Leadership in 2025 is emotionally demanding. We’re being asked to move faster, do more with less and lead teams through ambiguity, all while juggling personal challenges behind the scenes.

And it’s taking a toll. A recent study found that 40% of stressed-out leaders have considered leaving their roles to protect their well-being. That’s not just burnout; that’s an urgent call to rethink how we show up, process adversity and lead with resilience.

I’ve felt the strain personally. This year, someone I trusted in my business lied to me. It was frustrating and disorienting, leaving me to question my judgment. Letting them go was the right move, but it stirred up drama inside my team. Some of my team members began to second-guess themselves; some were hurt, and some were angry. As the CEO, I had to navigate my own emotions and help the team regain its footing.

At the same time, I’m going through a divorce — an intensely personal experience that’s forced me to take a long, honest look at who I am and how I contributed to what didn’t work. Leading a company while navigating heartbreak isn’t something taught in business school. I strive not to let it impact my work, but some days are harder than others, and there have been a few times when I wished I could stay in bed all day rather than go into the office.

Add to that the daily challenges of running a company — supply chain complications, being under-resourced for the ambitious strategy we’re executing and carrying the responsibility of keeping my team energized — and you start to see how real this emotional load can be.

And I’m not alone. A recent Deloitte study found that 91% of public sector leaders and 77% of private sector leaders report feeling emotionally exhausted. It’s no wonder emotional resilience has become one of the most essential leadership skills of our time.

And the good news? It can be built. Here’s what’s helped me.

Related: How to Become a Resilient Entrepreneur in 4 Steps

1. Reframe the story you’re telling yourself

When something painful happens, our brains create stories to explain it — and those stories are often harsh and untrue. If you’re like me, you’ve made statements like these to yourself: “I should have seen it coming,” or “I’m a bad leader,” or “I can’t trust anyone.”

After being lied to, I found myself spinning, trying to make sense of what had happened and why. Because I constantly challenge my thinking and look for ways to take ownership of my role when relationships break down, I second-guessed my gut instincts. But I caught the story mid-loop and asked: Is this helping me? It wasn’t. So, I rewrote my story: I trust myself, and good things will come from this situation. Take decisive action and move forward. As soon as I reframed my story, it was easier to act.

Owning your story doesn’t mean making excuses for yourself or others. It means choosing a version of the truth that empowers growth instead of self-doubt.

2. Regulate before you react

Leadership requires composure. Emotional regulation is one of the most underutilized but essential leadership skills. It’s the ability to recognize what you’re feeling, stay aware of how it’s influencing you and choose a thoughtful response rather than a knee-jerk reaction.

When we hit a critical supply chain breakdown earlier this year, I wanted to react — to fix, to control, to vent. It was a very painful mistake with many lessons to learn from it. Understandably, our customers were upset and our sales team was frustrated. But I didn’t react. I followed my mantra of “stay cool, calm and collected” because I’ve learned that the pause is where the power is.

Here’s what works for me when I am in the middle of a high-stakes, high-stress situation:

• Take three slow breaths to ground myself.
• Name what I’m feeling. Just saying, “I’m overwhelmed and frustrated, and I will get through this,” helps me calm myself.
• Step back before stepping in by asking questions, assessing the situation and determining how I will show up for my team in this situation.

You can’t lead others well if you’re led by your emotions. Remember, you set the tone and if you freak out, so will everyone else and freaking out never makes things better. Self-regulation sets the tone for healthy, resilient teams.

3. Embrace change instead of resisting it

Change is hard. But resisting it is even harder.

When it became clear that my marriage was coming to an end, I was scared — scared of all the unknowns, scared of hurting people and scared of what my life would look like without my husband. For a long time, I resisted, and when I finally accepted that it was over, we both could make decisions and move forward. It was heartbreaking. But leaning in by owning my role, facing the pain and letting go of trying to make it work helped me begin again with more clarity and intention.

Change invites us to grow. It asks us to become wiser, more grounded and more honest. The best leaders don’t succeed despite change. They succeed because of how they navigate it.

Related: Why You Need to Embrace Uncertainty as an Entrepreneurial Leader (and How to Navigate It Effectively)

4. Deal with your baggage — or it will deal with you

If you don’t process your pain, anger and frustration, they will take over, whether you realize it or not. Unresolved emotions don’t just disappear; they seep into your leadership. They cloud your judgment, shorten your fuse, erode trust and chip away at your ability to connect with others. You may think you’re compartmentalizing, but your team feels it in your tone, your decisions and your energy. Emotional residue, left unexamined, becomes a barrier to the kind of leader you want to be.

My divorce has been a mirror. I’ve had to unpack old patterns, face some hard truths, manage my emotions (and get out of bed even when I didn’t want to) and do the inner work. However, it has made me a more present and authentic leader.

