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Entrepreneurship isn't for everyone. It often involves a lot of hard work, long hours, multiple roles and responsibilities, and making decisions on a daily basis that may have important consequences for the business. And the uncertainty, frustration and stress that come with it can be emotionally draining. However, you can avoid burning out "by approaching entrepreneurship realistically," writes Jaime Faulkner. In this blog post, Faulkner explores some of the factors that contribute to burnout a...

Feedback is one of the most important tools you have for keeping your team on track. When it's given in the right way and with the right intentions, feedback improves an employee's performance and contributes to their personal and professional growth. Honest feedback also builds trust in you as a leader. Badly timed or poorly delivered feedback, on the other hand, is ineffective and may even be counterproductive. In this article, Stephanie Vozza shares some top tips from leadership expert Cheryl...

The romanticized vision many people have of a successful entrepreneur is rather like seeing an Olympic athlete's medal winning performance without taking into account the gruelling training schedules and years of dedication they've put into achieving their success. While being an entrepreneur can be fun, exciting and rewarding, building a successful business can also be challenging and stressful—and not everyone is cut out for it. In this open letter to an aspiring entrepreneur, Maynar...

All entrepreneurs face challenges yet gender inequality and cultural expectations continue to create additional challenges for women. Although the ranks of female entrepreneurs and female-owned businesses are on the rise, men still outnumber women in entrepreneurship. And while raising the necessary funding to start and grow a business is challenging for any startup, women founders often find it more difficult to be taken seriously and receive less funding than their male counterp...

Even though it's an essential part of daily life, most of us dread having to negotiate. Whether it's to close a sale or ask for a pay rise, the key to success in any negotiation is thorough preparation. When you have a good understanding of the underlying principles and the interests of everyone involved, you're in better position to reach a satisfactory outcome. And the more you practice, the more you improve your skills. To help you become a more confident negotiator, Vivian Gia...

Taking a break from work during the summer months gives you an opportunity to review your career and personal goals. And it's often the time when those in full-time employment think about quitting their regular, nine-to-five job for the freedom of being their own boss. Before taking the plunge, you need to be sure it isn't the back-to-work blues clouding your judgment. Building a successful business from scratch isn't easy and more often than not the odds are against you, says Eugene Cheng. Here...

Although mistakes are an important part of the learning process, you don't always have to learn from your own trial and error. When it comes to building a successful business, learning from what went wrong for other entrepreneurs and small business owners helps you to avoid making the same mistakes. And learning from what went right helps you continuously improve your own business strategy. With that in mind, Alison Coleman shares here some top tips from successful entrepreneurs, and the le...

Raising money for a startup isn't easy, despite the impression you may get from the success stories of companies that raise huge funding rounds. It can take months of hard work, the uncertainty can be stressful and you'll inevitably face a lot of rejections. While there are many reasons why an investor might pass on your company, it could be an issue with the fundraising process itself that's causing a problem, says seed-stage VC and angel investor Sarah Downey. Here she explores the m...

Selling is one of the most crucial parts of entrepreneurship, yet the sales role is often the one entrepreneurs struggle with the most. Few people find the art of selling easy to master and many find the thought of having to overcome sales objections from prospective customers particularly intimidating. "The good news is that when you arm yourself with an arsenal of turnaround frameworks, you can face these roadblocks and get past them so you can move onto the next stage," says Jeb Blount. Here,...

Failure is common feature of the startup ecosystem and while there's rarely one single reason for a startup's failure, having products or services that don't serve a market, running out of cash, being outcompeted or price/cost issues are among the most frequently cited reasons. "But the technical cause of death is usually a veneer," writes Carl Tashian. "Behavioral cultural, and interpersonal issues are among the biggest killers of startups, but they are seldom discussed." To help you avoid expe...

Entrepreneurship can be both rewarding and extremely challenging, especially if you decide to go it alone as a solopreneur. While you may relish having no boss to answer to, it also means you'll be responsible for making all the decisions yourself. And having no workers to manage means you'll have no team to delegate tasks to. To succeed, you need to be self-reliant and self-disciplined. Here, career change strategist, speaker and podcast host Joseph Liu shares some of the lessons he's...

Innovation is what sets your company apart from the competition, stimulates growth and keeps your business moving forward. It's the process of taking fresh ideas and converting them into new products, processes, or strategies. And finding new ways of doing things—whether it's product design or methods of management—requires creative thinking and problem solving. Here, Igor Makarov shares how, with the right management approach and support, you can overcome resistance to change, stimulate cr...

Content marketing is transforming the way businesses interact with consumers and with so many businesses vying for the attention of potential customers, you need to work hard to earn their interest. An effective content marketing strategy helps you learn more about your target audience so you can deliver useful, relevant and engaging content that enhances your reputation and helps you build a loyal following. To help you consistently hit the mark, Ann Gynn shares here some of the bigge...

As a growth strategy, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) allow companies to quickly increase their size, resources and market share or gain a competitive edge by acquiring talent and intellectual property. Any merger or acquisition carries an element of risk. It requires a lot of planning, preparation and negotiation—and there's no guarantee of a successful outcome. To help you understand the issues involved, M&A experts Richard Harroch, David Lipkin and Richard Smith share the 12 key p...

Marketing is crucial for the success of any business. Yet knowing how important it is to create and implement an effective marketing plan is one thing; putting the theory into practice is another. As a small business owner, you face various marketing challenges that large businesses with marketing teams and big budgets don't have to contend with. To help you decide what works best for your business and where to focus your effort and resources, this article explores some of the most common c...

