Jennifer A Barnes

January 25th, 2023

Eight Ways To Design An Effective Trial Period For A New Hire

Bringing on new hires to your team is always a gamble. While applications, resumes and interviews can help you make an educated decision about whether or not you think someone would be a good fit for your company, you never truly know until you hire them and they start working in their role. This is why a trial period can be a useful next step in the hiring process that can help you see how a candidate tackles real-life problems.

January 10th, 2023

Year-End Accounting Tips You Can Prepare To Implement Year-Round

Ensuring your financial records are correct and organized is essential to the success of your business.

December 21st, 2022

How To Use Data To Drive Business Forward In The New Year

Data can tell a business owner a lot about the decisions they should be making or the paths they should be following if they want to grow their business. However, with so many metrics to keep track of and so many variables at play at all times, understanding exactly what data to collect and what to do with it can be confusing, especially for new or inexperienced entrepreneurs. 

December 12th, 2022

10 Hurdles New Entrepreneurs Often Struggle To Overcome (And How To Tackle Them)

Entrepreneurship is a journey filled with obstacles that every hopeful business owner must defeat if they want to prove they have what it takes to succeed in the business world. And while some obstacles are easier to overcome than others, there are those which can be lifelong hurdles entrepreneurs will need to work to climb in order to find true success and happiness. 

September 7th, 2022

How Small Business Owners Can Handle A Cash Shortage

While you can never predict every possible outcome, the most likely financial futures are easy to identify with strong business books and an experienced financial team.

August 16th, 2022

When Should You Outsource And When Should You Hire In-House?

When growing a business, it's best you focus on what you are good at, and leave all the back-office tasks to those who are best suited to handle those tasks.

July 12th, 2022

What To Look For In A Chief Operating Officer

While the details of any single COO’s job description may vary from one company, or one industry, to the next, the role of the COO in an organization remains relatively constant.

May 16th, 2022

12 Simple Ways Leaders Can Boost Positivity In The Workplace

A negative mindset can be poisonous in the workplace. It can lower morale, decrease productivity and spread to other members of the team, leading to toxic work culture.

February 10th, 2022

Eight Traits To Look For Before Bringing On Any New Hire

Finding the perfect candidate to fill an open position is about so much more than choosing someone with the necessary skills and experience. While it's important to hire someone with the technical knowledge and expertise to get the job done well, it's equally as important to find someone who will fit into your company culture or be a positive influence on others. 

February 2nd, 2022

Balance Sheets 101

If your company is in financial danger, meaning your liabilities are much greater than your assets, there are some strategic moves that can help you turn things around.  

January 14th, 2022

Seven Ways To Hire The Right People For Your Business (Even In A Tight Labor Market)

No matter what industry you're in or how tumultuous the market is, hiring the right people for your business is crucial for its success. The right fit needs to have the experience and expertise to perform tasks properly, but more importantly, their personality and values should align with those of the company. Hiring the wrong person to fill a position can cost your business time and revenue.

January 7th, 2022

Nine Factors to Consider When Determining the Best Price for Your Product or Service

Determining the right price for a product or service is one of the most important elements in a business's formula for success. If the price is too low, you'll be losing out on well-deserved profits, but if the price is too high, you'll be losing out on potential customers and clients. There are several factors to take into consideration when setting a fair price for a product or service. To share insights into what these factors are and why they're important, nine professionals from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) answered the following question:

November 23rd, 2021

10 Creative And Effective Ways To Give Your Team Regular Performance Feedback

Performance feedback is an important way for your employees to know how well they are doing in their role, especially in a growing company. While annual reviews help your employees see how they’ve been doing throughout the course of the year, they could also benefit from receiving regular performance feedback. 

November 15th, 2021

14 Recruiting Hacks to Find the Best Job Candidates

Sifting through piles of job applications and resumes can be tedious work. However, you can take advantage of certain recruiting “hacks” to find the best job candidates, people who are likely to be a great fit right from the start.

November 15th, 2021

14 Activities to Keep Your Team Motivated When They're Stuck in a Rut

When your team is feeling uninspired, try these activities and initiatives designed to boost morale.

November 10th, 2021

10 Important Questions To Ask Yourself To Determine The Next Step In Your Career

At one point or another, most professionals face a crossroads in their career. Whether they simply want to change jobs, pursue a different career path or still don't know what their true calling in life is, there are a lot of questions a person can ask themselves before choosing a direction.

November 3rd, 2021

When (And How) To Bring On A Consultant For Your Business

Many business owners gravitate toward hiring in-house staff instead of bringing on a consultant or fractional resource mostly because they aren’t familiar with how the process works.

