Kelsey Raymond

July 7th, 2021

Six Ways Companies Can Better Support Women In The Post-Pandemic Workplace

Among the many major impacts the pandemic has had on the status quo, none have so disproportionately affected women quite like its impact on the labor force. Whether they were laid off, furloughed or forced to choose between family and work when alternative child care was no longer an option, millions of women left the workforce during the pandemic, outpacing the rate at which men were leaving. And not all of them are coming back.

May 28th, 2021

First Time Firing an Employee? Advice for New Business Owners and Managers

Sometimes an employee just doesn’t work out within an organization and needs to be let go. Firing an employee is a task that needs to be handled with delicacy and care, and the process can be intimidating for someone who has never been responsible for terminating an employee before.

May 17th, 2021

13 Common Mistakes Hiring Managers Make (And How to Avoid Them)

April 28th, 2021

Eight Tips To Bounce Back After Making A Mistake At Work

For many professionals, making a mistake at work can be a big hit to their self-confidence. The scenario can weigh on your mind and cause you to feel like you’re bad at your job or that you’re not cut out for your particular profession. Recovering your self-confidence after a mistake takes some time, but it can be done, and the faster you do so, the more effective you'll be in the future.

April 26th, 2021

11 Leader-Recommended Tools To Help Your Business Stay Organized

Effective task management can be quite a challenge for many professionals and businesses, especially when dealing with complex assignments or a large volume of projects, each with its own specific requirements, deadlines and deliverables.

April 21st, 2021

Eight Ways Female Entrepreneurs Can Support Other Women in Business

It’s no secret that having the support of other leaders can make a major difference to a person's entrepreneurial success. When your network contains others who can identify with your struggles, they can then help motivate you from a personal perspective and deliver timely advice when you need it most.

April 18th, 2021

8 Tips for Crafting the Perfect Business Email

Writing a business email? Don't hit "send" until you've completed these key steps.

April 16th, 2021

From Hybrid Jobs to Empathy at Work: 12 Recruiting Trends to Watch in 2021

April 12th, 2021

Eight Key Strategies To Overcome Your Competition And Stand Out In A Crowded Market

In a market with hundreds (maybe thousands) of competitors, it becomes more challenging for businesses to make a mark that'll impact the core audience they’re aiming for. This is why it’s so important for a business to develop a strategy that will give them an edge over the rest.

April 6th, 2021

10 Perks Companies Can Offer to Boost Employee Morale and Retention

In addition to the position itself, company benefits are one of the most important elements that candidates carefully consider when gauging whether they want to join a company. Once an employee is on board, these perks can also play a role in whether or not an employee chooses to stay and whether they get the sense that the company values their contributions. To help leaders determine which benefits to offer, 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) explore the following question:

April 1st, 2021

Seven Ways To Promote Effective Cross-Departmental Communication

When you're running an organization, communication breakdowns can lead to severe efficiency and productivity problems. While smaller teams may be able to quickly deal with the difficulties of communication inefficiency, this problem becomes harder to solve as the business grows and evolves.

March 26th, 2021

12 Ways to Make New Employees Feel Welcome

When you run a business and hire employees, it’s essential your new staff members feel like they are valued members of the team. Your efforts should begin on day one with an onboarding process that will help new employees feel welcome, and that will set them up for success as they start their work.

March 26th, 2021

Scaling Quickly? 12 Tips to Grow at the Right Pace for You and Your Team

When your business starts seeing success, it's natural to want to ride the momentum and build upon it. However, it's possible to grow too fast, too soon. 

March 25th, 2021

11 Tips for Entrepreneurs Looking to Write Their First Book

Putting together a book takes time, energy and a lot of effort. And while it accounts for a lot of the book's labor, writing isn't the only thing an entrepreneur needs to concern themselves with. Publishing the book and the marketing associated with it also have a place in the overall success equation. But not all new writers know what to expect from the writing process. To help, 11 experts from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) answer the following question:

March 16th, 2021

12 Ways to Make Hiring a Priority — Even When You’re Swamped

March 15th, 2021

Eight Steps Managers Can Take To Facilitate An Employee’s Move To Another Department

There may come a time for certain employees when they notice that their skills or interests are better suited to another part of the company and they ask to switch to a different department to better serve their goals. When this happens, managers may not know how to react as the request may come out of the blue or it could be taken as a slight on their current department.

March 12th, 2021

11 Virtual Team-Building Activities Your Employees Will Love

The world of work has changed significantly over the last year, with many companies moving to fully remote work. With this new environment comes a new way of managing. As teams are physically separated, it becomes even more important for leaders to find ways to bring them together. To offer some ideas on how to build such camaraderie, 11 members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their thoughts on the following question:

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.

