data integration strategy will ensure that the technology will work efficiently within your business operations. In other words, AI must work with current systems, not against them. Before introducing AI, you are advised to confirm:

  • Does AI work with your current software and tools?
  • How much upskilling will you and your employees need to use AI correctly?
  • How will AI affect your existing business processes?

2. AI-ready data

Once you’ve decided to implement AI, it’s important to understand that this technology requires access to high-quality, structured (accessible) and accurate data in order to function effectively, especially in the B2B sector.  When the intention is to incorporate AI, it will be necessary to first focus on data integration. The AI system “learns” from your data bases and formulates data-driven decisions and predictions accordingly. Data accuracy (or inaccuracy) directly impacts AI performance—so, if the input data is incomplete or incorrect, the system may generate flawed results, leading to errors.

Garbage in, garbage out. It is imperative that you review your company’s data quality, consistency and accessibility. AI works best with structured data, that is, data stored in a way that AI tools can easily access and utilize it. You can improve your data integration as follows:

  • Check data accuracy to eliminate AI prediction errors
  • Remove duplicate data to prevent AI from repeated mistakes
  • Use cloud storage to give AI optimum access to real-time data
  • Set data rules to ensure that your data is stored in the cloud in an accessible and useful way

3. AI training for employees (and you)

AI adoption is successful when businesses train their teams to use AI correctly. AI does not exist to replace employees, but to support them. Because AI has acquired a degree of controversy, which might cause employees to feel suspicious, if not fearful, regarding their future prospects for employment, investing in AI training, along with transparent communications about how AI will be used in the organization are crucial. By training employees (and yourself), you will improve the results of your AI integration. Training will also ensure that your employees can appropriately manage the technology, which will make them feel confident and help you to win their support and trust.

An ongoing conversation with employees that includes listening and empathy, presented with the spirit of collaboration, will be crucial to AI’s success in your organization. Once you implement AI, invite employee feedback by asking them how AI affects their work. Your goal is to foster acceptance and that entails helping employees understand the the technology and spark enthusiasm for their opportunity to work with it.

  • Teach AI basics so that employees will understand how AI supports decision-making, for example, and encourage them to learn and test other AI features you’ll introduce in a judgment-free setting
  • Ensure that employees have the opportunity to learn to use AI in their daily tasks, as a way to show them that AI is a helpful tool and not a threat

4. AI security and privacy issues

A major challenge in AI integration for is ensuring that AI does not create security risks. Introducing security measures from the start helps businesses avoid the embarrassment (and possible legal trouble) that result from data breaches. AI works with data, including customer information, financial records and internal business information. Establish rules for AI security, including:

  1. Data protection – Store data securely to prevent breaches or hacking.
  2. Access – Limit who can see and use AI-powered systems.
  3. Quality control – Regularly check AI decisions to ensure they are accurate and ethical.
  4. Compliance – Follow data protection laws like GDPR and CCPA.

5. Start small, monitor and measure

Although AI is without question the Next Big Thing, tech experts recommend approaching AI integration cautiously. Adoption can be risky if not done without both clear objectives regarding what you hope to achieve and an understanding of the technology’s capabilities and limitations. It’s possible for businesses to fail with AI because they overreach with implementation, deciding to use it everywhere at once. AI is complex and mistakes can be costly.

Starting small with AI and testing AI tools in limited areas of your operations, so that you might gauge what works and evaluate where and how AI adds value in your organization, is the prudent way to introduce AI. You want to avoid committing too heavily to a new technology that may not be fully aligned with your business needs. A small project will allow you to test AI in a controlled way, identify challenges and measure results before making AI a bigger part of operations.

Finally, be advised that AI tools are not a one-time setup. AI will require updates, maintenance and adjustments over time, to ensure that your AI tools continue to perform as expected. It’s important to remember that AI “learns” over time and must be updated to remain accurate; without appropriate maintenance, AI can become outdated and unreliable— subsequent technological advances will cause older AI tools to be replaced by updated ones, for example. Companies should set a schedule for reviewing and updating AI. Where staffing allows, they should also assign a team to handle AI improvements. Solopreneurs and SMBs are recommended to speak with an AI systems technology professional to monitor their AI tools.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © 2025 University of Cincinnati Online

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Step Up to Business Tech

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Are you operating your business as if it was still the 20th century? You may do a good job and generate enough revenue to reliably pay your expenses and take the occasional vacation but we’re 20 + years into the 21st century now. It’s time to catch up! Respectfully, I suggest that a few practical concessions to the present will improve your command of business management, save time and increase revenue and profit.

