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A company's software stack is the backbone of its operations, efficiency and ability to compete. However, staying on top of what's new or needed when it comes to the tools you use can be a challenge. So how can you tell when it's time to upgrade or change your company's software stack? To help business leaders answer this question, 15 members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss the telltale signs your business may need a software upgrade as well as the challenges businesses often face in making those upgrades. Follow their recommendations to help you make informed decisions about implementing new software for your own company.

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Many aspiring entrepreneurs dream of opening their own business, but they fear that they’ll need to invest a lot of money to do so — and will end up losing that money should their business fail down the road.  Thankfully, there are plenty of businesses that don’t require a lot of capital to get started. To give you an idea of what businesses you might consider, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) respond to the following question:

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While some people may be resolving to start a new fitness routine or give up a bad habit in the new year, others may be hoping to start a business. The feeling of a fresh start and the boost of motivation the new year brings can be the catalyst necessary to finally take the leap into entrepreneurship. But, business ownership isn’t for everyone, and some aspiring entrepreneurs may be more excited about the idea of owning a business than they are about the sometimes tough realities that come along with it. To ensure you’re ready to take up the challenge, consider the following 12 questions as outlined by the members of Young Entrepreneur Council and determine if starting a business in 2024 is right for you.

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Kicking off the new year as an entrepreneur means taking a step back to lay down a strategic foundation for success. Taking certain pivotal steps can set the stage for a year full of growth, resiliency and accomplishment. But what are the steps that every business leader should take this January to start the new year strong?  Here, 10 Young Entrepreneur Council members explore their top tips for jump-starting your business in the new year. From strategic planning to embracing a growth mindset, follow their advice to propel you toward success in 2024.

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Networking and seeking help from peers in your industry can be an intimidating prospect for many professionals. The fear and anxiety associated with networking can often hinder one's ability to create meaningful connections. Below, 14 Young Entrepreneur Council members share valuable tips and strategies to banish those networking fears and anxieties. With these tips, you will feel empowered to build strong industry relationships in the world of business with confidence, ease and success.

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From securing funding to handling growth, launching a new business comes with several hurdles that must be cleared. Failure to understand these challenges can cause a business to falter before it ever truly gets off the ground. However, with the right preparation, entrepreneurs can overcome (and sometimes, even mitigate) obstacles and continue on the path to success. To help new and aspiring business owners looking to launch, Young Entrepreneur Council members share 10 common hurdles startups face—and how to most effectively overcome them.

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For many businesses, the holiday season is a time of increased demand and heightened activity, necessitating the hiring of seasonal or temporary workers. While these short-term team members are invaluable in meeting customer needs, managing a sudden influx of new hires can be a daunting task. To ensure a smooth and successful operation, it's essential for employers to master the art of managing seasonal or temporary teams effectively. Here, Young Entrepreneur Council members offer practical tips and strategies for setting up these temporary workers, and the entire team, for success during the holiday rush. These tips will help employers navigate the challenges that come with seasonal staffing while maintaining service quality and customer satisfaction.

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Fundraising is often a necessary step for entrepreneurs who are looking to launch their startup but aren’t able to put forth the capital necessary to grow the business. However, the process of securing funding is fraught with complications and presents many opportunities for critical mistakes. Below, nine business leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council each share the mistakes they made while fundraising and the advice they’d recommend to others to avoid the same pitfalls. With these insights, entrepreneurs can build long-term relationships with the right investors who can help take their business to the next level.

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New artificial intelligence tools seem to crop up every day—and many businesses are implementing them just as quickly. However, while these tools are meant to make businesses more efficient, that doesn’t mean they don’t also come with their own challenges, especially when it comes to implementing them in the first place. From simply not understanding the technology to gaining customer acceptance and trust, there are numerous struggles leaders are facing while attempting to adopt artificial intelligence into their processes. Here, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss 10 of those hurdles and what they think business leaders can do to overcome them.

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Any successful business has at least one thing that sets them apart from their competitors and that makes customers choose them over anyone else—their core strengths. Determining what those strengths are may require some reflection on the leader’s part, or even some feedback from the team. However, once you’ve determined your core strengths, you’ll likely want to make them even stronger, as doing so will put your company at an even greater advantage over others in your space. But what steps can you take to get there? Below, 12 business leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council offer their expertise and recommend just a few of the paths you can take toward improving your company’s core strengths and setting you, your team and your business apart from the competition.

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While email marketing remains a popular and viable way to reach customers, it also has the potential to cause annoyance or get flat out ignored if not handled in the right way. Emails frequently hitting customers’ inboxes that follow the same stale format or provide little or no value often won’t inspire readers to click through—if they even open the email at all. So what should email marketers do? Here, the experts of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss some of the strategies businesses can use to breathe new life into their email marketing efforts and keep their emails from being sent directly to “Trash.”