Healing is a leadership act. And when you heal, you make space for clarity, compassion and connection. Don’t be afraid to examine and deal with your baggage; it’s liberating when you shed the weight from your heart and mind.

5. See setbacks as a setup for growth

Every setback holds a lesson if you’re willing to face it head-on, reflect honestly and take action. Growth doesn’t happen by avoiding discomfort; it happens when you lean into it with curiosity and courage. That’s the power of a growth mindset — or what I call the Ownership Mindset: choosing to learn, adapt and rise, regardless of the circumstances.

One of my favorite examples is fashion icon Vera Wang. She didn’t make the Olympic figure skating team. She was passed over for the editor-in-chief role at Vogue. Most people would have given up. She pivoted and built one of the most recognizable fashion empires in the world. That’s what resilience looks like: using rejection as redirection.

To build a growth mindset:

• Ask: “What is this here to teach me?” Every challenge carries a lesson — if you’re open to receiving it.
• Replace judgment with curiosity. Growth starts when you stop beating yourself up and start asking better questions.
• Take action, even if it’s just one small step. Clarity and confidence are built through movement, not overthinking.
• Honor progress, no matter how small. Small wins are proof you’re moving forward — and momentum is built one step at a time.

Related: 4 Core Strategies That Helped Me Turn Setbacks Into Success

Final thought: Let go and lead forward

Letting go of hurt doesn’t mean pretending it didn’t matter. It means choosing not to let it define you. Resilience isn’t about being unbreakable. It’s about rebuilding yourself stronger than before.

Ask yourself these questions now:

• What am I holding onto that’s weighing me down?
• What do I need to do to let it go?
• What story do I need to rewrite, and how will I rewrite it?

The sooner you let go of what’s holding you back, the sooner you can lead forward — fully aligned, fully present and fully yourself.

Aspiring homeowners need to earn at least $114,000 per year to buy a home listed at the national median price of $431,250, according to a study released on Thursday by Realtor.com.

That income estimate assumes a 20% down payment, a 30-year fixed mortgage, and adherence to the 30% rule, which advises that homeowners spend a maximum of 30% of their gross income on housing.

An income of $114,000 means that homeowners would earn about $9,500 per month before taxes — enough to pay the mortgage, property taxes, and insurance on their home.

However, most American households make less than $114,000. The latest U.S. Census Bureau data shows that the median household income in 2023 was $80,610, up from $77,540 in 2022 and nearly $34,000 higher than $114,000.

Related: House Hunting? $300,000 Buys Over 2,000 Square Feet in Just 1 State — Here’s What $500,000 Gets You Across the U.S.

Realtor.com notes that the national household income needed to buy a median-priced home in spring 2019 was $67,000, or $47,000 less than the current estimate. In just six years, the income required to afford a median home has increased by 70%.

A Bankrate report from March arrived at comparable figures. The report stated that homebuyers needed annual household earnings of $116,96 to afford a median-priced home, more than the $78,236 required in early 2020.

“Between elevated mortgage rates and the rise of home prices nationally to a record level, many aspiring homebuyers feel like owning a home is out of reach,” Mark Hamrick, Bankrate senior economic analyst, stated in the report.

Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages are 6.76% as of Thursday, up from the below 3% rates experienced in 2020 and 2021.

Related: This Is How Much You Need to Earn to Buy a House in the U.S., According to a New Report

Even if mortgage rates and home prices are higher now than they were during the pandemic, buyers may still be enticed to buy because of a high supply of homes. Realtor.com notes that the number of homes listed for sale increased by 30.6% in April compared to a year ago. In April, there were nearly a million homes on the market, or 959,251 listings.

Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist, stated in a Redfin blog post earlier this week that the greater number of homes on the market could give buyers “an upper hand in negotiation.”

“Now is a good time to buy, if you can afford it,” Fairweather noted.

Most entrepreneurs are still using AI to save time—but the smartest ones are using it to make money, scale their business, and replace entire departments with digital agents. This isn’t about ChatGPT or surface-level hacks. It’s about using AI Agents—your 24/7 Phantom Workforce—to run key parts of your business while you sleep. In this video, I’ll show you the 4 most powerful AI agents I use to save 20+ hours per week, boost revenue, and scale operations without hiring a single employee.

What You’ll Learn:

• Revenue Agent: Turn AI into your best-performing sales rep. Discover how tools like Zapier’s Outreach Agent and Salesforce Sales AI can automate lead research, qualification, and follow-ups—so you never miss a sale again.

• AI Executive Assistant: Inbox overloaded? Calendar a mess? Learn how to reclaim your time with tools like Motion, Reclaim, and Superhuman—AI agents that handle scheduling, approvals, and admin chaos so you can focus on growth.