You don’t have to give up everything you like about last century. You can still listen to 80s music (like me) and rollerblade (I was afraid to try that). Help yourself sustain and build on the successes you’ve already created. Step out from behind your unease with the unknown and understand that to conquer today’s business challenges you won’t win without today’s business tools and the tools are digital. Fast access to accurate, actionable data is just one of the benefits you’ll receive when you take on a digital business solution or two.

According to a 2017 survey of 2000+ small businesses in the U.S. conducted by Google on behalf of mega-consulting firm Deloitte, 80 % of small business owners underutilize digital business tools (I think that finding can be extended to include Freelancers) and 40 % feel that digital tools don’t apply to their business. The survey was pre-pandemic but other than the introduction of videoconference sales meetings not much has changed, despite the fact that even pre-pandemic it had been demonstrated that prospects and customers expect to be able to communicate and do business online, whether or not the companies are e-commerce.

Here’s the reality—-mostly, prospects launch their buyer’s journey on the internet, using key words they hope will call up websites they can browse to investigate available options. When they find providers who look promising they dig deeper and, e.g., check out case studies and testimonials. They’ll use chatbots to quickly find what they’d like to see. They might click call-to-action buttons and schedule free consultation calls with companies whose offerings look like a fit. They’ll probably also search those companies on Yelp and social media.

Does your website measure up to the buyer’s journey described above? If not, it’s time to step up your business technology. Don’t panic! Accelo, Google Analytics, Constant Contact, Block, Calendly and others are here to help you analyze and use your website stats, support your email marketing and/ or newsletter or blog, get you going with a chatbot and overall help you to build a more profitable company.

Google Analytics —-Make sense of the numbers taken from your blog, newsletter, website and social media accounts and use the data to make smart decisions that improve your company’s sales funnel/ buyer’s journey and win more new customers. Are there pages in your website that seem to frustrate visitors and cause them to exit the site? Your data will find the problem so you can consider how to improve page experiences. Click to get more info and register your website and business.

https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/small-business/

Email marketing—-promote your products and services to current and potential customers. You’ll need to invite/ persuade prospects to provide their email address. Do not spam. The link is to an overview and comparison of companies that provide the services, including prices.

https://www.quicksprout.com/best-email-marketing-services/

Time tracking & invoices—-B2B service providers need to monitor time spent on hourly work assignments, as well as invoice client work on time, in order to get paid when the bills are due. See the features and cost overview and comparison of companies at the link below.

https://timeanalyticssoftware.com/19-best-billable-hours-tracker-software-in-2021/

Call-to-Action—-Ask your website designer to create this for you or DIY with an embedded hyperlink. Use CTAs to take your website and social media visitors by the hand and 1.) tempt them with timely and valuable information and 2.) persuade them to take a quick and easy action to get it (click me!). Sort of like what I’m doing in this post when I invite you to click below and learn how to create your CTA.

https://tinkseo.com/call-to-action-button-cta-design-guide/

Chat bot—-Ask a web or app development expert to set one up because my research shows that “plug & play” is a myth. Furthermore, think carefully about how to make your chat bot useful. What questions can the bot answer? Please click the article accessed at the link.

https://www.callcentrehelper.com/chatbots-examples-160804.htm

Mobile payments—-Secure, convenient payment is an important component of good customer service as well as a component of good cash-flow. Take a look and decide which system will be most useful for you and your customers.

https://www.predictiveanalyticstoday.com/mobile-payment-providers/

Online and in-person payments—-The customers of many small businesses are a mix of e-commerce and in-person, making it necessary to find a credit /debit card processor that offers acceptable processing fees for both types of transactions. Another consideration is the number of transactions that you’ll run: some businesses have many (often small) transactions and the fee structure will be an important factor. But if a significant number of orders are typically phoned in, then the keyed-in transaction rate will be a deciding factor. Bear in mind that according to American Consumer Credit Counseling, Inc., just 14% of shoppers use cash for every day or large purchases.

https://www.usnews.com/360-reviews/business/credit-card-processing/best-small-business-credit-card-processing

Appointments and calls—-Whether you invite a client or prospect to speak by telephone, video, or face2face, by way of a CTA button or email, creating the appointment online is a given. Check out this link and evaluate free scheduling apps that allow you to indicate your availability, clients and prospects to choose a time and will send a reminder to all parties.

https://fitsmallbusiness.com/best-free-appointment-scheduling-software/

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Leonard Nimoy as First Officer Spock in Star Trek (NBC-TV 1966-1969)

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Trendspotting: 5 Sales and Marketing Benchmarks

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Your prospects are continuing to increase their control over the buyer’s journey, enabled by the internet and the work from home culture. That said, it makes sense for marketers to confirm our understanding of how buyers respond to your marketing activities. A few key data points, culled from a large and well-selected cohort, can provide to Freelancers and others who oversee marketing or sales functions valid insights into how buyers are responding to commonly used inbound and outbound marketing tactics in the post-COVID marketplace.