March 3rd, 2021

How To Combine Your Business's Content And Media Planning To Target The Right Audience

Finding a core audience to market to is a crucial part of making a business profitable. Many marketing departments spend thousands of dollars building a picture of their ideal customer to inform how and where they should market. Once they do that, it's just a matter of unifying their content and media planning to target their product's most viable buyers.

February 26th, 2021

Your Personal Blog Can Get You a Job — If You Include These 11 Things

February 23rd, 2021

Six Ways To Ensure Stakeholders Are Impressed With Your Company’s Performance

Between investors, customers, employees and all other people with particular interest in a company, business leaders can have a difficult time trying to please all their stakeholders. But because the performance of a business is directly related to how the stakeholders feel about the company, aiming for overall stakeholder satisfaction is a necessary goal.

February 11th, 2021

10 Ways To Be There For The Team And Still Meet Managerial Goals

Managers have the difficult responsibility of achieving their own goals to meet the business objectives of their company while simultaneously overseeing the performance of its employees.

February 9th, 2021

Tweeting Through It: 11 Things to Look for on a Candidate’s Social Media Profiles

February 8th, 2021

Want a Candidate to Accept Your Job Offer? 12 Things to Include in Their Offer Letter

If you’re trying to attract highly qualified professionals to your company, it’s likely that they’re mulling over multiple offer letters in addition to yours. To incentivize a top job candidate to accept your offer, you have to find a way to make it stand out. To help, a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) members answered the following question:

February 4th, 2021

11 Steps Toward Building an Email List that Yields a Good ROI

Email lists are fantastic tools for keeping in contact with consumers, sharing information and generating leads. But putting together an email list and figuring out how to attract customers to your list can take a lot of time and effort if not done thoughtfully.

February 3rd, 2021

How To Ensure A Seamless Transition When A Key Company Leader Leaves

When a leader leaves your organization, even on amicable terms, it could prompt a significant upheaval in the department that they were a part of. Depending on how intrinsic they were to that department’s function, their departure may even shift the company's operations.

February 2nd, 2021

12 Rules to Better Manage Client Expectations Early On

When a client signs on with your business, they have certain expectations about what your performance will be. The best way to end up with a happy client, however, is to manage these expectations early on. If you don't, and a client feels as though they should have gotten more from your business but didn't, their testimony could severely damage your future business and your reputation. To ensure you don’t end up in this situation, 12 experts from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) share their insights on the following question:

January 29th, 2021

Seven Key Strategies To Ensure You’re Hiring The Right People

An entrepreneur is only as powerful as the people they surround themselves with. Starting and attempting to grow a business can be a difficult journey, and the sheer amount of outside challenges you need to tackle can be overwhelming. That is why a solid support network is one of the most important things a business owner should create.

January 26th, 2021

Nine Marketing Mistakes New Entrepreneurs Don't Even Know They're Making

As a new business owner, it isn't easy to sort out which business strategies work and which ones don’t. There's no standardized roadmap that guarantees success. Instead, success in business is a series of trial-and-error tests that result in a positive outcome, with plenty of mistakes along the way.

January 22nd, 2021

Seven Steps These Entrepreneurs Wish They Would’ve Taken Before Starting Their Businesses

Information can be a valuable resource, and having enough of it is key to helping business owners make smart decisions. But lack of information or experience can also have an impact. Even seasoned entrepreneurs have regrets or moments when they wish they had done something differently if they knew at the beginning what they know now.

January 17th, 2021

13 Recruiting Lessons to Remember When Hiring for a Senior Position

Hiring for a senior position at a company usually requires a lot more time and effort than hiring for other positions. In many cases, business owners may have a hard time finding the most effective way to source senior talent for their organization. You don't want to lose out on great talent, but you also need to spot the best talent out of the field of applicants, because making a wrong hire at this level can spell disaster for the organization.

December 15th, 2020

12 Foolproof Methods of Growing Your Email Subscriber List

Email marketing is still among the most effective ways to target an audience. However, for email marketing to be successful, you need to encourage people to sign up for your email list. This step might seem like a simple task, but recently consumers are extra-protective about their email addresses. Individuals have been flooded with spam and have become a lot more cautious about who they share their information with.

December 7th, 2020

12 Practical Steps to Cut Down Your Work Hours

It’s already well-known that entrepreneurs spend a lot of their time working on getting their businesses off the ground and keeping them solvent. It's not uncommon to hear a business owner working 50 or 60 hours a week. Many of us know how 10- and 11-hour workdays feel and the negative impact this amount of work can have on one’s mental and physical health. To address the issue, busy professionals need to find a way to work smarter and gradually reduce the number of hours spent to run the business. That’s why we asked 12 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

December 3rd, 2020

Nine Simple Ways A Young Founder Can Demonstrate Their Industry Thought Leadership

When you’re young and inexperienced, stepping up to a leadership position can be more difficult than usual. Without a strong standing in their industry, a new entrepreneur may not be able to navigate the terrain as easily as others. However, these leaders can still bring fresh perspectives and ideas to the table.

