Member Since 2012
Uassist.ME
Miami/Fort Lauderdale Area
Alfredo Atanacio's business venture, Uassist.ME, a boutique firm dedicated to providing remote administrative support, has quickly become a reference in the worldwide outsourcing industry, earning him recognitions such as the Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge People's Pick Award and the Power 30 Under 30 Honor in 2012 and reaching the top of the 30 Under 30 entrepreneur list on Inc Magazine in 2012. In addition to serving as COO and strategist at Uassist.ME, he shares his expertise as a part-time professor at the School of Economy and Business (ESEN) in El Salvador teaching Business Innovation, is a member of the Art Museum of El Salvador and an avid seeker of new business ventures, recently setting up a human resources consultancy and headhunting company in San Salvador, El Salvador.
By experimenting with AI tools in each department and incorporating creative applications, your business can stay ahead of the curve and maximize efficiency.
As much of customer service is now conducted through live chat or social media, ensuring your teams are properly trained on best practices for written communication is paramount to your success. When your staff can not only educate and serve your customers but also connect with them in a meaningful way, you’re much more likely to build a loyal following that will want to recommend you to their family and friends.
Every year, new graduates enter the workforce—each entering a different job market than the one before them. Navigating such a large change successfully can be difficult on one’s own, which is why it helps to consider the advice of those who have walked the same path before and who are achieving their goals.
Social media isn’t the only place to find the latest trends. When taking a look at the business world as a whole over the last 12-month period, you’ll find a number of trends and initiatives that took hold of a large number of organizations. Whether it’s increased flexibility or organic lead capture, these trends grew popular for a reason—but will their popularity carry over into the new year?
Businesses are only as successful as their ability to manage money, so it's important for leaders to be informed of any financial changes with the help of an experienced bookkeeper.
One of the best ways to ensure your company is always in good hands—whether you are at the helm or not—is to make sure your team is made up of great leaders. And while careful hiring can deliver a similar result, another and perhaps more effective strategy for achieving this is to create those leaders through your company culture and values.
Many employers talk about wanting "employee loyalty," or employees who will give their all to their role and to the company in order to help it succeed. But what's talked about less is what employers can do to actively earn this loyalty from their employees, leaving employers with no action plan for how to inspire this kind of behavior in their teams.
Members of Young Entrepreneur Council share how changing these habits could bring you greater success in the marketing field.
With many BPO companies emerging, business leaders need to know what to look for when partnering. Here are a few things to consider.
Considering all the emails consumers receive on a daily basis, email marketing can be a tricky form of marketing to undertake. However, when done right, it can be an effective communication tool to gain new clients and customers. This also means that, with a little strategic planning and creative thinking, businesses can leverage their email marketing to increase brand loyalty and keep customers.
Motivation and energy don't always stick around for long, so it's good to know how to channel it for maximum productivity.
As the Great Resignation continues, one in five employees say they are planning to switch jobs in the next year. Experts have cited a few reasons why so many people are making the switch since the start of the pandemic, with one of those reasons being poor management or leadership.
Customer service staff have a great responsibility in the marketing and sales of your company's products and services.
In the current hiring market, competition is fierce. With so many options available to job seekers, companies must attempt to out-compete others in their industry in order to attract and hire talent, and this has led to many companies struggling to fill roles—and wondering what they can do to make the top of candidates’ lists.
No matter what industry you're in, if you’re trying to hire in the current job market, chances are that you're up against some fierce competition. With so many companies to compete with, it's vital to find a way to stand out so that the best talent will want to join your team — and your job posting is the best place to start.
A great company culture is a powerful tool for setting yourself apart from the competition.
Social media is a critical tool for a small business’s marketing efforts. With the number of social media users projected to grow to 4.4 billion by 2025, there are numerous opportunities to get your small business in front of your potential customers. However, it’s important to know how to stand out from the competition.
El Salvador is an ideal place to outsource business processes if you're located in the U.S.
Guest posts are an excellent way to gain publicity for your business. Through this form of content marketing, you'll establish yourself as a credible expert in your industry and gain valuable brand exposure to the publication's audience.