• Workflow Agent: Sick of explaining the same SOPs to every new VA? Use tools like Scribehow to auto-document your processes and delegate work in minutes—not hours. Perfect for solopreneurs scaling without the stress.

• Pulse Agent: This is your always-on marketing analyst. I’ll show you how to use tools like Google AI Studio to analyze, test, and improve your content strategy—before you waste time launching a flop.

These are the exact tools I use to automate key parts of my business and free up my time—and I’ll walk you through each one, step by step.

Download the free ‘AI Success Kit’ (limited time only). And you’ll also get a free chapter from Ben’s brand new book, ‘The Wolf is at The Door – How to Survive and Thrive in an AI-Driven World.’

Starting a business doesn’t have to mean raising big capital or inventing something new. Sometimes, the best opportunities are right in front of us — like helping other businesses show up online where it really counts.

In this article, I’ll give you six ideas to start a small business for under $1,000.

1. Web design service

In today’s world, almost every business needs a website — whether it’s a local hairdresser or a large company. This opens up a great opportunity to start a web design business with very little money. With just $1,000, you can begin by offering simple websites using templates or more complex, custom-built sites.

The demand for websites is huge, and finding clients is fairly easy since businesses of all sizes need an online presence. In fact, 62% of companies say that more than half of their revenue comes from their website, showing just how important it is to have a good one. Once you’ve created a website, there are also ongoing opportunities for work, like website maintenance, marketing and admin tasks, ensuring you have a steady flow of income and long-term clients.

Related: You Don’t Need Thousands to Turn Your Business Idea Into Reality — Here’s How I Did It on a College-Kid Budget

2. Media buying company

Media buying is a vital service for businesses looking to effectively reach their target audience across multiple platforms. According to Impression Media, the global media buying services market stood at $69 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.2%, reaching $125.9 billion by 2032.

This significant growth in the market presents a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to start their own media buying service. By helping businesses plan, execute and optimize their advertising strategies, you can offer valuable support in maximizing ad spend and ensuring campaigns are reaching the right audience on the right platforms.

3. VoIP reseller

Instead of building the entire infrastructure yourself, you can become a VoIP reseller. This means you will partner with an established VoIP provider, selling their services under your brand while handling customer acquisition, support and account management. You can start this business with minimal upfront costs — typically under $1,000. According to VoIP Tech, as of 2023, there are over three billion VoIP users globally, with businesses making up a significant portion of that figure.

With VoIP adoption expected to grow, more companies are realizing the efficiency and cost-saving potential of this technology. This presents a great opportunity for resellers to tap into the growing demand, offering businesses affordable, scalable communication solutions without the need for significant infrastructure investment.

Related: Low-Cost Startup Ideas for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

4. Very niche-specific clothing brand

Create an online clothing brand that offers designer clothes, but with a very niche and specific focus, solving a real problem. One idea for this could be creating a clothing brand for kids designed to help them sleep better. Sleep is a major issue for many children, and it’s important because they need significantly more sleep than adults. According to The Sleepy Sloth, toddlers need 11 to 14 hours, preschool-aged children need 10 to 13 hours, and elementary school-aged children should get 9 to 12 hours of sleep each day. A clothing line made with materials that enhance comfort, support better sleep and are gentle on children’s skin could help address this problem and meet a growing demand for sleep-related products.

5. Moving service that generates leads

Create a moving service by building a highly optimized website that generates leads through SEO and targeted marketing. Partner with local moving companies that have trucks or buses but lack an online presence. You act as the intermediary, driving leads to them and taking a commission for each job.

Local moving companies charge by the hour, with rates ranging from $65 up to $250 per hour, according to Storefriendly. This model allows you to start with under $1,000, focusing on online marketing and logistics. As you grow and get more leads, reinvest in buying your own vehicle and hiring a team, transitioning into a full moving company.

6. SMS marketing service

Create a bulk SMS marketing service that helps businesses reach customers directly through text messaging, a method that’s still highly effective and will remain relevant for years to come. SMS messages stand out because they have a much higher engagement rate than emails, with less spam to compete with. According to Straight Text, 75% of consumers prefer to receive promotional content via SMS over other marketing methods.

You can start by using SMS platforms like Twilio or EZ Texting (costing around $25-$50/month) and offer your service to local businesses that could benefit from direct communication, like retailers or real estate agents. Your initial costs will cover platform fees, dedicated business phone numbers and marketing (around $300 for ads and promotion). With an investment of under $1,000, you can set up and start offering a valuable, results-driven service that will grow as you gain more clients.

