Member Since 2014
AccessAlly
Ontario, Canada Area
Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur, international keynote speaker, and author who has been making web sites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. Her bootstrapped startup AccessAlly, has been featured in Entrepreneur and is inspiring a culture of intuitive small business marketing software across the globe. Nathalie has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur, Venture Beat, Mashable, Business Insider, Yahoo! Finance, and Under 30 CEO. She's the creator of the hit 30 Day List Building Challenge.
In any organization, maintaining a motivated and engaged workforce is crucial for productivity and overall success. However, there may be times when leaders notice a decline in employee morale and motivation. Whether it’s due to external factors, internal challenges or simply a temporary slump, leaders have a vital role to play in reigniting the spark and helping their employees get back on track.
While the percentage of women-owned businesses in the United States is quickly approaching nearly half of all U.S. businesses, women in business still face many obstacles their male counterparts may not have to contend with, such as greater difficulties with securing funding and higher rates of workplace discrimination.
For many entrepreneurs, their values are what drive the purpose of their business. Whether it’s something as simple as excellent customer service or something more complex like contributing to a particular social cause, these values can set the stage for the company’s mission and goals. But what can you do to ensure they become a part of your business’s overall strategy?
When you’re a small-business owner, you’re likely doing all you can to manage your schedule, stay on top of your to-do list and handle other vital tasks. Especially if you have a small team or a limited budget, you may be trying to tackle all these different tasks at once, wearing as many hats as you can to ensure your business has what it needs to be successful.
There can come a time for many established businesses when processes become overwhelming, projects start running off track and tech stacks can get too complicated to function cohesively. All of these signs point to a need for simplification—a “decluttering” of the business and its systems. Taking the time to review what’s no longer necessary, keeping only what adds value to the business, is essential if you want to streamline your processes—but where should you begin?
As any seasoned entrepreneur knows, building a strong leadership team is critical for the success of any organization. When it comes to hiring C-suite executives, there are many factors to consider, including experience, expertise and cultural fit. However, there are certain nonnegotiable traits that should be at the top of every leader's list when evaluating candidates.
If you're a new entrepreneur, an important task is ensuring that your business is compliant with all local, state and federal regulations.
Entrepreneurship is all about looking for new opportunities. Whether that means opportunities to make more money or opportunities to make a difference in a new way, entrepreneurs often keep a close eye on the business world at large, taking note of what ideas are succeeding and which need to go back to the drawing board. When a business or whole industry makes an impact, savvy entrepreneurs take notice.
Hiring the right people to join your team is one of the toughest challenges business owners may face. Not only do you want to find someone who believes in your mission, but you also need someone who fits into your company culture and has the necessary skills to succeed.
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.
When you’re a small team, every employee plays a key role in the business. From marketing efforts to sales to operations, each aspect of the business needs a full team effort in order to get off the ground—and that can often mean team members work beyond the scope of the roles which they were hired for.
Businesses are only as successful as their ability to manage money, so it's important for leaders to be informed of any financial changes with the help of an experienced bookkeeper.
When you decide to become an entrepreneur, there are certain obstacles you know you’re going to have to face—obtaining funding, advertising your business or making that first sale. However, there are often many more obstacles you won’t be prepared for or didn’t even realize would happen.
When you’re an entrepreneur, the way you start your day can greatly influence the rest of your workday, giving you the motivation you need to stay productive or setting you up for failure before you’ve even started. Rather than leave your morning to chance, finding ways to prepare for your morning the night before can help you ensure you have the right mindset and tools for a positive next day.
From DiSC to Myers-Briggs, there’s no shortage of personality tests available today. While leaders often use these tests to better understand their current teams, personality assessments can also provide critical information on prospective hires.
In the early days of your startup, investors can make or break your business. Failing to bring on new investors can mean pushing back the launch of your service or product, or delaying a major hire or purchase.
Your website’s landing page gives customers their first impression of your business. Customers will notice if your page has a slow load time, too many calls to action, broken links, or if it’s just too confusing to use—and they will likely click out of your page before viewing your products or services.
While many companies are looking to improve their efforts when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion, it’s estimated that only 34% of companies currently have the resources to support those efforts. However, promoting better inclusivity in your company doesn’t have to immediately involve major staffing changes or expensive education programs. There are steps any business leader can take today that may not require any resources at all.