Success in any business largely depends on the success of its marketing efforts. But with so many ways to market and so many areas to focus on, it can be challenging to narrow a campaign down to a single focal point. However, if you fail to create a focused strategy, your marketing efforts will likely be less than successful.
Starting a new business isn’t for the faint of heart. It takes courage, ambition, and a tangible plan. Many people will be eager to support you on your journey, but some may actually give you advice that could hurt your chances for success. Here, members of Young Entrepreneur Council list an “unlucky 13” collection of the worst startup advice they were given, and explain why that misguided startup advice is so harmful to entrepreneurs who are just starting out.
One of the best ways to attract customers to a business is by offering discounts. Whether your business is brand new or a multimillion-dollar company that's been in the game for over a decade, this tried-and-true tactic will always increase traffic. However, small businesses often can't afford to offer deep discounts on their products or services in the hopes of attracting new customers — They need to be strategic and creative in offering other incentives instead.
The last couple of years have forced leaders to step up, set good examples and make tough decisions that impact those they lead. Whether they were braving the economic battles brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic or examining diversity, equity and inclusion policies, leaders have been forced to adapt and learn new skills to manage today's most challenging situations.
Most of these predictions show that there might be new emerging markets and players in the game.
One income stream isn't enough for many people to make a comfortable living these days. Luckily, there are a myriad of ways for a working professional to make money on the side — so many, in fact, that it can be difficult to settle on just one.
Social media is an effective, low-cost way to market your company’s products or services, and is also a great way to keep customers engaged while expressing your brand’s mission. However, to make the most of a platform’s potential, you need to be active and strategic, which can require your entire team’s involvement. To get your employees excited to participate, consider the following advice from the members of Young Entrepreneur Council.
As the weather gets colder and the days get shorter, it's easy for your team's motivation to decline alongside it. If you don't want to see morale and productivity plummet through the winter months, it's important to take proactive steps to energize and inspire your staff.
While business owners are looking forward to generating more sales and added income, it’s no secret that the holiday rush can still be stressful and overwhelming.
Great customer service is easy to spot but difficult to master. While some tactics are obvious, like treating the customer with respect and fairness, the very best techniques for improving customer service might not be what you expect.
Some of the best parts about having a small business are the benefits that it brings to employees: more equity, a hand in the decision-making process and smaller teams, just to name a few. Although the successful growth of your business is something to celebrate, day-one employees may eventually come to miss the small business feeling that they signed on for.
Anyone can create a website, and every business needs one. However, creating a website that actually turns a profit can be a challenge.
When you're attempting to solve an issue you've never faced before, it helps to have a strategy for approaching it.
Whether you are a boss or an employee, having the right organizational skills will help you succeed.
The secret to a successful and efficient company culture is transparent communication. This is especially true when you need to announce big news to your team in a way that will make them feel confident about the company's direction and decisions.
In order for any business to thrive, it needs to have a productive leader and team. However, productivity means a lot more than simply keeping busy. Sometimes, you can keep yourself busy working on tasks that essentially amount to nothing and lead you down a dead-end path of wasted time and energy.
Knowing what duties should be done in-house and what tasks can be outsourced is a critical component in running a successful business.
One of the most intimidating things about starting a business is having to pitch your idea to a room full of investors. Sometimes a pitch will go great—and then sometimes it won’t. When you start breaking a sweat and feeling like you’re about to mess up, it may seem like your presentation is on its way to becoming a train wreck. However, with some expert advice and a little bit of confidence, you can salvage an investor pitch meeting that’s going downhill.
Content is the key to reaching and engaging new and existing customers. But after you've been creating content for so long, it can start to feel like you've covered everything you can possibly cover about your brand or in your niche.
Regardless of the result of their decision, an effective leader knows how to take accountability for their choices.
