How to Not Let These Five Obstacles Hamper Your Entrepreneurial Journey

Author: Shahid Ibrahim

Owning and running your own business is a taxing task. You have to show persistence, consistency, and patience in order to run a business. In the beginning, the challenges would seem overwhelming, and you would find yourself stressed and discouraged.

However, the only challenges and obstacles you face will mould you into an experienced entrepreneur and make you able to sustain in such a competitive environment.

Let’s take a look at five common obstacles that you will face throughout your entrepreneurial journey and how you can overcome them:

Funding

The first and foremost problem an aspiring entrepreneur faces is the lack of capital. According to the U.S Chamber of Commerce, the biggest challenge entrepreneurs face while starting a business is not having enough funds.

In this situation, one needs to be persistent and keep looking for financial assistance. Understand that failures are not the end but only a part of the journey. Howard Schultz, the founder of the Starbucks chain, was rejected by 217 investors before he could find the one who believed in his vision.

What kept Howard going was his persistence and never give up attitude in the face of failure. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur or to deal with loneliness as a solopreneur, you must first find the persistence and patience in you so that you can overcome whatever the journey throws at you.

Attracting Customers

The second most difficult step towards being a successful entrepreneur is finding your customers. When you are starting out, you might not be able to reach a wide variety of audience due to a lack of funding. Nevertheless, you can still attract customers with your pricing strategy and the quality of your products or services.

When you have nailed the quality and price, you start to build up a sense of trust among your customers, which later helps in popularizing your brand and increasing your loyal base of customers.

Recruiting the Right People

When you have the right people around to help with your journey, you will find yourself more dedicated to your services. Although it could be a taxing task to find the right kind of people for your company or organization, you must invest a considerable amount of time in choosing your employees.

Managing Costs

Managing operational cost, while making sure that your business continues to thrive, is a challenging task. In order to be cost-efficient, you must learn to incorporate different policies in your business to save money. Most startups begin well but end up failing because of the inability to manage costs.

This is also where rented, and shared offices come into consideration. One of the best options for startups is to opt for a coworking office space in order to cut operating costs. As per the statistics, businesses that operate in coworking spaces can save up to 30% of their operating cost.

Moreover, coworking spaces also facilitate a thriving environment for employees from different backgrounds to collaborate and create a sense of community, which, in the long run, would only benefit your recruits.

Fear of Failure

The fear of failure is inevitable. Even the most successful businessmen and entrepreneurs still feel the fear of failure whenever they take on new projects. However, you must understand that fear is your mind’s natural reaction to new experiences, and you should not let it stop you from trying new things. Fear and failures are both unavoidable on any journey you overtake.

While fear teaches you to be more cautious, failures make you smarter and have more experiences than your peers. As an entrepreneur, you must learn to embrace the fear of failure and develop a positive system that changes your perspective towards fear and failure.