An entrepreneur is someone that sees an opportunity for a unique idea to come alive and make it happen. An entrepreneur normally means to be the sole proprietor of a business. The one that makes the choices for the business and collects the rewards.
A great idea is all that is needed to start a business, along with a little bit of funds. People do appreciate great new products, therefore it won’t be long after launching your service or product to the public to get great results.
Anyone might think that to become an entrepreneur takes years of studying and a fancy university degree of some sort. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As a matter of fact a simple skill is all you need. Finding this hard to believe?
Don’t worry it is the truth. Twelve percent of entrepreneurs only have a high school diploma. Therefore proving that not having the highest qualifications are not limitations that should be allowed to stop the idea that the world needs from being a reality.
Entrepreneurs do have a lot to take into consideration when it comes to ensuring the business stays profitable. Their work never seizes, if it does, the business will also cease to exist. That is how important the work of an entrepreneur is.
Challenges Of An Entrepreneur
Being the sole proprietor of a business is both complex and simple. Complex for the reason that every arising issue has to be fixed by solely one person. Being the backbone of a business carries a lot of responsibilities and decision making. It may also be simple. A smooth sailing business means that everything is in order and is being done properly. After all, entrepreneurs are calculated risk takers. They make great plans for the future of their business and expect a certain result. If these results are not seen in the end, there is most definitely a back up plan.
- Cash Flow
Cash flow within a small business is quite important to the health of the business. Cash flow may be caused by a number of things such as poor management. Cash flow should be continuous.
The money coming into the business at no point in time should be less than that of the money leaving the business. There will be mishaps when there are payments to be made and as such you do not want yourself being bombarded with bills and other expenses.
Poor cash flow management can be fixed by proper budgeting that prioritizes the business’ health and structure.
- Employing Persons
With being a one man show, entrepreneurs always have their plates full. They’ve barely got time enough to make sure the business is kept successful. Hiring employees will eventually lessen the pressure that is on the entrepreneur.
However, to take on the task of running a business while interviewing tens, maybe even a hundred people will most definitely be a tedious task for one person. Entrepreneurs are met with challenges after challenges.
To fix an issue like this a qualification or requirement slip can be included. Therefore everyone that does apply for the position being advertised is readily qualified for the job. This will save a lot of time that would have been wasted going through resumes and files.
After this is done you may use a walk-in interview method where persons can come in and are briefly interviewed and later granted the job.
- Selecting A Suitable Product To Sell
This is the first challenge a sole proprietor may come upon. To find something that has not yet been created and to make people excited about your new invention may be rather stressful.
In such modern times anything that you can think of may already exist in a country somewhere in the world.
Product and service doesn’t always have to be new, however, it helps when your product/service is unique in comparison to that of others on the same market as you. There is also the option of using a method called SWOT analysis. This is an acronym for strength, weakness, opportunity and threats.
This can be used to find the strengths and weaknesses of both you and the persons that are in the same market as you are. Their weaknesses and strengths will in turn become your strong suit seeing as you would have already analyzed this.
The product that you sell will be like theirs with only less disadvantages and more advantages.
Opportunities and threats are quite similar to strengths and weaknesses. When there is competition there is threat. When there is a threat your weaknesses have been revealed to the competition. Your strengths on the other hand creates opportunities for you.
And that is how entrepreneurs deal with the challenge of picking a product to sell.
- Marketing Strategies
After selecting the product you plan on selling the next challenge that may arise is coming up with effective marketing strategies. Marketing strategies are activities that are done to promote sales for a product.
If this is not done people will not know about your product and business. That is opposite of what you want to take place. The more people know about your business the more sales are completed. Some questions to ask yourself when planning a marketing strategy is who is your audience and how will you get them to buy your product.
Over time, if you are successful in selling your product, marketing strategies may not even be necessary. The people that buy your product will be telling friends and family about your product.
There are some activities that can be used to promote sales. These are advertising, sampling, promotions and surveys. They are all different ways to gather information and to also give information on your product.
There are also the seven P’s of marketing, the four P’s are; product, price, promotion, place, people, process, and physical evidence.
These can be used as guides in planning your marketing strategies. They all play a very important role and are not to be overlooked.
- Delegating
Entrepreneurs are almost always very strong willed people who are very independent. For someone who is independent it is very hard for them to delegate. To delegate tasks as an entrepreneur means to depend on others to get a particular task done. In most cases it may not be done to satisfy the owner. That can pose a challenge for the business.
There is always something that needs to be done when running a business and quite frankly one person cannot be in two places at the same time. Therefore it is very important that every entrepreneur finds someone they can rely on to get the job done in their absence.
It may take quite some time to get someone who can take the job as seriously as the entrepreneur would. Being specific in how you want the job done will help you and the person that has to get the task done, leaving instructions and pointers on how to do it. Do not think or assume your employee will know how you want it done. That will cause mishaps and be time wasting.
- Time Management
How time is spent as an entrepreneur can determine the future of the business. Time management is extremely important. A business needs supervision one hundred percent of the time. However, it is quite impossible for one person to be constantly watching over the business. Everyone needs personal time for themselves to rest and allow their body to rejuvenate.
That is why how entrepreneurs use their time determines the quality of the future for the business. Like many other things, money doesn’t grow on trees and neither does time. To prioritize tasks is one way to manage time and still keep a successful business. Doing things in the sequence of how soon they are requested.
7. Leaving another career
It will be quite difficult to manage another career at the same time if you dedicate yourself to beginning and growing a firm. You might be able to run your startup on the side, on the weekends and after work, but if you want to have a chance of expanding significantly, you’ll almost certainly need to quit your day job.
It’s unsettling to turn down a long-term opportunity that offers stability and promise in favor of something erratic, especially if you’ve never owned a business before. Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple solution. Simply use reasoning to guide your choice, but don’t discount your gut feeling.
Closure
What have you learnt? Every big business seen around today started small. Some from garages and basements, that are now huge buildings in cities. These entrepreneurs knew not to make challenges bring them down and forfeit their great ideas. Hardships are a part of becoming something great. After all, winners never quit and quitters most definitely never win.