PRESS

Whether you’re building your personal brand or business, social media is pivotal for success. But as platforms rapidly evolve, many struggle to build and maintain a loyal following. Social media mavens and members of The Oracles share the tactics they use to grab attention, nurture engagement and attract conversions.

Sweta Patel

7 Cutting-Edge Tips to Achieve What You Really Want in Life

Most people have no clue what they want to do with their lives, even into their 50s. Even after finishing college, mapping out a career, starting a business, and making money, they still feel like they’ve not done something significant.

Sweta Patel

Seven Practical Ways To Manage Cash Flow So Your Business Never Goes Broke

Probably the biggest killer of any business is that it runs out of money. Often, it’s not even for lack of a good product, but lack of cash flow. It takes years of experience for an entrepreneur to understand how to manage cash flow well.

Sweta Patel

Nine Reasons Why Your Customer Isn’t Buying (And How To Fix Them)

You’ve built the product, perfected the service, tweaked the website, and refined the funnel. But no one is buying; these successful entrepreneurs and members of The Oracles explain why and how to fix it.

Sweta Patel

8 Proven Habits for Ultimate Success

We are the result of our repeated behavior. Or as Aristotle put it, “Success is not an action, but a habit.” Here, top entrepreneurs and members of The Oracles weigh in on the one mental habit that drove their success and how to cultivate it in yourself.

Sweta Patel

8 Steps for the Perfect Product Launch

You’ve created the killer product that will change the world. Now you need people to buy it. Top entrepreneurs and members of The Oracles share their tried-and-tested ways to build buzz so people buy from you and passionately spread the word for mega profits.

Sweta Patel

Six Ways To Use Word-of-Mouth Marketing To Promote Your Brand

Word-of-mouth marketing is an effective sale tactic. Yet, cultivating enthusiastic brand ambassadors is a nuanced art. Six accomplished entrepreneurs and members of The Oracles share their top strategies for creating ambassadors who are so excited about your brand, they do the selling for you.

Sweta Patel

9 execs share the best lessons they learned from Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Warren Buffett

Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, and Richard Branson are four of the most seminal business figures of the past century. These members of The Oracles share what they learned from these business icons and how their lives changed as a result.

Sweta Patel

11 Ways to Stay Motivated, According to Highly Successful Business People

Building a successful business and a life you love takes enormous self-discipline. Top entrepreneurs and members of The Oracles share their top tips for mastering self-discipline so you don’t hit the “snooze button” on your goals and dreams.

Sweta Patel

12 tips from successful execs on how to stop negative people from getting in your way

Chronically-negative people can slow down your momentum and sabotage real success. Top entrepreneurs and members of The Oraclesshare their bulletproof strategies for cutting ties with negative people once and for all.

Sweta Patel

11 ways to make the most of your downtime

Hustle is important, but entrepreneurs are humans, not robots. Breaks, downtime and recuperation are key to staying hyper-focused over the long haul. Time-management titans and members of The Oracles share their top tips for using downtime to up your business game.

Sweta Patel

Quit bad habits with these 11 top tips

Warren Buffett said: “Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” It’s far too easy for bad habits to derail our businesses, health, finances, relationships, and happiness. Just one bad habit can be the bad apple that spoils a dozen good ones.

Sweta Patel

6 Ways to Profit With a Purpose

Doing well is hard enough for most entrepreneurs. How on earth are they supposed to make their business a force for good, too? Six altruistic members of The Oracles share how you can make the world a better place while building a wildly successful company.

Sweta Patel

8 Proven Networking Strategies of Successful Entrepreneurs

Traditional networking is mostly ineffective. We’re either time poor and don’t know where to find quality connections, or we leave a networking event with a stack of business cards but no solid relationships. Here are nine unconventional strategies to nurture a powerful network.

Sweta Patel

6 Success Lessons You Need to Know to Improve Yourself

The path to greatness starts with a critical look in the mirror. These accomplished entrepreneurs share their best, most practical (and actionable) tips to maximize your potential.

