Entrepreneurs face a number of challenges when starting their venture and throughout the lifecycle of their business. For someone who is struggling to get started or take their business to the next level, these challenges can present major obstacles and can even discourage an entrepreneur enough to make them consider quitting.
To avoid these feelings it’s helpful to know the common challenges so that you can prepare for them and meet them head-on. This empowers you when you face them in the course of starting or running your business so they won’t surprise or discourage you.
Challenge: Finding Direction
When you’re first starting your business, finding direction isn’t much of a concern. You’re trying to build a full schedule of paying customers and this will occupy your time. But once your business is up and running, you always need to have a goal in mind to work toward. This keeps you focused and on-track.
To get through this challenge, return to your business plan or the initial milestones and goals you set for your business. Review these and evaluate where you are now and which goals you have not yet achieved. This can help you refocus your efforts on future milestones.
If you started without writing down your goals and a plan to achieve each one, step back and do that now. This doesn’t need to be a formal business plan unless you are applying for funding. It can be as simple as a journal page listing your goals and the steps you need to take to achieve them. For a formal business plan, Entrepreur.com has a comprehensive Step-by-Step guide.
Challenge: Staying Motivated 
There are times when running your own business seems impossible. You may find it difficult to grow your income or “succeed” (however you measure success), or you may become too overwhelmed with the work you get or the difficulties you face along the way. When things are toughest, this is when you need motivation. Without motivation, you may be inclined to quit.
This is an excellent time to tap your support team. This team is made up of people outside of your business but whose support you will need. This could include other service providers that you have built a relationship with, or it could include people unrelated to your business, like a family member who can give you advice or encouragement.
Case Study: Meet Diane, CEO of her own virtual assistant business. Okay, she thinks that is a lofty title for her one-woman startup. But when she decided to take the leap and start the business, she recruited her Aunt Kay as the principle of her support team. Whenever Diane is feeling discouraged, she can give Kay a call or have a lunch date with her and it always gets her back on track. As a business woman herself, Kay can provide solid business advice but her greatest role is a cheerleader. She knows what to say to motivate Kay to continue to work toward her dreams and most the time that is all that is needed.
If you haven’t built a support team, Rachel Bridge has a step by step article on Bytestart.com.
Challenge: Internal Protocols
Every business no matter how small needs its own internal protocols. These are routines for managing your regular work. For example, you might have a standard protocol for responding to inquiries from potential clients or setting up initial projects. These protocols have to not only be established but also improved over time for better efficiency or because of changes in your market, your business, or your customer base.
You should outline your operational processes. Take each process that’s part of your business and lay out a workflow for it. These workflows can be changed whenever necessary, but it’s good to have each process spelled out clearly and thoroughly. This will save you time and, when you outsource work, as it will let your contractors know exactly what you expect.
If you are a coach, we have put together a package of 9 templates you will use every day in your business. You can download these here.
Challenge: Developing Strategies
A great deal of strategic thinking goes into running a business. Once you know your direction and have identified goals, you need to develop a strategy for meeting them. But if you’re not accustomed to this kind of thinking, you may find yourself stuck for ideas or employing the wrong strategy at the wrong time. This is why you need to work on your business skills.
Small business training courses can help you in a variety of ways when you’re operating your own business. The weak points you identified in the first chapter can be improved by taking advantage of these courses. For example, you can take a course on social media marketing if it’s an area you’re not well acquainted with.
Look for training courses in your local area. You can also take webinars and other courses online. Just make sure that each course will help you with a specific goal. Especially with online business education, there is a great deal available and not all of it is helpful or relevant. Choose courses based on what you specifically need help with.
Challenge: Attracting New Business
You have the tools and skills to carry out the work for your customers or clients. The big challenge is to get the people who need your services to you. New business will find you naturally to some extent, but you’ll always need to attract new business, even when your business is currently busy and going well.
Your first step is to create an initial marketing plan which is subject to change as necessary. Decide how you will get your offering in front of people both online and offline. Research marketing strategies if you don’t have any experience with marketing. It is essential to include social media marketing in your strategy. Learn how you can use social media to attract new business.
Another way to learn how to fill your client list, is to take a course online. My colleague, Marc Mawhinney offers a course titled, “Your First Five Clients. The program consists of 8 weekly modules delivered to you and designed to get clients rolling into your business: videos, PDFs, cheat sheets and worksheets to keep you on track, along with a private Facebook community for support.” Get started in the course here.
These 5 challenges and coping strategies are just a few of the challenges you will face as an entrepreneur. I will address others in a future blog post. You can start planning for meeting and overcoming these and other common challenges with my “Business Challenges Worksheet.” This is a free download.
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