Being one’s own boss is a dream of many, yet one that is achieved by only a few. The reason why not everybody can become a successful entrepreneur mostly revolves around the fact that this life comes with just as many challenges as it does rewards. Being aware of the obstacles that will likely pop up can help you surmount them with more ease.
Here are four challenges entrepreneurs face when starting a business.
Everyone who dreams of becoming a successful business owner craves to leave their day job. While quitting and going all-in with your business-to-be might seem like the only logical thing to do, you might want to take a couple of steps back and consider this.
First of all, you need to ask yourself whether you’ve got the means of supporting yourself until your newly created startup becomes profitable. Secondly, you need to consider the fact that a brand new startup tends to guzzle money – there is a lot of investing to do until a business endeavor becomes self-sustainable.
This is why you probably shouldn’t quit your day job just yet. Yes, things might be incredibly hard in the beginning, jumping from career to career at the same time, but this is an investment that will definitely pay off at some point.
Working a day job might not be easy, but it is pretty straightforward – you work for 7-8 hours per day, you get your sick days, your holidays and all the extras that come with it. As a startup owner, you will have to give up, well, all of this!
Sometimes you will have to work for 15 hours straight. There is no guarantee that you won’t have to be at the ready even when sick and paid holidays are an unachievable dream.
Yet you shouldn’t let this deter you from the entrepreneurship path. While some days you will have to work a lot, there will be days that you will work as little as half an hour – you are your own boss, and this means a lot. In the beginning, you will struggle to keep up with all the unexpected fatigue, but once you get used to this lifestyle, you’ll never want to go back to your day job!
Make no mistake, unless you’re pretty well-off to begin with, you’re going to face financial difficulties in the very beginning of your business endeavor, even if you decide to keep your day job. In fact, you’re probably going to need to find an investor or take out a loan, to cover your business’s financial needs.
Of course, checking your credit report goes without saying, if you want to apply for a loan, and if your credit doesn’t happen to be in shape, you might want to avoid having to wait until it’s fixed, as this can take a long, long time. Fortunately, there are reliable companies that specialize in business loans for bad credit. In any case, you need to take a long and hard look at your finances before jumping into a business effort.
A company’s team is definitely the most important pillar of its success. It’s vital to take note that you’re not looking for a team of overqualified workers – the fact that they have a degree from Harvard doesn’t mean that they are going to be motivated to grow your business.
It is essential that you realize that you’re not looking for professionals who will gladly perform well if they are happy with their paycheck. No, you’re looking for a team of pros who will share your vision, motivation and end goal – people who won’t be reluctant about working overtime for a regular wage. As an entrepreneur, you know how important it is to work for the sake of success, not only money. Your employees need to share this quality with you.
These obstacles to starting a new business are pretty common regardless of what line of business you’re in. Be patient before quitting your day job, make sure that you realize that you’re going to have to get used to a whole new type of fatigue and financial issues and, above everything else, make sure that the team you hire is inspired by success, not only money.
She enjoys reading and writing about business topics, as well as offering advice and tips through her articles.
If you want to read more of her work, you can find it at bizzmarkblog.com.