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It should come as no surprise that a healthy and happy employee is a more productive one. This is why many employers are looking to employee wellness programs to help their team members build healthier habits to improve both their physical and mental health. However, getting employees interested in taking advantage of these benefits means considering their needs and what gets them excited to participate. For a list of perks, policies and initiatives that might spark the interest of your team members, consider the following suggestions from the business leaders of Young Entrepreneur Council. Here, they recommend ideas they themselves have implemented or have seen succeed in the workplace and discuss why they believe employees are so excited to take advantage of these benefits.

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As leaders of their respective companies, CEOs are naturally very busy, so often it can make sense to outsource tasks to a virtual assistant, or VA. From simple yet time-consuming tasks like scheduling meetings and managing emails to more involved tasks such as research and report preparation, VAs can help CEOs gain back a significant amount of time during their workday, allowing them to turn their focus back to vital decision-making and operational tasks. But not every task a CEO may have on their to-do list each day can be assigned to someone else, so what are the tasks best suited for a virtual assistant? Here, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council weigh in with 10 tasks they recommend CEOs outsource to VAs and why doing so will save them so much time.

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As a business owner, it’s easy to assume that you have to be a nonprofit in order to get involved in the world of philanthropy. However, your business doesn’t have to be centered around a particular cause in order to give back. By building a company culture that values generosity and doing good for the community, you can make a difference no matter what type of business you’re in. But how can you as a leader incorporate these kinds of values into your company culture? Here, nine business leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council offer their suggestions for easy ways businesses of any size can make philanthropy part of their company culture and the impact this has on your employees and your company overall.

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Obtaining more than one investor for your business can be a significant help when trying to finance all your endeavors. However, with more investors also comes more opinions, and not all your investors will be on the same page all of the time. This means finding ways to keep your investors happy, even when their opinions differ, is crucial to ensuring your business keeps running smoothly. But what’s the best way to do this? How can you avoid arguments or bad feelings when disputes occur? Below, 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their insights as business leaders and offer their top tips for ensuring your investors are involved, happy and feel their opinions are being heard.

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Getting started in any role can be intimidating, but this can be even more true for those new to marketing. In an industry that’s fast-paced and ever-changing, it’s essential to both keep up with the latest trends as well as understand the tried-and-true basics of the trade.  With extensive experience marketing their own businesses, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council have their own thoughts about how to succeed in marketing. Here, they each share one rule or guiding principle they believe all new marketers should follow right off the bat and how doing so will affect their success in their role.

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Create an environment where your company's shared vision thrives -- even as your team grows. As a company experiences rapid growth, it can be challenging to maintain a strong and unified culture. With new employees joining and priorities shifting, the essence that once defined the organization may become diluted or forgotten altogether. However, fostering a cohesive culture is vital for long-term success and talent retention. To help leaders maintain their company culture amid rapid growth, seven successful entrepreneurs share their expert insights and best advice.

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The rise of artificial intelligence is revolutionizing various industries, including content writing for businesses. However, the use of AI tools to generate content has sparked a heated debate in recent times. Advocates argue these tools offer numerous benefits, such as increased efficiency, improved productivity and cost savings. On the other hand, critics express concerns about the potential drawbacks, including the loss of human creativity, ethical issues and the risk of bias. Below, 14 Young Entrepreneur Council members contribute to the ongoing discussion surrounding AI content writing for businesses, examining both the positive aspects and the challenges associated with using these tools. By learning and weighing the pros and cons, businesses can make informed decisions about integrating AI into their content creation processes.

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Of all the resources companies monitor and allocate on a regular basis, time is perhaps the most important one. In the business world, saving time can also mean saving money, and time can often be the difference between a happy customer and an angry one or a successful launch and a failed one. This makes finding ways to save time a top priority for any entrepreneur.  To help their own companies save time, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council have implemented a few productivity hacks of their own. Below, they each discuss their chosen strategy as well as what other companies can do to benefit from it.

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While there are numerous benefits to remote work—schedule flexibility, lack of commute and a more relaxed workspace, just to name a few—isolation is still one of the downsides to remote work that many employees regularly report. However, these feelings can be mitigated with a few key changes to their routine and the support of their leadership. If you or one of your remote employees starts to feel isolated during the workday, consider the following advice from the members of Young Entrepreneur Council. Here, they discuss solutions that have worked for them and their teams and what they recommend you do to help your own employees feel more connected during the day.

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When it comes to business cybersecurity, there's no such thing as "too small a target." If your company uses poor cybersecurity practices, leaving sensitive customer or company data at risk, hackers can exploit those vulnerabilities to accomplish their goals—no matter how big or small your company is. In the same way, however, cybersecurity doesn’t have to require major capital to implement. Below, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council each share one practical, affordable way a company of any size can protect itself and its data from hackers and phishing attacks, and why these methods are so effective.

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It can be argued that any company that collects and handles customer data has the responsibility of leveraging strong methods to protect it, but a similar point can also be made about the company’s responsibility to educate consumers about malware and cyberattacks. Safe customers are happy customers, and helping to ensure your customers follow cybersecurity best practices can help keep them that way. There’s no one way of going about this task, however. Below, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss eight effective methods for educating consumers about cybersecurity and why these methods are so beneficial for your customers and your company.

