Nathalie Lussier

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Imposter syndrome can affect anyone—regardless of age, gender or background. However, these feelings of self-doubt can often hit a little harder for young female entrepreneurs, as they may feel they are less qualified or have more to prove than their male counterparts. As entrepreneurs, they may lose out on vital business deals or opportunities to advance their careers if they are unable to overcome these hurdles. To help, nine women from Young Entrepreneur Council draw from their experiences as entrepreneurs and offer their best advice for how to overcome imposter syndrome, succeed as a business leader and forge ahead in one’s career with confidence.

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The business world is very different from what it was even just a decade ago. While many business best practices and principles remain the same, the roadblocks and problems entrepreneurs face are not. With major advancements in technology to a cultural shift toward online shopping, the landscape is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate, and many business owners are struggling to adapt. As business leaders themselves, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council have experienced—and are still experiencing—many of these same roadblocks. Here, they outline a number of common issues entrepreneurs are facing today and what they see as good solutions to overcoming them.

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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.  Below, 11 Young Entrepreneur Council members explore effective steps leaders can take to revitalize their teams and foster a positive work environment that motivates and inspires employees to give their best. By implementing these strategies, leaders can create a workplace where employees feel valued, supported and motivated to excel.

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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.  As women entrepreneurs themselves, the following members of Young Entrepreneur Council have experienced many of these hurdles and have overcome them in order to achieve success. Here, they each discuss one piece of advice they'd give to any young woman looking to start her own business and why they wish they had heard that advice when they first started out.

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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? To help, seven members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss some of the ways they incorporate their personal values and passions into their business strategies as well as the tips they would give other entrepreneurs trying to align their values with their business.

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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.  But one person simply doesn’t have the time to do everything a thriving business requires, which is why leveraging technology in the right ways can greatly improve the day-to-day operations of your business as well as your own peace of mind. Below, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss eight ways small-business owners can better leverage tech to manage their busy lives and schedules and get better control of their time.

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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? Below, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council offer a few suggestions for where you can start as well as what you might want to get rid of or reconsider this year and beyond.

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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.  Below, seven Young Entrepreneur Council members explain which traits are critical for C-suite hires and how those traits can impact their ability to lead effectively. By looking for these traits during the interview process, leaders can make better hiring decisions and build stronger, more resilient organizations.

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If you're a new entrepreneur, an important task is ensuring that your business is compliant with all local, state and federal regulations. Some legal matters require immediate consideration, and you will want to address those issues as soon as possible. To help, Young Entrepreneur Council members share 10 essential tasks to handle right away when starting a business.

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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. As business leaders themselves, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council also like to take advantage of new opportunities. Here, six members speculate about the industries they would start businesses in today if they weren’t involved in their current businesses and discuss why they believe these industries are so promising for the future.

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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. There are many considerations business leaders should take into account when hiring someone new, including previous success rates, enthusiasm and clarity on the role. To ensure you're bringing on the right team members, follow these seven steps outlined by Young Entrepreneur Council business leaders.

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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.  Fortunately, the new year is the perfect time to reprioritize your efforts and map out new strategies for your data use in the coming months. To help, seven members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss specific ways companies can use data to make smarter decisions and drive business in the new year—and how these efforts have helped their businesses too.

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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.  With so much extra time and effort being put in, leaders will want to ensure their teams have all the support they need to achieve their goals. Below, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council share a few of the ways startup leaders can show their support and set their teams up for success.

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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. But when hiring a bookkeeper, especially one who's part-time, there are many things to consider to ensure that you choose the right fit for your team and build a relationship that will allow your business to thrive. To help, 10 Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) members answered the following question:

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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. However, with the right strategies and plans in place, each of these hurdles can be overcome. For more insights on how to prepare for these hardships, consider the following advice from the members of Young Entrepreneur Council. Here, they each discuss one obstacle they faced in their career that they never thought to prepare for when they started their company and how they recommend other leaders prepare.

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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. To offer a few ideas on how to do just that, seven members of Young Entrepreneur Council share the routines that they’ve implemented for the end of their workdays and the individual habits they have that help set them up for successful mornings.

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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. Here, nine members of Young Entrepreneur Council share what you can learn about candidates through personality assessments—and what you can’t—and how they can be useful in finding the right talent for your team.

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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. That’s why it’s so important to connect with investors from the start and to pitch your business in the right way. Here, nine Young Entrepreneur Council members share tips for practicing your pitch to potential investors and what to keep in mind before the big day.

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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. This is why it’s so important to have a strong landing page that draws customers in, instead of pushing them away. From A/B testing to focusing on SEO keywords, Young Entrepreneur Council members share 12 best practices for optimizing your website’s landing page.

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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. Here, business leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council list 10 of those steps and explain why these practices can have such an effect on your employees, your business and your overall company culture.

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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. To achieve a healthy relationship, then, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council have a few tips in mind. Below, they each share one piece of advice they have for building a healthy co-founder relationship and how these tips will help you maintain a healthy relationship for the long term.

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Members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss where to draw the line with artificial intelligence in business. With all the improvements that have been made in artificial intelligence, there’s no doubt that using it in business is a great way to increase efficiency and save money and time. Incorporating artificial intelligence into the everyday running of a business can leave many leaders wondering where to draw the line, however. Where should they leave room for a human touch? Below, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their insights on the key areas of business where human involvement is still necessary and why AI may need to take a back seat.

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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. It's easy to get swept up in launch day excitement, but it's important to take steps to ensure the big reveal goes off without a hitch. To help, seven members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss some surefire ways to ensure your product launch goes smoothly.