The partnership you have with your co-founder is arguably the most important relationship you'll build as an entrepreneur, so it's important to keep it healthy. Constant arguments or disagreements about how the business should be run will only divide your relationship and your company, weakening them as well as your chances of success.
Members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss where to draw the line with artificial intelligence in business.
Whether it's your first launch, a relaunch or the introduction of an add-on feature, a product launch is an exciting time for any business. Because every launch is unique, there's a lot of preparation that goes into it, and you and your team may have spent weeks, months or even years perfecting the product for this very moment.
Members of Young Entrepreneur Council recommend ways of defeating imposter syndrome and gaining confidence at work.
Global workplaces are a melting pot of cultures, work styles and professional backgrounds. Having a global team is an incredible opportunity to learn more about other individualized experiences and even boost your team's worldly viewpoints.
Good customer service teams can help maintain healthy customer relationships and build back any trust that may have been lost due to a poor experience. Conversely, a bad support team can have the opposite effect, leaving customers feeling like their money could have been better spent elsewhere.
Members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss website elements that could help boost customer engagement and overall sales.
Building positive client relationships is the key to the success for any business. However, when you run your business from home, the way you go about building these relationships may look a bit different than it would for a more established organization or in-office environment.
Millions of people have fresh ideas for new products every year, but not all of them do well in the market. In fact, only a small percentage of entrepreneurs with new product ideas become successful with them—and sometimes that success comes after pivoting from their original idea.
Whether it's work-related, personal or both, everyone has weaknesses and "blind spots." In order to grow, it's crucial to pinpoint these weaknesses and work on improving them, either by yourself or with the assistance of others.
Equality in work and business is something that women have been striving toward for many years. While great strides have been made in recent years, women still have to work hard in most situations to find themselves on equal footing with their male counterparts.
If you're feeling burned out, it's time to take action.
Remote work arrangements used to be few and far between, but ever since the pandemic, more and more companies are operating fully remotely. Although those who adopted a remote model early on have likely fallen into a rhythm, those new or established businesses that are now deciding to go fully remote may still be struggling to adapt to and manage remote teams—especially if they operate on a global scale.
Organizations may carry with them a long history, but sometimes, it may be necessary to revamp the way a brand appears to the public. Successful rebranding keeps the core promise of the business but reinvents how the consumer sees them. While some companies may benefit from that traditional appeal, many others realize that consumers prefer a business that they see as modern and innovative.
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.
Businesses are increasingly focusing on wellness in the workplace to increase employee productivity and overall satisfaction. Choosing a wellness program for your company is an important first step, but you’ll also need to ensure that it runs smoothly and that your employees get the most out of it.
A strong daily routine can make all the difference in a team's productivity. Things like creating a to-do list at the start of each day and blocking off time for "deep thinking" work often help people get organized and feel more focused throughout the workday.
You don't need to spend a ton of money to build a great business website.
In the age of remote work and social distancing, try these video conferencing tools for your company's online meetings.
Today’s consumers demand transparency and honesty in brands they buy from. They expect their voices to be heard, which means attracting and retaining customers is all about listening to your audience. It’s important to consider the interests of your consumers and, more importantly, implement their feedback into your products or business model. To help you do this, we asked a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council members for their best advice on how to truly listen to your customers. Their best responses are below.
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.
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.
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.
Getting investors on your side starts with a very simple formula, and it has nothing to do with financial projections.
Podcasting can be a great tool for expanding your business -- and a great way to inspire other women in business, too.
Excited about launching your new business website? Read through this checklist of 5 all-too-common website bloopers before you hit publish.
The problem with goal-setting is that most of us fail to prioritize what's most important (and what can wait for later). Nathalie Lussier rings in the new year with a 4-step prioritization plan.
If you want to see bigger career wins, try openly embracing the qualities that make you different than your male peers.
AccessAlly is the #1 WordPress Course and Membership Solution for Industry Leaders. We understand what it’s like to outgrow your systems. We’ve helped 100,000+ business owners scale on their terms. In fact, AccessAlly provides training to over 2,578,387 end users. AccessAlly is a powerful, flexible customer-getting and retaining system that grows with your business, and that pays for itself. You shouldn’t have to deal with software that hinders business growth. AccessAlly helps you sell more, teach better, and engage longer through your WordPress LMS. We believe that access to education can help defy stereotypes and make the world a better place, while providing a sustainable livelihood for enterprising teachers.
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