The content marketing company HubSpot, based near Boston, MA, began collecting marketing and sales outcomes data from its 100,000 + customers in January 2020 which was, as it turned out, a most interesting time to begin. Barely three months later the world would change radically. Billion dollar industries, most notably travel, hotel, restaurant and fitness, would crater. Those enterprises lucky enough to have survived, or thrived, have entered a changed business environment.

Benchmark data can provide guide posts that help you to get your bearings in the new business environment. The post-shutdown business climate demands a recalibrated understanding of customer expectations. How do prospects and customers want to experience the buyer’s journey now? How do they want to be sold? Find answers here in May 2021 data.

  • Sales meetings. The number of sales meetings in May 2021 (overwhelmingly made by videoconference call) was 21% higher than what was done last May and have risen 18% since March of this year. Knees were buckling in March 2020 and nearly every company was reeling, including those that were emerging as winners, such as grocery and liquor stores. Small business owners and leaders tended to reach out to customers sooner than larger companies. It is theorized that small business owners immediately realized that if they wanted their venture to survive, it was imperative that a plan to generate revenue had to be put into action, which usually meant figuring out a polite way to contact customers (I did the same). May 2020 was not the time to pursue new business, but rather to offer empathy and reinforce relationships that one hoped could be leveraged at some point, including relationships with those who cancelled contracts just 60 days previously.
  • Prospecting. Small business (1-25 employees) got busy prospecting at a frequency that was 31% higher in May 2021 compared to May 2020 and up 26% as compared to March 2021. Companies with 26-200 employees also saw an increase in prospecting activity of 18% as compared to May 2020, with a 17% increase as compared to March 2021.
  • Website traffic. Perfect your landing page! Website traffic was 34% higher in May 2021 than it was in May 2020. Further, website traffic increased by 25% between March and May 2021. Online shopping of various kinds, from home decor at Wayfair to the take-out dinner you’ll pick up in 20 minutes at a favorite local restaurant seems to have accounted for a big chunk of the increase. Software companies accounted for 51% of website traffic seen by HubSpot customers.
  • Chat bot. Speaking of your website’s landing page, a useful tool to add there would be a chat bot. Business moved online in a big way in March 2020, but the trend has been building for 20 years. Business owners and marketers are stepping up the functionality of company websites and adding a chat bot is a leading upgrade. Customers appreciate them because through chat, they’re able to get basic questions answered quickly and without paging through the website, which can be time-consuming. The volume of chat conversations rose 16% year-over-year May 2021 compared to May 2020.
  • Marketing emails. Reports of the death of email marketing have been greatly exaggerated and marketers are reinvesting in the genre (again!). Since the start of the pandemic shutdown in mid-March 2020, marketing email volume has increased 49% through May 2021 and is 52% higher pre-COVID volume. The open rate hovers at around 15% and that is 10% – 20% higher than April 2021.
  • Sales outcomes. U.S. Businesses adapted extremely well to the numerous protocols required by the shutdown, most dramatically demonstrated by the quick and often well- executed pivot to working from home. America means business! However, unreliable cash-flow prevented many customers from buying and that resulted in sluggish sales revenue in many organizations. In April 2020, sales outcomes bottomed out at 36% lower than 1Q20 benchmarks. Positive sales outcomes rose gradually throughout 2020 and May 2021 finished with a 10% increase in deals done (national or international companies). Deal creation (proposals) climbed 35% above benchmark.

So how do these statistics apply to you? They definitively show that the shutdown has ended, that money is being made agin and that you can make money again, too. Reboot your operation by using what have become standard marketing and sales strategies and actions.

Develop a powerful digital presence for your company. Employ Inbound and Outbound marketing and sales tactics. Optimize your website to help prospects easily find information about your products and services. Post and distribute relevant marketing content to confirm your expertise. Send emails to promote engagement with customers and prospects. Work hard, work smart.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: A young lady gets serious about researching benchmark data.