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Members of Young Entrepreneur Council recommend ways of defeating imposter syndrome and gaining confidence at work. When entering a fast-paced, ever-changing industry like tech, falling victim to impostor syndrome can be easy. With new breakthroughs and innovations happening every day, it can seem like you’re constantly scrambling to keep up, which can make you feel like you’re playing catch-up to the rest of your peers who seemingly have it all together. But the members of Young Entrepreneur Council know that isn’t true and that impostor syndrome is a mindset that can affect anyone at any time — even leaders in the tech industry. Below, they share 10 tips you can implement to get out of that place and gain confidence in your ideas and abilities at work.

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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. However, employees from different cultures may have differing opinions about leadership styles or even contrasting ways of approaching problems, which can cause disagreements in the workplace. To help ease any conflicts, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council explain how you can be mindful and respectful of cultural differences when leading a global team.

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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. Properly training customer service teams to handle the myriad of issues that can occur will help customers maintain a favorable opinion of your company and keep them coming back again and again. To help you do this, a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council members share the best advice a leader can impart to their staff while training on one of the more popular modes of customer support—live chat.

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Members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss website elements that could help boost customer engagement and overall sales. Often, when entrepreneurs think of trying to boost customer engagement and sales, they start brainstorming marketing campaigns they could run or different social media techniques they could implement to get customers more interested in their business. Not as much thought is given to the business’s website as a way to increase engagement, however. More than just the place of transaction, a business website can serve as an information hub, a community and a place customers will want to return to again and again — all with the right design. To help get you started, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council each discuss one website design element you’ll want to consider in order to increase your business’s sales and engagement.

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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. While it may take some adjusting for maximum effectiveness, it is possible to build positive client relationships while working from home. Here, seven members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss their best tips for doing so.

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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.  If a new product isn't doing as well in the market as you planned, a simple pivot may be all you need to revive it. But how do you know whether or not it's the right time to make a change? Here, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss the signs to look out for to help you determine if it's time to pivot your product idea and what to do next.

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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. Acknowledging you have weaknesses and working through them not only makes you a better entrepreneur, but it can also make you a better person in all facets of your life. To help you determine your game plan, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council each detailed one way you can actively work on your weaknesses, and how doing this will help you evolve as an entrepreneur.

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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. As such, it's crucial for female entrepreneurs to know their worth and to feel empowered as leaders and role models in business. Here, eight leading women from Young Entrepreneur Council share the books that have made them feel empowered as female entrepreneurs and why.

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If you're feeling burned out, it's time to take action.

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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. Different time zones, varying employee locations and a lack of a centralized physical office space can be difficult to contend with, let alone all the other factors that come into play with remote work. To help business leaders get a better handle on things, a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council members share their best advice for companies working remotely with a global team.

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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. Businesses who choose to rebrand can breathe new life into their enterprise and change how consumers view their products or services. However, rebranding is a risky choice since it could backfire if poorly done. To help, eight experts from Young Entrepreneur Council suggest several critical steps businesses should take to ensure successful rebranding.

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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. With the right team behind them, an entrepreneur can overcome almost any obstacle. Below, seven members of Young Entrepreneur Council weigh in on the strategies they use to hire the right people and why those strategies are so vital to building a dream team.

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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. We asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council to share their best strategies for leaders looking to successfully implement wellness programs in their organizations. Below, they share 10 ways you can ensure your company’s initiative goes off without a hitch.

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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. There are plenty of small habits like these that can help you be more efficient at work, but they're easy to forget when you're caught up in the daily grind. That's why we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council what habits managers should instill in their team to help them become more productive and focused. Read on for their best responses, and why you should encourage these daily habits among your team.

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You don't need to spend a ton of money to build a great business website. A high-quality website can attract customers and give them a positive experience with your company. If you don't have much web design experience, you may be concerned about the cost and time it might take for someone else to build the site for you. Fortunately, there are tons of website building tools that allow you to create your own business website, even if you don't know how to code. Many of these platforms offer plenty of sophisticated features without the hefty price tag, while also being user-friendly. To help you explore your options, we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their favorite low-cost, high-quality website builders. Check out these DIY tools before you outsource the job.

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In the age of remote work and social distancing, try these video conferencing tools for your company's online meetings. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing number of businesses had already embraced remote work and conducted online meetings with participants in different geographic locations. Today, nearly every company that could switch to work-from-home has done so, and groups that once met in person are now logging into virtual meeting rooms for their everyday business conversations. Even one-on-one calls are being held over video conferencing software to replicate that "face-to-face" interaction people are missing in the age of social distancing. While the majority of the business world has adopted Zoom as their preferred video conferencing platform, there are countless other choices for businesses that need to conduct online meetings. If you're not as familiar with the different tools out there, it can be challenging to determine which fits your company best. To help you explore your options, we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council which online meeting software they recommend and what sets it apart from the others. Try out some of their recommendations to find your new favorite meeting platform.

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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.

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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. As a young entrepreneur who does not have a wealth of experience weeding out potentially bad candidates, it’s essential to know what traits and skills to look for in order to identify the right fit for the team. To aid younger professionals, eight business owners from Young Entrepreneur Council explain the nonnegotiable traits they look for in their employees or teammates and why they are so important.

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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.

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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.

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Getting investors on your side starts with a very simple formula, and it has nothing to do with financial projections.

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Podcasting can be a great tool for expanding your business -- and a great way to inspire other women in business, too.

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Excited about launching your new business website? Read through this checklist of 5 all-too-common website bloopers before you hit publish.

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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.

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If you want to see bigger career wins, try openly embracing the qualities that make you different than your male peers.