November 2nd, 2021

Nine Ways Leaders Can Encourage Their Teams To Have An 'Ownership Mindset'

Part of creating a successful team is getting them to buy in on your company’s mission, vision and goals. Those employees who do this are likely to develop an “ownership mindset” in which they feel that they have ownership over their responsibilities and outcomes and are more willing to do what is necessary to accomplish tasks.

October 29th, 2021

Nine Actionable Steps To Ensure Employees At All Levels Are Being Heard

As a leader, it’s important to ensure that every voice at your company is heard, no matter the size of the team. Barriers should be broken between upper and lower management, if they exist, to allow for the free flow of information and ideas. But it can still sometimes be difficult for lower-level employees to feel their ideas are being heard all the way at the top.

October 12th, 2021

Process, People And Technology In Accounting

When assessing resources as we look toward optimization of our operations, the key is identifying interest.

September 21st, 2021

How To Reduce Employee Turnover And Improve Poor Performance

Happy staff equals happy clients.

September 8th, 2021

Eight Ways Business Leaders Can Retain More Employees By Helping Managers Succeed

A strong manager can inspire loyalty and guide their team toward reaching their goals, helping the company reach new heights. Conversely, a manager who is ineffective or difficult to deal with can drive away talented employees, leading to high turnover rates and the subsequent loss of time and capital.

August 23rd, 2021

14 Ways Employers Can Support Positive Mental Health in the Workplace

The happiness of its employees can make all the difference in a company's success.

August 16th, 2021

15 Positive Habits All Entrepreneurs Should Develop to Become Successful Leaders

Success starts with building one small habit at a time.

March 23rd, 2021

Lost Your Job? How To Discuss Getting Fired With A Potential New Employer

Many professionals have been fired from positions in the past. Getting fired from a job can be embarrassing and anxiety-inducing, especially when you have to explain the reason why you were let go to a potential new employer.

March 11th, 2021

Seven Steps To Take When You Notice A Top Employee Is Off Their Game

Sometimes, even employees who have a track record of excellent work can have bad days. But when bad days become bad weeks or even months, leaders should take the time to investigate. However, because it could be a sensitive situation, it may be best to take it slow and follow a few key steps.

October 29th, 2020

Seven Ways To Leverage Your Cash Flow During The Pandemic

Right now, most businesses have less of a cash buffer.

September 23rd, 2020

Navigating The Pandemic: How To Make Sure Your HR Team Is Ready

Invest in strengthening your HR team to get through these hard times.

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 16th, 2020

15 Productivity Tips to Help Entrepreneurs Succeed

Small-business owners realize almost immediately how different their businesses are to run than large corporations. For success, a small business needs to adopt its own strategies that work with limited available resources. Entrepreneurs in this position need to make critical decisions about what approaches they'll take to elements of business growth and development.

September 1st, 2020

Here's How To Truly Take 'Time Off' As An Entrepreneur

It’s easy to have an “always-on” mentality when you’re an entrepreneur. You own a business that depends on you to survive, so you never really get a day off – right?

August 26th, 2020

Here's How To Be More Available To Your Team (While Still Doing Your Own Work)

As a manager, you likely have a long list of responsibilities and many demands on your time. This may leave you with little time for unplanned meetings or additional questions from your team members, let alone time to complete your own work.

August 26th, 2020

Seven Ways To Train Your Future Leaders (Besides Leadership Conferences)

For many growing teams, in-person leadership conferences have been the go-to method for training and developing the organization's future leaders. In today's world, though, there's a lot of uncertainty around when these types of conferences might return.

August 17th, 2020

Four Tips To Access And Reallocate Your Back-Office Resources

Consider which roles can be outsourced, and clearly outline who is responsible for every task in your organization to be certain that you are optimizing your team during these difficult times.

August 7th, 2020

Eight Critical Considerations When Selecting A Business Adviser

Business advisers have the potential to be instrumental to a company's success. Unfortunately, not all business advisers make a positive impact, and it's up to the entrepreneur to decide which adviser they want to work with.

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

Five Ways You Can Easily Improve Your Accounting Strategy During A Downturn 

Lean on your accounting team to assess business continuity and profitability

July 3rd, 2020

Seven Ways To Leverage Customer Complaints For Business Growth

Customer complaints are a necessary part of a business, but it can be discouraging to deal with them. A good leader knows how to look at customer complaints and extract the positives out of those disparaging comments. A skilled leader can take these complaints and turn them into a power to motivate and direct the business's positive growth.

