Richard RB Botto

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Implement these strategies to build stronger team morale and loyalty in 2024. In today's marketplace, when it comes to attracting and retaining staff members who want to invest their time and services for the long term, trust and transparency are required every step of the way. In addition, it's even more important to ensure that potential employees and employers are in alignment during the hiring process to begin with. Fostering a workplace culture that encourages regular team communication empowers staff members to voice any concerns as needed and feel recognized when they make a valuable contribution to help their department or company move forward. Below, experts fromFast Company Executive Board share 16 strategies to help employers improve employee retention rates in the coming new year.

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Apply these best practices to strengthen your relationship as a mentor and partner.  If you're a leader seeking a great personal assistant who can help you elevate your business to the next level, it's essential that you take your time until you find the proper fit. Once you've succeeded at the first step, it's time to nurture the relationship by learning what drives them and what they are most passionate about—treating them like a partner in collaboration on your journey and engaging them in meaningful assignments. While retaining top talent is not an easy feat, here, 15 Fast Company Executive Board members share their best tips for training a high-level assistant that you can count on to work with you closely for the long term.

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Don't let your physical or mental health go by the wayside. Landing a remote career opportunity with a great company may seem like the ideal solution to help busy employees navigate their current circumstances, especially for those in need of additional resources to balance a job that they truly love with caregiving responsibilities or other challenges they may be facing at home. However,  it's more than essential to make the most of what a true work-life balance should look like when the lines begin to blur. Based on their own remote work experiences, 18 Fast Company Executive Board members offer their top suggestions for promoting the best physical and mental health possible while working remotely. To keep moving and stay engaged with others, try the following.

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Changing your mindset will enable you to achieve more success. In the workplace (and in life), it's perfectly human to sometimes obsess over the three Cs—competing, comparing, and complaining—when it comes to dealing with others and reviewing how our own accomplishments or failures stack up. It becomes a much bigger problem when an individual chooses to stay stuck in that mindset because it can hinder them from moving forward in their career and personal life. Below, 19 members from Fast Company Executive Board share what lessons they've learned from their ability to overcome patterns of previous self-doubt, and how they were able to forge ahead to a better path of success. 

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When you have fear and anxiety that continuously returns, take a moment when you’re calm and approach it like you would a business problem.

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If you're thinking about creating a content resource to serve clients and customers better, consider the following points before you move forward. Whether you are building a new brand or trying to elevate the image of a mainstay product or service that has been around for years, publishing a regular newsletter can be a great way to keep clients and customers informed and excited about what your business is working on next. However, running a high-quality newsletter alongside the daily operations of a well-oiled corporation or small business is not as easy as it sounds. Before you decide to take on any additional responsibilities or add more to your team’s plate, 20 members from Fast Company Executive Board are here to offer their take on what it means to make this type of commitment to potential audience members and the staff they’ll be expecting to lean on.

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Business leaders share best practices to help your company build trust and longevity—no matter which industry your business serves. In a tough economy, when you are struggling to find ways to keep a new business from going under before it has a chance to take off and thrive, it is so important to think outside the box and come up with other sources of funding.  If approached in the correct manner, crowdfunding may be a viable option to consider and has the potential to benefit your company and its long-term mission if you can get the right supporters to back your organization and its mission. For startup business owners looking to leverage their ability to attract and obtain alternative solutions versus traditional capital investors and partnerships, members of Fast Company Executive Board, who are savvy in this area of negotiating financial opportunities, are here to offer tips.

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A successful webinar will engage, educate and possibly persuade its target audience and keep the host top of their mind for their future needs. Webinars have become an increasingly popular tool for businesses to engage with potential clients and customers. However, simply hosting a webinar is not enough to ensure success. To make a lasting impression and achieve desired outcomes, businesses must use best practices to create engaging and informative content that resonates with their audience. Whether it be educational or persuasive, effective webinars require careful planning, preparation, and execution. To that end, 15 Fast Company Executive Board members weigh in on some of their best practices for hosting webinars that are useful, relevant, and valuable for potential clients and customers.

