The 4 Biggest Challenges of Starting a Business (and How to Overcome Them)

The biggest challenges of starting a business

Consider the following four challenges most entrepreneurs face when starting a business and start thinking about how you’ll overcome them.

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

New business owners wear many hats as they get their operations up and running, often handling sales, marketing, accounting, information technology (IT) and more. However, they likely don’t excel in all areas and may end up feeling overwhelmed. 

Entrepreneurs often find themselves moving from task to task, putting out fires with one hand while completing everyday tasks with the other. As experienced business owners know, handling everything for too long is bad for your mental and physical health and can take a toll on business productivity.

How to overcome the challenges of running the operation alone

Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses and understand that your time is precious when running a business. While you can certainly embrace professional growth and learn more, sharing the load is key. 

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Here are some tips for handling the myriad tasks required when running a business:

• Look for outside help: Seek help in the areas where you struggle. For example, hire a virtual assistant, use a marketing agency or find an IT partner. Hire full-time and part-time employees as you grow to lighten your load. 
• Utilize Small Business Association (SBA) resources: Explore the SBA’s Office of Small Business Development Centers. This SBA program provides one-stop assistance to current and prospective small business owners, with experts in local offices throughout the United States. sharing information on handling many aspects of running a business.
• Get organized: To combat feeling overwhelmed, make your business more organized. Write down and define your daily tasks and goals. Once you’ve identified your tasks, list them in order of priority and cluster-related tasks. Prioritizing helps you determine which tasks and goals to tackle at the most productive time of your day. Organizing and clustering help you handle similar tasks in the same period instead of sporadically.

2. Finding funding is a crucial challenge when starting a business.

Finding investors and funding is one of the biggest startup challenges new business owners face. Not every business needs an immediate, significant cash infusion, but you must ensure you can keep the business running for the long term.

How to overcome funding challenges

When starting a business, you’ll likely apply for small business loans, seek a line of credit, self-fund the business or raise capital. 

Here are some best practices for overcoming startup funding challenges:

• Utilize SCORE resources: SCORE offers mentors, education and advisors to help small businesses succeed. Speak with a mentor at SCORE to get their thoughts on the best funding course of action for your business based on your goals.
• Consider a microloan: Microloans ― typically for less than $50,000 ― are another option for new business owners. Because they’re smaller, microloans are easier to qualify for and provide borrowing opportunities that may not otherwise be available to you. You can use a microloan for a startup project, to get a business off the ground, as working capital or to fund equipment purchases, office leases or new hires. Different microlenders have various rules about using the funds and different qualification requirements (such as a minimum credit score). 
• Consider an SBA loan: SBA small business loan programs aim to help entrepreneurs who want to start or expand a business. (The SBA also has a microloan program, so contact your local SBA office to learn more.)
• Create an investor pitch: Before presenting your business idea to investors, perfect your pitch. Investors, banks and other lenders will want to understand your vision for success. The better you articulate this vision, the more likely you’ll get the funding you need.

3. Finding and attracting customers is a business startup challenge.

Attracting customers is an area where many new businesses stumble. After all, if no one buys what you’re selling, you can’t succeed. Ideally, you conducted market research before launching your business to ensure your offerings had a receptive market. Now you must identify your target audience, understand their needs and determine what they’re willing to pay.  

How to overcome the challenge of attracting customers:

To find and attract customers, you must create a marketing plan that identifies the following: 

• Your target market
• Your product’s strengths and weaknesses compared to the competition
• Your marketing position and message
• Where you plan to market your product 
• Your marketing budget 

Many new businesses have slim marketing budgets, so low-cost ways to make a big impact are essential. For example, marketers on a budget can consider the following: 

• Creating social media marketing campaigns
• Setting up co-marketing agreements with companies that sell complementary products
• Creating email marketing campaigns
• Utilizing video marketing to create brand trust
• Hosting events or initiatives the media will cover

4. Maintaining a work-life balance is challenging when starting a business.

Any seasoned entrepreneur can tell you about the challenges of maintaining a positive work-life balance. It’s easy to find yourself on the computer from early morning to dinner, only to spend another few hours at night crossing more items off your list. You may suddenly find yourself manic about work and business-related tasks, neglecting responsibilities in other areas of your life. Exercise, time with friends and family and sleep are often taken for granted.

How to overcome work-life balance challenges

As difficult as it might be, establishing a routine that sets clear boundaries between work and free or family time is crucial. Everyone manages their days differently, but if putting “run three miles at lunchtime” on your calendar makes you stick to the commitment, do it.

If you cross everything off your to-do list by 8 p.m., don’t start diving into tomorrow’s tasks. Spend that extra time with family or consider going to bed early. Your body and mind will thank you.

Resources for starting a business

In addition to the SBA and SCORE, many resources can help entrepreneurs set up and run new businesses.

1. Turn to your local chamber of commerce.

Your local chamber of commerce likely has educational materials and videos on starting a business. But even more impactful is meeting, mingling with and getting advice from established business people in your area. They can help you navigate local government requirements, point you in the right direction when you need vendors and give you industry-specific advice. 

Your chamber of commerce also likely offers various networking and marketing opportunities, including networking events ― (particularly helpful if you have a business-to-business (B2B) business ― directories, trade shows, job fairs, leadership events and lunch-and-learn events.

2. Create a LinkedIn profile.

Consider creating a LinkedIn business profile. In addition to peer-to-peer communication and networking, LinkedIn helps business owners learn about and participate in free webinars, market their businesses and participate in industry-specific or topic-specific groups. LinkedIn also has a small business resource center with free online courses, written resources on various business topics and virtual events. 

3. Find a mentor. 

Do you know someone with experience in the type of business you’re starting? Ask them to become your mentor. A mentorship is an informal arrangement where a more experienced person agrees to help and discuss business questions and challenges with you. Mentors can give you great advice, pose questions and issues you may not have considered, help keep you focused and balanced and introduce you to potential customers, partners or funding sources.

4. Check out HR.com.

Although you may start with no employees, you’ll probably need to hire some as you grow your business. HR.com is an excellent HR resource that can help you stay on top of employee and workplace-related regulations, taxes and benefits. It has free HR compliance posters you can download and print, industry trends and research reports and thousands of educational webcasts. After you hire your first HR person, they can take HR certification prep courses at HR.com and earn recertification credits. 

4. Access Google’s business resources.

As soon as your business is up and running, create a Google Business Profile so you can control your business’s information across all of Google’s services. Your Google Business Profile will help you appear in local searches, improve your website’s SEO strategy, give your company credibility and allow you to gather reviews. 

Google also provides tools for entrepreneurs at a nominal price ($6 per user per month) via Google Workspace, which includes Gmail, Google Drive, Google Meet, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides to enable seamless communication and collaboration. Google Analytics, which is free, shows you how many people visit your website, how long they stay, where they come from and other information.

If you have a topic you want to learn more about, Google for Small Business provides courses on marketing-related topics like SEO, gathering insights, starting an online store and using email marketing and digital advertising. Most (if not all) of these courses will point you toward Google’s products, but since it’s the 600-pound gorilla of search and digital advertising, it’s valuable information.

Dave Thomas contributed to this article.