Blair Thomas

January 4th, 2021

11 Tips for Hiring a Part-Time Employee to Help With Your Business’s Finances

Small businesses, like any business, have finances that need to be kept in order. Owners can deal with these duties to a point; however, small businesses tend to grow, and hiring an employee dedicated to keeping the company's finances in check is often a necessary next step. Luckily, many small business owners can hire someone on a part-time basis. This route carries a lot less overhead in terms of time and money compared to hiring a full-time employee, but it also comes with its own challenges. That’s why we asked 11 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

December 17th, 2020

Want to Boost Your Team's Programming Skills? Try These 15 Expert-Recommended Tools

Programming is highly in demand in today's digital-first world. Try these tools, courses and platforms recommended by business leaders.

December 17th, 2020

10 Effective Methods for Locating the Right Talent

Businesses are in an unenviable position of having to find the most talented individuals in their field and entice them to work at their organization. In many cases, finding qualified candidates has come down to creating the right ads and vetting candidates properly.

December 2nd, 2020

16 Excellent Sales Automation Tools

16 entrepreneurs from YEC share their favorite sales automation tools and strategies and explain why they work.

November 24th, 2020

Build Your Brand Via Speaking Engagements With These 10 Tips

Public speaking is a great way to gain exposure for your brand and a reputation for expertise in your field. Events with an audience allow for transparency and vulnerability—two key pieces to success when you're working to build a brand that consumers are eager to engage with. Speaking events also help you show off the core solutions your business has to offer.

November 23rd, 2020

Eight Key Steps To Securing Retail Distribution

There's no question that retail is a challenging industry to master. However, for investors or manufacturers, the challenges it presents are more than worth the rewards. Retail distribution allows a business to serve its offerings up to a much broader population than direct distribution, thus increasing an enterprise’s visibility and revenue.

November 23rd, 2020

14 Traits That Will Get Employers to Notice You

November 23rd, 2020

12 Ways Service-Based Businesses Can Take Advantage of the Holiday Season

The holiday season is usually a goldmine of opportunities for product-based businesses that deploy specific marketing strategies to make their offering stand out and be relevant for that time of the year. While service-based businesses typically find it more difficult to capitalize on this season’s business opportunities, there are still several creative strategies they can deploy to make holiday marketing work in their favor. To help, we asked 12 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

November 18th, 2020

11 Elements to Consider Before Deciding to Offer an Employee a Raise

November 11th, 2020

10 Genius Questions That Will Help Your Staff Generate Ideas And Solutions

Innovation is the key to a successful and progressive business, and your staff should constantly be looking for ways to grow your brand. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to keep your workers engaged and motivated.

November 10th, 2020

20 Innovative Apps Ideal for Managing a Team Remotely

These 20 entrepreneurs discuss the best features for remote management of a displaced workforce.

October 27th, 2020

The Top 10 Communication Lessons An Entrepreneur Can Learn

Every successful business leader needs to know how to communicate effectively. Both written and verbal communication skills are crucial if you want to build and maintain strong relationships with your employees, customers and partners.

October 14th, 2020

How To Scale A Service-Based Business: Eight Top Tips From Experts

Growing a business seems like a simple prospect, and it can be deceptively simple on paper. However, once you start to delve into the heart of the matter, you realize that a service-based business requires some deep thought before you can scale it.

October 9th, 2020

How to Communicate Important News Internally: 15 Best Tips

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:

September 30th, 2020

11 Unique Strategies for Reaching Out to Generation Z Audiences

With each passing year, demographics change. Where a company's core demographic might have been millennials a few years ago, today it's shifted to Generation Z. Unfortunately, there's a marked difference in values between generations, and businesses need to revamp their marketing strategy to reach out to their newest client base without alienating their other followers.

September 29th, 2020

11 Top Tips for Maintaining Reader Engagement

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?

September 25th, 2020

13 Expert-Recommended Tricks For Accelerating Your Online Growth

For online businesses, a high-performing website that encourages engagement and conversions is the key to successful growth. It often takes time to build up a steady stream of website visitors and consistent buyers. However, there are some things you can do to help accelerate the process.

September 22nd, 2020

Want To Attract (And Keep) The Right Clients? Try These 10 Strategies

Having the right clients can make all the difference in your business’s success. Of course, finding those ideal clients isn’t always easy. You don’t want to be too selective and turn down a good business opportunity, but you also don’t want to overextend yourself for a client who won’t stick around in the long run.

September 14th, 2020

15 Common Buzzwords Hiring Managers Hate Seeing on Job Applications

September 11th, 2020

10 Tried-And-True Email Marketing Tactics That Actually Work

Despite the numerous digital communications channels available today, email is still one of the best ways to get and stay in touch with your customers. Email marketing is notorious for its high return on investment, and with nearly 4 billion active email users, there’s a huge potential audience waiting to receive your messages.

August 27th, 2020

Nine Cool AR/VR Elements To Include In Your Personal Branding Strategy

Once seemingly confined to the spheres of gaming and technology, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are becoming increasingly common in both personal and professional ventures. In fact, VR and AR can be used to great effect in one’s personal branding strategy, especially if it's giving your audience a deeper connection or more intimate look at your business.