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Even the most successful companies can make missteps, and when those mistakes involve leadership, the consequences can be severe. A company's reputation is a crucial asset that can take years to build but can be destroyed in an instant. Negative publicity and online backlash can quickly spread after leadership mistakes, causing irreparable damage to a company's reputation. However, there are steps that a company can take to clean up its negative business reputation online and regain the trust of its clients. To help, a panel of Fast Company Executive Board members recommended some effective strategies that can help turn things around and get your business back in the good graces of potential and current clients, even after past leadership missteps.

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10 experts share how to put your best foot forward and make impactful business connections.  The art of networking in business comes much easier for some entrepreneurs than others. If you want to do it correctly you've got to be willing to open yourself up and communicate your pitch, realizing it's a two-way street when it comes to examining a proposition value that benefits each potential stakeholder.  Furthermore, there is a pattern of behavior patterns that every professional must learn to shed if they want to attract the interest of industry colleagues and build authentic relationships that are founded on mutual respect. Below are 10 best practices courtesy of Fast Company Executive Board members.

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Get over yourself and trust your team. When you're a first-time entrepreneur who is trying to establish your company in the marketplace, there are plenty of responsibilities that will fall on your plate—anticipated or unexpected. You'll also need to maintain credible brand awareness, develop the right community of advocates to move your company ahead, and ensure repeat customers.  These challenges can be overwhelming if you don't have the right team in place. It's essential to build the strongest foundation of team leaders who can stand confidently and remain trustworthy in your absence. But your professional success also depends on your own ability to change old behavior patterns at work. To help guide your strategic action plan to improve workflow and remove distractions, Fast Company Executive Board members share advice on the 13 bad habits every start-up business owner may be guilty of at times and should eliminate from their daily routine hereafter.

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Leading business professionals offer tips to engage team members all year round. When the holiday season is over and the company is entering a slow business period, it's common for employees to become easily distracted or disengaged if there is no action plan and nothing to look forward to at work. It can also cause some staff members to feel uninspired until the next big project comes along and the business is back up and running at a normal pace. No matter what time of year it is some employees may be feeling stuck, creatively, or in a siloed state of mind. Below, 16 Fast Company Executive Board members discuss their ideas to start conversations and spark creativity and collaboration among your employees, all 12 months.

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Apply these tips to your company culture starting from the top down. If the business is in a slump it's important for team leaders to foster positive team morale to help their staff members remain focused on the big picture and their common goals. But it also begins with the attitude of the company's own leadership. So be the change you want to see.  No one person, team, or company is expected to be at the top of their game or feel energized about a project or goal 24/7. That's why experts from Fast Company Executive Board are advising department managers to implement these tried and true methods when times are tough, business is uncertain, and colleagues are feeling stuck or uninspired creatively.

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Apply these travel strategies to get the most out of your business experience on each trip. If you're a business owner who is always on the road, securing the next deal and connecting with potential new customers, it can be draining on your body and mind if you're not planning more efficiently and taking care of yourself on the go. That's why Fast Company Executive Board members are sharing their top 14 travel hacks to help other leaders find a better approach to building success in their businesses domestically and abroad.

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Tune out the industry naysayers and lean into solving your target market's pain points. When you're a brand disruptor who aims to provide innovative solutions in an established "business as usual" marketplace, your company and its leadership are bound to ruffle some feathers. To overcome any negativity, continue to stay above the fray and let the data speak for itself. By proactively educating the underserved market of consumers and staying truthful about your business intentions, you'll mobilize a community of ambassadors in no time, who are willing to support your organization's potential and share their personal testimonials.  As you begin to strengthen your client base, remember to put their needs first. But it's also imperative to build bridges by keeping your competitors even closer. At the end of the day, feedback, whether good or bad, fuels inspiration and innovation. This puts your company in a much better position to address concerns, defend its own progress, and defeat the status quo mentality of other colleagues in the field. Below, 16 Fast Company Executive Board members share tips to maintain your clients' confidence in your new establishment and develop loyal partnerships that will last a lifetime.

