Nicole Munoz

January 4th, 2021

11 Tips for Hiring a Part-Time Employee to Help With Your Business’s Finances

Small businesses, like any business, have finances that need to be kept in order. Owners can deal with these duties to a point; however, small businesses tend to grow, and hiring an employee dedicated to keeping the company's finances in check is often a necessary next step. Luckily, many small business owners can hire someone on a part-time basis. This route carries a lot less overhead in terms of time and money compared to hiring a full-time employee, but it also comes with its own challenges. That’s why we asked 11 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

December 30th, 2020

18 Things to Consider Before Committing to Business Insurance

18 entrepreneurs from YEC look at the main reasons why an organization should get insurance.

December 17th, 2020

12 Considerations When Creating Your Pricing Structure

Prices can make or break a business, and deciding on what to charge for a particular good or service varies by the company. Finding the "sweet spot" for your pricing takes a bit of market research and a lot of trial and error, especially for new entrepreneurs. Sometimes, their approach to pricing structure can change over time, evolving to account for further information they learn in their journeys as business owners and new key considerations that affect a company’s pricing model. That’s why we asked 12 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

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 2nd, 2020

16 Excellent Sales Automation Tools

16 entrepreneurs from YEC share their favorite sales automation tools and strategies and explain why they work.

November 25th, 2020

Seven Leaders Share Their Best Business Decisions And Contributions

Few things make an entrepreneur feel happier than accomplishing a significant goal. Many business owners approach their companies with concrete goals in mind for where they want it to be in a few years. However, when you're a new entrepreneur, it can be a challenge to plot your own course.

November 23rd, 2020

 11 Critical Qualities Your Part-Time CFO Should Have

Occasionally, a business may require a part-time chief financial officer because their full-time employee has left or transitioned to a new portfolio. A part-time CFO doesn't need to have the same skill set as the original office-holder. However, to be successful in their endeavors on behalf of the company, they need to have a series of qualities making them suitable for the position.

November 19th, 2020

13 Essential Resume Elements to Warrant an Interview

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

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

Nine Creative Strategies for Keeping an Audience Engaged on Your Website

A website can be a critical marketing tool as long as you manage to keep your audience engaged. Marketing can drive traffic to your website in several ways, with video, text, or image content. But once they get there, how do you keep them there?

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.

November 3rd, 2020

13 Strategies for a Successful Microinfluencer Partnership

Influencers are the newest way of reaching out to social media audiences. Unlike traditional advertising, these influencers have their own goals and ambitions. Influencers thrive on building relationships between themselves and their audiences. Microinfluencers tend to have fewer followers but an even more close-knit community. In many cases, this closer relationship makes it easier for them to convince users of their perspective. When dealing with micro-influencers, businesses should understand what makes this particular relationship work so well. To help, we asked 13 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

October 28th, 2020

Dealing With Employee Feedback: 13 Essential Steps

October 28th, 2020

13 Pros and Cons of Using Personality Tests to Evaluate Employees

As entrepreneurs, we understand how powerful the classification of personality types can be in recruitment. From Myers-Briggs to Enneagram, the number of ways to gauge a person's innate traits can be measured in a hundred different ways. Several companies use one or more of those personality tests to develop their employees' potentials.

October 27th, 2020

The Top 10 Communication Lessons An Entrepreneur Can Learn

Every successful business leader needs to know how to communicate effectively. Both written and verbal communication skills are crucial if you want to build and maintain strong relationships with your employees, customers and partners.

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 8th, 2020

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

October 7th, 2020

Want To Create A Timeless Brand? Here's How To Do It

A truly timeless brand sticks with people for a long time, no matter how many trends emerge or how the world around them changes. Not every business ever reaches this stature, but it’s something your brand should work and strive toward if you want to be memorable.

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

14 Simple Tips to Improve Your Recruiting Efforts Right Now

September 21st, 2020

13 Best Tips for Practicing Your Investor Pitch

Entrepreneurs should all know by now how nerve-wracking delivering a pitch to investors can be. If you've invested a lot of your time and effort into designing a business idea, you want to get the point across to investors effectively. As with anything, practicing your delivery can go a long way toward making a steadier presentation. That’s why we asked 13 successful entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

September 17th, 2020

Eight Critical Factors To Keep In Mind When Considering A Business Partnership

When you start a business, one of the first questions you ask yourself if you should be doing this alone, or if you need help. This decision determines whether your company is a solopreneurship or a partnership. Some entrepreneurs work better by themselves, but others realize the benefit of having a partner.

September 16th, 2020

15 Productivity Tips to Help Entrepreneurs Succeed

Small-business owners realize almost immediately how different their businesses are to run than large corporations. For success, a small business needs to adopt its own strategies that work with limited available resources. Entrepreneurs in this position need to make critical decisions about what approaches they'll take to elements of business growth and development.

