Starting a business of any kind these days is undoubtedly a daunting idea. With the market and economy seeming to become more unpredictable by the day, many entrepreneurs tend to second guess themselves. In fact, the number of startups in the United States alone has been experiencing record lows in recent years.
The reality of getting a business off the ground is you are rolling the dice, in one way or another. Even though every business is in a different situation with a unique set of needs and goals, there are several obstacles that have proven to be more or less universal in the vast world of entrepreneurship. Let’s talk about four you should keep on your radar.
1. The daunting fear of failure.
According to the Small Business Administration, about half of all businesses fail within the first five years.
This alone is enough to scare any entrepreneur who is thinking about investing their life’s savings into a new business.
With this in mind, you can either look at the glass as half-empty or half-full. Accomplishing your dreams will almost always require a risk factor. Building a new company is one of the biggest leaps of faith one can make. While there is no formula for universal success, all startups need a healthy dose of planning, confidence, and a little luck.
The silver lining in the fear of failure is that it can provide some much needed motivation to take more precautions and conduct further research before making the necessary steps to launch a business.
2. An outdated company website.
The importance of a company website cannot be stressed enough in today’s business landscape. Your website serves as a first impression of your brand, central hub for your marketing strategy, and if you run an online store, it’s your company’s primary revenue source.
As your business grows and expands, your website will need to follow suit. The web is evolving by the hour. Keeping up with the trends and knowing how to adjust accordingly is a task you must constantly stay on top of. Continually adjusting a company website is perhaps the most common obstacle new businesses face.
Now, not every entrepreneur is well-versed in the finer details of web design and how it influences shopping behavior, and ultimately, purchase. Being as how this skill is vital for modern businesses, leaving it to the professionals is one of the wisest moves new business owners can make.
“Customer mindsets change by the hour,” says Cesar Beltran, Owner and Chief Technologist of Blackbelt Commerce. “Many times, it’s the seemingly small tweaks to a website that make a world of difference to the bottom line. If you run a business these days, keeping your site optimized is a job that never sleeps.”
Beltran should know – he heads a seasoned technology team of web developers working on Shopify (arguably the simplest e-commerce platform for online retailers), who specialize in finding the little factors and adjustments to ecommerce sites, resulting in significant improvements in website conversions.
3. Adjusting for diverse needs.
Bringing your business from the startup phase into rapid growth inevitably involves shifting your business model to meet the needs of your growing customer base. While you may have found a successful formula to navigate past the initial hurdles of your operation, you can’t solely depend on them for the long haul. In other words, to be sustainable, you must be versatile.
For example, Confirm BioSciences, a workplace drug screening service and testing kit retailer, knows each and every client requires a plethora of options to fit their exact needs. Having a multi-dimensional approach is essential for meeting both present and future demand.
“Drug screening in the workplace is not a one-size-fits all concept, says Greg Kassardjian, Senior Marketing Manager of Confirm BioSciences. “There are all kinds of factors like budget constraints, pre-employment HR procedures, company size, and much more that come into play. If we want to stay competitive, our business model needs to be constantly adapting.”
One of the biggest mistakes an entrepreneur can make is not planning for the long-term. There will almost always be certain parts of your business that will need to change as time goes on. While the fundamentals that make your product or service successful should always be present, in order to scale growth properly, your business model needs to be well-rounded and open to change.
4. Not knowing what to outsource.
Most startups are faced with the situation of having an incredible amount of work needing to be done, but not having the staff to complete it. When this is the case, many companies must outsource certain tasks to freelancers. In fact, a recent survey by Upwork found that freelancers make up 35% of the American workforce.
While this strategy can very cost effective, it can sometimes be difficult to get good results. There are some tasks that are ideal for freelancers, and others that are better completed in-house. Generally, the necessary tasks that have distinct right and wrong solutions, such as data entry or scheduling, are good jobs to outsource. On the contrary, jobs involving project management or deal with business development are almost always better kept within the company.
Outsourcing certain jobs is a necessary step for nearly all startups. However, choosing the wrong ones will only lead to wasted time and money.
Over to you
The startup stage is one of the most fascinating areas of business. It’s here where you will build the foundation for what your company will be and how your vision will play out. No great company exists without some level of struggle. Obstacles are part of the process. Keep an eye for these four and how you can move past them.