Meeky Hwang

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At any stage of the business, there are always new things to learn.

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Members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss their favorite tech that's come about in response to ongoing culture changes. The ongoing pandemic has permanently changed the way we behave. Working remotely more and leaving the house less means that our whole culture has had to adjust in order to meet new and ongoing needs. As a result, a whole host of innovative technologies have been created or improved upon, giving people the chance to more easily adapt to a world turned upside down. Below, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council share a few of their favorite new or improved technologies that came about in response to the pandemic and why they’re excited to see them grow in the future.

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When you’re in a position of authority, and when you have the livelihoods of not only yourself but also your teams to consider, it can be easy to develop certain mindsets around yourself, your work and the way your business should be run. While many of these mindsets can be positive, many can also be toxic, threatening to overwhelm you and, ultimately, your team’s morale if left unchecked. As successful business leaders themselves, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council are familiar with the toxic thoughts that can sometimes cross your mind when you run a business. Below, they list a few of those toxic mindsets as well as share what you can do to eliminate them when you feel them start to take over.

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Every business project is unique and will likely require a customized approach to manage it. No matter the size or scope of the project, though, all team members must work together to ensure each moving part is in place. Being on the same page is crucial to the overall success of a project, and it's up to the leader or project manager to keep their team moving forward toward their shared goal. To help you do this, nine members of Young Entrepreneur Council explained the most important elements that you’ll need for the successful completion of your project.

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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.  When you're assessing candidates for a position, you can look for certain traits in addition to their level of experience that will help you make the right hire. Here, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss the top traits they have to see in a candidate before deciding to bring them on.

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Members of Young Entrepreneur Council list the tech skills company founders need to get their businesses off the ground. Even if you’re not opening up a technology-based business, it’s hard to open any kind of business today without at least a few basic tech skills under your belt. And while hiring help for more difficult technical projects down the line is both acceptable and recommended, when you’re just starting out, odds are you’ll need to tackle technology on your own first. However, you don’t need to be a tech genius to get started. Below, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council list a few of the basic skills all company founders should have to start a business and explain how these skills will get you up and running successfully.

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In recent years, automation has become a common tech solution for many aspects of business operations, from marketing to data analytics and reporting. Automating monotonous and repetitive tasks gives you and your team that chance to focus on other duties in need of your undivided attention. Business automation is also a tool you can leverage to scale your company and promote growth. Not sure where to begin when it comes to using automation effectively? Below, a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council members each recommended one task entrepreneurs should automate within their businesses to free up time and help them scale.

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Not taking time to yourself can cause stress to build up exponentially, potentially causing you to harbor resentment toward people and circumstances.

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Strong, clear communication is a must when it comes to manager-employee relationships, but certain behaviors can work against you. Strong communication skills can help anyone thrive in a business environment, but when it comes to managing employees, they are absolutely essential. An effective communication strategy can help leaders optimize the flow of information within their organization and keep teams on track.  Below, 12 Young Entrepreneur Council members shared some of the biggest communication mistakes managers make. Follow their advice for avoiding these common errors and setting up stronger lines of communication with your team.

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With so many work stressors, it can often feel difficult to feel grateful for your professional life. Long days and difficult co-workers can be hard to handle, and these factors may sometimes overshadow your job’s positive benefits in your mind. However, intentionally looking for the good can help you feel more gratitude for the opportunity you’ve been given and improve your overall mental state. Below, 14 Young Entrepreneur Council members offered some ways to practice thankfulness in your everyday professional life and explained why it’s so important to do this.

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Members of Young Entrepreneur Council list the factors companies will want to consider if they want to improve their website UX. While your business’s first attempt at creating a website may have focused on necessary product information, your logo and color scheme and basic functionality, it may not have truly considered how your visitors use the site and, therefore, may not have produced the positive results you were hoping for. To get the most out of your website, it’s vital that you take a look at the full user experience first. To help guide you, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council offer 14 factors all companies should consider when redesigning their websites and why these particular factors can have such an impact on the way your users experience your business.