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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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An entrepreneur with a fresh and successful idea might consider establishing a franchise, but it's not always the best move. To give them confidence in their decision, they’ll want to consider an industry which is already showing success with the franchise model.  There are a number of industries and focuses that lend themselves well to this particular business model, but below, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council share nine industries that they think entrepreneurs would do well to think more about and why.

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Networking is a scary prospect for a lot of people. Seeking out events, speaking to new people and trying not to feel imposter syndrome while doing so can be intimidating for new entrepreneurs (and even seasoned ones). And while many entrepreneurs will give networking their best effort, they may end up accidentally sabotaging their efforts if they’re not careful. To help, 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss some of the seemingly harmless habits or actions that could actually be hindering new entrepreneurs’ networking success. Consider their advice for what to do instead in order to get the most from your networking experiences.

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For brands that are trying to better their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, there’s no better partner to help you than your own customers. Often a diverse group themselves, your customers are a valuable resource to help you learn what they’d like to see from your company, what you can do to ensure their happiness and how you might improve your initiatives moving forward.  To best tap into their insights, there are a number of different strategies you can use. Below, nine members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss what companies can do to get their customer base involved in their DEI efforts and how this kind of engagement ultimately improves their relationship with their customers.

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As employees grow more concerned with inflation, employers may be left wondering what they can do to help. A happy workforce is a productive workforce, and wrestling with the uncertainty that comes with rising prices and economic turmoil can leave any professional feeling a little off their game. So what's one effective way employers can help support them? As business leaders themselves, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council have a few ideas. From a little reassurance to assistance with everyday expenses, there are a multitude of ways companies can offer increased financial stability to their staff. Consider implementing any of the following seven suggestions to give your employees some economic peace of mind.

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As businesses recover from the pandemic-fueled events of the last few years, as well as grapple with the uncertainty of today’s economic climate, entrepreneurs are likely to feel cautious and unsure of how to plan for the success of their businesses going forward. After all, how can you plan for something you don’t know is going to happen? Mistakes may be made and line items may be missed, but thoughtful planning is still the best way to ensure your business continues to thrive in uncertain times. As business leaders themselves, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council have given extra consideration to the issue and below share particular expenses every CEO should budget for this year and why doing so is extra important during this time.

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Executive team leaders serve as role models by supporting the company mission, maintaining a high standard of work output, encouraging individual growth and leading the company to success.  A member of an executive team must wear a lot of hats, so business owners should carefully consider who would be a good fit for such a key position. To help, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) reflected on the following question:

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Many professionals look up to entrepreneurs for their determination, perseverance and freedom to have more control over their day-to-day lives. But even entrepreneurs have role models they look up to. Whether they’re other highly successful entrepreneurs, billionaires or simply inspirational people, the world is full of those with amazing stories who serve as inspiration for today’s business leaders. Below, members of Young Entrepreneur Council each share someone they look up to in the business world, an important business lesson they learned from them and how that lesson has impacted the decisions they make as an entrepreneur.

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While increasing the number of visitors to your site is always the goal of any e-commerce business, it’s a goal that can quickly become overwhelming if your site isn’t properly set up first. As your e-commerce business and your customer base grows, a sudden spike in traffic or just a gradual increase in purchasers over time can result in slower load times, unprepared customer service agents, irritated customers and even a total website crash. To prevent this situation from happening, it’s vital to take steps ahead of time that can help prepare you and your site for more and more traffic. Here, nine members of Young Entrepreneur Council each share one step you should take to ensure your online store can handle an increasing number of visitors and shoppers and why that strategy is so effective.

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When your business rolls out a new product or service, you and your team hope that it's effective and meets the needs of your customer base. Unfortunately, there are instances where that product or service simply isn't working as intended for your buyers — and it's up to you as a business leader to determine whether this is the case. To help you make this determination and understand your next steps, a panel of leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) answered the following question:

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Becoming an overnight success is every entrepreneur's dream, but when it actually does happen, it can rapidly turn into an overwhelming nightmare if you aren’t prepared for the influx of new customers and orders. Rather than allowing yourself to be buried by the consequences of your success, finding a way to scale your business quickly can ensure you keep up with rising demand. But to do so, you’ll want to consider the following advice from the members of Young Entrepreneur Council. Here, they discuss their best tips for scaling a business quickly and the steps you won't want to miss if you find yourself suddenly successful.

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Video is big for consumers—in fact, video watching has doubled since 2018—so those businesses that are not yet taking advantage of this key marketing tool are missing out on potential opportunities and leads. As the top video-sharing platform across the globe, YouTube is a great place to get started. But what exactly should businesses do? To offer some insight, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss unique ways to use video-sharing platforms like YouTube that most companies are not doing and why taking advantage of these strategies can help grow your business.

