Image by National Rural Knowledge Exchange
Did you know that 50% of small businesses fail after 4 years?
Starting a small business may be rewarding but like any other dreams, the road to success is often paved with difficult obstacles.
Just when you thought that your plan to start your business is about to work, you suddenly realized that there are way many things that you have to consider and do.
Paperwork to finish, calls to make, approvals to obtain and all of these would further hinder your activities unless you learn to expect it beforehand.
So here’s some of the most common challenges that every entrepreneur have to expect and develop ways to overcome:
1) Building the proper foundation
The foundation of your business is everything.
It’s what you continue to build your empire on and if you don’t have a good foundation, it’s not easy to continue to build upwards.
Knowing how to build a good foundation is something you learn over time, and won’t come to you right away.
You have to work at it and learn that it isn’t about quantity, it’s about quality.
A lot of people know this already, but yet so many business owners that are just starting out seem to leave this key factor out of the equation.
They want to produce as much as they can, as fast as they can, so they can get their business out into the world and build it up as fast as possible.
This will not work. Sure, you might be able to get around faster, but this isn’t a good thing.
The product or service you are offering isn’t the quality it should be which means a large amount of potential customers are then lost.
2) Lack of organization
When you are looking through a container of papers that consists of 9 different subjects and they are all assimilated together, what are the odds that you find the one paper you are looking for without having to dump the whole container onto the floor?
When you are operating a small business, especially in the beginning stages, it is crucial that you are keeping everything organized.
This will help you clean up any messes that might happen to occur, and also save you a large amount of time that you can be using towards improving your business.
You will also be able to look at your business as a whole and see if there is anything you can reform and better your business.
3) Staffing
How can small businesses attract and afford the best talent?
This is tough, because larger firms and even the nonprofit sector and government might dispense better health benefits and even compensation.
So, the small enterprise has to sell potential employees on the fact that they’ll gain experience, get hands-on training, and see more growth possibilities with them.
To solve the problem of getting quality staffing, lower down your expectations and hire anyone willing to work with you first.
Don’t worry, there will always be people looking for work, especially in this time of turmoil where unemployment is beginning to seem like a norm.
After a while when you feel like your business is going stable after a few months, create something amazing that will shoot your business up and only after that, will quality talents start to see and come to you.
An example of this is a small company called Mind Valley in Malaysia.
It started as something very small that people don’t even think it’s worth their time but after a while, it became one of the most successful companies in Malaysia and almost 80% of the staff, are international staff who come from all parts of the World such as Canada and the UK.
4) Competition
Simply put, competition is what crushes a lot of small business that don’t compare to all the companies that have been in business countless number of years and have the experience under their belt.
The thing you have to remember, is that they started out with nothing. EVERY business starts from the bottom.
You want to look at big businesses and competitors in a positive way.
See what they did that made them successful, and then replicate it!
You already have a similar business that had to go through the same thing you are going through, so use that to your advantage.
You can cut your learning curve and also avoid the mistakes they made. Use their failure, for your success.
Always bear in mind that no matter how difficult the challenge may be, in the end it will only make you stronger as you learn how to get through that particular situation and prepare if it ever comes your way again.
5) Failure
Simply put, failure is the major component that stops a majority of small business owners from going any further or trying any harder.
It’s the easiest thing to come by, and the hardest thing to defeat.
Failure can take the burning desire for success and make you re-think everything you thought about your business as well as your strategies you have been using.
This directly links with the motivation portion of success.
“When you want to be successful as bad as you want to breathe, then you will be successful”
This is a beautiful line that says more about success than a lot of things ever could.
When you’re struggling to breathe and get air, that’s the ONLY thing you are thinking about.
You aren’t thinking about the game that’s on tonight, or what you’re doing tomorrow, or what your friends are up to.
All you are thinking about is breathing.
That is your one and only goal, and you put every bit of energy you didn’t even know you had into trying to get that breath of air.
When you want to be successful that bad, you will then be successful.
This means that even though you are struggling and do go through failure, you can’t quit because it isn’t an option.
You only have one goal, and you will give everything you are made of until you reach that goal. That is success.
Conclusion
Building a small business may seem fun and promising (It is), but not everyone can actually get through the journey on the first few stages due to the lack of willpower.
However when times get rough, just remember that all big companies start with nothing as well and if they can survive and flourish into your competitor today, you can do so too!
For more information on building a viable business, check out my #1 recommended program here.