YEC

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. Follow the YEC on Twitter @YEC.

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The 3 Components of an Indispensable Product

At Shop It To Me, we believe companies can disrupt a market and have long-term loyalty not just by building a great or insanely fun product, but by building an indispensable product.

How to Start That Online Business You’ve Been Thinking About

Is this the year you will finally launch that brilliant new business idea? It’s a good time to start—never before has it been easier or cheaper to build your own Web-based business. Technology has come a long way in the last few years in making tools for building sites more accessible to everyone (not just technologists).

How to Measure the Potential of Your Startup Idea

When you’re solving your own problem or one that you feel is the pain point of a certain target audience, how do you know whether there is a large enough pool of people that face the same problems or challenges that you are trying to solve?

How to Find the Right Venture Capitalist for Your Startup

As an entrepreneur, you’ve got to choose the right VC to work with, because the right marriage can help define how successful your business will be and how happy you will be running it. Here are 4 key points to consider for a happy and long-lasting marriage with a VC.

How to Find the Right E-Commerce Platform for Your Business

There are many would-be entrepreneurs that want to build a lifestyle business, but unfortunately don’t know where to start. One of the most important steps, of course, is figuring out which platform to sell your wares on.

6 Ways to Cultivate Creativity in Your Company

The startup scene today is an overcrowded space where companies are constantly vying for talent. But hiring talented people is only the first step in cultivating an innovative and creative environment. Building a workplace where there is a constant exchange of ideas involves finding the right formula for your company and culture.

7 Key Elements of a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

Crowdfunding can be an effective tool for accomplishing your startup goals. Whether you’re looking to jumpstart your marketing efforts, expand your customer base, or reach out to friends and family for funding, crowdfunding provides a platform to rally support around you and your company.

How to Mine Your Customer List for Sales Gold

As a business owner, your biggest potential gold mines are often closer than you think—it’s just a matter of knowing where to look. By going beyond what’s worked in the past and being open to new strategies, you’ll be surprised by how many untapped profit centers are just within your reach.

How to Know When You Need a Contract

Do you sometimes lie awake at night wondering what will happen if your biggest customer doesn’t pay you? How about if the vendor handling your website upgrade takes off with your thousand-dollar down payment? These scenarios would be a nightmare for any bootstrapping entrepreneur—and they happen all the time.

5 Steps for Calculating Your Startup Costs

You can’t create a realistic business plan without knowing how much it will cost to get your business up and running. If you don’t have an idea of your startup costs, you won’t know how long you’ll have to bootstrap, how much funding you’ll need, how quickly to scale. In other words, without calculating your startup costs, you don’t really know where you’re going—or how you’re going to get there. And your company could fail before you even hit the break-even point.