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Whether it’s an unhappy complaint or a five-star review, customer feedback can be an invaluable resource for company leaders looking to improve upon their products, services or business operations. This feedback can spark either minor or major changes, but both can have a big impact on customer satisfaction and overall sales if implemented correctly.  To share some of the most informative feedback they've ever received from a customer, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council relay their stories below. Here’s what customers had to say about their products or services and the lessons these business leaders learned as a result.

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With the end of the year looming, companies across all industries will begin scheduling end-of-year performance reviews with their employees. But rather than stick to what was always done, even if it wasn’t very effective, leaders can strive to generate more meaning from these reviews and give their team members more actionable, personal feedback they can take with them into the new year. But to do so, leaders will need to consider a few tips first. Below, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their best advice for how businesses can make end-of-year performance reviews more meaningful and explain why these techniques may actually be better than what's traditionally done.

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In an effort to be unique, informative and persuasive, many businesses can end up with overly complicated and wordy websites that may be doing more to push customers away than pull them in. When it comes to building an effective website, often simplifying its content and design is the most effective approach, giving visitors the space they need to find the answers to their problems. But when you’re trying to ensure visitors have all the information they need to determine your product or service is the best solution for them, you may not know where to start reining it in. To help, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council each offer one piece of advice they'd give well-intentioned business owners for simplifying their websites and why these tips are so effective.

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All businesses need some sort of investment to get started. Whether that money comes from the entrepreneur, their family and friends, an investor or some other solution, if you don’t have experience raising money, it can be easy to fall into certain traps or attempt certain strategies that may seem like smart moves at the time but actually end up sabotaging your efforts later on. To help ensure this doesn’t happen to you, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council share some guidance below. Here, they discuss the biggest mistakes they ever made while trying to raise money for their startups and what they recommend others do to avoid making those same mistakes.

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Expanding your business can be exciting and a real show of success. However, there are many factors to consider when deciding on a second location for your brick-and-mortar store.  To help business owners in their search for the perfect spot, 10 Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) members weighed in on the following question:

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Cybersecurity becomes more important with each passing day, as advancements in both technology and the methods used to hack into it continuously evolve. But while the tech world continues to move ahead at a fast pace, not all business leaders are able to keep up. Though they may have a basic understanding of how to keep their technology and data safe, they may not be aware of all the various strategies they could employ to improve their cybersecurity efforts. To help, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss several cybersecurity "checkups" companies should be conducting on a regular basis to ensure their data and tech are secure and why these efforts are so vital to the ongoing success of any business.

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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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No matter what industry you're in, it's important to ensure that you have enough capital to maintain your business year-round. However, this is especially important if demand for your products or services ebbs and flows based on seasonality, such as with pool accessories or holiday decorations. To that end, a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) members answered the following question:

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Sharing bad news with your company's employees or stakeholders is never easy, especially when the bad news may directly affect them. Because of this, it's important to strike the right balance between remaining calm and professional while delivering the news in an empathetic manner. To further help you through this situation, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) answered the following question:

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As they plan for this year's holiday season, many business leaders are looking for something new to shake up their current marketing routine. It’s easy for holiday marketing to grow stale, especially when relying on old gimmicks or traditional strategies of years past. To stand out among the sea of other eager businesses looking to increase sales, companies will have to think a bit more creatively. To help, nine members of Young Entrepreneur Council each list one thing businesses can do to make their holiday marketing stand out from years past and explain what effect this will have on their relationships with their current and future customers.

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Whether you run a global business or you simply live far away from your vendors and clients, maintaining quality relationships with your business’s stakeholders is key to your business’s success in the short and long term. Ensuring the happiness of your vendors, clients and team often means avoiding miscommunications, preventing problems and streamlining processes that will help maintain the smooth running of your company. But when in-person interactions are limited—or completely off the table—how should business leaders go about improving these relationships? Below, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their answers as well as insights behind their own relationship-building strategies.

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When a potential employer reads your resume, they often have a checklist of items they’re looking for. They may want to see that you have the right certifications or degree, that you have a certain number of years of experience under your belt or they may be looking for a particular set of skills. But even if you qualify on paper, the employer may still have a few lingering questions they’ll need answered before they can decide to move forward with your application. Below, nine business leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council list a few of those questions and explain why your resume should always address them. Consider their advice to ensure your resume has the best chance of impressing your potential new boss.

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Choosing the right software as a service (SaaS) tools for your business can prove to be a Herculean task. Whether it's for accounting, marketing or HR, it's important to choose software that will grow with your business and offer ongoing support for your questions and needs. It's also important to consider how well your SaaS selections will integrate and communicate with each other. As you make your decisions, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council recommend asking yourself the following 10 questions. You might find that the answers can help make assembling your SaaS stack a little bit easier.

