Entrepreneurs face different challenges in today’s competitive business world; luckily, contemporary times have also blessed capitalists with more resources for handling those issues than ever before. Entrepreneurship comes with rewarding, but harsh challenges, nonetheless. Experienced entrepreneurs have to face this no matter how long they have been in the business- trying to establish a brand, make adjustments to match or exceed the competition and earn a profit is a challenge no matter how many years you have been in the business. But there are a few common challenges faced by entrepreneurs while starting a startup. If you are just getting into this game, or you want to become an entrepreneur, then you must be prepared for these challenges.
Challenges faced by Entrepreneurs while starting a startup
Financial management- One of the common challenges faced by entrepreneurs while starting a startup is arranging money for the startup. Getting funds for the business is one of the main problems that all businesses face and must tackle for survival. While you might have some initial money saved to start a business, they do not survive for long-term and you cannot just depend on the next sales check so that you can pay the bills and take care of further steps in the business. Steady cash flow is important for small businesses to survive and you always must have extra money to manage such days.
Many people struggle to make both ends meet and at times, they do not pay themselves so that they can clear the invoices at the right time. What you can do is plan the finances better so that there will not be any delay in invoicing, and you will have enough time in between getting the money, clearing the invoice, and paying the salary of your employees. For this, you need to ensure that you have a well-equipped business plan beforehand.
Hiring employees for your team- All of us have faced interviews at one or the other point in our lives and for many among you, it has been one of the difficult times in their lives. While all of us have been in this situation, there are a few of us who have conducted interviews and are equally difficult if not more as most of you have not done it previously and therefore have no idea how to do it. The situation is more stressful by the fact that you are doing it as a new business owner and therefore want to choose the right candidate that not only fits the budget but is also proficient too at the work for which they are hired for.
Choosing the right team for a start-up is stressful as you have no idea how the team will work together even if candidates are right and efficient. Therefore, you must be exclusive and look beyond job requirements and resumes. While posting job requirements, you must be specific about what exactly are you searching for and with what benefits and budget.
Ensure that you mention what qualifications the candidates must have and what are the job duties they need to do and how many days they must work in a week.
Dealing with unknown people– Every entrepreneur, mainly the ones that are just starting, doubt themselves and generally doubt their business will be successful and survive in the long run. Also, they often have a doubt if their product will work or not, will the customers like it. There is no getting away from these queries and none of them has a reliable, solid answer till they reach that position. There are several unknown factors and many of your long-term plans may remain in flux based on new developments that come into the scene.
Time Management- Time management is one of the common challenges faced by entrepreneurs while starting a startup. Time management is a common problem faced by people who wear several hats. If you had more time, you could achieve so much more.
What is the solution? Make time. Just like money, time does not grow on trees, of course, so you must be smart enough about how you are spending it. Here are a few ways of doing so:
Create goal lists- You must have a list of lifetime objectives, broken down into annual objectives, broken down into monthly targets, then broken down into weekly objectives. Your weekly targets will be further broken down into certain tasks based on per day. This way, what is present on your task list on any given day is all you need to keep yourself on track with your lifetime objectives. If you find that any task is not matching with your goals, then better eliminate them. If any tasks do not have to be completed by you, you must delegate them to others. Keep on asking yourself, “Is what I am doing now the correct utilization of my time?”
Delegating tasks- You know you must delegate tasks or outsource them, but it seems whenever you do so something gets messed up and you to do it again. So, to tackle this problem, find good employees and excellent outsourced contract help, for the starters. You might have to pay a little more for this, but the time which you will be able to save is worth it.
Next, be specific about what you want to be done. At first, it may take some time, but write down the detailed steps listing what you want your subordinates to do. Do not make any kind of assumptions and do not think that people under you will be able to think for themselves ( they can, but they will finish the task accurately because that is for what they are trained to do.) So, do not say “list stats in a spreadsheet” when you can say “alphabetically list XYZ in the correct spreadsheet column, then list statistics A in the following column. “It might seem like too much, but take your time to be specific at least once, and your subordinates will get it right every time after that.
Decision making- This is one of the hardest and most stressful issues faced by entrepreneurs. New entrepreneurs have a difficult time making decisions as they most of the time equate even small decisions with how it will influence the company and its budget. Self-doubt also makes them examine the decisions they have made already and if it was the correct one.
It is only with time that they learn to take thousands of decisions in a day, big and small, without probing themselves and often facing decision exhaustion. While it will take some time and experience to reach that specific point, they can start by following these steps of the decision-making procedure to make important decisions.
These are- recognizing their objective, weighing their choices, considering the outcomes, make the right decision, and calculate it before giving it a positive reply. For smaller decisions, they can distribute it to those whom they trust and are best suited to that department and would know what are the things that work for you the best.
Confronting criticism- One of the common problems faced by entrepreneurs is criticism. Be it about their business ideas, failures in the business decision making, or starting the business. As a fresher in this field, you might face criticism and would be constantly warned about the different ways your business can fail. Sometimes, the criticism might be personal too.
As a successful entrepreneur, you must learn to face them. You must look at genuine criticism, calculate it and fix them so that you do not have to face it again. Keep aside the unhelpful comments and advice and follow the genuine one to make your business successful.