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Like any other skill, better communication comes with practice. Whether you’re a business leader or an everyday employee, communication is an essential skill that can launch your career to the next level — if harnessed correctly. The power to communicate can better your relationships with your clients and colleagues, move you forward with projects and increase your opportunities for success in your industry. But while communication comes naturally for many professionals, for others, it takes a bit more practice and intention to get right. To offer their advice, 12 members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their best tips for professionals looking to improve their communication skills and progress in their careers.

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Many professionals believe that having a large network is the key to success. However, it's often more crucial to have a few select contacts you can truly count on. These individuals can not only help further your career, but they'll also come through when others won't. Below, nine Young Entrepreneur Council members shared some powerful ways to forge meaningful professional connections. Follow their tips to curate a professional network that will be there when you need them.

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Landing your first management position can be as daunting as it is exciting. You may feel pressure from superiors to perform well or wonder how you'll best lead your new employees. It's important to take early action to establish your leadership style and set yourself up for success. That's why nine members of Young Entrepreneur Council each shared the most critical thing they believe first-time managers should do within the first 90 days of their new role. Follow their tips to give yourself a head start on your new leadership position.

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In the growing gig economy, there's fierce competition in many freelance markets. Far too often, contractors will try to earn repeat work from a client by going the extra mile and taking on extra work only to not get properly compensated for it. As business professionals, it’s important for freelancers to stand up for themselves and their work and get the compensation they deserve. To help, a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council members shared their advice. Below, they discussed what freelancers can do before or after taking a job to ensure that they don't get taken advantage of by their clients.

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Everyone has to start somewhere when building their skills. Here's where to begin if you want to lead. When someone thinks of leadership skills, they may think of decisiveness, the ability to delegate and problem-solving. Each of these skills can go a long way in career and personal development. However, not everyone always knows how to develop those skills or where to turn to for advice.  Whether you want to be a leader or just start taking a more active role in your life, consider this advice from the members of Young Entrepreneur Council. Below, each shared one action you can take to start improving your leadership skills today and how they might help you in other aspects of your life and career.

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You have a great business idea that you're passionate about, and you're excited to get started, but before you do, you need to choose a business partner. This person can help you make complex decisions and guide your team through projects. They can be your best ally. However, if your partner doesn't have values and goals that align with yours or adds more stress to situations, they may be detrimental to your business. To make sure you don't end up in the wrong partnership, look for eight essential qualities of a business partner from members of Young Entrepreneur Council.

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While some may argue that “words are just words,” the language a leader uses can have a major impact on their employees. A leader’s words can be responsible for boosting morale, driving progress, resolving conflict and building relationships, so it’s vital that they choose them carefully. The wrong words, even well-intentioned, can have a negative ripple effect across the organization. However, it’s not always so easy to know what not to say and why, especially when many words have become a normal part of your everyday speech. To offer some guidance, a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council members discuss some of the words and phrases they commonly hear business leaders use and explain why they can have such a negative impact on your employees, your business and even yourself.

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Being an entrepreneur takes a lot of time, effort and resources, and all that work can sometimes be a major drain on your energy and your happiness. While the overall achievement of being an entrepreneur is fulfilling enough to many, sometimes it can be difficult to look at the big picture when feeling stressed by day-to-day problems. When it comes to feeling happy and fulfilled on a daily basis, there are various measures you can take. Here, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council offer some tips that have helped them feel happier as entrepreneurs. Try out a few of these “lifestyle hacks” for yourself to overcome the pressures of the daily grind and feel happier and more fulfilled about your accomplishments.