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A company’s culture—or its shared values, behaviors, goals and beliefs—can be one of the most difficult aspects of business for an entrepreneur to build. It involves bringing together employees from different backgrounds, with different experiences and with differing goals, and determining commonalities and a unified vision that everyone can agree on and strive toward. Naturally, this process can involve a few bumps along the way. But no matter how difficult the journey, building a strong company culture is key to building a successful business that lasts. To help, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss 10 pain points they often hear about in company cultures and offer their best advice for addressing them.

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When you hire great talent, you do so with the hope that they will be effective and productive in their work, overcoming challenges and meeting and exceeding goals. But even the best employee can’t accomplish much if they aren’t given the opportunities or the tools to do so. As a leader, you can help empower your staff to do their best work—but first, you’ll have to figure out how. As leaders themselves, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council have had plenty of experience experimenting and figuring out what motivates their teams best. Below, they each share one tip they’d recommend you consider for empowering your employees to do their best work and why.

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To encourage sales, your product—and the platform you're selling on—needs to be appealing to prospective customers. Hard-to-use platforms or unattractive site designs that make a consumer pause should be avoided at all costs. But what seems intuitive to you and your team may not be so to the average user. When you’re building your company website or app, user experience research helps mitigate this problem. Below, 10 Young Entrepreneur Council members explain how to conduct effective UX research and how it will help your business in the long run.

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Choosing an investor for your business is like choosing a business partner: Their resources and input are going to have a major impact on the way your business functions and the potential it has for success. Determining the right investor for you, then, is not an endeavor to take lightly. As business leaders, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council have experience seeking investors and weeding out the bad from the good. Below, they provide a list of nine questions you can ask yourself to gain insight into your needs and wants, and help you determine your ideal business investor.

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While they may be effective in drawing in more customers, many ad campaigns come and go, doing just enough to catch audience attention and increase brand awareness. However, there are other campaigns that truly stick with an audience—be it a niche group or even an entire generation. These campaigns are not just memorable, but they’ve often become part of popular culture. Whether it’s with their humor, their emotion or their important message, these ads inspire and entertain all while teaching other companies what makes a truly effective campaign. Below, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council describe the ad campaigns they greatly admire and the lessons they’ve learned about advertising and beyond.

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Negotiating your salary—especially when you haven’t officially gotten the job—can be a frightening prospect. Obstacles like imposter syndrome or inexperience can make you feel as though you should just accept the company’s original offer and move on, but it’s important to know your worth and to advocate for yourself if you believe you deserve a higher salary. However, even if you build up the confidence to negotiate, knowing exactly what to say—or what not to say—is yet another obstacle to overcome. To help, 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council each share one thing you should never do if you want to successfully negotiate your salary, and why doing them might actually hurt your efforts from the start.

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One-on-one meetings can be powerful opportunities for employees and managers to connect on goals, reassess tasks and brainstorm ideas, but they can also turn into wasted time if not leveraged properly. If there’s no agenda to follow or neither party is sure what to discuss, the meeting may end early and without any real progress made. By asking the right questions, however, managers can gain better insights from their team members, discovering what truly motivates them and what’s holding them back from achieving their goals. To help, nine members of Young Entrepreneur Council share some of the questions they like to ask during one-on-one meetings and why they think these questions help improve the quality of their conversations.

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There’s a lot of great business advice out there—but there’s also an equal amount of unhelpful advice. While many people think they have the answers, only you can know what’s right for your business. However, it can sometimes be hard for new business owners to know what advice is worthwhile, leading to costly mistakes.  Below, eight Young Entrepreneur Council members each describe one piece of productivity advice they disagree with and why, and instead offer alternative advice they feel is more worthy of your attention.

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A new business won't survive long if it doesn't have solid cash flow and a good accounting system in place. Unfortunately, some of the most common financial problems stem from simple mistakes new entrepreneurs may make the first time they're tasked with keeping the books. Luckily, there are ways to avoid or fix most of these common mistakes and save your business's bottom line. To that end, a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) members answered the following question:

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Creating and maintaining a website is often one of the most important parts of running a successful business. Without a website, customers will have a hard time discovering and purchasing your products or services, so it’s key to ensure your website is up and functioning properly. When you’re a solopreneur, however, and all of the work falls on your shoulders, it can be all too easy to let website maintenance fall by the wayside. To help offer some direction, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council share some of the best practices solopreneurs should focus on when maintaining their websites and the impact this will have overall.

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No matter how busy your workday seems, you can always carve out a few minutes to take a breather. On a busy workday, you may begin to feel burned out and yearn for a restful break. But you likely won’t need to take a full-on vacation to reset your mind and feel refreshed enough to tackle your remaining tasks. With the right strategies, you may be able to recharge right in the middle of the workday, no plane ticket or PTO necessary. To help you do this, a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council members provided a list of strategies they recommend you try if you need to take a few minutes to unplug and recharge during your day.

