Helen Lindsey

Time is your most valuable resource and when you're running a business you need to use it wisely. Spending a large part of the day working on autopilot, allowing your mind to wander and giving in to distractions takes your focus away from accomplishing the most important tasks that will help you reach your goals. Here, leadership development and organizational performance management expert Karima Mariama-Arthur shares three ways to "proactively engage in your day, successfully manage your time a...

To be an entrepreneur, you have to take risks. Yet for many people who dream of running their own business, giving up the financial security of regular employment to work full-time on a fledgling business is a risk they can't afford to take. While it may be one of the biggest obstacles to becoming an entrepreneur, "not being able to quit your job shouldn't mean you have to quit your dream," says Virgin Group founder Richard Branson. Here, he shares how some of the world's most successful compani...

Search engine optimization (SEO) continues to evolve and in an increasingly competitive online environment it's more important than ever to keep up with the changes. The days of littering your content with keywords in the hope of boosting your page ranking are long gone. Instead, you need to focus on providing a great user experience with information-rich, engaging and share-worthy content. Here, online marketing expert Susan Gilbert shares "a few steps you can take to turn your brand's website ...

When we're stressed, we're less productive and heavy workloads, pressure-filled deadlines and unrealistic expectations are among the main causes of workplace stress. Having to meet hard deadlines creates a sense of urgency that impacts performance and reduces productivity. And while a little stress can improve focus, prolonged stress can be exhausting, demoralising and eventually lead to burnout. Here, entrepreneur, founder and CEO Aytekin Tank shares how to achieve a healthier approac...

A SWOT analysis is a simple yet powerful tool for evaluating your competitive position and making strategic decisions for the future of your business. By examining both the internal factors—your strengths and current weaknesses—and external factors that impact the business, you can develop a business strategy that helps you maximise existing opportunities, discover new opportunities, and prepare for changes in the market. Here, Lisa Furgison challenges you to carry out a SWOT analysis and create...

While branding creates an image of who you are as a company, marketing is what you do to get that image out to the world. Understanding the distinctions and relationship between branding and marketing is key to building an overall picture of your company. And to produce the best results, you need to make sure the actions you take to keep your business in front of the right people align with your core branding goals. Here, UX strategist and web designer Lexie Lu shares 11 steps to ensuring optima...

When pitching your business to potential investors, too much exuberance can be a bad thing. While passion and enthusiasm are important, investors are looking for evidence of how competent and trustworthy you are. Thorough research and preparation is key to presenting a compelling pitch that shows you understand the market and have realistic expectations for growth. Here, Scarlett Cook shares a guide to structuring your pitch with some top tips for avoiding the common mistakes that signal ov...

When you're generating leads for your business, sending visitors to a targeted landing page rather than your homepage can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your online marketing. And you may a few landing pages on your website to avoid missing out on a key opportunity to convert a higher percentage of visitors into leads, says marketing expert Ellie Mirman. Here, she shares an overview of what landing pages are, why they're so critical, and the most important elements for building effect...

An accelerator program can have a profound effect on the success of your startup. As well as receiving expert advice and guidance from seasoned mentors, you'll be learning from the rest of the cohort. You'll also have access to resources, networking opportunities, and potential investors. Most accelerators last several weeks, if not months, with an intensive schedule that requires lot of your time, effort and sustained focus. To help you maximise the benefits, Zach Anderson Pettet shares he...

Startup accelerators help promising, early-stage startups speed up their development by providing education, mentorship, co-working space, a small amount of seed capital and access to other resources. Apart from helping startups identify their best growth strategy, most programs culminate in a demo day when founders pitch their venture to an audience of potential investors. Here, serial entrepreneur and author Alejandro Cremades shares an overview of the accelerator process with some top tips to...

Building strong, positive relationships at work can make us more productive, more creative and happier in our jobs. While many of us enjoy the benefits of remote working, we also miss out on the day-to-day interactions we'd have in a shared workplace. And it's these opportunities for building rapport that help us bond with our co-workers. Although it presents a challenge for remote teams, especially those spread across geographical boundaries and time zones, it's important to make sure everyone ...

The UK economy stands to benefit from a £250 billion ($326 billion) boost by closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship. Following independent research into the barriers women face to starting a business, the UK treasury is planning to increase the number of female entrepreneurs in the UK by 50 per cent. While the recommendations call for greater transparency to combat gender bias in funding, lack of finance isn't the only challenge facing female entrepreneurs. Here, successful women share ...

Although customer feedback is an important tool for assessing your company's performance, it can be limiting. Feedback from a dissatisfied customer highlights the mistakes you've made, and gives you an opportunity to correct problems, while feedback from a satisfied customer about what you did well only helps you maintain the status quo. Asking your customers for feed-forward, on the other hand, creates opportunities for the future. Here, marketing leadership expert Thomas Barta shares how to us...

Despite startup culture emphasizing outside investment, the vast majority of startups are self-funded. While third party funding can accelerate growth, it is possible to  build a successful business from scratch using your own resources. And there are some advantages to bootstrapping rather than trading equity for up-front investment. Here, Tim Berry explores the pros and cons of bootstrapping compared with raising finance from venture capitalists or angel investors—and share...

Stress is one of the main causes of anxiety and depression—and research shows that working to tight deadlines is one of the most common causes of workplace stress. While the pressure of meeting deadlines can sometimes makes us more productive, when our stress levels increase above a certain level our performance starts to decrease. The key to avoiding deadline-induced stress is to make deadlines work for you instead of the other way round, says Loni Klara. Here, she shares five techniques for se...

