Baeth Davis

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To find the best candidate, you’ll need to get to know them on a deeper level. The right team can make or break your business. A team that gets along well can help your company innovate and stand out among your competition. On the flip side, a team that is dysfunctional can drag down morale and efficiency, creating internal problems that take away from the work at hand. While teams require a number of elements to function well — including a thoughtful manager — one way company leaders can ensure they’re setting their teams up for success is by hiring the right team members. But choosing the right person out of a pool of candidates can be a challenging task, so how can leaders determine if they’re making the right hires? Below, the business leaders of Rolling Stone Culture Council offer their advice, each weighing in with one step companies can take before and during the interview process to make sure the next hire they make will be the perfect one.

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Even the smallest advice can grow to have a big impact. In the business world, it’s not uncommon for aspiring entrepreneurs (and seasoned ones) to have someone they look up to or whom they hope to be like one day. While this person can often be a fellow entrepreneur or business leader, they can also be an everyday person — someone in their family, a friend or an inspiring acquaintance. Regardless of their role, their wisdom can have a profound effect on their ability to lead and have the confidence to do so. Below, 10 business leaders from Rolling Stone Culture Council share the lessons they’ve learned from powerful female leaders in their life or their industry, the impact those lessons had on them and why these lessons remain so important to them today.

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Building a business can be a slow process — but it doesn’t always have to be. One of the most difficult parts of starting a new business is getting sales. When you first start out, you’re still trying to find customers to purchase your product or service, so sales can often take a while to really ramp up — even if you’ve found a few repeat customers. But such a slow start can be frustrating, especially when you’re not yet making a profit or breaking even.  While growing a business is often a test in patience, there are ways you can speed up the process and increase your sales at a quicker pace. According to the business and culture leaders of Rolling Stone Culture Council, implementing any of the following eight tips can give your business the major boost it needs to attract more customers, quickly increase sales and really get your budding business off the ground.

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Prioritizing your website is prioritizing the happiness of your customers. A website is, more or less, the “face” of any business. It’s where your customers can learn more about your brand and products, where they can peruse your offerings and, if you’re an online-only brand, it’s the only opportunity they have to make a purchase. Because of this, business leaders who don’t put a high priority on both the beauty and functionality of their websites are at a distinct disadvantage among their competition, and potential customers may not stick around long with a poor user experience. To ensure your business website meets and exceeds customer expectations, you’ll need to consider the following nine factors, as suggested by the business leaders of Rolling Stone Culture Council. Here, they go in depth on the reasoning behind these considerations and why prioritizing them will have a positive impact on your visitors.

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Start with developing confidence in your business and what you have to offer. To be “the best in the business,” a business leader must first get intentional about owning their niche. This means finding ways to stand out from the competition, nailing down a distinct point of view and committing to learning and growing as a leader and as a business. While ignoring these steps, and others, may not mean a business will fail, it is likely that, as a result, the business will never rise to the top. Here, 13 members of Rolling Stone Culture Council elaborate further on the key steps business leaders will need to take if they really want to own their niche and why these particular strategies will ensure business success for a long time to come.

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The key to making your business stand out lies in how well you know your viewers. Whether you’re creating a video ad or an educational "how-to" video for your business, there are just some creative tactics that seem to lend themselves well to the video format. Taking advantage of these tactics is critical in an age where getting someone to stop scrolling through their social media feed is key to getting your business noticed. So what can you do to stop the scroll? Here, 12 business leaders from Rolling Stone Culture Council discuss their best tips for creating something that will make viewers stop scrolling, engage with your video and, ultimately, become a patron of your brand.