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Members of Young Entrepreneur Council share some important insights every entry-level tech candidate should know before joining the field. You’ve completed your education and training, you’ve done research on the job market and you’re ready to start applying for positions in the tech industry. But before you do, it's important to know how the industry operates. Like every industry, the technology sector is unique, but it's also evolving and advancing quickly, which means hopeful candidates will constantly need to evolve their skills in tandem. Keeping these facts in mind will allow you to not only find the best-fit position for you, but also map out how your career may look in the future. Below, 13 members of Young Entrepreneur Council share a few other insights job candidates will need to keep in mind if they want to enter and succeed in the tech space.

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Most facets of business rely on persuading others. In sales, the goal is to convince the buyer that your product is better than your competitors’. In a job posting, it's to persuade the candidate that your company is better than others. The art of being persuasive, however, is something many entrepreneurs overlook, despite it being such a core component to a successful business. But how can today's business owners be more influential in their business operations? Is it worth investing time and money to learn how to persuade others? Below, seven leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council suggest several methods that business owners can use to improve their persuasion tactics within their daily lives.

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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. So what is the key to impressing them? Stakeholders each have their own points of view on what counts as success in the industry. Yet, they still share some overlap, and finding that common ground will be key for any entrepreneur. Below, six members of Young Entrepreneur Council examine some strategies for ensuring stakeholders are satisfied with company performance and explain why these techniques are helpful in impressing them.

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Remote work has quickly become the norm across much of the corporate world. Yet, with so many professionals used to in-person interaction, this shift to digital messaging has rapidly and fundamentally changed workplace communication. With increased opportunities for misunderstandings in written text, potential overuse of gifs and emojis, plus a completely different dynamic from in-office communication, professionals need to adjust to the new digital workplace, whether that’s on Slack or communication platforms like it. Here, eight experts from Young Entrepreneur Council offer tips for how individuals can communicate effectively and professionally on these platforms and explain why they’re so key to a productive workplace.

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Your employees’ personalities and work ethics have a direct impact on how effective and efficient you and your company are at getting anything done. Because of this, putting together a well-functioning team isn’t always straightforward. For an entrepreneur who needs to have team members they can count on, a few personality traits stand out as necessary. Below, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss some of the attributes they consider nonnegotiable in potential hires for their companies and how these traits impact the ability to complete good work.

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It’s a myth that successful leaders never make mistakes – even the best leaders have slip-ups from time to time. It’s crucial to learn from those mistakes so they aren’t repeated and equally important to be transparent with your employees when remedying the situation.  The members of Young Entrepreneur Council have made their fair share of missteps in their past and current leadership roles, and they’ve learned a lot of important lessons from those mistakes. Nine members detail their greatest leadership blunders below and what they would have done differently if they could change their actions today.

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To succeed in the highly competitive world of entrepreneurship, these five traits are essential.

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A business is only as good as its employees. In order to thrive, you have to ensure our workers are on the same page and willing to grow with you. A truly loyal team will stand with your business during the ups and downs and dedicate themselves to the business’s overall success. To help you build a team that's in it for the long haul, we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council for their advice. Below, they shared nine simple ways leaders can earn their team's loyalty.

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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. When you only get a few hours per day to tackle your most important tasks, it’s critical to find ways to keep your focus. To help you, we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council for their advice. Below they shared nine strategies for stretching your productivity and why each is so effective.

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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. Regardless of your workload, though, it’s vital to make yourself available to your employees. It not only ensures that everyone is able to carry out their daily tasks efficiently, but it also builds confidence and trust between you and your team members. Below, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council share 10 ways you can make yourself available to your team, no matter how busy you are.

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When launching a startup, business owners often receive a lot of advice from everyone around them. As a new entrepreneur, it can be difficult to parse through it all and determine what truly applies to your business.  With all the noise around you, you might be left feeling more overwhelmed and confused than before. To help you identify the right (and wrong) tips, we talked to members of Young Entrepreneur Council about common pieces of startup advice they disagree with. Here’s what they flagged as unhelpful insights you don’t need to follow when launching your company.