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If you're thinking about making the transition to a more flexible work environment, the positives outweigh the negatives, according to these panel experts from Fast Company Executive Board.  At the start of COVID, remote work opportunities were a necessity to keep business operations and employee communications flowing. Now that things are moving in a familiar direction, some employees are required to return to work, while others are considering companies that are more flexible in providing a permanent hybrid or fully remote workplace environment. It's a mixed bag in terms of how business leaders and their people adjusted to this new way of connecting with their colleagues and clients during and beyond the pandemic.   Below are 14 Fast Company Executive Board members to share their thoughts on whether the hybrid-remote model has disrupted or improved their business focus and ability to navigate one of the biggest workplace transformations.

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Apply these practical solutions to finding loyal patrons who are willing to support your company—financially—for the long term. How can business marketers easily convert emoji-likes into "real" buyers of their products and services? In the business world, the bottom line is that having a million followers on your social media pages doesn't necessarily add up to an immediate bump in quarterly sales.  You have to work for it, hard, if you want your establishment to become a true financial success, beyond comments or social gratification. To win consumer confidence and build their trust and loyalty, try putting yourself out there by sharing your brand's authentic voice. Then create educational content about your company's "why" for potential and existing customers. Avoiding the mistake of being too salesy is another fine way to strengthen B-2-C relationships over time. Below, 11 Fast Company Executive Board members provide other leaders with their tried and true methods for engaging with "friends" across digital platforms, encouraging them to go one step further through the sales funnel—putting their money where they spend most of their (social) time.

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While email marketing can provide a great ROI, it has to be done the right way to make an impact. By 2025, the number of daily global emails sent is expected to surpass 376 billion. That's why a good email marketing campaign has to stand out from the noise and truly entice its recipient to open and click through. At the same time, it can't be too pushy or sales-oriented -- you don't want to scare off your customers. Mistakes are common in email marketing, especially for companies new to this marketing channel. Below, 15 Fast Company Executive Board members give examples of some of the biggest email marketing mistakes they've seen and how you can avoid them.

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Seven executives discuss the benefits of converting your advertising strategy to this one. Monitoring the web-browsing and buying behaviors of prospective clients may seem like an unconventional sales tactic but it's a strategy that many leaders are leaning on. Doing so may better inform the latest advertising campaign aimed to resonate most effectively with customers, addressing their needs to enhance their journey and retain their business.  Below, seven members of Fast Company Executive Board explain how behavioral targeting can improve the performance of your company's marketing and promotional methods in the long run.

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Re-assess these key elements of digital marketing. With so many advertising options in today's digital world, how can marketing leaders determine the best bang for their buck?  On top of figuring out a feasible return on an investment plan to meet company KPIs and create a loyal connection with the brand's target audience, the tides are quickly changing in the virtual marketing space. For example, stiffer government regulations are cracking down on the amount of access that a company may have to utilize certain data. Below, Fast Company Executive Board members are calling out 12 major risk factors that digital marketing executives are now facing and how to become better informed and prepared in promoting their business.

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Maintaining a professional and positive tone, in your response to a colleague's request, can strengthen your business relationship and build common ground. One of the most difficult skills, for some business leaders and their colleagues, is mastering the art of saying "no." This is especially true for those who are just starting out in the industry, trying to become well-established in their professions. On the other hand, saying "yes" to every single project or event that requires your full engagement and bandwidth, can be just as detrimental to your career path if it doesn't align with your business priorities and immediate goals. So don't fall into the trap of being sidetracked.  No matter where you are on the employment hierarchy at your present company and beyond, experts from Fast Company Executive Board agree that turning down a request—from anyone at any level—is appropriate at times in the workplace, especially if you are trying to move ahead on the projects that currently matter most and maintain a good work-life balance.