Sweta Patel

6 Tips to Maximize Your Productivity on Remote Work Days

More and more people are working from home thanks to the proliferation of collaboration tools and mobile computing. Having the flexibility to work remote is a nice perk — as long as it doesn’t prove too distracting to get your work done.

Sweta Patel

Eight Things To Consider When Working With Your First Remote Employee

As you look to expand your operations with a workforce that works from remote operations around the world, consider that your business will benefit from diverse cultures, advanced skills, and motivated individuals that are happy with their work environment.

Sweta Patel

Streamlining Your Startup Can Be a Cinch – If You Follow These 15 Tips

Ensuring your business flows effectively is key to the success of your company. In the first few years of any business, it can be difficult to achieve a new level of efficiency that you are comfortable with, and that helps your operations steadily keep up with demand.

Sweta Patel

Five Things You Must Know Before Seeking Funding For Your Startup

You just presented the pitch of your life. The investor really loved it. Give yourself a round of applause — you deserve it! You’re doing your dance because the investor agreed to the amount of funding you requested. This is exactly what you wanted — now you have the green light to start everything.

Sweta Patel

14 Trends B2B Marketers Need to Become Familiar With in 2018

What’s a trend this that B2B marketers need to understand this year?

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Sweta Patel

Entering A New Industry? 8 Ways To Break In Successfully

We asked eight members of Young Entrepreneurs Council about what it takes to successfully enter an unfamiliar industry. From making the right connections to offering a prototype or free services, here’s what they had to say.

Sweta Patel

6 Ways to Give Your Company a Solid Start in Q1

The first quarter is the kickoff to the year and your chance as a leader to put your business on the right path for the months ahead. Checking in with your team, reviewing last year’s results and setting goals are all great ways to make sure you’re headed in the best possible direction.

Sweta Patel

Seven Ways A Woman Can Get The Workplace Recognition She Deserves

Whether your boss or manager has already become used to your performance and has come to expect it on a regular basis, or they are more likely to praise a male colleague for the exact same kind of work, you definitely need to step up and start taking credit for your achievements.

Sweta Patel

Four Leadership Skills That Drive Startup Growth

Startups either have that “it” factor or they don’t, and some founders spend so much time trying to figure out exactly what that “it” factor actually is. They want to be successful, but when they follow the money they end up losing sight of their original mission. They want to be able to grow and scale quickly while creating an inclusive culture.

Sweta Patel

7 Common Mistakes new Entrepreneurs Should Avoid in 2018

As 2018 begins, it is time for business leaders to look back and assess their organizations’ strengths and weaknesses during the past year, as well as take a look at some of the biggest mistakes that should be avoided as you go into the new year.

Sweta Patel

Seven Key Steps to Success in Today’s Challenging Business World

Succeeding as a business in today’s business world is no small feat, as entrepreneurs need to overcome significant challenges from the start, such as creating a viable business model, building a strong and reliable team, standing out among your competitors, and generating enough revenue to be sustainable.

Sweta Patel

How Passion Can Kill Your Dreams (And What To Do Instead)

“If you’re passionate, you’ll go far.” ,“If you don’t have passion, then you shouldn’t have a startup.”

These are popular sentiments. After years of research and working with hundreds of startups, I’ve discovered that 421 out of 600 founders have reported that passion has held them back more than anything else with their startup.

Sweta Patel

Eight Tips To Help Your Employees Thrive Day To Day

Every good boss wants to see their employees succeed. Not only is this advantageous to your company but it works to benefit your staff as well. Keeping your employees happy on a day-to-day basis can bring out the best in them and improve how they feel about their job and their work environment.

Sweta Patel

11 Features to Look for in a CRM

Different businesses have different needs, but you can’t go wrong with strong customer relationship management software. These are the hallmarks of a great CRM.

Sweta Patel

14 Ways to Keep Improving Your Business Skillset

Developing your abilities is crucial for long-term success.

by Young Entrepreneur Council, Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs.

Sweta Patel

11 things you need to know about your smart home devices

There’s no question that the internet of things (IoT) has revolutionized the way people manage their homes. From a simple voice-activated AI assistant like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home to interconnected systems for lights, thermostats, kitchen appliances and security alarms, these devices are designed to make our lives simpler and more convenient.