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Members of Young Entrepreneur Council share marketing methods you can use to get potential customers interested in your new mobile app. Even with the right tools and skilled team members in place, companies may find that building a mobile app can be a lengthy and complex process — though a very rewarding one once users experience the app’s benefits. The real problem, however, often lies in marketing the app. Once you build this useful tool, how are you able to ensure the right people discover and find value in it? According to the members of Young Entrepreneur Council, the key is choosing the right marketing methods. To help, they offer their top strategies for companies looking to get people excited about their new apps and explain why these tactics work so well.

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There are many crises that a company can face during its lifetime, and they happen for many different reasons. Whether it's a financial crisis, an economic crisis, an environmental crisis or any other type of crisis, it's important for business leaders to have a plan in place to manage the situation quickly. If well thought-out, a business leader's first step when faced with a company crisis can set the course for an effective solution. Here, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss the first steps a business leader should take when faced with a company crisis and why they should take them.

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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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As a leader, you likely have a hand in many different sectors of your business, whether it's overseeing employees or directing specific projects. Because of the amount of time you have to devote to so many different activities, you may be losing time jumping from project to project. But there are ways that you can optimize your workflow without risking burnout and still get the same amount of work done—if not more—with time to spare. One of the first steps can be learning how to delegate or automating processes that don't need your direct supervision. Below, eight Young Entrepreneur Council members share these tips and more to give you back a few hours of your time each week.

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A negative mindset can be poisonous in the workplace. It can lower morale, decrease productivity and spread to other members of the team, leading to toxic work culture. As a leader, it's critical to have a positive mindset to effectively work through difficult situations and keep your team on the same page. Below, 12 members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss how to exude more positivity at work and why these practices are especially crucial for those in leadership positions.

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Members of Young Entrepreneur Council offer their best advice for moving your physical retail store online. As the popularity (and necessity) of online shopping continues to rise, many business owners are choosing to transition their brick-and-mortar stores to an e-commerce model. However, running a business online can differ dramatically from running a physical store, and it may require new approaches to and new mindsets about selling and advertising goods. To help make the transition easier, a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council experts share their best advice for moving into the e-commerce space. Follow their tips to get your online business up and running the right way — the first time.

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Members of Young Entrepreneur Council discuss why you might not be seeing a good ROI on your business's mobile app. With the number of shoppers who choose to make their purchases on mobile platforms steadily rising every year, businesses these days would be remiss not to consider building a mobile app to serve their customer bases. Although building such an app aims to increase sales, many businesses might actually find themselves losing money post-launch. Many factors can affect this sales dip, but the members of Young Entrepreneur Council have narrowed down their top 11 reasons why you might not be seeing the ROI you’d hoped for after building your mobile app. Below, they explain what you can do to turn the situation around for the better.

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When you're starting a new business, it can be easy to get lost in the excitement. Instead of carefully planning next steps, you may end up taking shortcuts or rushing to advance, which can ultimately have a lasting negative impact. It's important for new business owners to take things slowly and have a well-developed, organized plan for growth. But it can be difficult to know what mistakes you might make if you've never been an entrepreneur before. To help you, 10 Young Entrepreneur Council members share some mistakes that may sabotage your future business success and explain why each action has such negative effects.

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More and more businesses have made the shift to cloud computing in recent years, and it's not hard to see why. There are countless ways the cloud can benefit a company, from cost savings and sustainability to greater work location flexibility. As cloud computing evolves, it can offer even more benefits that you may not have even realized before. To that end, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council shared some unique ways for businesses to take advantage of cloud computing and improve their operations.

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The last couple of years have forced leaders to step up, set good examples and make tough decisions that impact those they lead. Whether they were braving the economic battles brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic or examining diversity, equity and inclusion policies, leaders have been forced to adapt and learn new skills to manage today's most challenging situations. As successful executives and business owners, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council understand the importance of keeping their skills sharp to lead effectively in the modern business world. Below, eight members each elaborated on a skill they've recently learned that has helped make them a better leader.

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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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High turnover rates are a tell-tale sign that something is wrong within your business. Whether the turnover rate is in a specific department or company-wide, it’s important for business leaders to address the issues that are occurring to prevent any further issues.  Not addressing a high turnover rate can be problematic for a business and will likely lead to an unsuccessful team, a bad reputation, and low company morale. To help leaders better understand what’s happening, 10 Young Entrepreneur Council members recommended some steps a business leader should take to investigate what is going on in the company and solve the root issue.

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Chief operating officers (COOs) are important assets to every organization. This critical C-level role oversees the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of the business they serve, as well as manages departmental leaders under their areas of purview. When it comes to hiring the right person for the role of COO, you may need to think beyond your normal hiring processes. To help, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council shared 10 tactical steps all companies should take to ensure they hire the best COO for their team.

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As your company grows, you might face challenges maintaining the same level of transparency across departments and teams as you had when your company was small. However, doing so is crucial to cultivating a healthy company culture with every employee on the same page. A big part of promoting transparency is ensuring clear communication between all departments, especially when it comes to shared projects and goals. To help you do this, nine members of Young Entrepreneur Council explained how to achieve the right level of communication and transparency.