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Taking your brand overseas breaks barriers in more ways than one. It's been a tough economic time across most industries these past years during COVID, but if you have the wherewithal to take your company global, then you'll be doing yourself a big favor. Given the opportunities that exist to reach untapped clientele, talent, and future business partners, the move will spark innovative mindsets as you create a winning business environment through your organization's platform that works well for all parties involved. Here, 13 Fast Company Executive Board members discuss the decision to invest in other markets outside of the United States and how the move has enhanced their company's growth potential.

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Let’s look at three major areas of concern for business leaders today and see where we can make some changes.

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If you're strapped for cash, you can still find practical ways to launch and grow your new establishment successfully. Building a start-up business on a small budget is never easy. But being new to the industry it's important to build the best track record and gain as much positive attention as possible to elevate and expand your company in no time. Below, 15 gurus from Fast Company Executive Board share their time and knowledge about low-cost ways to create a buzz factor of excitement about your product or service.

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Cultivate a culture of unity, understanding, and company success. Some of the best company initiatives or creative campaigns may have started out in a room full of disagreement. So, if you find yourself in a similar situation with colleagues about how to move forward on a collaborative project, it's best to put it on pause, humanize each contributor's voice, and remind yourselves why you began working together in the first place. Finding your way back to the true value incentives is a best practice to align with the company's mission and goals. Here are 15 ways, from Fast Company Executive Board members, to help team members put the good of their company (or project) first.

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When somebody challenges you to grow and reach your potential, chances are you're going to walk away with an important life lesson. Throughout life, most people will encounter someone who challenges them in a good way. These people see the potential in others and harness it by pushing them to reach higher and work harder. While of course, a challenge will be difficult, it can also be a great motivator that helps others to improve in the long run. Below, 15 members of the Fast Company Executive Board shared some inspiring advice they’ve learned from those who have positively challenged them. They describe how those who tested their abilities and showed them they were capable of more have shaped them into the professionals they are today.

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Finding a balance between work projects and personal pursuits can be challenging, but these practical strategies can help. When there’s are a lot of ongoing projects and deadlines to meet at work, it can feel as though you’re never caught up or have time to spare for yourself. However, finding a way to manage your time to have a healthy balance is important for your mental and physical well-being.  Below, 15 Fast Company Executive Board members offered some practical strategies to help you reclaim and manage your time. They share methods they’ve used to carve time out of their hectic days and how you can use them to achieve that balance for yourself.

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No matter what kind of day or week you're having, there are some simple ways to keep your energy and performance high at work. Everyone has dips in their energy and productivity. However, when you're trying to lead a business, it's tough to lose valuable work time to a slump in motivation. The key to maintaining high energy levels and positivity at work isn't resolving to "power through" the slump and burn yourself out; rather, it's about integrating small, simple habits that may help reduce the likelihood of that slump in the first place. To help you stay in optimal performance mode, a panel of Fast Company Executive Board members would like to share how they manage to keep themselves at their peak, regardless of what's happening throughout the week.

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Here's how to build business stamina and even increase alliances in uncertain times. When times are hard and business is slow, it's easy to become overwhelmed and lose clarity about your purpose and position. On the contrary, that's the time when you need to dig deeper and get creative to remind yourself, your team, and the external stakeholders who invest their time and money in your brand why you got into this industry in the first place.  Be transparent, share your story, and come up with an alternative action plan that will get others excited again, paving the way for your company to secure a brighter and sustainable future, come what may. Below, 9 experts from Fast Company Executive Board provide leaders with strategies they can implement today to satisfy their stakeholders with performance.

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You can take back control of your social media use, but first, you need to see how it impacts you.

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13 tips to improve your social engagement skills and build better alliances. How do you define the art of networking? Is it a stepping stone to close your next business deal, or are you intentional about nurturing new relations that will build a pathway and benefit all? A panel of experts from Fast Company Executive Board agree that being an active listener—focused less on brand promotion and more focused on following through on promises made—is key to leaving a great impression on potential clients and colleagues in the long term.  Below, the 13 council members share how by changing bad habits formed in social settings, they've also created more meaningful connections.

