Have you ever ask yourself what are the biggest obstacles Entrepreneur face before starting your own business? Every single step we take in life, comes with its own challenge. It is how we respond to these challenges that would determine the outcome, whether it be positive or negative.
There are many reasons an Entrepreneurs could decide to start a business. It could start with an idea or a need to solve a problem, because an entrepreneur sees what others do not see. Before you start a business, you have to first have an idea. An idea births passion. In the case where you decide to become one because you know someone who excelled in that field is the very first to a business downfall.
Be honest with yourself. Birth your passion first. Be sure it is something you are going to grow in love with. If you are already an entrepreneur or someone who is planning to start a business, there is a high chance that you are going to face obstacles along the way. Before quitting your day job, be sure to know that it is a whole new experience out there.
There will come a time in every entrepreneur’s life where he or she has to deal with some uncertainties at the early stage of their business, it is quite unpredictable. Every decision and initiative of a business owner goes through an uncertain stage.
Even the most experienced entrepreneurs deal with these hurdles, no matter how long these people have already been in business. Every great entrepreneur out there has most likely faced one or two obstacle which they have been able to learn and grow from.
You assume more roles in your business from marketing to accounting, marketing, and sales. It is a tough process to build a new business from the ground to the top. But do not fret because we are here to show you how to deal with these obstacles.
Sometimes, passion is not enough to keep a business, the lack of courage needed to pursue the business ideas and maintain it even in trying times is needed. The fear of failing has made many to back out. Building a strong brand identity will take time, and you will need to make improvements when necessary. So for you to decide to go into business means you have an idea what you are going into.
It is very likely to have early issues if you go into business solely for the purpose of escaping employment situation, it might be difficult to have a clear purpose or vision for your establishment. It could get very overwhelming if you do not have a vision. Remember that being an entrepreneur at the initial stage of your business does means you are set for life.
Some of the common challenges early businesses face are:
- lack of capital and financial management
- Difficulty in getting client
- Insufficient marketing strategies.
- Getting the right team
- Insufficient work time
To deal with obstacles as an entrepreneur, the very first thing you need is level of patience to ensure your business stands the test of time. While quitting and going all-in with your business-to-be might seem like the only logical thing to do, you might want to take a couple of steps back and consider this.
Dealing with the unknown in business is one of the hardest parts of becoming an entrepreneur. You are anxious to figure out:
- How long the business will last
- How much profit you will begin to earn
- How interested your customers will be in your product or service
- How far you are willing to go to take your business global
- Is it something you can manage yourself
it is easy to feel overwhelmed by merely thinking about these. While it may seem impossible to manage the situation at times, the right planning can help you be ahead of the situation.
Examples of some of the obstacles entrepreneurs face are:
- Insufficient Funding and financial management
Everyone can agree that money solves a lot of problems. Capital to start a business and maintain it is a necessity. One can say it the bedrock of any business. But the very first and most common obstacle most entrepreneurs face is lack of or insufficient funding. You are required to pay your contractors, employee’s salary, space mortgage, and light bills.
Even though it is not every business that requires a significant amount of investment to start, you still need to make sure that you will be able to maintain it. You will probably need to find an investor or funding through small business lines of credit. This avenue of raising money will require you to have a business. Review your budget regularly. This will help you keep an eye on where your money is going each month and make changes as needed.
Except you are already financially buoyant to raise capital for your business, raising it can be quite challenging. Nowadays, Loans are not easy to be obtained from Banks for business capital. So most times, entrepreneurs have to wait for a while to be able to gather sufficient funds to start or continue running the business.
There are a couple of funding programmes available for business owners. Try crowdfunding or attend a networking event and let your presence be known. You ever know where you will be able to secure financing.
These days, you can request immediate payment in this digital age. A client can actually pay invoices straight from their digital gadgets. There are times in the business when the client has a close relationship with the business owner and may decide to delay payment for services.
The best thing is to separate business and relationships. In this case, you should require an upfront payment, often known as more a down payment, for every service or product you deliver. The down payment should cover the different expenses associated with one sale or project, as well as leave some profit for you.
Financial management is a very important part of business. It becomes an issue especially if you are not disciplined in terms of handling money. Proper finance budgeting and planning are critical components of maintaining a stable cash flow. There is need for a strong accounting system that works for you.
Even if this will require you to employ someone to handle your account balancing. Also, to make financial management effect, you must ensure that you have a separate bank account for personal use and business transactions.
