Knowing how to deal with challenges effectively is learning for every entrepreneur because they must face a host of challenges during various stages of business right from starting it up to driving it towards success. It is possible to anticipate some problems that are part and parcel of any business or enterprise like cash flow management, hiring employees, funding, marketing strategy, budgeting, etc. Numerous challenges can crop up on an ongoing basis that is not possible to anticipate. Yet, you must stay prepared to face every challenge resolutely and work towards overcoming it to keep the business on course and drive it towards success.
Different entrepreneurs face different types of challenges – young aspiring entrepreneurs face some unique problems that are not easy to overcome. You can learn from the experiences of EJ Dalius, a seasoned and successful marketing professional who has made it big and remain an inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs.
What hurdles new entrepreneurs must face and how to overcome it will become clear on going through this article.
Career switch over – Do it like EJ Dalius
You might be having a daily job, but the entrepreneur within you could be pestering you to try your hand in setting up a business that can turn your fortunes. Starting and nurturing a business requires complete dedication, and you must never take it lightly. However, it might be possible to manage the company in the initial stages; it will not help to gain momentum. This will not help to satisfy your entrepreneurial ambition that wants to taste success for which you must make the business grow significantly by quitting the job and devote full time to the business. But the decision to become a full-time entrepreneur by walking away from a steady income and embracing an unpredictable future can be quite scary, especially if it is your first venture. How far you can go depends on your risk-taking ability and how much committed you are to your entrepreneurial desires.
Financing
Whether you are a newcomer to the world of business or have been doing it for years, arranging finance for a business startup is one of the most challenging tasks that you would face. Things are especially tough for newcomers because seasoned entrepreneurs who have other businesses, either running or may have sold it off, can depend on a steady stream of revenue they can use for funding the new company. Even if they had to wind up the earlier company, they still can make use of the client connections and investment contacts earned from it that could give them a leg up in their new venture. On the other hand, new entrepreneurs must start from scratch and work exceptionally hard to create the network and connections necessary to create opportunities for funding.
Be the visionary
It is not just enough to have the zeal of an entrepreneur, but you must be a visionary who must have firm and clear ides about the business enterprise that you want to set up. You must know what to do and how to respond to situations when some competitor emerges so that you can drive the business ahead. You must have the ability to read situations correctly and provide solutions when the venture faces some impenetrable obstacle so that the journey continues by getting around the obstacle.
You must have the ability to think creatively at the spur of the moment because entrepreneurs rarely have the luxury of time. In such situations, experience makes a lot of difference because the pressure will be more on inexperienced entrepreneurs who keep learning as the business progresses.
Team building
Entrepreneurs are leaders and must know the tricks of managing teams that contribute to business success. Building and managing a team is not an easy task, especially if you do not have any experience with it. It is particularly challenging to pick the right team by judging the abilities of the team members, many of whom may not be entirely known to you. It is a stressful and challenging task because it is not just about filling the gaps with persons who fit the role but at the same time consider their culture fit, how they will fit within the team, and the cost to the business. It is tough to put up a team very quickly when the pressure of time is on you.
Dealing with the unknown
New entrepreneurs would be eager to see the future of business with some certainty that can make them confident to move forward. But the problem is that the future of the industry is never visible except on paper. No one knows the longevity of business or how profitable it would be. There is complete uncertainty about how customers would respond to the products, and the monthly earning is never predictable. No start-up has any firm answer to these questions, not even if the business idea is great and has all the resources to succeed, at least on paper. It will be impossible to draw long term plans which will remain in a state of flux as new developments keep emerging. Dealing with the unknown aspects is another big challenge for entrepreneurs who must learn how to live with it.
Decision making
Entrepreneurs are not only their bosses but also the sole decision-maker, which can put a lot of stress on them. It is natural for new entrepreneurs to take hundreds of decisions every day, from very small and innocuous decisions to high impacting choices that can have far-reaching effects on the business. This can drive entrepreneurs towards decision fatigue, which is a phenomenon encountered by most new entrepreneurs unless they prepare to handle the stress, which is something new to them.
Creating rules for the business is another challenging task because it constitutes the framework of business operations and influences the business outcome. You can replicate some templates of businesses in your niche, but there must be proper adaption with respect to your mission and vision of the business. How well the business can run depends a lot on framing the rules for business operations.