Saying Goodbye to 9 Common Entrepreneurial Challenges ✋
Nothing worthwhile comes without its challenges.
Remember the first time you decided to commit to your business idea?
I’m sure you were hesitant at first.
After all, we’re all risk-averse.
But you had the courage to take the plunge that so many others are unwilling to do.
For that, you should give yourself a pat on the back.
However, you’re never out of the woods when it comes to running your own business.
Truly, life will throw everything it has at you.
Sometimes it might feel like there’s some supernatural force trying to sabotage your plans.
In reality, every entrepreneur faces great adversity.
Today, we’ll talk about 9 entrepreneurial challenges and how you can overcome them.
The benefit of reading this piece is that you’ll:
- See some of the biggest challenges that people just like you have faced in their entrepreneurial journey.
- Learn how you can solve the challenges you’ll face and what measures can be taken to prevent them from occurring in the first place.
- Get to see some of the long-term impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on businesses.
Ready to start tackling the most pressing challenges of entrepreneurship?
Let’s begin…
Entrepreneurial Challenge #1: Raising Capital
To start and maintain a business, one needs capital in some form or another.
And three common ways entrepreneurs can raise capital are:
- Using their own funds
- Taking on investors
- Receiving a loan
While these methods can prove to be successful, they also come with risks and downsides.
For example, entrepreneurial failure rates are alarmingly bad.
According to a study from the Small Business Administration, just 1 out of 2 startups survive 5 years.
With that, it means your entrepreneurial endeavors are no guarantee.
It’s possible you won’t turn profits for a while.
And it also means it’s tough to convince investors and banks that you’re worth their money.
Interest rates for loans are usually quite high.
NerdWallet says business loan interest rates can be as high as 99%.
And if you use your own funds, it may require you to put our life savings on the line.
How To Solve This Challenge
Be prepared when you make your pitch to investors or a bank.
Having your business plan outlined thoroughly allows you to speak confidently and gives you a much better chance to show that you mean business (no pun intended).
And if you’re not already, you must be responsible with your borrowing.
Because a low credit score will make your life very difficult if you try getting a business loan.
Entrepreneurial Challenge #2: Healthcare Costs
To attract quality talent, you need to offer benefits.
Although compensation is a huge factor for jobseekers, it’s hard to put a price on health insurance.
According to a survey from staffing firm SHRM, 90% of employers cite healthcare benefits as an important thing to provide for their employees.
For big companies, healthcare costs might feel minimal since they use group policies and their profits absorb the costs.
But for small businesses led by entrepreneurs like yourself, it’s a different story.
As found by Commonwealth Fund, 45% of businesses with 2 to 25 employees say the costs of providing health care for their employees is a major problem.
How To Solve This Challenge
One way to help solve this entrepreneurial challenge is by embracing telehealth.
As cited by Entrepreneur, employers are saving $6 billion per year by choosing telehealth services.
Another thing to consider is allowing your employees to customize their own healthcare plan. That way, healthcare plans are catered to the own unique needs of each individual, keeping unnecessary costs at bay.
Entrepreneurial Challenge #3: Marketing Strategy
Without a good marketing strategy, you’re simply not reaching your full potential.
Too many consumers would be completely unaware of your brand.
A lot of small businesses have a tough time with this entrepreneurial challenge.
According to a survey by Keap, finding time and resources for marketing was cited as the top challenge among small businesses owners — making up 21.4% of the responses.
Marketing goes beyond just the cost of purchasing ads.
It also entails keeping in touch with your target market. Whether it’s by hosting events, sending out surveys, or adding them to your newsletter mailing list, staying active with your potential customers takes time and possibly a lot of financial investment.
How To Solve This Challenge
To solve marketing challenges for your small business, either hire an in-house team or outsource your marketing to a team of pros.
Being a digital marketing platform at a lower price point than the industry average, AutoGrow.co is a great choice for this.
With us, you have your own personal team that can carry out any marketing project you can think of:
- Copywriting
- Web development
- Email campaigns
- Lead magnets
- PPC ads
- Social media management
- Press releases
Those are just several of the many arenas that we serve.
Then there’s always the option for you to just become a digital marketing expert yourself.
But that won’t exactly happen overnight.
In the meantime, you’ll need someone else to drive demand for your products or services.
So if you’re thinking about outsourcing your marketing, then try a trial for one of our 4 marketing packages.
Entrepreneurial Challenge #4: Establishing Uniqueness
Having a lot of competition isn’t always a bad thing.