Related: 3 Reasons No Money Is No Barrier to Starting Your Business

Plenty of people talk about starting a business. Very few actually do. If you’re ready to move, even $1,000 is enough to get going — and you’ll be ahead of most just by starting.

If this article gave you something to think about, feel free to share it with a friend who’s been considering starting a business. What’s holding you back from starting your own?

Many founders enter a new industry with dreams of disruption. But when Randall Lane and Bob Daugherty launched the National Thoroughbred League, their goal was different: to elevate a legacy sport that’s long been iconic but largely unchanged.

Horse racing is one of the oldest sports in history. But at a time when sports assets are among the hottest investments, they have, ironically, lagged behind. The sport generates billions in revenue, yet its growth has remained flat, even as the broader sports industry surges ahead.

“It’s a riddle,” Lane says. “Why hasn’t a sport that everyone knows, that’s universally popular, with tens of millions of fans and billions already spent, evolved like the others?”

Related: 3 Entrepreneurial Lessons I Learned From Raising Horses

Taking the reins

Like all major sports, the National Thoroughbred League’s foundation is ticket sales. They’re not only the league’s biggest revenue driver but also attract sponsors. Once ticket sales take off and sponsors get on board, media companies start eyeing broadcast rights. That’s where the real money is for leagues like the NFL and NBA.

But horse racing offers something most sports don’t: a built-in revenue stream from gambling.

“Unlike other leagues that barely see a dime from betting, we directly benefit,” Lane says. “That means we’re not just a sports league—we’re also a gambling company. Both industries are booming, and being able to operate in both, seamlessly and naturally, is a huge advantage.”

The founders of the NTL took cues from traditional, human-centric leagues like the NFL and NBA, aiming to foster a sense of community among fans by forming teams.

Daugherty, a Cleveland native, says his 94-year-old father still calls him after every Cavaliers game. He dreams of a day when families talk about the Maryland Colts or the Philadelphia Stallions with the same passion. Lane sees Formula 1 as the true North Star for NTL.

“We want to become the F1 of thoroughbred racing, both in terms of experiences and scope,” he says. “We’re on our way to becoming a bridge for everyday sports fans to fall in love with thoroughbred racing. If we can grow the fanbase for this deserving sport, the entire industry stands to benefit.”

Content-wise, horse racing is tailor-made for the social media age. Instead of trimming a two-hour game into highlight reels, NTL can post an entire race in under two minutes — or just the final stretch.

Related: Boogie Fland on How NIL is Changing the Path to the NBA

Jockeying for attention

Building that kind of loyalty takes star power, which isn’t easy in a sport where the athletes’ personalities boil down to how much hay they eat. To help bridge that gap, NTL has teamed up with high-profile owners like Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and NBA Hall of Famer Julius Erving, both of whom own teams.

“Our owners are part of the experience,” Daugherty says. “Dr. J has been incredible — when he went to Phoenix, he met the jockeys, connected with fans and popped champagne with his team after the championship.”

Image credit: National Thoroughbred League

The league also benefits from Lane’s background at Forbes, where he created the iconic Forbes 30 Under 30 list and the Forbes Highest-Paid Athlete list and currently serves as chief content officer.

“Sports and media are similar,” Lane says. “It’s about accumulating an audience and giving people a product that they want to buy.”

Because of his background, Lane is uniquely versed in the power of storytelling and is already using that to his advantage with NTL.

“Everyone loves horses, he says. “From old men to my daughters, horses have universal appeal. By creating stars around them, we can tell perfect stories.”

Plus, unlike other leagues, they’ll never have to worry about one of their athletes tweeting something controversial.

In the spirit of avoiding controversy, NTL has also made the health and safety of the horses a major priority. Because of its fragmentation, horse racing lacks strong industry safety standards. Lane sees that weak point as yet another avenue for innovation, saying, “It allows us to make thorough racing as safe as possible by setting legal league rules that everyone must abide by.”

Daugherty views the horses as no different from a family pet.

“Yes, it’s a sport,” he admits. “But thoroughbreds have been bred to run—and run fast.”

He adds that he and Lane were invited to join the board of directors for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) by CEO Lisa Lazarus, and that NTL also donates to the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.

“Our goal is to put on the world’s best horse racing, create an incredible experience for our fans, sponsors and patrons,” Daugherty says. “That starts with taking care of the athletes.”

Heading into just its third season, NTL is still early in the race. But with the sport’s rich history and the founders’ modern approach, the league looks poised to go the distance.

Kohl’s CEO, Ashley Buchanan, was fired on Thursday after the retailer discovered he had entered into business deals with someone with whom he had a “personal relationship.”

Buchanan was let go after only four months on the job—he had just started in January. He was previously the CEO of the craft store, Michaels.

