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At times it can be difficult to turn off our emotions -- especially when it comes to separating personal feelings and work. While it’s perfectly normal to have negative feelings in the face of difficult work situations, wallowing in these emotions for too long can affect your job performance as well as your overall well-being. Whether you’re dealing with low confidence, adversity or rejection, building a thicker skin can help you make it through whatever professional challenges you're facing. Below, 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council share some tips to help you brush off feelings of negativity and press onward.

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Every business owner hopes to succeed in their venture. Access to the right resources plays a huge role in that success -- but barriers do still exist, especially for female entrepreneurs. Women in the business world often talk about the importance and benefits of supporting each other. That's why we asked the women of Young Entrepreneur Council how they tap into the right resources and lift up other female leaders in the process. Here's how they've achieved their own success, and helped their fellow female entrepreneurs do the same.

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Starting your own business is not a decision to take lightly. While it’s great to be your own boss with the freedom to set your own schedule, this is only part of the equation. It takes a lot more than just a dream to be a successful entrepreneur. Before you take the leap, there are some important questions to ask yourself to understand if you’re truly ready to launch your own business. To help you make your decision, we asked 10 Young Entrepreneur Council members what everyone should ask themselves before committing to entrepreneurship.

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Businesses rely on their stakeholders for services, marketing, and their bottom line. Each of a company's stakeholders has a role to play, but in return, they have certain expectations for the business. Meeting those expectations and exceeding them is the ideal goal for a business. When the company inspires confidence to its stakeholders, it benefits from their increased support. However, it may be challenging to ascertain what precisely a stakeholder expects and how to meet those ambitions. Here, five professionals from Young Entrepreneur Council examine the methods they use to meet their stakeholders' expectations and make sure they are satisfied with the company performance, and advise on how any business could do the same.

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In any work environment, new teammates or employees need to be picked with careful consideration as a wrong hire risks threatening office balance and even worse, affecting the entire team’s morale and productivity. After all, the temperament and emotional intelligence of each team member can be crucial to how efficient and effective the business is as a whole. As a young entrepreneur who does not have a wealth of experience weeding out potentially bad candidates, it’s essential to know what traits and skills to look for in order to identify the right fit for the team. To aid younger professionals, eight business owners from Young Entrepreneur Council explain the nonnegotiable traits they look for in their employees or teammates and why they are so important.

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Selling your ideas or your vision is what you do as an entrepreneur. You need to convince investors that what you see in your head for your company can be a reality. To do this, you'll probably find yourself going to a lot of pitch meetings to try to get funding for your ideas. Delivering speeches or giving presentations at these pitch meetings should be your best method of marketing your business. However, public speaking tends to scare even the best of us. To help young entrepreneurs who have to get out in front of an audience and wow them with their business ideas, eight business owners from Young Entrepreneur Council offer their best advice on how to relax before giving a presentation.

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Nobody knows everything when they start their first business. Even if you take the time to educate yourself on potential challenges and seek mentorship from more experienced entrepreneurs, there are still some lessons you'll only learn in hindsight. The members of Young Entrepreneur Council know well the challenges that new founders face when they're first starting out. We asked nine of them to share the one thing they wish they'd done before they launched their company. Below, they reflect on their entrepreneurial journey and share their wisdom with fellow aspiring business owners.

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Building a solid team is one of the best ways to ensure success and longevity for your business. However, finding the right people isn’t always easy. Small business hiring can be an especially daunting process, since you’re seeking qualified team members who are also aligned with your business’ vision and growth goals. That's why we asked, nine Young Entrepreneur Council members how you can be sure you’re hiring those who are going to help take your business to new heights. Read on for their best advice.

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Design your HR processes around the growth of your company.

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A business can learn a lot from data. Business intelligence is the methodology that takes data and derives actionable results from it. When a company utilizes those suggestions, it can lead to higher efficiency and productivity. However, there has been a reluctance in some businesses to give data-driven results a chance. Many feel as though data can't provide the 'human element' that leads to positive change. Despite this, other entrepreneurs have brought data-driven decision-making to the foreground, and below, seven members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their best advice and stories about how data has allowed them to make smarter decisions and drive their business success.

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Company culture is the foundation of how a business functions. When a business hires new employees, there can be a tendency for those newcomers to shape company culture through their personalities. On rare occasions, these people can be charismatic enough to change company culture completely. If the changes benefit the organization, then this might be a good thing. However, more often than not, these changes can be detrimental to the workplace and alienate the employees who have been there longer. To help new entrepreneurs deal with hiring new employees and maintaining their company culture throughout, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council explain below how they managed to balance company culture with new hires.