How To Start A Business Despite These 13 Challenges

What’s Keeping You From Becoming An Entrepreneur

There are plenty of factors that keep people from becoming successful entrepreneurs. While these factors are valid, learning about them is what will help you realize how to overcome these hurdles. Most people are overcome with fear to start their own businesses or companies because of these precise reasons. Knowing them might make it less daunting for you to make it on your own and most likely help you overcome the fear of success!

1. Fear of Failure

One of Harvard Business Review’s favorite management tips of 2022 is being comfortable with failure. The fear of failure keeps most people from just starting a business, but it also applies to other people’s dreams. Failure is never fun and it can often leave people feeling even more deflated than when they begin a project. It also feels embarrassing to fail when you’ve had people root for you or see you struggle. The thing about knowing how to start a business has a lot to do with overcoming the fear of failure. Every successful entrepreneur has had to come to terms with the possibility of failure and persevered anyway. 

Failure teaches us things that easy successes can’t. Failure might derail you from your proposed path, but it also shows you the way you won’t succeed in, thus making the actual path to success a lot clearer. 

2. Having Impostor Syndrome

Impostor syndrome hits even those who are the most successful, most recognized, and most knowledgeable. Impostor syndrome is like constantly feeling inadequate. It can make you feel like you are undeserving of your accolades and achievements.

Mental battles are arguably harder than overcoming physical battles sometimes. It’s perfectly normal to feel doubtful or even feel like you may not belong in whatever field or industry you’re in. After all, we are constantly experiencing new things whenever we level up in life and there will always be a level of fear, doubt, and anxiety that comes along with starting something new like a business venture. In order to overcome impostor syndrome, you need only to constantly remind yourself of both your strengths and weaknesses and use that to your advantage. 

3. The Inevitability of Rejection

Not only is rejection painful when you’re setting up a small business, but for any kind of venture you want to start on your own, hearing “no”, or “you can’t” is never easy to hear. If you don’t want to know how to run a small business because you don’t think you’d be able to handle the hardships or probabilities of it not succeeding, just think of it this way; nothing is ever for certain, especially in business. If people don’t take risks and stay in their safe spaces, there won’t be much room for growth and you’re essentially robbing yourself of the chance to reach greater heights.

Yes, rejection in any situation is inevitable but that’s not the end goal. If people stopped pursuing their dreams the first time they get rejected, we would not have innovations, new creations, new inventions, and inspirations. 

4. A Lack of Experience or Education

When you’re not equipped with the necessary education or experience, it’s hard to know the right steps to starting a business. Most people who would like to start their own business but feel like they don’t know enough or have experienced enough can let their insecurities get in the way. In this day and age though, you can no longer make excuses for a lack of knowledge because resources for learning are now more accessible than ever. If there are people who invested their time and even money to acquire certain skills and learn all about starting a business, then there’s no excuse for you.

There will always be reasons not to do something, but that doesn’t mean you can’t change that so you won’t have reasons or excuses anymore not to. 

5. Lack of Funding

New entrepreneurs find a lack of funding the number one most needed help in starting a business. There’s a saying, “It takes money to make money” and no truer words have been said. That’s why it not only takes having a business idea, you also need to know how to start a business plan so you can identify exactly what you need to get started and precisely how much you need to get the business idea off the ground. 

If a lack of funding is what’s hindering your business start up, you can start small and save up a little capital, you can get loans, or find investors to back you up. 

6. Fear of Success

If you dream of earning millions, you need to be prepared to be hurt, disappointed, and essentially have your life changed. There are pitfalls to success. You might find that people around you might expect more from you and depend on you more because of your newfound success. There’s also a level of success that attracts people who won’t want the best for you and will try to take advantage of you and take that success away from you. 

When people start earning more, there is also something called lifestyle inflation which means you’re going to want to upgrade certain things in your life which will be costly. If you’re trying to learn how to start your own business, you need to be prepared and gear yourself up for success so that it will keep you going. At the same time, you need to be prepared for the downsides of success so that you can be prepared for it. 

7. Fear of Losing Freedom

Becoming a business owner is different from being an employee. An employee might make less but they clock in and out at certain times. For someone who has their own business, your work hours might even be longer. There are no days off for an entrepreneur, even some weekends. You also need to prepare to lose a little bit of freedom when you become an entrepreneur. This is especially true and stressful when you’re learning how to start a business from home. The boundaries between your personal life and your business can blur if you’re not too careful. 