After an investigation, the Kohl’s board says that Buchanan led the company to agree to a multimillion-dollar consulting deal with a person with whom the Wall Street Journal reports he was romantically involved. In an SEC filing, the company said it had “found that Mr. Buchanan had directed that the Company conduct business with a vendor founded by an individual with whom Mr. Buchanan has a personal relationship on highly unusual terms favorable to the vendor.”

This “caused the Company to enter into a multi-million dollar consulting agreement” with the individual, it continues.

Related: Hertz’s CEO Suddenly Steps Down After Company’s Pivot from Electric Vehicles

“An investigation conducted by outside counsel and overseen by the Audit Committee of the Board determined Mr. Buchanan violated company policies by directing the Company to engage in vendor transactions that involved undisclosed conflicts of interest,” Kohl’s said.

The WSJ report names former Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Chandra Holt, now the founder of coffee company Incredibrew, as the other person involved in the deal.

Holt denied the claims to the WSJ.

“I’ve known Ashley Buchanan for 10 years, but I have not received any compensation for my Incredibrew business from Kohl’s,” Holt told the outlet.

Kohl’s has closed 27 underperforming stores since January, per Axios. The company still has over 1,120 stores.

Related: BP’s Former CEO Forfeits $40 Million in Severance Due to ‘Serious Misconduct’

The Kohl’s board named Michael Bender, the current Director of the Board, as Interim CEO, effective immediately.

Starbucks has found that removing human labor in favor of machines doesn’t work for the company — so now the coffee chain is hiring old-fashioned human baristas at thousands of stores.

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol stated in a call with investors earlier this week that the company’s effort to reduce headcount over the past few years and replace humans with machines had backfired: Advanced machinery proved to be an inadequate substitute for human labor.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve actually been removing labor from the stores, I think with the hope that equipment could offset the removal of the labor,” Niccol said on the call, per The Guardian. “What we’re finding is that wasn’t an accurate assumption with what played out.”

By the time Niccol joined Starbucks in September 2024, the company had been testing out human staff increases at just a handful of locations. Niccol broadened the effort this year to include 3,000 locations of the coffee chain’s 40,000 stores globally.

Related: ‘We’re Not Effective’: Starbucks CEO Tells Corporate Employees to ‘Own Whether or Not This Place Grows’

Niccol stated that new technology alone doesn’t cut it. Starbucks needed to adequately staff stores and allow employees access to new equipment to deliver a better customer experience.

“Equipment doesn’t solve the customer experience that we need to provide, but rather staffing the stores and deploying with this technology behind it does,” Niccol said on the call.

Niccol noted that increasing staff would entail higher costs but asserted that “some growth” for the company would accompany the move.

^{Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol. Photo by Kevin Sullivan/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images}

The move to hire new baristas is part of Niccol’s plan to turn Starbucks around after five consecutive quarters of declining sales. Starbucks reported on Tuesday that same-store sales dropped 1% in the first quarter of 2025, falling short of Wall Street expectations.

Related: It’s Pay-to-Stay at Starbucks As the Coffeehouse Reverses Its Open Door Policy

Niccol reassured investors on the call that though the financial results proved “disappointing,” Starbucks was “really showing a lot of signs of progress” internally. For example, the average time to deliver in-store orders had declined by an average of two minutes during the quarter, he said.

Niccol’s plan to turn around Starbucks includes limiting the number of items customers can order through mobile, adding ceramic mugs for in-store orders, cutting 30% of the menu, writing customers’ names down with Sharpies on their cups, and asking baristas to make orders in under four minutes. Starting May 12, Starbucks will also require baristas to dress uniformly in a solid black top and khaki, black, or blue denim bottoms.

Starbucks operates 16,941 stores in the U.S. and has 211,000 U.S. employees. The company’s stock was down about 11% year-to-date at the time of writing.

To stay ahead, ecommerce businesses can’t ignore the importance of data, especially the sort of public web data that their competition has access to. Whether it’s tracking competitor prices or catching the latest consumer trends, having access to web data empowers companies to make smarter choices, no matter what sector they’re in.

However, the specific types of data required and their applications can vary significantly from one industry to another. In this piece, I would like to give you a glimpse into the differences and similarities of data collection.

Related: How to Use the Right Data to Make Effective Business Decisions

Who needs data? Everyone!

Ecommerce businesses across all industries rely on web data to monitor competitors, gauge their market standing and discover new growth avenues. Recent statistics show that in 2024, around 2.5 billion people — nearly a third of the global population — were making online purchases of consumer goods worldwide. This massive digital marketplace generates a treasure trove of valuable public data, such as:

• Pricing information

• Data on product availability

• Consumer reviews and sentiment

• Search trends and keywords

• Promotional strategies

• Market share indicators

All of this, and more, can be collected and analyzed with the help of web scraping. Now, let’s take a closer look at how different industries tap into web data to improve their decision-making and overcome their respective challenges.