Podcasts offer a convenient, time-saving way for entrepreneurs to keep up with current events and gain new insights about business and finance. Most business owners likely have a list of go-to podcasts that they tune into regularly to get advice on everything from hiring people to managing a team and other important aspects of running a business efficiently. In order to spread the wealth of knowledge they've obtained from their favorite podcasts, a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) members answered the following question:
When you are interviewing job applicants, there are certain “soft skills”—that is, non-technical skills that relate more to how you work with others and solve problems—that you should be on the lookout for, as these attributes are not usually spelled out on a candidate’s resume. Here, members from Young Entrepreneur Council share 13 underrated but important soft skills they look for when they are hiring new employees.
A public relations crisis is a common incident many companies face at some point. The lasting impact of the incident is not so much about the crisis itself, but the way it’s handled.
Starting a business is one of the most challenging career moves you can make, but knowing some important facts beforehand can help.
As social media becomes a go-to communication platform for consumers across all demographics, it’s important for companies to increase their brand awareness on the platforms their audiences use. Leveraging these social media platforms effectively can help create strong connections with customers, draw them to your business, and build brand loyalty.
Scaling a business usually means employees will be taking on new tasks and responsibilities and new rules or processes may be put in place. Depending on how fast the company grows, the employees may become frustrated with all the changes, leading to disengagement and low team morale. If not addressed, this lack of connection with the business and its goals can be the first step to losing those employees.
You need to figure out how to improve your conversions to get more customers out of the traffic you already have.
One common piece of marketing advice is to meet your audience where they are. For the many companies looking to reach millennials, that means social media — and especially through the use of Instagram and TikTok. These social platforms provide great opportunities to engage with millennials and influence their purchasing behaviors. But how can you ensure your social media marketing efforts will be successful and won’t actually turn millennials away from your brand?
Thanks to search engines leveling the marketing playing field, even the smallest business can today benefit from the reach that search engine marketing (SEM) offers. But when you’re short on money, time, and resources, learning all about SEO and SEM—and how to leverage them effectively in your digital marketing strategy—can be a challenge. Here, 13 leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council share SEO and SEM tips that work for them, and that won’t break the bank.
With the rich educational value podcasts often provide their listeners, it’s no surprise that the business community turns to this popular form of content to improve their skills and strategies. Some entrepreneurs even make major business decisions based on the information they’ve learned and the stories they’ve listened to on podcasts.
Not only will everyone perform better, but they will also enjoy the benefits of working from home.
One of the best ways to learn how to manage your employees is to ask them questions. If you pose the right questions, you'll get to know what motivates your employees and what their goals are. You can then use this information to manage them more effectively and help them succeed in their jobs.
Hiring talented new employees can help a company grow. Young employees, in particular, often bring fresh perspectives, new skills, and lots of creative energy to the businesses they join. However, it can be difficult to attract young talent, especially in today’s competitive hiring environment. Here, 10 members from Young Entrepreneur Council share how your business can attract the best young professionals.
The first thing you have to do when making a social media strategy is to define your goals. These goals will later serve as a metric of achievement.
Getting recognized by peers can significantly increase a business’s exposure, potentially resulting in increased visibility and more customers. However, not all awards are worth the time and effort to apply to them. Some of them don't carry a lot of weight with other experts in the field, some you may not even qualify for and others try to get businesses to pay them for consideration. But which ones are worth it? To offer their best advice, 10 professionals from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) respond to the following question:
As a new entrepreneur, you might battle limiting beliefs or unrealistic expectations that you’ve yet to flag or identify. However, as you progress in your business, you’ll learn there are certain ideas and habits you’ll need to shed in order to reach your fullest potential.
Today, the importance of a good marketing strategy is undeniable if you want to grow your business. However, figuring out which one works best can be quite challenging.
Entrepreneurs can come from any background, any place and with any experience level. Yet because entrepreneurs task themselves with starting companies to develop solutions and generate value, it’s vital that they have a specific set of skills that help them get the job done. These skills are a necessary part of the entrepreneur’s tool belt.
Good web design can make or break a modern business. If your website is smooth and easy to navigate, it will attract more users and is a vote of confidence for your organization. A poorly designed site can have the opposite effect, turning users away no matter how good the product is.