In fact, it can actually be helpful, as it can provide much needed guidance on what exactly needs to be done to succeed in the market.
Really, it’s like your own little blueprint on how to capture your market.
That being said, there’s still the need for your brand to stand out from its competitors.
And this can be challenging.
Because you don’t want to be so different that consumers don’t even group you in the same market as them. At the same time, you absolutely can’t copy your competitors either.
How To Solve This Challenge
You need to just find something that makes your online branding stand out.
And then, hone in on that aspect in consumer touchpoints.
Do you have any values that you’d like to be known for? Talk about it on your About Us page, and share relevant news stories on your social media channels.
Is there something about your offering(s) that differentiates your brand from the competition? Make that a key talking point in your landing pages and demo videos.
Moreover, your brand personality can also be a good source for brand uniqueness.
A study from Adzooma revealed that 57.5% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands with strong personalities.
We at AutoGrow.co try to use a witty and humorous tone in our messaging strategy to make things a little less stale than what you’d see from a lot of other brands.
For example, check out a section from our Copywriting Examples page below.
Entrepreneurial Challenge #5: Coming Up With a Vision
Without the proper vision, you run the risk of wasting time and money on things that won’t be profitable in the least.
It takes a considerable amount of research on your part to formulate a successful business plan.
Not only that, but if you don’t have a vision, you might not even be able to start because you definitely won’t win over the hearts and minds of any investors, if you require that source of funding.
How To Solve This Challenge
To solve this entrepreneurial challenge, it’s important to keep your goals realistic and to stay focused on one specific market or industry instead of trying to do too many different things at once.
Remember, the best business refrains from expanding too much. Instead, they stick to a very specific area that they excel in.
And you also need to take the time to understand business factors like:
- Market fluctuations
- Consumer trends
- Technological advancements
- Governmental regulations
- Scaling plans
Failing to visualize these things and, instead, just winging it, you likely won’t last long as an entrepreneur.
By staying on top of these business factors, you’ll be better prepared for market demands and abrupt changes.
According to a survey by TD Bank, they found that 63% of small business owners believe that visualizing their goals helps them map and develop their business plans.
And vision boards are especially useful, as 82% of those that use them say they’ve accomplished at least half their goals since they started their business.
After all, if vision boards helped “Homeland”’s Carrie Mathison catch terrorists, then it must be a pretty effective tactic.
Entrepreneurial Challenge #6: Continuous Innovation
As consumers are always looking for something fresh and new, you must always be looking for ways to improve upon your products and services.
And this is where the need for continuous innovation becomes apparent.
See, as soon as something starts becoming old news, it’s time to move on and come up with something new instead of stagnating in the past.
This can be something as simple as a new website user experience feature, such as a bot, to a fundamental shift in the features of your actual product.
Because failing to improve your offering will cause your customers to flock to another company that is.
Want some proof?
According to research from Boston Consulting Group, the most innovative companies spend 1.4 times more on innovation than their peers and earn 4 times as much in sales.
However, keep in mind that innovative companies tend to take a little more time with their innovative strategies.
As they say, patience is a virtue.
How To Solve This Challenge
To solve for continuous innovation, you should focus on the needs and wants of your target market as well as what your competitors are offering.
Hiring a market research firm is a good place to start.
With qualitative and quantitative data, a research firm will identify new market opportunities to inform your next pivot
But that can cost as much as $50,000, according to the Furman Group.
If that’s too expensive, then consider a freelance researcher in your industry.
With that being said, a research firm who has experience in your niche will be exponentially better than a freelancer.
In the end, it’s up to you to decide if an initially high cost of investment is worth the potential payoff.
Entrepreneurial Challenge #7: Staffing
The U.S. Chamber published a study in July 2021 asking small business owners how they feel about their staffing needs.
And it turned out, the COVID-19 pandemic has really crippled the hiring process for many companies.
44% of businesses with 5 to 19 employees said it was difficult to find candidates with the right experience.
But it does appear that restaurants, hotels and bars have been hit the hardest.
Compared to 2020, restaurant staffing levels are down as much as 20% in 2021, as reported by the New York Times.
But even if you’re not in any of these industries, your staffing processes will still need to evolve with trends.
How To Solve This Challenge
The pandemic has changed the workplace for good.
According to a survey by EY Americas, 54% of employees would consider quitting their jobs if post-pandemic accommodations are not met.
Chiefly among those accommodations are when and where they work.