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After more than a year of staying at home, many people are excited to travel again -- including entrepreneurs. In fact, getting some space from your business can really help clear your mind and prevent burnout. However, many business owners are still facing lingering challenges due to the pandemic, and it can be difficult to find time to step away from work. With the right planning and delegation tactics, though, business owners can indeed enjoy a much-needed vacation. To help, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council shared tips for making it a little easier to take time off this year.

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Businesses have access to a treasure trove of valuable customer data, from how their audience is engaging with a social media post to their feedback on a product or service. When properly collected and analyzed, this data is invaluable for improving the customer experience — but you need to be collecting the right data. Below, 12 members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) share their insights by responding to the following question:

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While many large companies may have the resources to offer funded relaxation retreats or other extensive mental health perks, it can be difficult for small businesses to find ways to offer similar benefits without those same resources.  So how can a small business owner prioritize the mental health of their employees on a budget? Below, 12 members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) shared their thoughts by responding to the following question:

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An individual who factors self-reflection into their everyday development is on their way to becoming a great leader. To advance, managers have to ask themselves regularly if their performance is in line with their leadership goals. The evidence can be in how well their team is performing and the results they have achieved. To that end, 10 Young Entrepreneur Council members each shared one question managers should ask themselves to ensure they’re becoming the best leaders they can be. Try to reflect on these questions yourself if you want to gauge your own performance and efficacy as a leader.

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As a business leader, you may already possess ideal traits, such as assertiveness, adaptability and conscientiousness. But perhaps you've noticed that you're lacking in other areas in which you could become a better leader. The first step is to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. Below, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their best tips on how to step outside your comfort zone.

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Taking on the leadership role of a manager can be daunting the first time. You're in charge of an entire team, and their successes and failures fall largely on your shoulders. Even though it can be intimidating, it's important to start on the right foot. If you're a first-time manager, you'll want to prove to your company why you were the best person for this position. Begin your new career path successfully by following these tips from expert managers from Young Entrepreneur Council.

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Hiring talented new employees can help a company grow. Young employees, in particular, often bring fresh perspectives, new skills, and lots of creative energy to the businesses they join. However, it can be difficult to attract young talent, especially in today’s competitive hiring environment. Here, 10 members from Young Entrepreneur Council share how your business can attract the best young professionals.

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Some work environments are healthy and result in an open sharing of ideas and techniques. Unfortunately, others can be decidedly more toxic, but it’s not always easy to notice when it’s your everyday reality. Because a daily work environment can be fluid and dynamic, it's sometimes hard to spot the red flags that denote a toxic environment. Most entrepreneurs may not even realize one is forming around them. Here, eight leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council share some lesser-known red flags you should be looking for if you believe you’re working in a toxic environment and suggest what you might do if you spot any of these signs.

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Getting quality guest posts on your website is one of the most effective ways to ensure that your brand gains added visibility. The more high-quality sites post to yours, the better search engines will rank you and the more positive relationships you’ll build. However, if you want to get a top publication’s name on your website, you’ll need to convince them your site is worth their effort. So how does a marketer best approach a site to write a guest post? Below, 10 experts from YEC discuss the best techniques for reaching out to a popular publication to guest post on your website and explain why their methods work so well.

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When your business starts seeing success, it's natural to want to ride the momentum and build upon it. However, it's possible to grow too fast, too soon.  Even if your business is thriving, growing too quickly can tire out your staff and burn through your resources. New companies experiencing their first "growth spurt" may try to scale up before they have the team or infrastructure to support it, and this path rarely ends well. To help you scale at a reasonable pace, 12 members of YEC shared their tips for properly managing your growth rate.

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Thanks to the explosion of tech, there are many new skills a small business owner must learn in order to be successful in the modern world. However, there are also a whole host of necessary basic skills that stand the test of time. Every small business owner who wants to succeed in managing their organization’s day-to-day operations needs to have a proper grasp of these skills. But which ones are the most vital ones to focus on? Here, nine leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council examine the skills they consider the most important for proper small business management and why they're essential to keep a company running efficiently.

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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:

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Trying to get people interested in your startup may seem like fighting a losing battle. The early stages of a startup have several challenges to getting customers involved in the business. Advertising to a large market can be expensive, and you have to figure out if your strategy will even work with your core audience. Standard marketing campaigns can be useful, but audience responses can be lackluster for something they've seen dozens of businesses try before. The solution is to think out of the box when developing your promotional campaigns. These 10 leaders from Young Entrepreneur Council walk us through how they created unique, out-of-the-box promotions that helped their business immeasurably in the early days of development and explain why they worked so well.