  Advances in technology, the increase in co-working spaces and the growing popularity of remote working are allowing more people take up freelancing instead of regular employment. While the prospect of being your own boss—with the freedom to choose the projects you work on and the flexibility of creating your own schedule—may seem appealing, there are some major pitfalls you need to avoid. "Freelancing has a learning curve, and it can be perilously steep," warns Michael Stov...

No one succeeds alone. There's a proverb that says "it takes a village to raise a child" and founding a company is a lot like raising a child. It requires the input of an entire community to gain experience, learn and grow. And while there's no "one-size-fits-all" guide to success, there are some universal truths that can help you steer your new venture in the right direction. Here, artificial emotional intelligence pioneer Rana el Kaliouby shares what she's learned about four key...

Personal branding is all about creating a brand around yourself, rather than a company. It's how you represent yourself in a way that resonates with your audience and position yourself as an influencer or expert in your field. Just as a business logo is a key element of a company's overall brand image, having your own personal logo helps you get noticed and sets you apart from your competitors. In this blog post, Dan Schawber shares some top tips on how to create and use a logo, and the key desi...

Juggling the multiple challenges of budget constraints, deadlines, client expectations, changing requirements, and team performance, to deliver a project successfully can be daunting for anyone. And even a skilled project management professional can struggle to get a failing project back on track. Here, Marie Erhart shares the goals you need to focus on to ensure each project you work on is better than the last and set yourself up for greater success in 2019 "by improving your performa...

In an increasingly urbanised environment, our need to maintain a meaningful connection with nature is more important than ever. Humans have an innate love of nature and the absence of natural elements in our everyday environment can impact our health, wellbeing and productivity. Yet half the world's people already live in cities and by 2050 two-thirds of the global population could be living in urban areas. Here, Peter J. Kindel shares his vision of ecology as a key element of urban plannin...

As a founder, CEO, manager, or team leader you don't have to be the smartest person in the room. Hiring the best talent is crucial for the success of any business and you may find yourself leading a team of experts who are smarter than you. Rather than feeling feel intimidated by their knowledge and skills, you need to learn from them and give them the tools they need to succeed. With that in mind, this article shares some top tips on how to "manage talent efficiently, to optimize your team's st...

We'd all like to be more effective and more efficient, yet it often seems there just aren't enough hours in the day to achieve all of our goals. When you take stock of how you're spending your time however, you may find you can reclaim several hours each week to focus on the most important tasks on your to-do list. And you could also clear some space in your schedule for doing more of what you love. Here, Stav Ziv shares some top tips from career coaches, consultants and other experts to he...

Inc. and Fast Company want to hear from female entrepreneurs for their 2019 survey on the State of Women and Entrepreneurship. Last year 279 female founders shared their experiences and opinions about financing, business culture, identity, politics, personal sacrifices, and more. And the results of the joint survey revealed some surprising findings. The results of the new 2019 survey will be featured in the October print issues of both magazines, as well as appearing online, and participants can...

The PR industry is evolving as technology continues to drive change in the way we gather information, leverage digital channels to communicate, and use analytics to measure what does works and what doesn't. PR departments and professionals have an increasingly sophisticated toolkit at their disposal to help them deliver highly targeted and personalized content. To help you better understand and fully embrace the latest tools and technologies, Dmytro Spilka explores here "the emerging trends and ...

Before investing time, effort and money into launching a new business, you need to know whether it's financially viable. Creating a customized financial model is a key element of effective business planning. It helps you to identify strengths and weakness in your business, anticipate problems that may affect your cash flow, make informed business decisions, and plan for the future. And a solid financial model is also a pre-requisite if you're looking to raise funding. Here, Kate L. Harrison shar...

Despite outperforming their male counterparts, the odds are stacked against most female founders when it comes to raising venture capital funding. The fundraising process can be gruelling for any entrepreneur. And, in a male-dominated industry, women also face a potential minefield of gender stereotyping and biased attitudes. When pitching to investors, they're often held to different standards than their male counterparts and are treated differently or asked different questions. Some inves...

Younger consumers are already driving a trend towards profit with purpose. And with an increasing sense of urgency about pollution and the consequences of climate change, it's a growing trend that's set to become the norm, says entrepreneur Nicolas Brusson. Although entrepreneurs have a duty to build profitable businesses, as global citizens "it is also our duty to engage with the challenge of climate change at a meaningful level, not just as a cursory CSR exercise," says Brusson. Here, he ...

One of the top reasons for startup up failure is lack of product/market fit. And that's because first-time entrepreneurs often make the mistake of launching a new business based on assumptions, without testing the market first. While you may be excited about your new business idea, if you don't get enough paying customers you'll struggle to make a success of it. Yet, with the right process "even inexperienced entrepreneurs can bring amazing products to market with excited buyers," writes Jim Sem...

Women entrepreneurs often have to overcome the challenge of cultural stereotyping and gender bias, especially when it comes to raising capital. Yet we also need to be aware of how our own mindset and pre-conceptions can stop us achieving our goals. Even the most successful entrepreneurs can struggle with imposter syndrome and women are particularly susceptible to this form of self-doubt, especially when working in a male dominated field. In this article, six members of the Young E...

There are several good reasons for writing a business plan before launching any new venture, even if you're not looking to attract investors. A business plan is an effective tool for setting out your goals and how you're going to achieve them. And while it may take time and effort to create, a well thought out business plan provides an effective roadmap for your business and improves your chances of success. Here, John Lavelle shares some top tips on how to create a "low friction busin...