Even if you’re not a salesperson, the day may come when you need to convince someone — anyone — that they should take a chance on you. This could be a job interview , when you’re jockeying for a promotion, decide to start your own business and are trying to make sales or secure clients, or if you need to lobby for funding . Whatever the goal, you need to give your target audience a persuasive reason why they should give you the job or promotion, shop with you over a competitor, or fund your business instead of another startup. To do this, you need to sell yourself. This can include creating a thorough presentation that outlines the benefits of someone aligning themselves with you. But you need a good elevator pitch to draw them in before you get to that step. What Is An Elevator Pitch? Once upon a time, people literally did chase after executives, corner them in an elevator, and essentially pitch themselves as a viable option. Whether this was to get a job or secure a business deal,...

Let’s face it, at first, getting a negative review can leave you feeling humiliated and demotivated with no energy to show up at work the next day. But here’s the thing. Whatever success looks like for you, making mistakes are an integral part of the journey to achieving your goals. Ultimately, the measure of your success isn’t determined by your mistakes, it’s determined by the way you respond to those mistakes. Throughout my career of developing and training leaders, I’ve met many professionals who transformed negative feedback into an opportunity for growth. Sometimes, negative feedback led them to innovate their offerings. For others, it helped them develop deeper relationships with their customers and colleagues. Whichever route they decided to take, the decision started with their belief that mistakes are inevitable and necessary for growth. It all depends on how you look at things. Give Yourself Time to Process Your Emotions Often times, the difference between successful...

Transitioning from a solopreneur to a leader of a team can be a sign you’re on your way to building an empire. However, don’t get it twisted; while you may have built a solid reputation as a one-person show, poor team management can ruin it in seconds. When running a one-person business, you may be able to risk certain things like keeping all of your standard operating procedures in your head or waiting until the last minute to file your taxes. However, when you’re leading a team, who ultimately becomes the face of your business, you can’t leave anything to chance. Planning, identifying best practices, and maintaining documentation is key. One of the best ways to start documenting your processes and clarifying what you expect is to ask yourself: “If I went on a vacation for two weeks with limited or no access to the Internet, what would someone do each day to operate my business? ” Where would they find tools and resources to assist them with their day-to-day tasks? How would I...

While most parents think about starting a business to create a family legacy and have their kids work for them, imagine being a parent who works for their 19-year-old’s million-dollar business. At just 9-years-old, Zandra Cunningham started Zandra Beauty a plant-based skincare company with products in Target, Costco, Wholefoods, Wegman’s, and more. Now, with her mom, dad, two brothers, and nana working behind her, the beauty executive is also an author, a speaker, and change-maker using her career as a platform to teach other teen girls how to own and operate their businesses. Below, her mom Tamara Zantell talks about the steps she took to build and maintain trust with her daughter as a business owner and the family policy for navigating conflict. AfroTech: Regardless of a family’s level of success, disagreements about business matters will occur. What’s one piece of advice you would give someone for starting a family-owned business? Tamara Zantell: The advice I would give a family...

TED has led the talking industry for 30 years. This nonprofit started in 1984 as a conference focused around Technology, Entertainment, and Design and has since transformed the way the world learns via spoken communication. Today TED has added talks on science, politics, culture, and just about everything else to its list of speaking points. Entrepreneurship requires staying abreast of certain topics and the general happenings of the world to analyze trends and develop new ideas. A great way to do this is to take advantage of the free knowledge. We’ve compiled a list of six TED Talks that will undoubtedly change some old perspectives that you didn’t know were holding you back and equip you with the knowledge you didn’t know you needed. Launching and Supporting Black-Owned Businesses — Mandy Bowman Mandy Bowman.com lists her as the founder and CEO of Official Black Wall Street, a digital platform dedicated to enhancing the visibility of Black-owned businesses. According to her...