Sweta Patel

How to Balance a Side Hustle with other Commitments – Including a Full Time Job

You’ve decided to run an online business in addition to your other obligations such as a full-time job and family, and it’s much harder than you thought. It takes time to figure out what to do, and how to balance it all. It’s probably easier to learn from the experts first.

Sweta Patel

12 futuristic technologies that could become reality in 2018

In the last year, the business and consumer markets alike have seen the release of advanced technologies that were once considered the stuff of science fiction. Smart gadgets that control every facet of your home, self-driving vehicles, facial and biometric identification systems and more have begun to emerge, giving us a glimpse of the high-tech reality we’re moving towards.

Sweta Patel

The Best Ways to Break Down Mentorship Barriers

Mentorship doesn’t have to be tough to come by for female entrepreneurs. Often times, there is plenty that you can do to secure mentorship for yourself or for a fellow entrepreneur who just needs a additional support.

Sweta Patel

Staying On Track: Tips, Processes and Software to Keep Your Team Efficient

When you’re running a business, you’re responsible for a lot of different people and processes. With so many tasks on your plate, it can be difficult to personally oversee your team’s workflow and make sure they’re staying on track.

Sweta Patel

15 ways to effectively monitor and improve employee morale

Take the pulse of your current company culture.These 15 tips can help any entrepreneur keep tabs on their workforce morale without having to put their own work on the back burner.

Sweta Patel

12 ways to develop trust when dealing with your customers’ personal information

With security breaches threatening confidential and personal information on a daily basis, it is key that you take the time to develop a policy to protect and privatize your customer data.

Sweta Patel

Ushering In The New Generation: 15 Ways To Attract Quality Millennial Talent

Ask any business owner, and they’ll tell you: one of the biggest headaches is finding good, or rather GREAT employees. Hiring millennials, in particular, is touted to be even more difficult, as members of this generation are rumored to be flimsy and less interested in holding down a job long term.

Sweta Patel

12 Pro Tips for Tailoring Your Presentation to Your Audience

When you’re giving a presentation or pitch, you can’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. Every audience and venue is different and comes with its own energy and vibe.

Sweta Patel

Six Infallible Tactics For Closing A Sale

With 8% percent of all salespeople making 80% of their company’s sales, according to statistics compiled by Propeller, knowing how to close a deal is crucial to being a part of the team.

Sweta Patel

10 Strategies For Successfully Hosting Interns

If you’ve never set up a summer internship program before, what one essential thing you should make sure to do to ensure it’s successful?

Sweta Patel

15 Habits That Will Make You a Better Leader

Smart leaders know there is always room for improvement in their management style. Whether you’ve just been promoted to your first leadership position or have been an executive for years, there are always lessons to learn and ways to become better.

Sweta Patel

No More Excuses! 13 Strategies for Turning Mistakes Into Results

No matter how prepared you are or how carefully you thought ahead, there are times when things simply don’t go your way. Maybe you planned a get together, and then accidentally insulted a friend in the process.

Sweta Patel

10 Useful Technologies for Hosting Online Meetings

With so many team members spread out across time and space, it’s becoming increasingly imperative to conduct your meetings online. But depending on what your team is like and your needs, choosing a software application can be overwhelming.

Sweta Patel

10 reasons for entrepreneurs to love open-source software

Small- to medium-sized businesses have different obstacles than larger businesses. Sometimes that means that the same software is not as accessible. That’s where open-source software can offer a lot of benefits for a lot less money.

Sweta Patel

10 Ways To Keep Your Weekly Standup On Track

n the software development world, teams often hold daily “scrums” or standups — a brief meeting where the entire team gets together (often standing up) and shares their progress on current tasks, what they’re working on that day, and any challenges they’ve encountered along the way.

Sweta Patel

Eight Unique Ways To Thank Customers For Their Loyalty

Customer retention is a critical component of any business’s overall strategy. After all, studies show that it costs five times as much to land a new customer than it does to keep one you already have.