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.

December 1st, 2020

Have You 'Outgrown' Your Original Employees? Here's How To Assess Their Evolution

When you first start your business, every member of the “founding team” -- i.e. you and your first employees -- is crucial to its early success. As your business grows and changes, there may come a time when you feel yourself starting to outgrow your original employees.

November 23rd, 2020

14 Traits That Will Get Employers to Notice You

November 18th, 2020

10 Smart Questions To Expect From Investors

When you set out to pitch your idea to an investor, you usually go through the most common questions that they're likely to ask. Discerning investors are careful about where they put their money, but a well-prepared entrepreneur can quickly answer a surprising amount of what they ask.

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.

November 4th, 2020

16 Common Mistakes Companies Make With Their Blogs

A company blog isn't anything like a personal blog, yet many businesses look to individual bloggers to inform their choices on topics and content. Some strike on their own, coming up with their own ideas and fleshing them out by themselves, but the result can be just as underwhelming.

November 4th, 2020

16 Best Practices for Optimizing Your Sign-Up and Landing Pages

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.

October 28th, 2020

Dealing With Employee Feedback: 13 Essential Steps

October 26th, 2020

10 Women Share The Biggest Career Risk They Ever Took (And Why It Paid Off)

Taking risks is always intimidating. It can be scary to leave comfort and safety behind and leap toward a potentially difficult and life-altering decision. But anything worth having rarely comes from taking the easy path.

October 26th, 2020

Here's How to Foster a Community Around Your Brand

[long-form emailed to Kelsey]

October 20th, 2020

Nine Signs You're Not Being Effective Today

You may measure your effectiveness with several metrics. However, not everyone has the time to dedicate to figuring out their level of daily effectiveness and productivity. As professionals, most of us have to learn how to spot the red flags indicating that we are being ineffective.

October 16th, 2020

Eight Habits To Rely On For Better Work-Life Balance

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.

October 15th, 2020

11 Warning Signs a Deal Is Going to Fall Through

Being able to close a deal is a crucial part of an entrepreneur’s skill set, but sometimes, vendor agreements and partnerships can fall through due to unavoidable circumstances. Knowing that a deal is about to fall through before that actually happens can be quite beneficial for a company, as it gives the opportunity to choose its next steps in advance: pursue the agreement more aggressively, back off and let it fail, or do nothing and see if it corrects itself. However, before the business can take any action, it must be able to identify the telltale signs of a deal collapsing. To help, we asked 11 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

October 9th, 2020

Hiring New Remote Employees? Here’s How to Successfully Onboard Them Virtually

Remote working has taken the world by storm, as more and more businesses are looking at hiring workers and having them operate remotely. Aside from the convenience of the workers, the company also benefits from higher productivity and worker morale. However, getting those employees onboarded can be a challenging task. Businesses can't rely on the tried-and-true formulae they've used for years to onboard on-site employees and should instead adapt their techniques to cater for remote hires.

October 8th, 2020

13 Key Elements to Ensure a New Hire's Success in the First Three Months

October 6th, 2020

10 Brilliant Strategies For Maximizing Your Commute Time And Improving Your Life

Many companies that shifted to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic have helped employees eliminate their daily commute. However, some professionals do still need to make regular trips into the office – and spending time commuting to work can feel stressful and counterproductive. If you use your time wisely, though, there are plenty of ways to maximize your commute and make it a productive one.

October 5th, 2020

15 Entrepreneurs Share the First Hires They Made for Their Business and Why

October 1st, 2020

14 Unique Ways to Encourage Innovation in Your Company

As a business owner, you know your company can't remain stagnant and stuck in its ways if it hopes to grow. That growth requires innovation and creativity, both of which are best sourced from everyone on your team.

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 28th, 2020

7 Things You Think You Need to Worry About as a New Business Owner (But Don't)

[long-form emailed to Kelsey]

September 28th, 2020

14 Simple Tips to Improve Your Recruiting Efforts Right Now

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 24th, 2020

15 Smart Ways to Get More Mileage Out Of Your Digital Content

If your company has a blog and social media presence, you know how challenging it can be to keep up with the constant demand for new content. Recycling and updating existing content is a great way to put a fresh spin on what you’ve previously published without the hassle of coming up with a brand-new idea.

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 21st, 2020

Nine Smart Ways To Stretch Your Productivity, Even If Your Time Is Limited

Every professional knows that an eight-hour workday rarely means eight straight productive hours of “real” work. Sometimes there are distractions and emergency situations to attend to throughout the day; other times, your calendar is so booked with meetings that it’s hard to find time in between to concentrate on your to-do list.