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 14th, 2020

15 Common Buzzwords Hiring Managers Hate Seeing on Job Applications

September 10th, 2020

Feeling Burned Out? Nine Ways To Get Back On Track

When you’re overworked, it’s easy to burn out. The extra hours and workload can cause you to become stressed and ultimately less productive at work.

September 3rd, 2020

Here's How to Cut Recruiting Costs Without Sacrificing Quality

August 31st, 2020

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

August 28th, 2020

10 Clear Signs You Need To Make A Mobile App For Your Customers

Many businesses see a major shift in their success once they establish a website that lets them provide new information and tools to their customers. However, some may see even greater success if they develop a mobile app.

August 27th, 2020

12 Crucial Actions to Protect Your Business When a Large Client Goes Under

Businesses thrive on interaction with large clients. They form the most significant inflow of money to the enterprise and help you meet your obligations from month to month. With so many companies closing down, it's not far-fetched to think that one of your massive clients might face bankruptcy. When that happens, you will need to have a clear plan in place to recover any overdue payments and soften the blow until you find new customers. That’s why we asked 12 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

August 26th, 2020

10 Smart Ways To Ensure Your Employee Wellness Program Succeeds

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.

August 26th, 2020

Seven Ways To Train Your Future Leaders (Besides Leadership Conferences)

For many growing teams, in-person leadership conferences have been the go-to method for training and developing the organization's future leaders. In today's world, though, there's a lot of uncertainty around when these types of conferences might return.

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 24th, 2020

Here's How To Successfully Communicate Your Brand Story To Your Audience

Building your brand is an important part of running a business. To truly connect with your audience, you must define and express who you are and your goals as a business. Often, the best way to do this is by telling your story.

August 19th, 2020

12 Unconventional Ways To Generate Ideas For Fresh, Engaging Content

Being part of a creative team is an exciting job. However, it’s difficult to always be in an innovative, inspired mindset. Often, creatives experience burnout and roadblocks that hinder their performance.

August 17th, 2020

https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/feeling-unfulfilled-try-these-7-things-to-find-better-purpose.html

August 7th, 2020

Eight Essential Skills To Look For In New Hires

No business’s recruiting process is the same, largely because of the fact different organizations look for different things in their candidates. Each company has a particular skill or set of abilities it values above others.

July 30th, 2020

14 Things That Could Throw Off The Wearables Revolution

Electronic wearables were an exciting new concept just years ago. Now, they’ve slowly become the norm, with gadgets like smart watches and sleep trackers overwhelming the market.

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

How To Enhance Your Organization’s User Experience: Eight Vital Lessons

User experience (UX) informs your consumer's overall impression of your business. Like all other first impressions, you need to make this one count, or else your buyer might just consider going elsewhere. Unfortunately, many young businesspeople underestimate the importance of user experience.

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 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

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. 

June 26th, 2020

13 Things to Remember Before You Apply for a Business Award

Winning a business or industry award can be a great honor for your business, as well as a highly effective PR opportunity. However, to be considered, you'll first need to submit an application to be reviewed by the award committee. To help you with this process, we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council the following question:

June 24th, 2020

16 HR Quality Checks to Ensure You're Recruiting With Equity

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 16th, 2020

11 Things Every Good Employee Referral Program Needs

An employee referral program is a win-win for you and your team. Referral candidates tend to be well-qualified, since they're pre-vetted by staff members you know and trust, and hiring referrals shows you value your employees' input. To help you build a great referral program, we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council the following question:

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

8 Clear Signs of a High-Quality Job Candidate

[long-form article emailed to Kelsey]

June 8th, 2020

https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/founders-share-their-best-advice-for-selling-your-business.html

June 5th, 2020

Offering Live Customer Chat? Follow These 15 Important Tips

In today's always-on, digital-first world, consumers increasingly expect companies to offer fast and convenient channels for customer support. To this end, many brands now offer live chat so customers can reach them faster than an email or phone call.

May 29th, 2020

18 key considerations when selling a business

18 leaders from YEC discuss what elements business leaders should keep in mind before selling their company.

May 29th, 2020

10 Key Factors in Determining Whether an Employee Should Get a Raise

It takes a lot of mental fortitude for an employee to approach their employer for a raise. There's no playbook for managers and business owners to know how to gauge whether an employee deserves a raise or not. The factors as to whether an employee deserves to earn more can be approached in several different ways. From the addition of value to the support they provide, each plays an integral part in determining whether a raise is warranted. That’s why we asked 10 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

May 7th, 2020

8 Strategic Ways to Handle a Professional Disagreement

**NOTE: This is a long-form piece for Inc, edited off-platform and emailed to Kelsey. I selected the wrong export format by mistake!**

Effective teamwork is important to any business, but not everyone will be on the same page 100% of the time. Disagreements, big or small, seem to be inevitable when working with others – but that doesn’t mean your team is doomed. It is possible to work through a dispute and move forward as a team, with better understanding than before.