Furniture industry — seasonal strategies and high-value purchases

The furniture industry operates on clear seasonal patterns, with significant sales happening in January and July as retailers make room for new inventory. During these peak times, prices can drop by anywhere from 10% to a whopping 60%, making it a crucial moment for buyers and sellers alike.

Industry-specific data needs:

• Seasonal pricing trends: Keeping an eye on how competitors adjust their discounts during peak clearance times.

• Holiday promotion strategies: Watching for special deals during big shopping weekends such as Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day, when furniture is often discounted.

• Consumer research patterns: Gaining insights into the online-to-offline shopping journey. For instance, the famous Rule of 7 might be changing as people visit a store fewer times before making a purchase.

• Floor sample availability: Spotting chances when competitors are offering floor models at significant discounts.

Related: Once Only for Huge Companies, ‘Web Scraping’ Is Now an Online Arms Race No Internet Marketer Can Avoid

Fashion industry — rapid cycles and trend detection

The fashion industry is experiencing a remarkable surge, with estimates suggesting it could reach a staggering $1,183 billion by 2029, growing at an impressive annual rate of 8.94%. This sector is characterized by its rapid product cycles, constantly shifting trends and an increasing number of sustainability-conscious consumers.

Industry-specific data needs:

• Trend anticipation: Scrutinizing social media and review data to spot emerging styles before they hit the mainstream.

• Inventory monitoring: Keeping tabs on competitor stock levels to pinpoint items in high demand.

• Sustainable product positioning: Collecting data on how competitors promote their sustainability claims. This is important because, as Deloitte points out, 60% of millennials and 59% of Gen Z are willing to pay extra for sustainable products and services.

• Fast fashion pricing: Monitoring price changes in real-time to stay ahead of the competition.

• Counterfeit detection: Scanning online marketplaces for unauthorized replicas that could harm brand reputation.

Electronics industry — technical specifications and product lifecycles

The electronics industry faces some unique challenges, like dealing with complex products, fast-paced technological change and short product lifecycles. Given the industry’s estimated Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.5% from 2024 to 2031, making data-driven decisions is more important than ever.

Industry-specific data needs:

• Serial number management: Keeping track of product specifications across various platforms to maintain consistency.

• Product lifecycle data: Keeping an eye on when competitors start discounting older models to make way for the latest tech.

• Detailed specifications: Making sure all technical information is readily available and competitive.

• Consumer electronics pricing strategy: Utilizing real-time pricing intelligence for high-value items, especially since consumers are always comparing prices.

• Stock prediction modeling: Leveraging historical sales data to fine-tune inventory for products with short lifecycles.

Related: Website Scraping Is an Easy Growth Hack You Should Try

Food and beverage industry — health trends and ingredient transparency

The food and beverage sector is experiencing steady growth, projected to go from $6,200,011 million (2024) to $9,807,540 million by 2032, reflecting a CAGR of 5.9%. This industry requires specialized data collection to address food safety regulations, dietary trends and consumer health concerns.

Industry-specific data needs:

• Ingredient transparency: It’s crucial to keep an eye on how competitors present their nutrition information. After all, research has shown that over half of Americans say that front-of-package (FOP) labels impact their food and beverage purchases, and a quarter consider this impact significant.

• Emerging dietary trends: Companies must identify emerging consumer preferences for products that are organic, sustainable or plant-based.

• Allergen labeling practices: Monitoring how competitors comply with allergen documentation is vital, particularly for the 220 million people living with food allergies worldwide.

• Adoption of subscription models: Analyzing how competitors are implementing recurring purchase options. Food subscriptions are projected to contribute to a $442 billion global subscription economy by 2025.

• Omnichannel integration: Understanding how competitors connect online and offline experiences is key.

Gathering web data is a game-changer for ecommerce across sectors, but the type of information you need and how you should use it can differ greatly from industry to industry. With the help of web scraping approaches tailored to a specific industry, businesses can stand out by tapping into real-time insights and using them to inform their pricing, product development and marketing strategies.

As ecommerce keeps growing on a global scale, those who know how to make the most of public web data will be in the best spot to understand market trends, predict what consumers want and ultimately grab a bigger slice of the market in their areas.

Remote and hybrid work have opened doors to efficiency, flexibility and new ways of collaborating across distances. But as technology keeps teams constantly plugged in, many employees find themselves feeling more isolated. Those spontaneous hallway chats and unplanned lunch meetups that often forged the strongest workplace bonds are few and far between these days.