Moreover, 59.2% of workers say that healthcare benefits are more important than pre-pandemic, as per HCareers.
So wherever possible, try to accommodate these new demands from jobseekers.
You see, if you don’t, then you may be able to hire people, but they certainly won’t be at the talent levels you desire.
And if you already have talented employees, they might leave for a company that provides better benefits and perks than you.
Entrepreneurial Challenge #8: Cash Flow Management
You need to treat your business expenses with the same responsible attitude as you would with your personal finances.
You see, entrepreneurs are often tempted to spend on unnecessary luxuries in order to get an edge over their competitors.
As the WePay SMB & Money Survey showed, 4 out of 10 businesses face cash flow problems
And while ambition is a noble entrepreneurial trait, you have to remember that you only have so many resources at your disposal.
You need to strike a balance between spending and saving.
Or else, you’ll find yourself drowning in debt.
How To Solve This Challenge
To solve this entrepreneurial challenge, you should prioritize your goals.
That way, you only invest in your most critical business functions.
And refrain from over-reaching, such as expanding too quickly or going on a hiring frenzy when it’s not yet needed. Although entrepreneurship is risky by nature, don’t add any more risk than your endeavor requires.
Some other things to strongly consider are:
- Use a monthly budget
- Ask creditors if you can pay past the due date
- Raise your prices
- Invest in accounting software or hire an accountant
- Offer incentives for early payments
- Constantly analyze your expenses
Entrepreneurial Challenge #9: Finding New Customers
It’s a well-known fact that going after new customers is one of the most challenging tasks for any entrepreneur.
And if you’re facing this common challenge, then you’re certainly not alone. According to the Kauffman Foundation, 72% of entrepreneurs think acquiring new customers is difficult.
That makes sense, given that it’s roughly 5 times cheaper to sell to an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one.
Convincing people to buy what you’re selling just isn’t an easy task. If it was, then companies wouldn’t be spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year on advertising, like Statista found.
If it was easy, then small business owners wouldn’t be turning to third party partners like AutoGrow.co for help.
How To Solve This Challenge
When you’re struggling to get new customers, it’s frustrating.
And it may even require a completely new way of looking at your marketing strategy.
But some things that are sure to help are:
- Referrals from current customers
- Discounts and promotions
- Networking at industry events or on social media
- Utilization of review sites
- Contests
Incentives and social proof play a crucial role in raising brand awareness.
At the end of the day, people are skeptical of companies they don’t know anything about.
And taking the risk out of the equation makes it that much more likely for someone to complete a purchase from you.
Conclusion
As an entrepreneur, there’s some challenges that you’re just inevitably going to encounter.
There’s really no way of getting around it.
Granted, some challenges, like the COVID-19 pandemic, completely blindsided you and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it but to adjust.
I mean, who predicted that the virus would still be the top talking point over two years later?
At the end of the day, there’s just no way small business owners could prepare for the pandemic.
But today, we took a look at 9 entrepreneurial challenges that you can be prepared for and how you can solve each challenge.
And some common issues are actually as a result of the pandemic. For example, staffing policies have been completely reshaped due to a shift in the demands of jobseekers.
Then there’s other entrepreneurial challenges that have been around since the dawn of time, like cash flow management.
Whatever the challenge may be, this article can serve as a guide to walking you through how to solve these issues or how to prevent them from happening in the first place.
And if you go over the list, there’s 6 different entrepreneurial challenges that you would at least partially solve if you simply outsourced your digital marketing to AutoGrow.co.
That is:
- Healthcare Costs: You wouldn’t need to worry about paying for additional employee benefits if our team did the marketing work for you.
- Marketing Strategy: Since 2010, we’ve been helping small businesses like yours establish high-converting marketing campaign strategies with the use of custom-made sales funnels.
- Establishing Uniqueness: Not only do we possess the technical know-how of digital marketing best practices, we’re also accustomed to using a distinct and consistent brand personality for our diverse set of clients.
- Staffing: By delegating all your marketing projects to us, there’s no need to go through the process of hiring a marketing team.
- Cash Flow Management: With competitive price points, our clients save substantially and can focus more on other business functions.
- Finding New Customers: Drive demand for your products and services in accordance with their scaling aspirations by letting a team of passionate marketing experts handle your website, email, social media, advertising, press releases, and other marketing functions.
For now, that’s a wrap.
But before you go, which entrepreneurial challenge resonates the most with you?
Let me know in the comments below.
Keep AutoGrowin’, stay focused.