September 21st, 2020

Stressed Out? 15 Practical Actions to Combat Doubt, Fear and Anxiety

Today's world is more stressful than ever. The fast-paced, always-on environment many of us operate in is enough to cause anxiety among even the most organized leaders. Throw in the current global pandemic and an economic recession, and it's no surprise that many people are experiencing doubts and fears in their personal and professional lives.

September 15th, 2020

Feeling Unmotivated at Work? Here Are 11 Ways to Refuel Your Drive

Motivation works cyclically. There are moments when you feel as though you can take on the world, punctuated by moments when you feel like it makes no sense to do anything. If you've been feeling unmotivated at work recently, you're not alone. Workers worldwide go through the same moments of "boom and bust" when it comes to their motivation.

September 14th, 2020

Seven Critical Actions After Nailing An Investor Pitch

No other feeling comes close to hitting the ball out of the park for your investor pitch meeting. Unfortunately, many business owners see these small wins as overcoming the largest hurdle. The truth is that nailing the investor pitch is only the first significant hurdle.

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.

September 10th, 2020

11 Actions To Take Today If You Want To Become A Thought Leader

“Thought leadership” is a big buzzword in the business world right now, and it’s easy to see why it’s become such an important focus for leaders. When others look to you for your expertise and insight, you can become a leading, recognized voice in your industry.

September 10th, 2020

10 Entrepreneurs Share What They Wish They'd Known Before They Launched

Entrepreneurship is a journey that no one is fully prepared to take. No matter how much time you spent researching and learning things before you started, there are always things you’ll wish you had done differently in hindsight.

September 4th, 2020

10 Top-Notch Personal Brands Leaders Should Emulate

As an entrepreneur, it’s important to create and implement a branding strategy for your business. This will help you better connect with your customers and share your company’s story/personality with your target audience.

August 31st, 2020

https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/7-successful-sales-tactics-why-they-work.html

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 20th, 2020

14 Ways to Get HR Reps and Hiring Managers on the Same Page

August 20th, 2020

10 Smart Ways To Keep Up With Ever-Changing Social Media Functions

Social media is constantly evolving, as are the ways people use it. What was once primarily used for connecting with old friends and family has morphed into a platform for sharing perspectives and launching campaigns.

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 30th, 2020

15 Things To Bring Up In A Job Interview If You Want To Be Memorable

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.

July 24th, 2020

Eight Of The Hardest Decisions A Young Entrepreneur Can Face

Running a business is not easy, especially as a young entrepreneur. It always feels like the industry is stacked against you, and that you're destined to fail. Keeping hold of your morals while navigating a field like this can be a challenge.

July 21st, 2020

13 Most Relevant Bits of Consumer Data to Collect

One of the most significant elements in helping a business get to know its customers is their data. Over recent years, consumers have started to take notice of how businesses use their data. While many aren't bothered, a few are against a company getting its hands on their information. As a result, they are averse to sharing access to their data.

July 10th, 2020

Small Team? 15 Tips for Expanding Your Marketing Efforts With Limited Resources

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:

July 7th, 2020

15 Useful Tips For Regaining Business Momentum

All entrepreneurs are excited to see their businesses grow, but this growth isn't infinitely exponential. Occasionally, the company's growth may become stalled. This contraction might happen due to any number of factors affecting either the business itself or the industry as a whole.

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 3rd, 2020

11 Engaging Ways To Inform Consumers About Your Latest Offerings

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.

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 22nd, 2020

Here's How To Make High-Level Change At Work (Even If You're Not At The Top)

Every company has both the need and the potential to grow over time. Whether a business must adapt to new trends or is simply looking to improve its internal processes, high-level change is simply part of a company's journey.

June 22nd, 2020

Growing Quickly? 8 Ways to Make Sure Your Culture Keeps Up

[long-form emailed to Kelsey]

June 15th, 2020

15 Ways for Leaders to Encourage Employee Self-Teaching

Within any company, the ambitions of individual team members should aid the overall organization. However, it takes a leader to fuel, direct, and inspire this ambition into a way that helps both the team members and the organization as a whole. One way leaders can get their team members to realize their ambitions is by guiding them toward self-teaching and taking initiative, as a way of expanding their knowledge and skills while also seizing new opportunities within the company. To help, we asked 15 members of Young Entrepreneur Council the following:

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

How Leaders Can Spur Team Innovation: Eight Conversational Techniques

Innovation can change how a company does business and significantly improve its bottom line. That is why innovation should be a core value for any organization, and leaders should spare no efforts to encourage their teams to come up with innovative ideas.

April 15th, 2020

10 Smart Strategies To Convert Web Traffic Into Sales

A great digital marketing strategy can drive potential customers to your website. But high traffic doesn't always translate into revenue. Once you get people on your site, you need to ensure they have a reason to follow through on their purchase. To help you do this, we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council how they optimize and convert web traffic into real dollars. Their best tips and insights are below.