8. Added Responsibility and Stress

In knowing how to start your own business, it’s important to know that you will not only be responsible for yourself. Starting your own business means becoming a leader and being responsible for taking care of other people as well. With more responsibility comes a lot of stress as well. You’re also going to have to consider your employee’s health, making customers happy, following government regulations, keeping up with competitors, financial stability, and so much more. 

In order to not be overcome with stress, you can easily mitigate that with proper planning. Becoming a business owner might come with a lot of responsibilities, but it’s nothing unmanageable without proper planning. 

9. Instability

Even if you just want to know how to start a small business, a big company, or anything in between, there will be a lack of stability. A lot of the stressful aspects of business are deeply rooted in financial stability. Profits and business costs will vary from month to month and you need to be able to roll with the punches and prepare for a lot of instability. 

Instability doesn’t just exist for business owners. In fact, there’s instability in all aspects of life, whether it’s being a business owner, an employee, or even in your personal relationships. The existence of instability shouldn’t scare you from creating new things or venturing further from your safe spaces. After all, even the weather can be unstable and unpredictable, and no one can really change that and life still goes on. 

10. Lack of Business Ideas

Another huge blocker from starting your own business is not having the right idea. You might have the desire or even the dedication, but ultimately, you need to be sure of the path to take, and that entails having the right ideas. 

Inspiration is everywhere. If you don’t have any immediate ideas but want to know how to start a business, look to some of the most successful entrepreneurs or people you look up to and find out how they made it and take inspiration from there. Read about industries that interest you, talk to your friends who may be entrepreneurs, and do your research. You never know, you might speak your business ideas into existence and even find people who will support and invest in you. 

11. Lack of Support

Successful businesses are able to succeed because a great team is led by great leaders. When you’re building a business, you need to find people who you can trust to carry out your plan and vision. Hiring the right people is crucial to your success. As a business owner, you’re going to have to learn how to depend on your team. 

To find the right people who will support your business and be your biggest advocates, you need to thoroughly scrutinize potential candidates, find people with the right skill sets, and find people who will be great additions to your business’ success. 

12. Economic Standing

People’s economic outlooks can be bleak. This lack of positivity can make people cautious and they might not want to build businesses in an unstable economy, with high costs, inflation, and other uncertainties. The reality of taking risks is that there is no right time. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be a risk anymore. You can easily overcome the risks and struggles with proper planning, research, and analysis. You just need the right opportunity and the courage to get started. That’s how you will succeed through whatever economic standing you’re in. 

13. Having Personal Struggles

Building a business from the ground up is a full-time commitment. Tough choices are to be had if you want to keep your business afloat, decisions that traditional employees might not have. You need to learn how to balance your personal and work life. Finding that perfect spot where you can focus on business without it impacting your personal life is crucial. 

At some point, no matter how great you plan ahead, you will have to go through unplanned emergencies or personal problems which is why you’re going to have to have contingency plans in place for long-term success. 

How To Start A Business

So we know what keeps people from building their own businesses. Reviewing these reasons and factors will tell you what the reality of building a business is, what the hardships might look like, but also how to overcome them. Now that you know why you might not have been inclined to start becoming an entrepreneur and work on that, we can now proceed to tell you how you can start a business. Not only that, but we’ll also provide you with The Write Direction tools that will help you with some of these processes. 

Starting A Business: Step By Step Guide

1. Beginning With Yourself

In a Forbes article on How To Start A Business, one of the first steps is “getting in the right mindset.” Everything starts with you. You need to be realistic and not just jump in blindly when you’re making one of the biggest risks one can ever take financially. Understand yourself and your strengths, weaknesses, skills, and capabilities. Ask yourself questions like how much are you willing to risk and how much you can really afford to lose and what kind of work you’ll enjoy doing in the long run. 

It’ll take a lot of motivation, dedication, and time to see a project through and it’ll be hard to keep doing something you don’t even like doing. You don’t need to know everything immediately, you can always take courses and research first. Be realistic about your expectations and when you decide on a business start up, fully commit and invest in it. 

2. The Right Business Idea

It’s always best to spend a decent amount of time really researching and deciding on which business idea you’re going to fully invest in. Some of the best business ideas came from people who found solutions to problems they were having and shared them with consumers. You can also look into what is needed in various industries and fill in the gaps there. You’re going to have to imagine how you can create solutions that will change your life or better other people while capitalizing on that. Maybe you have specific skills you can use to leverage your business ideas or elevate already existing business practices and become an innovator. 

It can also be as simple as providing something cheaper but of great quality. Maybe you can provide a service or product that doesn’t exist at your current location. It’s always great to run your ideas too with someone you trust who’s already experienced in business so you can get feedback. 