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With the current corporate focus on remote work, file-sharing and syncing services have become an essential part of the modern office. While some companies have bespoke designed solutions that meet their needs, these can be complicated and clunky to implement, requiring cybersecurity and IT administration input. Luckily, there are several free or accessible options available that small businesses can tap into to help them cope with a remote office's demands. To help, we asked eight entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

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These 20 entrepreneurs discuss the best features for remote management of a displaced workforce. Remote working isn't anything new. Many businesses have been leveraging the power of remote workers for years. Industries have replaced onboard hires with freelance workers who operate from anywhere globally, where they can have an uninterrupted internet connection. But with this year’s shift toward an almost entirely displaced workforce, many businesses are struggling to find the best strategies and tools for managing a fully remote team. Industries around the world have grappled with a change in the status quo before. Those businesses that had managers able to adapt to these changes were the ones that survived. With change on this scale, it's impossible to keep holding onto the traditional way of interacting with employees. The office has changed, and managers need to change with it or be replaced by those that do. Typically, upper management develops techniques that they can use in person-to-person interactions. As global offices have moved online, many of those techniques no longer work. As a result, managers are frantically searching for the right technology solutions that can allow them to run a virtual office with the same efficiency as a physical one. To help, 20 members of YEC discuss the innovative software they use to interact and manage their teams and why it's suitable for any company facing the challenges of a displaced workforce.

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With the sheer amount of productivity hacks and life hacks on the market today, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Even with all of these, it can be hard to figure out which ones work and which ones are just myths. Increasing your productivity as an entrepreneur means that you can get more done in a shorter space of time. For people who spend most of their waking time getting work done and contributing to their company's growth, productivity hacks that work can be worth their weight in gold. We asked 10 experts from Young Entrepreneur Council about how they improved their personal productivity. Below are their valuable insights into the unique habits they utilize to make themselves more productive.

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Motivation works cyclically. There are moments when you feel as though you can take on the world, punctuated by moments when you feel like it makes no sense to do anything. If you've been feeling unmotivated at work recently, you're not alone. Workers worldwide go through the same moments of "boom and bust" when it comes to their motivation. However, one of the hallmarks of a successful entrepreneur is to power through those feelings. The success of an enterprise hinges on its leader being able to escape the doldrums and remain focused throughout their projects. Here, 11 associates of Young Entrepreneur Council share some of the methods they use to remain motivated and stay at the top of their game as industry-leading entrepreneurs.

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“Thought leadership” is a big buzzword in the business world right now, and it’s easy to see why it’s become such an important focus for leaders. When others look to you for your expertise and insight, you can become a leading, recognized voice in your industry. But what does it take to become a thought leader, and what actionable steps can you take toward that goal? We asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council to share some specific factors that define an industry thought leader and what actions people can take to start stepping in the right direction. They shared their responses below.

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As a small to medium enterprise owner, it can be challenging to find time for anything. Even in your supposed downtime, you invest time into ensuring the company runs smoothly. Work-life balance as an always-busy professional can be hard, if not impossible, to find. When you don't focus on your well-being, both your health as well as your relationships suffer. Being busy is essential for success, but so is knowing when to stake a step back. In such an active lifestyle, however, how does an entrepreneur know how to balance work and pleasure? That’s why we asked 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

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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. By limiting the data you collect to just the most pertinent bits, you will still be able to extract useful knowledge about clients while also  earning their trust for not asking access to all of their information. To help businesses wondering what kind of data to collect, we asked 13 professionals from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

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Employees who work on small teams may need to play multiple roles to ensure everything runs smoothly. With such limited resources, you may not be able to have a dedicated full-time marketing person to help you reach your full potential as a brand. That's why we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council the following question:

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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. For a company to continue growing, it needs to regain its momentum. But how does a business restore the initial force that set it up for a significant growth spurt in its early development? Here, 15 experts from Young Entrepreneur Council share a few tips about how a company can regain its drive and continue to grow at a massive rate, even after stalling.

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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.  There are ways to leverage meetings to be more efficient and practical, however. To help, 12 experts from Young Entrepreneur Council offer several strategies for using corporate meetings more efficiently to help business growth and productivity.

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19 entrepreneurs delve into where online freelance talent is most readily found Businesses have changed their approach to hiring in recent years. More and more companies are relying on freelance talent as opposed to in-house contracts. It's not surprising that the paradigm has shifted in this way, however. Freelancers can be less of a drain on company resources, but they can also be more efficient than in-house hires. Even so, businesses need to find freelance sites that offer talented individuals, accessible search functions, and escrow services in some cases. All of these factors contribute to developing a long-lasting relationship with a freelancer. The rise of freelancing has seen several different locations open up around the internet that offer businesses a chance to interact with professionals. Unfortunately, there are many freelance sites to sort through, and finding the right fit for your needs may take some trial and error. Businesses need to be careful about sourcing their freelancers to avoid hiring someone who is not good for the project or who may have a nonprofessional behavior. How does a company narrow down the best places to source a freelancer online? We consulted 19 entrepreneurs from YEC about the best places to source freelance talent online. Here's what they told us.

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If you want to improve the odds of success with your online business, learn first what consumers are willing to pay for, then tailor your business to match it.

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Having the right people in your council is critical to your success as an entrepreneur.