Startup fundraising can be a long, hard slog and it may be tempting to celebrate a successful funding round by going on a big spending spree. However, it's important to remember that venture capital isn't free money. Investment comes with strings attached and a new set of responsibilities. So while you may have to spend money to make money, that doesn't mean you should spend it like a drunken sailor on shore leave. Here, Avi Meir shares his top tips on keeping your costs under control and spendi...

Job interviews can be daunting. Whether you're a first-time interviewee, returning from a career break or looking to advance your career, you may be up against stiff competition. This is your one chance to create a good first impression, showcase the qualities that make you the ideal candidate and make sure you're memorable for all the right reasons, so it's natural to feel nervous. The better prepared you are, the more confidently you'll be able handle even the toughest interview. So to he...

While it's easy to be fooled by the successful lifestyles of the rich and famous, entrepreneurship isn't as glamorous as it may seem. Having great ideas and a grand vision doesn't guarantee success. You have to be willing to make sacrifices, take risks and work hard to make it happen. Yet having the "opportunity to make a difference and transform lives" is also "deeply rewarding," says Raffi Keuhnelian. To help you make the most of this opportunity, Keuhnelian shares here some of the top tips th...

Buying a franchise can be a rewarding alternative to starting a new business from scratch. Instead of going it alone as an entrepreneur or small business owner, you can benefit from an established brand, a proven business model, the franchisor's experience, and support from other franchise owners. However, while there are good reasons to buy a franchise there are also good reasons not to. It may involve a hefty initial investment as well as ongoing royalty fees and although it may be less risky ...

Emotional intelligence is becoming increasingly important in the workplace—and it's a vital ingredient for success as a leader. Unlike technical skills and cognitive ability, how skilled you areat understanding and managing your own emotions—as well as those of people around you—can be difficult to measure. So while intellectual intelligence can be tested and given a score known as your intelligence quotient or IQ, you can't sum up your emotional intelligence in a single number despite the term ...

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, an effective marketing strategy is the only way to grow your business. Keeping up with rapidly evolving technologies and changing trends in digital marketing can be challenging, especially when you have a limited budget. Yet it also presents opportunities for you to focus your efforts on the tactics best suited to your business and the goals you want to achieve. Here, Nate Mann shares some top tips from members of the Young Entrepreneur Council for exp...

For many people, the word entrepreneur conjures up images of an enviable lifestyle, working from anywhere in the world and enjoying all the trappings of success with a six-figure income. Yet, more often than not, the reality involves long hours, hard work, considerable risk and numerous failures. While your entrepreneurial journey won't be identical to someone else's, there's much you can learn from other people's experience. With that in mind, Itamar Zur shares here some of the m...

Once your startup gains traction your focus should be on the fresh challenges of rapid growth and long-term success. While scaling your business inevitably adds more complexity, it isn't just about what you add—more employees, more customers, more processes, and more levels of management—it's also about what you subtract. If there are things that don't work anymore, you have to get rid of them. "If you can establish strong, scalable practices in the startup stage, reaching and navigating ra...

If you're not already using email to connect with customers and drive sales, you could be missing out on valuable marketing opportunities. Despite the continuing growth in popularity of social media marketing, email provides one of the most effective ways to promote your business. To help you improve the performance of your email marketing, Scarlett Cook shares some top tips on how to calculate your open rate, learn more about who interacts with your emails and why, and how to implement strategi...

As a small business owner, you may be so preoccupied withrunning the business that you're missing opportunities to work on growing the business. Unless you give some attention to your marketing however, you may not have much of a business left to run. Social media, a business website and email marketing are the most used digital marketing channels, yet research shows many small business owners are failing to take full advantage of them. Here, Rieva Lesonsky explores the reasons for these missed ...

Radha Vyas shared her travel-related business idea with Lee Thompson on their first date. Now they're the husband and wife team behind one of the fastest growing startups in the UK. With Lee's photojournalism background and Radha's experience of building a fundraising consultancy—and their shared love of travel—the business they started with just £15,000 ($19,652) is now worth at least $13 million and looks set to achieve $22 million this year. In Laura Begley Bloom's article, they share th...

Making good decisions requires discipline and deliberating for too long can lead to missed opportunities. When you're wrestling with an important decision that may alter the course of your life, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the pressure to make the right choice. Yet it's a mistake to think that the more information you have the better your decision will be. Most often you'll need to make a choice based on incomplete information and accept some uncertainty over the outcome, rather t...

Closing the doors on a business you've put years of effort into building is a tough decision to make. "It's easy to get carried away with your own fantasy of instant startup success," says Sandy Forster. And that's when you risk losing sight of what you're trying to achieve, the problem you're aiming to solve and who your customer is. Here, Forster shares the mistakes he and his wife and co-founder Faith made, things they'd do differently next time around—and the lessons they learned the hard wa...

Connecting and networking with other entrepreneurs allows you to build mutually beneficial relationships and create opportunities for you to learn from and support each other in numerous ways. Yet when you're juggling the many demands of starting and running a business, finding time for networking can be a challenge. And if you think you're too busy, it's very likely the people you want to connect with are also busy. Here, Dakota Shane shares some top tips for building lasting relationships...

Acquiring new customers is a more expensive way to drive sales than selling more to your existing customers. And with upselling and cross selling, you're introducing customers to better or complementary products to the ones they're already interested in buying. Well-executed upselling and cross-selling techniques increase your average transaction value and boost overall revenue. They can also improve the customer experience by making sure your customer chooses the right product for them and they...