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Steer your team of leaders and employees in the right direction.  Business and technological solutions may be changing every day, but your concept for launching a successful startup in the first place doesn't always have to. In today's tight and uncertain economy, full of new ideas, services, products, and platforms, how do you ensure that the team will continue to align and carry out your company's initial values and expectations? To equip other leaders worried about these same issues, experts from Fast Company Executive Board provide 15 ways to keep your original company concept and mission top of mind and in place. The team can continue a focused journey on where the company stands, which also includes flexibility and openness to innovative ideas about the future of daily workflow.

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If you're outsourcing your content creation efforts, it's important to ensure your brand "voice" is consistent. Successful businesses have clear, powerful messaging that lets customers know their values and what they stand for as a brand. The messaging these companies use doesn’t differ on each social media platform, either: It stays consistent, whether you read about the brand on Instagram, LinkedIn or other sites. Sometimes, when companies outsource their consumer-facing content, the messaging and voice don’t appear consistent. To ensure this doesn’t happen to your business, 15 Fast Company Executive Board members shared their tips for maintaining a consistent tone of voice, regardless of the channel. 

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It’s important for you to cultivate a positive, inviting, and welcoming environment.

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If you want to keep morale high and avoid a slump after the holidays, here's how to encourage positivity and cheer among your team. During the holiday season, employees are often excited about seeing their families, taking time off and relaxing before the start of a new year. It's difficult, however, to carry this spirit into the new year when employees have to go back to a normal work schedule in January. Leaders can take the initiative to change this mindset by doing small things to support employees, such as supporting their personal goals through company-sponsored gym memberships or having more frequent happy hours. To help, Fast Company Executive Board members shared some effective ideas for encouraging cheer and positivity post-holidays and into the new year.

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A poorly-crafted social media post can quickly spiral out of control, so it's important for leaders to have a strategy for moving forward. Before posting something under the company's name, it's important to ensure that the tone and message of the post are in line with what you want to communicate. Enlisting the help of a PR professional or reading posts out loud to a group are great ways to make sure that the message you're trying to communicate is the right one. But even then, it's possible that a leader's message can be taken the wrong way or accidentally miss the mark. When this happens, leaders must take immediate action both internally and externally. Below, nine Fast Company Executive Board members shared the first action leaders should take under these circumstances and how to avoid similar situations in the future.

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While most business owners turn to areas like marketing and IT to cut their budget, there are plenty of other places to find and eliminate "wasteful" spending. A lean thinking framework can help leaders trim excess costs in their business or organization. But to maximize the impact of your efforts, it's important to look everywhere for signs of wasteful spending.  The members of Fast Company Executive Board know how easy it is for leaders to overlook key business areas and functions when applying lean thinking. Below, 15 of them share the most common places business owners forget to look when reducing costs, and how exploring those areas can help your company cut expenses and streamline the budget.

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Making simple but effective changes to your customer experience can make a huge difference in how your brand is perceived. When it comes to customer service, it's often the little things that make the most difference. Simple actions like using the customer's first name more often or delivering a personalized order confirmation are easy enough to automate and execute, but they can have a big and lasting impact on how a customer feels about your brand. There are plenty of opportunities to pick the "low-hanging fruit" and start improving your customer experience right away, without breaking the bank or expending tons of resources. To help you do this, 15 members of Fast Company Executive Board shared some easy ways they’ve boosted their customer experience and why it was so effective.

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The best content in the world won't have a positive impact on your audience—or your bottom line—if nobody sees it. Creating content can be difficult on its own, but sometimes an even bigger challenge is ensuring that it reaches the target audience. Careful content crafting must always be married to a well-planned marketing strategy; otherwise, those you hope to help or to draw to your business will likely never hear your message. The members of Fast Company Executive Board know that a successful content strategy takes more than just a clever way with words. Below, 14 of them share practical steps marketing teams can take to drive more traffic to a company’s published content.