Sweta Patel

9 simple ways to update customers on policy changes

Before the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance deadline went into effect in the EU, many websites updated their customers about their privacy policy.

Sweta Patel

Want To Set A Good Example? Adopt These 10 Leadership Habits

There’s more to being a great leader than having a vision for the company’s future. If you truly want results from your team, you need to lead by example and model the behavior you want to see in them.

Sweta Patel

Think Your Employee Is Looking For A New Job? Here’s What To Do

Smart leaders know that they won’t be able to retain their employees forever. This is especially true of younger professionals, who are more likely to change jobs more frequently.

Sweta Patel

11 effective ways to help your employees become good leaders

Business owners can take advantage of multiple leadership training opportunities, including mentorship programs, dedicated industry seminars and online courses, to help team members develop strong leadership skills.

Sweta Patel

Where To Start When Creating A Company Wellness Program

Workplace wellness is a $43 billion industry, with employers tending to spend more on employee wellness each year, according to Global Wellness Institute research.

Sweta Patel

Nine Ways To Boost Company Culture With Remote Workers

These days, many teams are made up of both in-house and remote staff. But this type of office arrangement is not without its challenges. After all, with part of the team not physically present, it can be harder to communicate, check in and maintain a cohesive company culture.

Sweta Patel

11 Clear Signs It’s Time to Exit Your Business

What is the key factor in determining when an entrepreneur should exit a business? Why does this factor matter so much?

Sweta Patel

11 Ways First-Time Business Founders Can Attract Investor Interest

As a first-time founder seeking investors, what is one way to attract the interest of a potential investor?

Sweta Patel

11 Professional Networking Mistakes Every Student Should Avoid

When we begin building our professional network, we make networking mistakes we all wish we could take back. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a networking do-over. No worries. We’ve all been there. We all have to start somewhere.

Sweta Patel

10 Essential Tasks for After Your First Post-Graduation Summer

Graduation seemed like it happened yesterday, right? Don’t look now, but it has been three months! Your first post-graduation summer is now behind you… and it is time to start a full-time job search.

Sweta Patel

Stuck in an Overwhelming Job Search? 13 Simple Ways to Get Going Again

Are you stuck in what seems like an overwhelming job search? Despite a strong effort, are you not gaining enough traction? Perhaps you need a job hunting reboot?

Sweta Patel

Sweta Patel – founder of Silicon Valley Startup Marketing.

Sweta Patel is a startup marketing advisor and founder of Silicon Valley Startup Marketing. She has consulted for more than 200 early-stage startups and high-growth companies.

Sweta Patel

7 Social Media Metrics Marketers Should Track

Do you want to track the effectiveness of your social media marketing? Wondering which social media tactics are paying off? By defining and tracking a few key data points, you can determine whether your marketing is on target.

Sweta Patel

Nine Reasons Why Your Customer Isn’t Buying (And How To Fix Them)

You’ve built the product, perfected the service, tweaked the website, and refined the funnel. But no one is buying; these successful entrepreneurs and members of The Oracles explain why and how to fix it.

Sweta Patel

Six Ways To Use Word-of-Mouth Marketing To Promote Your Brand

Word-of-mouth marketing is an effective sale tactic. Yet, cultivating enthusiastic brand ambassadors is a nuanced art. Six accomplished entrepreneurs and members of The Oracles share their top strategies for creating ambassadors who are so excited about your brand, they do the selling for you.

Sweta Patel

Nine Reasons Why Your Customer Isn’t Buying (And How To Fix Them)

You’ve built the product, perfected the service, tweaked the website, and refined the funnel. But no one is buying; these successful entrepreneurs and members of The Oracles explain why and how to fix it.

Sweta Patel

Seven Practical Ways To Manage Cash Flow So Your Business Never Goes Broke

Probably the biggest killer of any business is that it runs out of money. Often, it’s not even for lack of a good product, but lack of cash flow. It takes years of experience for an entrepreneur to understand how to manage cash flow well. Money masters and members of The Oracles share their top techniques for staying flush so your business is never crunched for cash.

Sweta Patel