August 27th, 2020

12 Crucial Actions to Protect Your Business When a Large Client Goes Under

Businesses thrive on interaction with large clients. They form the most significant inflow of money to the enterprise and help you meet your obligations from month to month. With so many companies closing down, it's not far-fetched to think that one of your massive clients might face bankruptcy. When that happens, you will need to have a clear plan in place to recover any overdue payments and soften the blow until you find new customers. That’s why we asked 12 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

August 26th, 2020

14 Ways to Increase Brand Loyalty Through Social Media

Brand loyalty forms a core concept of marketing in the 21st century. In a paradigm shift, thanks to better interactivity with consumers, brand loyalty is now easier to achieve than ever before. With a medium where the brand can interact directly with clients in the form of social media, all a company has to do is use their social media presence cleverly. Once they leverage their following and provide value to the audience, brand loyalty is sure to follow. To help, we asked 14 successful entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

August 19th, 2020

How Busy Entrepreneurs Can Make Time for Vacation: 11 Expert Tips

Entrepreneurs have some bad habits, one of which is not knowing when they need a break. With many young entrepreneurs, it's almost impossible to take a step back and relax. Yet studies have shown that entrepreneurs that don't take time out to smell the roses risk serious health problems later on in life.

August 17th, 2020

https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/feeling-unfulfilled-try-these-7-things-to-find-better-purpose.html

August 5th, 2020

16 Things You Should Never Say in a Successful Negotiation

When you're negotiating a deal, misinterpreted tone or poorly-chosen words could ruin an otherwise-successful conversation. Sometimes you may not know even which phrases might turn a deal sour. That's why we asked 16 members of Young Entrepreneur Council the following question:

August 3rd, 2020

17 helpful tools to improve your email marketing efforts

These tools and strategies can make email marketing more efficient and less time-consuming.

August 3rd, 2020

16 Essential Skills to Look for in a New Hire

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.

July 22nd, 2020

13 Concrete Ways Aspiring Entrepreneurs Can Build Their Self-Confidence

As a budding young entrepreneur, you're likely to meet a lot of people telling you, "no." While some of these people are well-meaning, the constant negativity will eventually impact your self-confidence.

July 10th, 2020

Is Your Side Hustle Idea Worth It? 10 Questions To Ask Yourself

Having a side hustle is a great way to develop a creative outlet outside of your regular career. However, these projects can consume a lot of your time, energy and money. That's why it's important to consider the required commitment and effort – and the potential return – before going all-in on your idea.

July 9th, 2020

Don't Want to Risk Your Own Money on Your Business? 13 Alternative Financing Strategies

Getting any business off the ground requires sufficient capital. However, all the financial stress doesn't have to fall on you as the entrepreneur – there are other ways to secure funding for your startup without assuming 100% of the risk yourself. That's why we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council the following question:

July 9th, 2020

Eight Ways IoT Companies Can Better Safeguard Their Consumers

The internet of things (IoT) is growing at a rapid pace, but sadly, security protocols for those devices are still in their infancy. Customer data security should be a significant concern for IoT companies. At present, there are several glaring holes in security that can be addressed with some dedicated effort. A few IoT companies have even patched out security vulnerabilities.

July 6th, 2020

Want to Improve Your Workplace? 16 Productive Questions to Ask Yourself

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. 

July 6th, 2020

https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/seven-things-you-should-say-to-your-team-more-often-to-inspire-them.html

July 6th, 2020

12 Effective Strategies For Better Corporate Meetings

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. 

July 1st, 2020

11 Entrepreneur-Recommended Tools for Your Next Online Meeting

In the age of remote work and social distancing, try these video conferencing tools for your company's online meetings.

June 26th, 2020

13 Things to Remember Before You Apply for a Business Award

Winning a business or industry award can be a great honor for your business, as well as a highly effective PR opportunity. However, to be considered, you'll first need to submit an application to be reviewed by the award committee. To help you with this process, we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council the following question:

June 8th, 2020

Hiring Your First Remote Employee? Follow These 16 Tips

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.

May 29th, 2020

18 key considerations when selling a business

18 leaders from YEC discuss what elements business leaders should keep in mind before selling their company.

May 27th, 2020

Nine Simple Tricks For Busy Professionals To Get Time Back In Their Week

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.

April 16th, 2020

10 Underrated Business Skills That Every Entrepreneur Should Have

As an entrepreneur, it’s useful to have strong business acumen -- an almost intuitive skill that can and must be honed. However, good business sense alone isn’t enough; there are several other traits an entrepreneur needs in order to succeed.

As some of the top leaders in their respective industries, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council know what skills are required to succeed in the business world. Below, they share 10 underrated skills that all entrepreneurs should possess, but often don't.

April 15th, 2020

14 Thing To Consider Before Making a Major Business Purchase

Making a major spending decision in your business, whether that be a new hire or a new marketing campaign, is often intimidating. You want to make sure you’re investing your money wisely, in a way that will yield a worthwhile return. To help you, we asked a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council members how to make financial decisions with confidence.

April 15th, 2020

13 Entrepreneurs Share Their Journey to Accessing Startup Capital

Accessing capital is one of the biggest challenges many new entrepreneurs face. From loans to investments, securing the proper financing is a long and taxing process, but it can be overcome. Members of Young Entrepreneur Council explained how they worked through their funding challenges.

February 11th, 2020

https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/7-ways-to-shut-down-negative-self-talk-regain-confidence.html

December 6th, 2019

13 Considerations When Weighing New Office Policies

Office culture doesn't stagnate, and there will always be a constant change around how a business operates. Instituting new office procedures and policies as the company culture changes may mean taking some chances. Not all new plans are guaranteed to succeed, and some of them require considerable risk on behalf of the company.

November 22nd, 2019

Prioritizing Recruitment: Eight Tips For Hiring The Best Talent On A Tight Schedule

Entrepreneurs usually don't have enough hours in a day to get everything done. That's the primary reason why prioritizing tasks is a common trait of the most successful business owners. However, many entrepreneurs overlook the importance of hiring great talent to their team and place the priority of hiring new employees way down their list.

November 13th, 2019

Ask These 7 Genius Questions to Spark Innovation on Your Team

long form emailed to Kelsey