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If you’re seeing high rates of resignation, these strategies can help you identify the reasons why. When a company is experiencing high attrition rates, it isn’t always easy to pinpoint the reason (or reasons) employees are leaving. Countless factors can influence someone’s decision to stay at or leave their place of employment; some are within the organization’s control, and some are not. However, when a company is seeing steady turnover, there are likely one or more underlying problems that are happening on the inside. It’s critical for leadership to identify those issues to prevent even more employees from leaving—especially in today’s tight workers’ market. If your company is struggling with steady or growing employee turnover rates, try these 15 strategies from the members of Fast Company Executive Board to get to the root of the problem. The sooner you discover the cause(s), the sooner you can implement real solutions.

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Don't let your company's departments get cut off from each other and stop communicating about and progressing toward shared goals. In the early days of a startup, most team members likely wear multiple hats and have to pitch in together on a variety of projects. But as companies grow and develop, different departments may adopt their own project management and communications systems. While it may seem like it's a good idea for every team to find and leverage the tools and processes that work best for them, a drive for "departmental efficiency" can have the unintended effect of creating team silos. If every team or department in an organization is working with a different set of processes, systems, and tools, they may end up engaged in redundant work, overlook important tasks, and struggle to effectively communicate updates and needs with other stakeholders. All of these misfires can eventually lead to frustration for both the staff and the customers and clients the business serves. Fortunately, with the right strategies from leadership, it's possible to prevent the prevalence and minimize the impact of working in silos. Below, 16 Fast Company Executive Board members share their best tips and tricks for establishing a culture that values both maximum efficiency and productive collaboration.

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The leaders of even the leanest startup teams can usually find ways to cut down their work hours and find a better balance for long-term success. Entrepreneurs and their small crews understand and accept the hard work that comes with their decision to start or join a new business. Yet, a constant, long-hours hustle may not be sustainable over time. If a startup's team members regularly burn the candle at both ends, they're likely to burn out—and that spells bad news for the future of the business. While it may be a cliché, "Work smarter, not harder" may well apply here. If an entrepreneur can find ways to use time more productively, they can shorten the number of hours both they and their team members are devoting to work—which helps everyone involved sustain both their health and the health of the business for the long term. To help, the members of Fast Company Executive Board shared 16 steps entrepreneurs and their teams can take to reduce their 60-plus-hour workweeks down to 40 or less.

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Don't let a limited budget stop you from promoting your new business. When budgets are tight, one of the first things many entrepreneurs strike from their list of financial priorities is marketing. However, marketing doesn't have to take a backseat when resources are limited. In fact, there are plenty of ways to continue promoting your company while keeping costs low. DIY public relations can be an inexpensive way to gain attention for your business—if you follow the right strategies and best practices. Below, 14 members of Fast Company Executive Board share some creative, inexpensive ways a new business can drum up good publicity or press mentions.

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When it comes to getting the word out about your business, your own online reputation can be a boon—if you manage it carefully. With more communication channels than ever available for free, right at our fingertips, there are plenty of options for a CEO to broadcast their business. However, as quick and simple as it can be to talk up your business online through your business and personal social media accounts, it's just as easy to make the wrong move—one that can hurt your company's reputation. Indeed, a CEO's reputation can affect how people view their business. In today's marketplace, consumers tend to make personal connections with the businesses they patronize, and they may well choose to buy from (or pass by) a company depending on what they think of its CEO. Company leaders need to devote time and resources to building up a positive public image online. To help, 15 members of Fast Company Executive Board have shared their top personal branding tips for CEOs. Follow their advice to cultivate an online reputation that's a positive for both you and your business.

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Leading a remote team can be challenging, but with the right strategies, you can keep your team aligned and productive no matter where they’re located. Throughout the pandemic, many companies were forced to make an abrupt shift to a fully remote work environment. This, combined with the growth of the gig economy, means that today, many managers rarely if ever meet with their team members in person. The transition was a difficult one for some businesses, and it’s normal for leaders to feel like they’re still learning about and adapting to managing remote team members. The last several months have proven to many businesses that it’s possible to maintain or even improve productivity levels even when some or all team members are working from home—if managers adopt the right leadership strategies. If you’re still learning the ropes when it comes to managing remote and contract workers, check out the following recommendations shared by members of Fast Company Executive Board.