Ryan Meghdies

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With the increasing awareness of the need for diverse workplaces and teams, diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies have become a pressing issue in the business world. Yet, not every business owner knows where to begin or what to do to ensure their company is hiring for diverse backgrounds and skills. Below, nine members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss some of the steps a business owner can take to ensure that they have a hiring process that embraces diversity, as well as explain why this is so important to creating a truly successful business.

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Your energy levels are a key factor in how productive you are during the day. For an entrepreneur, maintaining high energy levels throughout the workday is necessary for maximum efficiency. But with so many things playing a part in how energetic we feel, it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly how best to manage those energy levels for work. To provide some guidance, eight leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council discuss several tips for keeping energy levels high to maintain peak performance and accomplish more in your day. When you feel your energy waning, follow this advice to help you stay on track.

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Entrepreneurs often find themselves swamped by work, with little or no time to be mindful of themselves and what is happening around them. Mindful moments aren’t always easy to come by, so business leaders need to take advantage of them when they show up or learn to be intentional about making the time for them. To help you find easy ways to incorporate a mindfulness practice into your daily work routine, 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council explore how you can be mindful during work and how vital it is in keeping you productive and focused on your tasks.

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Once your company has achieved financial success, you may find yourself in a position to give back to your community. By donating time or money to a good cause, you’ll not only become a more socially responsible company, but you’ll also feel more fulfilled as a business owner and potentially strengthen the loyalty your clients feel for your organization.  Before you make any kind of charitable donation, it’s important to ensure you’re choosing the right recipient. To help, we spoke with 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council about what leaders should look for or be wary of when deciding where to donate. Read on for their tips for identifying the best organizations or causes to support.

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Members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their best tips for getting things back on track when your business is going through a turbulent period. Every business endures trying times at some point. Your job as a leader is not to prevent every possible issue that might arise, but to properly prepare so you can keep your footing when unexpected challenges inevitably occur. To help you, we asked 15 members of Young Entrepreneur Council how leaders can regain order among their team and operations during a chaotic time. Here’s what they recommend, and why it’s so effective.

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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. This can be easier said than done, so to help, we asked 16 members of Young Entrepreneur Council the following question:

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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. From figuring out how to find and develop new talent to discussing how to expand the business's outreach, these entrepreneurs have to think creatively about solutions they can implement to improve operations and increase productivity. That’s why we asked 13 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

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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. While burnout can have a negative impact at any job level, it’s especially detrimental to executive leaders, so it’s important to understand how to reverse this feeling when you’re stuck in it. To help you, we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council to share some recommendations for getting back on track when you feel burned out. Here are their top strategies for executives who need to reset.

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17 professionals from YEC share the best websites for locating fresh talent. There has been a change in how companies approach the idea of outsourcing. In recent years, businesses have grown less fond of doing everything in-house and more open to hiring freelancers to lend them a hand. This new reality in the world of employment has spawned a massive explosion of websites that cater specifically to professionals providing talent to companies. Searching for local expertise, in particular, can help to enhance the region and support the local community. Additionally, local contractors are easy to get in touch with, either though message or by direct phone call. Occasionally, you may need someone familiar with the region you're operating in, which is why outsourcing to a local freelancer is the right call. Many companies overlook local talent because they have the misconception that imported talent is automatically better. Knowing where to look to find the best in local talent might encourage you to reconsider your opinion on hiring locals to work for your company. Many of these websites offer businesses access to a wide pool of qualified candidates, as well as the possibility of fine-tuning their search so as to identify the most relevant candidates. Filters you can get access to include the location (for local or regional talent), ratings, and expertise. All of these are critical factors in determining whether a freelancer or professional will fit the business's needs. However, not all of these websites are built in the same vein. Seventeen professionals from YEC share valuable advice on the best websites for finding outside talent -- local or not – and explain why those resources are vital to their own businesses.

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A marketer's job is a challenging one in today's always-on, digital-first world. Not only do they have to come up with an appealing brand image and message, but they have to figure out how to adapt marketing collateral to countless different channels and learn best practices for each one. To keep up with the demands of the modern marketing industry, professionals should consider adopting and incorporating certain habits into their workflow. We asked 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council what habits they recommend marketers pursue to help them boost their career. Here's what these experienced business leaders had to say.

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Business legal matters can be intimidating, but these tools can help you understand and streamlining the process. Starting a business means dealing with some standard legal matters, like registering your business and complying with tax regulations. This can be overwhelming for new entrepreneurs, especially if they're not familiar with these legal processes. While it's always advisable to consult an experienced business attorney, there are countless resources and online tools available that make it easier to find the information you need. To help you, we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council which tools they recommend to make the legal side of business less intimidating for small business owners. Try one of these suggestions when you're faced with common business legal tasks.  

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Learning from others is vital to your success. It's a widely held belief that experience is the world's best teacher. Life lessons, both in and out of business, usually stem from experiences. However, as people, we can't expect to have all the experiences we need to figure out what to do in a particular situation. That's why learning from the experiences of others is such a vital skill for an entrepreneur. If you end up in a situation where you're not sure how to proceed, you might want to ask other, more experienced persons in the industry. To help newer entrepreneurs, these 14 experts from Young Entrepreneur Council have offered to discuss the lessons they learned from their earlier positions and why they were crucial to success.

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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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Stress is common when you’re in a management position. With countless tasks to complete, employees to manage and business operations to oversee, it’s no surprise many leaders end up feeling overwhelmed at one point or another. One of the most effective ways to combat stress in the business world is by improving your adaptability, so you’re ready to take on whatever is thrown your way. Below, 16 members of Young Entrepreneur Council shared their best tips for becoming more opportunity-oriented as a leader.

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A strong creative team can help your business develop great ideas and soar to new heights. However, simply having the most talented or innovative people on board isn’t enough. They must not only be willing to make unconventional moves, but they must also place trust in their other team members. To help you strike the right balance, we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council to share the most crucial ingredients needed to build a successful creative team. Their best answers are below.

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Professionals, regardless of their work environment, sometimes find their focus flagging. If you're someone who has to deal with divided attention between multiple tasks, the amount of effort you put into a job will start telling on your psyche before too long. To deal with this situation, you'll have to figure out how to retain your focus and discipline within the workplace. Luckily, there are several approaches to reestablishing your focus at work. Productivity is linked to your mindset and your environment, after all. Below, 14 professionals from Young Entrepreneur Council discuss some of their favorite and most effective approaches.

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It's no surprise that cold calling remains one of the most effective means of getting leads. Unfortunately, people tend to be averse to getting calls out of the blue. Some people even reject unknown numbers to avoid cold calls altogether. Despite this, user engagement with phone calls remains high, and the number of people you connect with increases your chance of success. Even though it's a numbers’ game at heart, you can develop an advantage by stacking the odds in your favor. The most critical thing to figure out is how to approach cold calling so as to get the best results. We consulted eight experts from Young Entrepreneur Council regarding their best advice for landing cold calling clients. Here's what they had to share:

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Recent events have made it so that managers and owners are learning how to conduct business in new and innovative ways. Managing a company in a crisis goes beyond logistical decisions. It reaches into trying to predict outcomes based on incomplete information. This precognition might seem like an exercise in futility, but there are still constants in the chaos. Certain things always follow the same rules, and it's by focusing on these unchangeable points that managers and owners can gain perspective on how to navigate any crisis. These eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their advice on what any business leader should know to manage a company in a crisis successfully and explain why these tips are so important.