SOME BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACED BY TODAY’S ENTREPRENEURS

Nowadays, entrepreneurship has become an important element of our world economic system. In most capitalist economies, for example, we have witnessed that there is a large number of people engaged in entrepreneurial activities whether by establishing a new business venture, franchising, technology licensing, and so on. Many entrepreneurs out there, unfortunately, confront a strong tier of challenges in today’s business competition. Even so, they somehow appear to have possessed greater resources than ever ironically prior to have their problems resolved.

1. Cash Flow Management

The first challenge confronted by a majority of entrepreneurs is cash flow management. This is absolutely crucial to small business survival in particular, yet, many of them struggle to pay the bills while they are waiting for payment to arrive. It is where part of the problem stems from through a delay of invoice, which is very common in the entrepreneurial world. Waiting to get paid can make it difficult to get by and when your customer does not pay on time, this can risk everything.

- Solution: One way to improve cash flow is to require a down payment for the products and services offered. Such a down payment should cover all expenses associated with a given project or sale, as well as some profit for the personal earning. By requesting a down payment, you as an entrepreneur can at least be rest assured in which you will not be left paying the other bills.

 

2. Hiring Employees

Have you got any idea who dreads a job interview the most? You probably think it is prospective candidates? No! It is the entrepreneurs. If you are an entrepreneur, the hiring process can take several days of your time ranging from reviewing the candidates’ resumes, sitting through interviews, filtering unqualified candidates and after that, you can offer an attractive remuneration package to get the best people on board and retain them.

- Solution: Be exclusive. Far too many help wanted ads are incredibly ambiguous in terms of what qualifications candidates must have, what the job duties are, what days and working hours will be, what wages and benefits will be paid. Because of these, you can actually save yourself a ton of time by pre-qualifying candidates. In other words, simply approach your future employees the same way as you approach the sole version of your customer-centric campaign through excellent targeting. Once you have a pool of prospects, you may arrange for a “walking interview” in which you take candidates on a tour, and you should not forget to ask relevant questions about the candidates’ job experiences, expectations, dedication, and long-term goals. The key to implement this successfully, after all, is by trying not to act like an overlord minions who get to live for another day. Instead, behave as if you are seeking a partner to help you operate and grow your business.

3. Time Management

This might be the biggest problem encountered by entrepreneurs who sometimes wear all hats. If only you had more time as they say, you probably could have accomplished so much more. Similar to money, time does not grow on trees and therefore you have to be sufficiently intelligent about how you utilize it.

- Solution: You should have a list of lifetime goals where these goals are segmented down into annual goals, monthly goals, or even weekly goals. Your weekly goals, then, will be split into specific tasks on day-to-day basis. In this manner, what is served on your task list in any given day is all you need to do to stay on track with your lifetime goals. If any tasks listed on your table do not align with your lifetime goals, simply eliminate them. As in if there are also any tasks which do not necessarily have to be completed by you, just delegate them. Consistently questioning yourself for what you have been doing is the best way to make use of your time properly.

4. Marketing Strategy

Clueless over what could be the best way to effectively market your business products? Well, this is something very common and natural where you want to maximize your return on investment with efficient and targeted marketing campaigns which can generate good results.

- Solution: If you are not adept enough at creating marketing plans and placing ads, perhaps, it might be a good idea to outsource your marketing strategy to someone who is much more experienced. In this case, all you need is a core marketing plan which outlines who is your target audience and what marketing activities will you undertake to drive purchases. Needless to say, do hire your planner and assign a certain amount of budget to craft the best marketing plan that they could possibly come up with; a plan which can set your business set to generate quick cash flow or revenue.

5. Equity/Capital

You want to commence and grow your business, yet, there is a little equity or the amount of capital you currently own and there is nothing you can do with it.

- Solution: Actually, there are many ways to earn source of corporate funding ranging from traditional bank loans to kick-starter campaigns and self-fuelled growth models. Thus, here is what you should do at least. Instead of trying to launch a multimillion-dollar corporation overnight, it would be better to focus on your initial primary customers. To constantly work harder at locating new customers is better. However, to consistently strive and be remarkable at treating your existing customers you already serve is the key and the best aspect of all. Word-of-mouth will spread, and consequently there will be more people who come looking for you. As they do, try your best to develop systems or business processes which allow you to delegate tasks without sacrificing any quality of your business aspects. If you can do this, then, the chances of your business will thrive and become much more steady is higher and it will help you ultimately to resolve the problems while they are still minor.