How to Overcome the Challenges of Starting a Business | Business

November 1, 2024October 31, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There are many excellent reasons to start a business — be your own boss, earn more money, enjoy a flexible work schedule, expand your skill set, etc. However, like all worthwhile endeavors, starting and building a new business is challenging.

You’re passionate about your business idea? Then don’t let the inevitable entrepreneurial pain points keep you from following through — make your business ownership dream a reality. As most small business owners will tell you, the risks and challenges are usually worth the rewards.

The biggest challenges of starting a business

Consider the following seven challenges most entrepreneurs face when starting a business and take steps to overcome them.

1. Running the show alone is a business ownership challenge.

4 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My Own Business | Entrepreneur

May 20, 2024May 19, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

No matter how gifted or driven you are, starting a business is hard, taxing work. In 2021, I left my 21-year career in finance and became a success coach, leadership consultant and author. I’d heard the statistic that 90% of all small businesses fail, but I thought starting my business would somehow be miraculously easy — it wasn’t. Here are four things I’ve since learned.

1. Self-discipline is harder than you think

Owning a business means you’re the boss. There are no assignments to turn in and no deadlines to meet. No one writes a performance review for you. However, this can be very difficult for some — and I had to learn this unexpected lesson the hard way. I’ve always been highly organized and structured. For the last decade of my professional career, everything I did was scheduled and calendared in advance. Things were different when I struck out on my own. Conference calls and meetings weren’t on a recurring cadence, and that caused big gaps in my calendar. At first, it was hard to get in a rhythm. I began noticing I wasn’t leveraging my time well. I was sleeping in. If I said I’d check email for 10 minutes, it often turned into an hour. I realized I was allowing myself to become distracted throughout the day because my day wasn’t full of all the same hard stops that had previously existed.

Scaling Your Small Business: Tips and Techniques From an Expert | AllBusiness.com

June 29, 2023June 28, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For all the challenges that come with starting a business, scaling one is often even harder. That’s when you’ve established your business, have regular customers and clients, and have something to lose if you can’t sustain and scale it.

To learn more about the common challenges small business owners face when they’re ready to expand, I talked to Heather Sperduto, the VP of sales operations-accountant channel at ADP. Sperduto is also ADP’s small business expert and shares her insights into the key strategies small businesses can adopt to effectively manage growth and expansion.

Basics Every New Business Owner Must Learn | The Startup Magazine

June 26, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Starting your very own business is a fantastic way to make money and take charge of your own life. It is a huge challenge that requires exceptional patience, skill, and determination. Since many new businesses don’t survive the first few years, it is essential for you to learn some of the basic business skills if you want to succeed.

What Makes Your Business Unique?

As the saying goes, there is nothing new under the sun. But that doesn’t mean you should give up on striving for originality. While your business idea may not be entirely unique, there is a reason you believe that it fills a niche in the market. Outline precisely what you think your business does that nobody else is currently doing. This will set you up for facing competition and possibly even criticism further down the line.

Keep On Top of Your Finances

One of the main reasons that new businesses fail so often is that their finances are mismanaged. Make it a top priority to keep your finances in order and regularly re-examine them to ensure stability going forward. Keep to a strict budget and reinvest your profits in the early days to boost your chances of success.

Benefits Coverage Basics for Self-Employed Workers | Business News Daily

April 6, 2023April 5, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Ready to leave the corporate world behind? Here’s what you need to know about getting benefits coverage when you’re self-employed.

Essential benefits coverage to obtain if you decide to become self-employed include liability insurance, health insurance, disability insurance and a retirement plan.
Your options for obtaining self-employed health insurance range from government markets to professional employer organizations (PEOs).
Additional expenses to consider include self-employment taxes, payroll taxes and overhead.
This article is for aspiring entrepreneurs and freelancers looking to get their benefits set up – and their expenses covered – as they go solo.

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Naming Your Business | The Startup Magazine

February 27, 2023February 26, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Starting a business is daunting; it’s filled with countless decisions that need to be made. One of the crucial decisions you’ll make is choosing the right name for your business. The initial business naming is the first impression people will have of your business, and it will set the tone for all future interactions.

However, the naming process has its pitfalls. To help you navigate this tricky process, we’ve compiled a list of the top three mistakes people make when choosing business names. Keep reading to find out what they are and how to sidestep them.

7 Things No One Tells You About Starting a Business | Entrepreneur

August 25, 2022August 23, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

“You’re crazy!” “Are you sure?” “That’s going to be hard.” These are all things entrepreneurs hear when they talk about starting a business. The critics aren’t wrong; it is going to be hard, but that doesn’t have to stop you from being successful in your business. As long as you strategize, plan and read this article before starting a business, you’ll be well on your way. Here are seven tips that no one tells you before you start your business:

Inflation’s Unexpected Dividend: More Entrepreneurs | Inc.com

July 7, 2022July 6, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Up to four million Latino workers are thinking about taking the entrepreneurship plunge to help cope with record-high inflation.

That’s according to a new reading of a December survey from QuickBooks, Intuit’s fintech software arm, which was collected as the nation’s inflation gauges were rapidly escalating. The survey suggests that 15 percent of Latino and Hispanic respondents expressed interest in becoming an entrepreneur in 2022. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the number of Latino and Hispanic workers in the U.S. at 27.1 million.

Starting a Business from Scratch Taught Me Lessons | AllBusiness.com

May 12, 2022May 11, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

They lie! “They” being whoever tells you it is easy to go from zero to hero in six months!

Let me introduce myself. I am Candice Bernardoni, a bespoke shoe designer based on the Sunshine Coast of Australia. As a former wealth coach, I have helped hundreds of clients reach their personal and financial goals, and today I create glamorous and comfortable designer shoes for women. My unrivaled passion and enthusiasm for creating my business not only captures my clients’ attention but also encourages them to “own the room” in all aspects of life.

The reality of starting a business from scratch looks a bit like this…

Cash Flow Management Mistakes That Can Kill a Small Business | All Business

December 13, 2021December 12, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Starting a business is never easy. Running and growing one is another challenge altogether. Whether it’s your first company or your fourth, the risks and opportunities are always boundless, and so is the pressure to make it work.

While there are a million different things that can go wrong with an emerging business, there are some common business mistakes that get in the way of almost every entrepreneur. One particularly nasty one is cash flow management.

Maintaining a healthy cash flow is critical for any business’s longevity and success, but it’s also a problem because cash flow concerns are never an immediate priority. Don’t get me wrong, most entrepreneurs do take cash flow management seriously, but it often takes a back seat, overshadowed by that critical meeting after lunch or the upcoming product launch. As a consequence, businesses start bleeding money—not all at once, but slowly over the months, until we get to a point where the flow stops.