e-lifeandwork: Learn New Skills Online | Online Courses & Real-World

As you enter your first enterprise, you will likely face many challenges. It's important to understand the common mistakes made by first-time entrepreneurs so that you can preempt them. Hiring who you know, rather than who is best As a first-time entrepreneur, you may be tempted to hire people you know looking for work. Perhaps it's a friend or family member who has expressed an interest in working for your company. While this can be a good way to help out someone close to you, it can also lead to problems down the road if their skills don't match what's required of them on the job. Hiring based on skill set rather than who you know and trust is best. Not having a great product or service Even if you don't want to compete on price, which many small businesses do because they can't afford to compete on service, you still need to have something unique about your product or service to succeed. Without this unique element, your customers will go elsewher...

What are the four powerful steps to build your confidence? On paper, even the most successful and high achieving among us can lack in confidence. Oftentimes, a lack of confidence is the sole reason why we don’t take certain risks or seize opportunities. It is a key component in success and in life, and yet it escapes us at a different point throughout our journey. What if we knew how to get it back? Angie Morgan is a retired U.S. Marine and founding partner of LeadStar. She is also the author of Spark: How To Lead Yourself And Others To Greater Success. I recently interviewed Angie to talk about where confidence comes from and more importantly, how to get it. (This interview has been lightly edited for space and clarity.) Watch on Forbes: Kevin Kruse: Why is your book titled Spark? Angie Morgan: Well, with the work that my colleagues and I have been doing, what we do is go into organizations and train and develop leaders. What we always find is that the people who stand ou...