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The easiest part of opening a business is coming up with the idea and filing the paperwork. The most challenging part often might not be apparent right away. No leader can predict or prepare for every obstacle they might encounter as a business owner, and hurdles can vary by industry and by each entrepreneur. However, with a little insight from more experienced entrepreneurs and the right mindset, you can successfully guide you and your business through any challenge. Below, eight experts from Young Entrepreneur Council talk about the obstacles they never predicted they’d have to overcome when starting their companies and share ways other leaders can prepare to face similar blockades in their entrepreneurial journeys.

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If 2020 has taught us anything, it's that the workforce can be adaptable and deal with many challenges as they arise. From pivoting into remote work to changing their priorities from real life to the digital realm, employees have had to evolve their practices to remain competitive. While everyone is looking forward to what a new year will bring, there will still be a lot of change to witness in the workforce. This year's struggles have started a ball rolling, and the coming year will see it pick up momentum. Here, nine leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council suggest a few ways that the workforce will adapt to this new year and why they expect these changes to occur.

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Resumes are the first look that business owners get at potential hires. As a result, they must use these resumes as a basis to figure out if that person is worth bringing in for an interview or not. Each business has its own demands for potential employees and therefore looks for specific elements in candidates’ resumes to determine possible fit. How can job seekers optimize their resumes to include these essential elements? To help, we asked we asked 13 successful entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

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expert panel

A website can be a critical marketing tool as long as you manage to keep your audience engaged. Marketing can drive traffic to your website in several ways, with video, text, or image content. But once they get there, how do you keep them there? Website analytics uses a metric known as "bounce rate" to figure out how many visitors to the site remain there and how many leave within a few seconds of their visit. And if the bounce rate is high, you can be certain your website isn't engaging enough. To help, we asked nine members of YEC to share their best strategies for making a website more attractive and engaging to incoming visitors and explain why these techniques are so successful. Here’s what they had to say.

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expert panel

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. These essential communications insights are often learned throughout an entrepreneur’s journey, and sometimes they can come to you through unexpected career situations. That’s why we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council to share the best communication lessons they’ve learned during their careers so far. Here are their top 10 lessons and why each was so impactful.

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Working from home requires paying attention to many small details regarding your mental and physical well-being, with work-life balance tending to be significantly higher among remote workers compared to traditional office workers. Most companies have now opted to offer remote work packages for their essential staff in response to the global pandemic. But when you're only just getting into the remote working lifestyle, it can be challenging to figure out a proper work-life balance. Remote work, especially, tends to infringe upon your daily life incessantly, making it hard to set boundaries and stick to them. Below, these eight professionals from Young Entrepreneur Council share the habits they rely on to achieve a better work-life balance while working remotely and explain why their strategies can help other entrepreneurs, as well.

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A truly timeless brand sticks with people for a long time, no matter how many trends emerge or how the world around them changes. Not every business ever reaches this stature, but it’s something your brand should work and strive toward if you want to be memorable. To that end, there are a few steps you can take to make your brand feel timeless as you’re developing it. We asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council to share the key to creating a timeless brand. Here’s what they had to say.

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Each company gauges the contribution of its employees differently. Some focus on deliverables, while others rely on employee loyalty and worked hours to determine a worker's contribution to the business. All of these assessment methods have the same goal in mind -- to determine whether an employee deserves a raise or not. But how can a business determine which of these systems is best and most suitable for its own workforce? To shed some light on the issue, we asked eight entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

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expert panel

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. To help you stand out, we asked Young Entrepreneur Council members to share some memorable things past candidates have said that really impressed them. Be sure to bring up these 15 things in your next job interview if you want to make a great impression.

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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:

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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:

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expert panel

19 entrepreneurs delve into where online freelance talent is most readily found Businesses have changed their approach to hiring in recent years. More and more companies are relying on freelance talent as opposed to in-house contracts. It's not surprising that the paradigm has shifted in this way, however. Freelancers can be less of a drain on company resources, but they can also be more efficient than in-house hires. Even so, businesses need to find freelance sites that offer talented individuals, accessible search functions, and escrow services in some cases. All of these factors contribute to developing a long-lasting relationship with a freelancer. The rise of freelancing has seen several different locations open up around the internet that offer businesses a chance to interact with professionals. Unfortunately, there are many freelance sites to sort through, and finding the right fit for your needs may take some trial and error. Businesses need to be careful about sourcing their freelancers to avoid hiring someone who is not good for the project or who may have a nonprofessional behavior. How does a company narrow down the best places to source a freelancer online? We consulted 19 entrepreneurs from YEC about the best places to source freelance talent online. Here's what they told us.