In a virtual setting, it is easy to slip into a transactional mode, where tasks and metrics matter most and personal connections recede into the background.

Are there still ways for employees and leaders to spark a genuine sense of belonging in this setup, or is this the inevitable change we have to accept as part of remote work life?

Related: How to Build Emotional Resilience in a Remote Environment

The dynamics of disconnection in remote teams

In traditional office settings, camaraderie often happens organically. Casual small talk and spontaneous interactions usually give a significant source of support and connection. Hybrid and remote environments, on the other hand, commonly eliminate these chance encounters and leave many employees feeling like they’re marooned on an island.

One of the dangers of this isolation is how it can hide in plain sight and feel “normal.” Your team members may appear fine on screen, but that brief video call might be the only point of contact they have all day.

Over time, employees who lack in-person engagement often feel “out of sight, out of mind” — essentially invisible until they turn in their output, especially if some team members work on-site while others are scattered across time zones. This subtle form of disconnection erodes morale and can even impact career opportunities, as remote individuals may not receive the same spontaneous coaching or visibility that in-office peers do.

The first step in breaking this cycle is acknowledging that remote setups can feed isolation. When employers acknowledge this challenge, their teams can take deliberate actions to reach out, check in and ensure that work relationships thrive in any environment.

Related: 8 Remote Work Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Simple ways employees can reconnect

Employees often wait for managers or HR initiatives to foster social connection, but small personal actions can significantly counter isolation. Be more intentional. Instead of just pinging someone on Slack, suggest a quick virtual coffee to chat about things beyond work. Even a short 15-minute video catch-up or an audio-only call while stepping out to take a walk break can brighten someone’s day and trade sterile text for an actual conversation.

Joining or starting interest-based groups like a book club, a fitness channel or a virtual volunteer team can build a sense of community that goes beyond daily deliverables and KPIs. Setting personal goals for social connection each week helps too, even something as simple as reconnecting with one former colleague or inviting a teammate for a casual catch-up.

Leadership strategies for fostering team well-being

Leaders wield tremendous influence in shaping workplace culture, particularly in remote or hybrid settings. Because isolation can be so easy to disguise, managers need to stay observant for subtle signs such as declining engagement, missed deadlines or a noticeable shift in tone during communications. If an employee seems more withdrawn, initiate a confidential, more compassionate conversation.

Connect with your team actively and regularly. Don’t wait for them to initiate conversations — that usually puts them in an uncomfortable situation. Start the dialogue by asking questions that actually spark real conversations. Perhaps something as straightforward as “How was your weekend?” or “How are you holding up recently?” can create the space needed for deeper discussion.

Leaders should also normalize conversations about mental well-being. Openly discuss mental health in team settings so people feel safe sharing personal challenges without fear of being negatively judged. Train managers in mental health allyship to equip them with tools to recognize emotional distress and respond effectively when needed.

Additionally, taking care of your own mental health is important not only for your well-being but also because it enables you to care for others. After all, “you cannot pour from an empty cup,” which means if you are running on empty, it is virtually impossible to offer genuine help or to be present in the moment when colleagues, friends or family members are in need of support.

Related: 4 Lies We Are Telling Ourselves About Remote Work

Creating safe spaces in the workplace

Companies flourish when their people feel free to bring their whole selves to work, wherever they happen to be. However, being yourself at work shouldn’t mean oversharing or ignoring professional courtesy. It means expressing who you are within professional boundaries and showing consideration for those around you.

Regular conversations about mental well-being, starting from onboarding and continuing through weekly 1:1s and quarterly reviews, further reinforce the message that being “not okay” is human, and seeking support is perfectly normal. Offering flexibility in how work gets done and providing benefits that meet actual employee needs, like EAPs, meditation apps, wellness funds and access to care navigation resources, are effective ways to support employees and demonstrate that you are about their holistic well-being.

When employees feel genuinely connected, they move beyond mere transactional interactions and toward deeper collaboration. Ideas flow more freely, morale rises and trust becomes a guiding force in every team. This sense of connectedness and belonging can prove especially valuable during periods of transition or challenging times for a business.

It’s often in these times that you get to see resilience in action, as every team member draws strength from mutual reliance. It highlights a key principle — that each team member’s strength and positive engagement compound the team’s overall effectiveness, and ultimately, the success of your organization.

At Speno’s Lawn Care in Raleigh, North Carolina, lawn care involves more than landscaping — it’s also about building trust with customers and showing up for them when it matters most. For owner Sam Speno, growing a reputable local business comes down to one clear mission: making the customer happy as soon as possible.

“My biggest thing is to respond quickly,” Speno says. “Sending quotes quickly means a lot. I’ve noticed in the past couple of years that people really do appreciate that.”

