As a business owner, you would sometimes contemplate if it’s really the greatest decision to put up a business because as we all know, handling a business is complicated.
There are unending phases you need to get through to finally say that you become successful in the industry you chose. Getting there is not as easy as 1,2,3 and it makes people doubt what they are capable of. If you have a small business and you are currently facing going concern, remember that failures are part of the process.
Businesses without problems don’t exist. Everyone has to go through it to reach the finish line. And in case you are wondering what are the common business problems you are likely to encounter, here are some of the major issues and how to survive them.
1. Overspending
Small businesses face this not just once but many times. Some even deal with it monthly when it’s time to make the financial statements. Overspending is when you exceed your budget for expenses in a given amount of time. Although some businesses would not consider this as a problem, this becomes a challenge when you keep on overspending until you get net losses rather than gains. It’s not a proper practice as well especially if you want to maximize your earnings.
Overspending is fine if it happens for the first time. However, if it keeps on repeating, you should think about it twice. One way you can avoid this business problem is to be watchful when making payments for expenses. Maybe you are passing on the items that should not be taken as expenses.
Maybe your personal expenses are getting too high. It’s a good practice to review your cost from time to time to avoid exceeding your budget. It’s also a help if you would stick to your monthly budget so you can develop the habit of proper spending.
2. Branding
Brand awareness is something you should work on if you want to gain more customers in the future. This is an important portion of your business, yet, you are likely to face issues regarding this if you don’t know what it means to have branding. Challenges arise not on the process of making your brand but on the process of marketing it.
Small businesses are having a hard time promoting their brand to the world for some reasons like it’s a new brand, they don’t know how to it, they are not that confident to proclaim its uses, and so on. If you will keep this mindset, you won’t be able to survive this business.
What you need to do to solve this issue is to come up with effective strategies to market your brand. You can use any type of marketing such as online advertisements, paid Facebook advertisements, flyers, posters, social media marketing, and many more. Just see to it that you know how to effectively market your brand.
You can learn to do it by watching videos, reading books, and looking for someone to whom you can consult with regarding increasing your brand awareness.
3. Marketing
Marketing has become the top growth strategy of roughly 47 percent of small businesses according to StartBlox. Companies are also becoming more aware of the importance of advertising and are planning to invest in marketing efforts. The remaining 33 percent of the companies focus on developing strategic alliances with business partners.
In connection with brand awareness, employing good marketing techniques is also another business problem you are likely to face when you start your business. Marketing is not just putting posters on every corner of the street or posting pictures online. There is more behind it and that’s what small businesses miss.
The simple creation of your caption online can make a great impact on your social image. If you don’t do it properly, you are going to lose hundreds of prospects on the internet. And that means lower revenue for your company.
To survive marketing and SEO challenges you are likely to face in the future, you should learn how to do marketing properly as early as now. Focus on digital marketing and using videos and graphics as this is one of the major trends. People online prefer to watch short videos rather than read long product descriptions.
Having a website is also very important since we live in a digital world. However, only 64 percent of small businesses have their own website. Regardless of which industry companies operate in, most of them can benefit from advertising their business online.
Creating a website has become a necessity now given that a lack of marketing strategy is one of the major contributing factors to the failure rate of small businesses. In fact, 92 percent of business owners believe that having their own website has contributed effectively to their digital marketing strategy according to Iron Paper.
Driving sales has become the top marketing goal of 31 percent of small business owners. This is followed by boosting customer engagement and retention by 24.6 percent of businesses, and 17.1 percent of businesses focusing on building brand awareness.
Potential customers also tend to buy from a business that engages with people. Do not just show them your products and service, give them the reason why they should choose you. Be creative as possible when your marketing your offerings to get past behind your major competitors in the market.
Building a good marketing campaign can be tricky for most owners especially when finding the time and resources. However, in the long run, these efforts tend to pay off.
4. Technology And Innovation
Even if you are a small business and you think that technology won’t do any good for your business, it’s still a challenge you need to survive. Businesses are getting more creative and innovative now. If you don’t catch up, you will lose the race.
What’s more challenging here is the fact that you need to invest a significant amount of money to integrate automation and digitization to your business. Maybe the reason why you put up a small business is the lack of capital to level up to a medium or large enterprise, but now the industry is pressuring you to upgrade.
What you can do here if your problem is money is to save. You need to preserve the cash of your business because one way or another, you will need to upgrade your systems. Do not look at it as an expense. Any technological upgrade you do for your business is an asset that will benefit you in the future.
And if ideas regarding technology and innovation are your business problem, you can ask help from your employees. They might have brilliant ideas that can help you decide. Be open to suggestions.
5. Lack of Planning
Planning is very crucial at this stage. Even after a successful start-up, you need to plan for your next strategies to make the most out of your resources and earn as much as possible.
However, there are businesses that don’t plan ahead. That’s a big problem. What you can do to survive is to ensure that you are working with a team that promotes early planning in every situation. Initiate the planning page and don’t wait up until another problem pops out.
Business problems won’t last forever but if you won’t take action to solve them, it can break your business. It’s not too late to stand up. Do what’s best for your enterprise.
6. Recruitment
89 percent of businesses only employ fewer than 20 employees according to SBE council. However, growing businesses hire rapidly. And even with a reputable brand in place, finding reliable, hard-working staff members who align with the corporate goals and fit the existing culture is a long-term game.
When hiring locally, depending on a limited pool of talent is a known constraint. Partnering up with recruitment firms and consultants, sponsoring and speaking at industry events, and supporting local universities and communities are necessary to move the needle.
Hiring talented staff, especially on managerial positions, is among the leading business problems. It requires diverse techniques to cover all leadership spots in a corporate environment.
7. Finances
Managing finances, allocating budgets on new initiatives, delegating ads and marketing spend is another pressing business problem for growing businesses.
CEOs often manage finances themselves at first, and this inevitably affects other critical areas to running a business successfully.
Hiring a CFO or working with financial advisors is the pragmatic choice. Make sure you leave a healthy “safety net” financial buffers and avoid unexpected costs through risk management and business planning.
8. Team Management
As the organization grows, culture and processes get impacted with new hires, roles, and responsibilities. Starting up new departments alters the landscape of an existing business.
Veteran workers feel threatened by new hires. Responsibilities shift and this raises a question of promotions and available management spots.
Hire experienced managers or promote respected leaders from the inside to keep the culture afloat. Processes break frequently as the business scales – be prepared and equip yourself with data-driven software to manage potential problems across your teams.