May 4th, 2020

8 Tips for Building Your Professional Network From Scratch

[long-form emailed to Kelsey]

April 15th, 2020

12 Ways to Boost Your Following on LinkedIn LinkedIn remains one of the most valuable resources for a business in terms of building industry connections, finding talent and attracting new potential customers. So how can a new business make the most of its LinkedIn page to boost its following and gain more visibility?

April 8th, 2020

https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/support-your-employees-career-growth-with-these-6-tips.html

February 28th, 2020

Five Ways To Keep Stakeholders Happy With Your Company’s Performance

Businesses rely on their stakeholders for services, marketing, and their bottom line. Each of a company's stakeholders has a role to play, but in return, they have certain expectations for the business. Meeting those expectations and exceeding them is the ideal goal for a business. When the company inspires confidence to its stakeholders, it benefits from their increased support.

February 24th, 2020

10 Entrepreneurs Share One Piece Of Advice That Has Stuck With Them

The world's most successful entrepreneurs are often fiercely independent and self-reliant. They have the courage to keep going when things get difficult and know how to push themselves to overcome even the most challenging of situations.

However, no one becomes a success completely on their own. Entrepreneurs also need a strong support network of peers and mentors who can offer them sage advice and wisdom throughout their journey.

Below, 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council share the one piece of advice that has stuck with them over the years and helped them get where they are today.

February 13th, 2020

Eight Best Tips To Blend Content And Media Strategies For Your Target Audience

Marketing is only truly effective if it strikes a chord with the audience it's intended for. Brand messages resonate more when the business aims them at the right audience. Since branding happens across multiple channels, having a consistent plan for both content and media is necessary.

February 4th, 2020

https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/6-telltale-signs-you-need-to-make-a-big-change-in-your-life.html

January 15th, 2020

Nine Entrepreneurs Share The One Thing They Wish They Did Before Starting Their Business

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.

January 14th, 2020

https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/fighting-winter-slump-7-ways-to-get-team-back-in-working-shape.html

January 9th, 2020

Track Your 2020 Departmental Goals With These 10 Effective Tactics

As your company grows, managing both company-wide and department goals can become more and more challenging. It can feel like a delicate balancing act -- and if it's not coordinated properly, prioritizing broader company goals could come at the expense of the individual departments.

As successful business leaders, the experts of Young Entrepreneur Council have learned how to track their department-specific goals as their companies have grown. That's why we asked a panel of YEC members to share their best tips for monitoring departmental objectives. Here's what they had to say.

December 9th, 2019

Seven Key Processes For Performing End-Of-Year Reviews (And Why You Should Follow Them)

End-of-year reviews are useful surveys because they help a business better understand its strengths and weaknesses. However, the analysis doesn't have any set way of being done. Different companies conduct their end-of-year surveys in unique ways, tailored to the needs of the business. Regardless, at the heart of every year-end study is the data collected. Analyzing this data can offer an enterprise essential insights into what it could be doing better, and what it excelled at over the previous year.

November 27th, 2019

https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/7-top-strategies-for-delivering-effective-feedback-to-your-team.html

November 26th, 2019

12 Big Mistakes To Avoid When Raising Funds For A Startup

Fundraising for a startup is an involved process. At any step of the way, the system may falter and lead to the company missing out on significant funding. There's no step-by-step methodology for developing a startup funding plan. Each startup is unique, both in the ideas they present and the promise that they make to customers.

November 22nd, 2019

Prioritizing Recruitment: Eight Tips For Hiring The Best Talent On A Tight Schedule

Entrepreneurs usually don't have enough hours in a day to get everything done. That's the primary reason why prioritizing tasks is a common trait of the most successful business owners. However, many entrepreneurs overlook the importance of hiring great talent to their team and place the priority of hiring new employees way down their list.

November 21st, 2019

Dealing With Social Media Controversy? 15 Tips for Handling It Gracefully

In the age of social media, a controversy -- and a potential public relations crisis -- is always lurking. It's impossible to completely avoid controversial issues and conversations if your business is on social media, but knowing how to handle them with grace and professionalism can save you from landing your brand in hot water. To help you, we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council the following question:

November 20th, 2019

11 Essential Aspects To Consider For Successful Online Video Development

Online videos are one of the most successful marketing materials that a business has at its disposal. However, crafting an online video to draw people in takes a bit more skill than merely recording something and adding branding to it.

November 19th, 2019

From Training To Travel, Here Are 12 Cool Uses Of Virtual Reality

The world has been enamored with the use of virtual reality ever since the movie “Tron” came out in the 80s. Today's VR is a bit different from the fancy world of the silver screen, but the technology has a lot of practical uses.