Related: She Runs a James Beard Award-Nominated Restaurant. Here’s Her 2-Step Process for Hiring the Best Employees.

Many of these responses occur through Yelp’s Request a Quote feature, which allows customers to send job requests to a specific business or multiple businesses at once. Speno and his wife actively monitor incoming requests and aim to reply within minutes. It’s a timely touch that makes a notable impact on consumers looking for fast and reliable assistance.

“It makes it a lot easier for the customer,” Speno says. “And it’s good for us. We do pretty well on Yelp from our reviews, and [Request a Quote was] how that started.”

Responding quickly is just the first step in building customer relationships. Speno also prioritizes clear, honest communication in his messages and discussions onsite. He says that project quotes should lead with transparency, rather than attempts to upsell: “In any field, not just lawn care, everybody appreciates honesty. I think that is what helps people trust you as a business. I’m not going out trying to force people to spend all the money they can — I just want to do what’s right and be completely honest if you don’t need to spend more.”

Speno’s reputation for honesty has further shaped the way he does business, allowing him to transition from full-time landscaping to managing a team he trusts. With dedicated crews for maintenance and landscaping, he’s able to spend more energy on operations and scaling the business.

“ I meet up with the crews in the morning at the shop, and we go over the plan. I’ll meet them again at the job and make sure they have everything and know what they’re doing. Then I’ll go out and focus on the business,” Speno says. “It’s easier for me to focus and keep fueling the business instead of staying on the field at a customer’s house trying to get the job done.”

Related: This CEO’s Paint-Your-Own Pottery Business Has 130 Locations — But Anyone Can Use Her Tips for Creating a Customer-First Experience

This transition came with a learning curve, especially around scheduling. Early on, Speno found himself driving all over town, zig-zagging from one project to the next. Once his wife took over route planning, the pieces fell into place. “The hardest part of the business is trying to schedule. I was all over the map every single day, and this doesn’t make sense. My wife took over planning the routes, and now we’ll put every single customer on our map, and then we’ll divide each one. I’m really thankful for her,” he says.

Efficient scheduling and honest service help Speno cultivate lasting customer relationships, which often lead to repeat work or referrals. These smaller, recurring maintenance jobs lay the groundwork for larger landscaping projects.

“You don’t get to the big clientele until you start with the lawn maintenance,” Speno says. “It may only be $60 to cut someone’s lawn, but they might have a $2,000 landscape job that they need done down the line. Even if it’s not that customer, if you do a good job for them, they’re going to refer you to another customer. It’s brand awareness. You’re spreading your name from such an easy service to do.”

This small but mighty approach extends to how Speno thinks about reviews. He keeps an eye on customer feedback and sees every review as a learning opportunity.

“Reviews are what are going to fuel your business,” Speno says. “A review I learned from was when I didn’t respond quick enough, and they gave me one star, but it actually helped me learn because ever since then, I try to keep my response time within 10 minutes. If you do good work, you’re gonna get good reviews, your business is gonna speak for itself, the reviews are gonna fuel the business, and business will keep coming in, especially from places like Yelp that [help] do that for you.”

Even now, Speno says he never gets tired of reading a 5-star review: “ I’m always super happy to see 5-star reviews because it’s nice to see the appreciation the customer has when you do something, and it makes their day. To us, we do it every day, so we’re like, ‘All we did was mulch a yard.’ But it’s so cool to see that you’re willing to take the time out of your day to leave us a review.”

Related: The Training (and Business) Philosophy That Sets This Self-Defense Studio Apart

A thoughtful approach, a timely team and a business model built on honesty have helped Speno’s Lawn Care foster a loyal customer base. For business owners aiming to do the same, consider Speno’s key principles:

• Speed builds trust. Responding to inquiries quickly — especially through tools like Yelp’s Request a Quote — establishes credibility and professionalism from the initial interaction, which helps win jobs.
• Transparency over transactions. Offering honest, thoughtful recommendations (even when they might lead to less immediate revenue) shows customers you’re on their side and builds loyalty long term.
• Structure is fundamental for growth. Organizing routes, delegating tasks and investing in a competent team allows small business owners to scale without compromising quality.
• The job isn’t done until the customer is happy. Flexibility and follow-through, even for minor fixes, leave a lasting impression that can turn one-time customers into repeat business.
• Reviews are a roadmap. Both positive and critical feedback can be an opportunity for growth. Learning from customer reviews helps your business consistently improve.

Listen to the episode below to hear directly from Speno, and subscribe to Behind the Review for more from new business owners and reviewers every Thursday.

Editorial contributions by Alex Miranda and Kristi Lindahl

This article is part of our ongoing America’s Favorite Mom & Pop Shops™ series highlighting family-owned and operated businesses.