Common Challenges That You May Face When Running a Small Business
Whether you’re trying to jump start a small business or you’re already in the process of running one, there are various challenges that you may face along the way. Challenges are part of any business, whether big or small. However, there are some issues that are often more specific on small businesses. We’ll go through them in this post so you can be more ready if planning to start a business or already running your own.
Money Concerns
When starting a small business, you need to have enough money for it to kick start. Many small business owners expect to instantly earn huge profit. However, this is not the case as it would actually often take a couple of years before you would usually start seeing an increase on your profit. First of all, this is because your business is still new. People do not know about your products or services yet so you need to spend money to introduce them to your target audience. Moreover, this would also mean offering free trials so that more can get to try them or offering them at a lower cost. That being said, you should have enough money to last for at least two years without depending on your company’s income.
Dependence in One Client
Even if you have a good paying client, it’s still not a wise thing to just rely on it for your business operation. This makes you more of an independent contractor that a small business. If for some reason this client stops doing business with you, your business operation could suffer or even stop. It’s always recommended to keep looking for potential clients so you do not only depend in one client to keep running and growing your business. Make sure that you can meet all their requirements though as you don’t want to sacrifice the quality of your products and services dealing with several clients.
Time Balance
Many business owners find themselves being too immersed with their business. This is understandable, especially at the start of its operation. However, you need to eventually learn how to manage your time so you can find the right balance for work and your personal life. If you’re a first time small business owner, this could be really challenging but it can be done. Running a business can be stressful and it can get overwhelming if your world would only revolve here. This could cause you to make bad decisions or even lead to the closing of the business. You need to take a breather and relax so you can see things in a better perspective. Moreover, you’ll need to be with friends and family members for support. Plus, this is needed so your relationship with them remains intact. As they say, no matter how busy you are, you can always find time if you make it a priority.
Allocating Tasks to Employees
Small business owners are hands-on on their business. They oversee all processes, especially since there is only usually small number of people to manage. Since you’re used to managing everything, it could be difficult for you to trust others to do it for you. However, you need to eventually do this for your business expansion as it would be more difficult to do everything on your own. Plus, in case you’re can’t go to work for whatever reason it may be, the business operation would still continue if you have trained and trusted people to manage it for you.
Running a small business is not an easy task. It’s normal to experience challenges along the way, but there are things that you can do to overcome them and become successful.
Photo Attribution:
Featured and 1st image by Bill Branson (Photographer) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
2nd image by Phillip Capper from Wellington, New Zealand (Family dinner, Perth, 27 Oct. 2010) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
3rd image by English: D. Myles Cullen [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