- Difficulty in Getting Clients
Another obstacle entrepreneurs often face is getting clients. As a business owner, you should constantly be growing your network and Update your contacts list. It can be very dangerous to rely on such a small group of customers. As important as this is to a business, Potential customers are normally quite hesitant about the efficiency of a new business.
Most people prefer going into business with someone with loads of experiences, have a broad audience and large client base. It can be frustrating to get them to trust you. The best way to handle these phase is to do a survey of your target customer and market your business in the best way possible. This includes marketing your brand both traditionally and digitally.
You will have to have a significant online presence with an active social media page (twitter, Facebook, Instagram and many more) and a good website for you to effectively bring your business to your audience. After getting your clients, you have to also develop strategies on how to maintain them to keep using your services.
So what you need is to establish a good relationship with them and paying attention to their feedbacks. Giving your clients a full attention and interesting worthwhile service could encourage them to make recommendations. These recommendations will expand your audience. They might often not immediately turn into deals but when they do need your services, you will be the first that comes to mind.
Fortunately, there are plenty of business networking events that could help you update your list. This is another way to grow your network. Consider attending networking events where you can meet people and share your business with them, community events to introduce your brand to potential clients, investors and partner. Meet as many people as possible.
- Insufficient marketing strategies
Overcoming this particular obstacle is difficult, but it is possible with a little organization. Before starting your business or in the course of running the business, you need to ensure you have a business strategy in place. Work with your mission, this will help you define your strategy and also consider new investing strategies with time.
- Getting the right team
It gets to a stage in your business when you will not be able to do everything by yourself and will therefore need to employ more hands to make the work faster, especially help you reduce the number of hours you work and the work load. It can be very difficult to assign tasks when you are used to doing everything by yourself.
You need to try to avoid burnout. The bigger you grow, the more hands you will need. Working with the right people is one thing to consider. Not everyone would share your vision. Employing workers with an opposite mind-set to what you have will definitely affect the growth of your business. They might not put in the same energy you have towards working.
The team is the pillar of any business’s success. When looking out for employees, you might necessarily not have to go for overqualified workers. The degree a person possesses does not mean they will be very motivated to work with your vision. You need a team who will share your vision, motivation and end goal.
There might be days where the entire team will have to work overtime, it will take a dedicated purposeful team to be committed to take it up on a regular wage without reluctance.
Building a team that you can trust will definitely take time. Arrange for an interview for your candidates and share your vision for your business with them. Asides the regular test and questions on their candidates’ long-term goals, expectations, work experiences, dedication, and other things that you think are relevant to the job.
Whatever you do, take your time. Once you find them, retain them. Maintaining and keeping them motivated can be another challenge. The best way to handle this most time is to treat them like partners rather than slaves, offer them advancement, give them More vacations and possibly pay raise after a while of them working with you.
This also holds when it comes to the exact job duties, days and hours required to work, and wages and benefits to be provided. Pre-qualifying candidates can save you a ton of time, and you can do it by posting exclusive job ads. When placing an ad for employment, make sure you are specific in what you are looking out for whether it is directly or through an employment agency. You also have to make clear what the day-to-day work entails.
- Insufficient work time
As opposed to the regular thoughts of having lots of time to yourself when you become your own boss before going into business, at the early stage of entrepreneurship, you spend more time working than usual. So it might be difficult to maintain a work-life balance. You might start the day thinking you have a lot of time to cover your work and find out you have used up hours trying to sort one issue or the other. There can even be days where you will have to work 10 hours straight and it will still seem like it is not enough, you will also experience change in lifestyle. As you get settled, it gets easier. You get familiar with the system and it helps you work better.
The best way to handle this stage is to work with a schedule and be disciplined enough to stick with your schedule. This will help you balance your time. If the work becomes more overwhelming, then you should get help.
Conclusion
It is common for business owners to lose motivation in times of hardships. Instead of dwelling on the hardship, refresh your perspective and look for ways to improve in the future. You could try researching successful businesses and their stories to see how they dealt with their issues.
Learning from their mistakes and working on avoiding them Emulate the things that are worthwhile, learn from every mistake, and keep pushing. View each obstacle as a learning opportunity. Have a clear business’s mission statement. This is so that at that point it feels like you are at the edge and you feel like quitting, this will remind you of where you started and where you are going.
Everything always seems scary at the initial stage. However, the journey gets better over time. Sure Formation has got you covered at the initial stage of your business. Visit our website Sure Formation to find out some of our services that would benefit your business.
