Most Common Business Obstacles and How to Overcome Them
Unpredictability is unavoidable when it comes to business, especially on the first two years of its founding. Is already challenging to understand and learn how to run a new business from scratch without thinking about other issues that you can find on the way, but you are not alone. If you’re feeling your struggles are keeping you down, they’re probably more common than you think and getting on board and planning ahead can keep you away from them. Here are some of the most common business obstacles and how to overcome them.
Time
We all know that feeling: the day seems to have fewer and fewer hours! The clock is not running against you, and this is something most entrepreneurs have to face, especially when they’re in the planning part of their business and if they’re taking more than one role on the enterprise.
We all have the same amount of hours in a day. Time is yours, so you need to start making it work in your advantage. Interruptions, last minute deadlines and rushed phone calls and meetings can be challenging but building a schedule contemplating possibilities like these is a good way to start making your time efficient. Track the time you spend on each task to optimize your agenda, eliminate unproductive activities and always book some “me” time where you can relax and rest, otherwise you can suffer from burnout.
Cash
At least 67 percent of small business owners report the lack of cash flow as their major challenge and concern while running a new entrepreneurship. No matter the size, problems are not related to having too much capital but actually from running short. Access to capital, especially for starters, is really hard to get but there’s actually solutions to it.
You need to study the market and see what options are more suitable for your business. Project the amount of cash flow you’ll perceive weekly, monthly and yearly to keep everything in track, cut unnecessary expenses, invest where you need to and understand where you are and where you want to go. Traditional business loans are always an option, as well as strategies like KickStarter and similars, but if you don’t wanna be asking around for money you can try to keep as much of your money as you might on your pocket. Reward your customers when they pay you on time or if they buy an good amount of your product, and establish a penalty fee for when they’re late.
Inexperience
Sometimes you might have a great vision about a business project, but you don’t know the rules for selling it. Yes, marketing might feel like a huge challenge when you don’t have any prior experience or you haven’t studied it yet, but ignoring it is not a choice: you need to either take the wheel and work in it or you have to be prepared to hire somebody to do that, because marketing can be fundamental for the success of your business.
If content creation is not your area of expertise, you know you need to be on social media but don’t have the tools to create a strategy or you need to find a graphic identity for your project but you don’t know where to start, get a professional marketer on your team to handle this tasks and focus on your strong area. Entrepreneurs can’t do it all!