As with other marketing efforts, social media can sometimes be a challenge because it has to balance customer appeal with staying true to its brand promise. But with so many social media platforms, trends and opportunities for innovation, it can be easy to let the brand message get lost along the way. So how does a company keep all of its different social media profiles and content on brand with each and every post? Below, 11 experts from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) examine the following question:
With fast-changing technology, companies are looking for ways through which they can make their business processes efficient. One strategy that can help you save both money and time is outsourcing.
To appeal to today’s on-the-go world, many businesses have considered the value in creating a branded mobile application for their customers. In theory, it's a great idea—but app fatigue is very real, and if you don't want users to delete your app after a few uses, you need to give them a good reason to keep coming back.
Marketing is a crucial element of any successful business, and even small business startups will need to begin building their marketing department as soon as possible. However, some marketing roles are more critical to your business’s success than others. To help you determine which role you need to hire for first, 13 experts from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) answer the following question:
Exceeding what customers expect will depend on the e-commerce customer service practices that an organization adopts.
Business advice can come from anywhere, even from those who have never owned a business. But if you’re a new entrepreneur just starting out, you tend to soak up all the information that you can. The most significant problem is there’s no simply way to tell the lousy advice from the good advice. Sometimes experience is the only way to figure out the difference.
For many companies, maintaining a high level of engagement and motivation among employees during the dark winter months can be quite a challenge. And with a growing remote work environment, it is even more difficult to make sure your team stays engaged and productive while also ensuring they make time for self-care. To help, 11 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council reflect on the following question:
If you’re looking to expand your business, franchising your business could be a great option. Growing a company by franchising can offer many benefits—but you need to be aware of the drawbacks, too. To determine whether or not you should franchise your business, we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council the following question:
Nothing else is more important than driving traffic in a business-to-business e-commerce store.
[LONG FORM EMAILED TO KELSEY]
Onboarding a new employee is an exciting time for any business. While you're eager to get your new team member up and running on their tasks, you also need to ensure they understand the company culture and will mesh with your organization for the long term. That's why we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:
If you are a B2B e-commerce business owner looking for fresh and effective marketing ideas that will help your company grow, you’re at the right place.
New entrepreneurs sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that they can make their hobbies profitable through their business. When you're putting together a company, the first thing you may want to consider is whether you're doing this as a passion or for profit.
It's often said you only get one chance to make a first impression, and that holds true for your company website. The visual appearance and written copy on your sign-up and landing pages must be compelling enough to grab a visitor's attention and convince them to take the next step in their relationship with your brand.
Customer service is crucial for any e-commerce company.
Influencers are the newest way of reaching out to social media audiences. Unlike traditional advertising, these influencers have their own goals and ambitions. Influencers thrive on building relationships between themselves and their audiences. Microinfluencers tend to have fewer followers but an even more close-knit community. In many cases, this closer relationship makes it easier for them to convince users of their perspective. When dealing with micro-influencers, businesses should understand what makes this particular relationship work so well. To help, we asked 13 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:
As entrepreneurs, we understand how powerful the classification of personality types can be in recruitment. From Myers-Briggs to Enneagram, the number of ways to gauge a person's innate traits can be measured in a hundred different ways. Several companies use one or more of those personality tests to develop their employees' potentials.
These 20 entrepreneurs from YEC discuss their favorite market research tools and why you should be using them.
An effective internal communications strategy is essential when trying to build a cohesive team working together toward the same goal. Especially when it comes to announcing important news to your team, using the right internal communications approach is of utmost importance. The right communications strategy ensures the communicated message is clear and easily understood, leaving no room for error. That’s why we asked 15 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:
If you're like the hundreds of content marketers out there that have invested in blog content, you want people to read it. If you've been watching your metrics for visits, you might realize that many visitors don't even bother with your blog. Sure, they might follow a social post from your media to your blog, and possibly read a single entry, but they won't engage further than that.