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 26th, 2020

14 Ways to Ensure Company Growth Doesn't Outstrip Business Communication

Businesses have seen a period of massive growth, especially those that deal solely with online sales and services. While this development is promising, it also opens up a business to another problem -- that of having their growth outscale their ability to communicate.

June 18th, 2020

Surviving This Economic Downturn: How A Strong Accounting Team Could Help

The right accounting team can help leaders avoid fear-based decisions by adding transparency and facts to the equation.

June 16th, 2020

How to Encourage Employees to Create Their Own Company Culture

Team members who feel connected to an organizational culture they helped create tend to be happier and more productive.

June 12th, 2020

Nine Common Words Leaders Should Stop Using (And What To Say Instead)

When you spend time in the business leadership world, you start to hear a lot of cliché phrases and vague terms that other managers frequently use. Sometimes they use them sound smart; other times they're not sure of a better alternative. Either way, these overused words begin to sound like jargon over time, and may lose their meaning when you're communicating with your staff.

June 11th, 2020

8 Clear Signs of a High-Quality Job Candidate

[long-form article emailed to Kelsey]

June 8th, 2020

8 Smart Strategies for Delivering 5-Star Customer Service

[LONG-FORM EMAILED TO KELSEY]

May 19th, 2020

Facing Adversity At Work? 10 Ways To Build A Thicker Skin

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.

May 13th, 2020

How To Maximize Your Workforce During An Economic Downturn

Having the right people do the right tasks at their respective levels can free up much-needed cash.

May 7th, 2020

Seven Strategic Approaches To Assessing Quarterly Accomplishments

Moving into the second quarter of the year, entrepreneurs should be well aware by now that the only way to ensure that their company gets more efficient is to examine its performance in the previous quarter and see where it can improve. Performance evaluation is much more than just assessments that focus on a small core of metrics.

April 15th, 2020

10 Female Entrepreneurs Share How They Access Resources And Support Other Women In Business

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.

March 5th, 2020

How To Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed: Eight Effective Strategies For Business Leaders

Running a business is no easy feat, and with each new challenge that arises, an entrepreneur risks becoming buried under the weight of the responsibility. There's no way that an individual can stop the flood of responsibilities, so the only option that a new business owner has is to find an effective and efficient process for managing the situation.

January 31st, 2020

Four Best Practices For Helping Nonprofits Approach Profitability

For a nonprofit to survive long-term, it is imperative that it makes some of the same financial decisions as a for-profit company, and that includes managing its budgets effectively.

December 17th, 2019

https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/7-ways-entrepreneurs-can-prioritize-their-own-health-happiness.html

November 21st, 2019

Compensation Plans For Transitioning A 1099 Employee To A W-2 One

Like many business owners, you’re probably busy double-checking the difference between 1099 and W2 employees, considering how the new rulings will affect you and how best to make a seamless transition to W2 employees where necessary.

October 30th, 2019

What To Look For In A CFO

The experience of the CFO has to be based on the company's future goals and not simply what happened historically.

September 24th, 2019

Succession Planning 101: The Keys To Successfully Handing Over Your Business.

Remember, succession planning applies to unexpected emergencies in addition to retirement, so it's important to get started now.

September 3rd, 2019

Recession-Proof Businesses: Don't Sit On Your Hands During An Economic Downturn

An economic downturn may be your opportunity to thrive, but you still need to be strategic about your decision-making. 

August 13th, 2019

Is Your Balance Sheet Strong Enough To Raise Capital?

Take the time to strengthen your balance sheet to ensure you have the ability to get financial assistance from investors.

July 23rd, 2019

Is Your Business A Leading Indicator Of A Future Recession?

Remember, preparedness and prevention are the best medicine.

July 2nd, 2019

It's Time To Rethink Your Accounts Receivable

How can you prevent late payments from putting your business at risk?

June 12th, 2019

Outsourcing In A Recession: What You Need To Know

Outsourcing has many benefits to help you weather a looming recession or streamline the production within your company.

April 30th, 2019

Independent Contractor Vs. Employee: What's The Difference?

Being "busy" doesn’t always necessarily mean productive.

March 8th, 2019

What Businesses Can Do To Prepare For A Recession

You don’t want to be caught by surprise when the next recession happens.

February 19th, 2019

Why You Need To Segregate Duties In Your Accounting Department

Implementing internal controls lowers the risk of fraud, errors and inefficiency in your accounting department and company as a whole.

January 9th, 2019

The Art Of Selling As A Business Owner

Believe in the product or service you are selling and its capacity to help others.

March 21st, 2018

Zero-Based Budgeting: How To Cut Down On Unnecessary Line Items In Your Business

Finding ways to cut costs is important, though going with the cheapest option isn’t always the answer.