After a user likes or shares one of your posts on social media, you've got them interested in your brand or product. But how do you leverage this engagement and keep it going?
When you start a business, one of the first questions you ask yourself if you should be doing this alone, or if you need help. This decision determines whether your company is a solopreneurship or a partnership. Some entrepreneurs work better by themselves, but others realize the benefit of having a partner.
It is usually not the products you sell that win the customers, but the problems you solve for them.
Being part of a creative team is an exciting job. However, it’s difficult to always be in an innovative, inspired mindset. Often, creatives experience burnout and roadblocks that hinder their performance.
Managing a remote team is vastly different than managing an in-house one, with its own set of challenges and rewards.
17 professionals from YEC share the best websites for locating fresh talent.
Within an organization, some skills are far more valuable than others. If your business is looking at hiring new employees, then these skills should be a primary focus for your interviews. Knowing what skills are crucial for an enterprise to grow and thrive helps you figure out if an employee may be worth hiring, even if they don't fit the ideal. Sometimes the company needs more than just the right qualifications for their employees.
Every job candidate’s goal is to stand out from the rest. However, it’s not enough to talk about your education and work experiences, which may be very similar to other qualified applicants. Great candidates shine by saying things that are truly unique.
The corporate world has seen some refreshing and convenient trends that will last beyond the pandemic.
Employees who work on small teams may need to play multiple roles to ensure everything runs smoothly. With such limited resources, you may not be able to have a dedicated full-time marketing person to help you reach your full potential as a brand. That's why we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council the following question:
As a leader, you know your workplace dynamic directly impacts employee morale and, in turn, your bottom line. No matter how great your company culture might be, there is always room for improvement. But to make impactful changes, you’ll have to first understand which areas warrant the most attention.
Internal meetings can be a fantastic strategic tool to help a business get all stakeholders of a project on the same page, but they can easily turn into massive time sinks if they are not properly scheduled and managed. Unfortunately, many companies don't strategize their meetings. The result is a once-weekly report that doesn't have any noticeable impact on the business.
The only way a business can garner new customers and retain current ones is by laying out the benefits that its product or services present to the consumer. In the past, all it took was a flashy headline and a few bullet points that punched home the usefulness of the product or service. Today's world has evolved to a point where traditional advertising no longer makes the same impact. Even newer, more modern methods of advertising are having a hard time getting traction among some demographics.
Place responsibilities into capable hands, and allow your employee to use their judgment.
Working remotely has become the new standard in the COVID-19 era. Companies that followed a traditional in-office model have had to adjust to how they presently work, and soon have to learn how to hire remotely.
In today's always-on, digital-first world, consumers increasingly expect companies to offer fast and convenient channels for customer support. To this end, many brands now offer live chat so customers can reach them faster than an email or phone call.
As a busy professional or entrepreneur, you’ve probably wished there were more than 24 hours in a day. While you might not be able to find huge chunks of free time, you can always find a few extra minutes a day, which adds up to a few extra hours in a week.
Show your employees that you care, and empower them to provide great experiences for customers.
It’s important to be prepared for circumstances that may require remote work.
Give your remote employees the tools they need to succeed.
In the modern world, entrepreneurs typically need to maintain both an online and offline presence to generate business. It’s important to connect your digital and real-life persona to keep a consistent image, which can ultimately help build trust with your potential customer and follower base. The members of Young Entrepreneur Council have spent time honing their personal brands to grow their business. Below, they share 10 ways to successfully connect your offline and online marketing efforts.
The winter months mean less sunlight, colder temperatures and often, dampened moods. It’s common for people to feel more tired and less motivated in the winter, which can negatively impact work performance. However, a winter slump is not inevitable -- it may require a bit of extra effort, but you and your teams can stay just as motivated during those colder months. To help you out this winter, we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council to share how they raise spirits in the workplace throughout the season. Follow their recommendations to keep your team feeling productive until spring arrives again.
What’s next with the business process outsourcing industry, and where are we heading?
Uassist.ME is an award winning firm that provides remote administrative assistance.
Outsourcing/Offshoring