3. Conducting Market Research

There’s room for everyone to succeed and there’s always a place in the market for you. Once you decide on an idea to get started on, you need to take the time to research to find the demand and where in the market you can fit in. It’s imperative that you do a SWOT analysis where you look at the business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, 

You also need to conduct research on your competitors so you can figure out what unique advantage can set you apart. Ask yourself what your competitors aren’t doing and what you can do that others aren’t.

4. Creating Your Business Plan

Hard work sometimes triumphs over talent and planning ahead can help you overcome obstacles. A business plan is a written description of your business that serves as a roadmap. Your business plan should have the information you need to further develop your business, where and how to get funding, and even provide projections to see how viable your business idea is. As time goes on, your business plan should also be updated because course corrections are bound to happen if you want to keep up with the times and the ever-changing economic landscape. 

If you don’t know how to get started on your business plan, you’re in luck. The Write Direction provides Business Plan Writing Services that are specifically designed for growth. There are 7 core elements that a business plan should include. Once you avail of this service, you’ll receive:

1. Executive Summary
2. Business Opportunity
3. Industry and Market Analysis
4. Marketing and Sales Strategy
5. Management and Operations
6. Financial Forecasts
7. Supporting Documentation

At an additional cost, you can also get your SWOT analysis, Pitch Decks for investors, Value Chain Analysis, and more at The Write Direction. 

5. Preparing Funding

You can easily learn how to start a business without money by planning your funding. Your funding plan will include how much capital you need to get your business started when you’ll need it, and projections on when your company will start making a profit. This information is important especially if you’re going to need investors to back you up instead of shelling out your own money to build on your idea. 

There are also plenty of options for you to secure funding which include funding the business yourself, getting help from friends and family, getting grants, finding angel investors, venture capitalists, doing crowdfunding, getting an advance from customers, doing trade equity, getting a loan from partners, getting a loan from the bank, or opening a business credit line. 

6. Deciding On Your Business Structure

Making your business official entails deciding on what entity it’ll be. This is an important step because it will determine taxes and liabilities. The entities are as follows:

1. Sole Proprietorship– Being a sole proprietor means you’re the only owner and are therefore responsible for all the business’s debts which can directly affect your personal credit.

2. Partnership– In a partnership entity, all partners are responsible for the business’s debts and liabilities. 

3. Corporation– Becoming a corporation means the business is its own entity and therefore responsible for all possible liabilities. 

4. LLC– An LLC or Limited Liability Corporation means the business benefits from the legal protection of a corporation and the tax benefits of a partnership. 

7. Choosing Your Company Name

One of the less daunting steps in how to start a business and arguably the most fun and equally important is deciding on your business name and ultimately your brand and mission. It should be something unique that doesn’t exist yet and makes sense for your chosen industry. You’re also going to need to acquire that domain name and use it across your social media platforms. 

8. Opening Your Business Accounts

You’re going to want to separate your personal and business accounts which is why this step is important. This is great if you’re trying to learn how to start a business online, you can direct your customers and payments directly to the business bank account. Doing this step will also make tracking expenses easier and help you determine if your business has achieved a return on investment. This is also the professional way to conduct business and will also help with bills, legal, and taxes. 

9. Factoring Government Regulations

Besides opening up your business’ bank account, you’re also going to get all the right licensing and permits. Even if you’re just learning how to create a startup company, you should immediately register your business and adhere to your government regulations. 

10. Figuring Out Your Business Location

To make your business more concrete (quite literally), you’re going to have to decide on a location or where you’re going to put up your office or storefront if you’re not only operating online. Depending on how big your office should be, finding your location will also entail getting the office furnished and getting all the relevant business supplies. 

You need to be careful when deciding on a location because different places will not allow certain equipment in residential areas or you might have to look specifically at business areas to put up your office. 

11. Finding Your Team

In building your business’s dream team, you need to set clear expectations, goals, and responsibilities so you and your potential team can get on the same page. You also need to develop good communication between upper management and employees because it’ll be crucial in keeping your business afloat. 

The Write Direction can also help your business specifically for in-house or external business communications. You can avail of newsletter writing services, get help creating user guides and instruction manuals, and other business and professional writing services. 

12. Building Your Product or Service

Now that you have all your permits, accounts, and office set up, now you can manufacture your product or start offering your services. No longer should the product be a mockup but a viable product that’s ready to be shared with your clients. 

13. Marketing Your Business

With everything else set up, now you can pretty much announce to the rest of the world that your business is up and running. After all, you can set up everything right and have the best products but unless you start marketing it right, you’ll never attract your target market (or anyone for that matter). To market your product or service right, you need to establish a strong social media presence, create a website to bring in organic traffic, create an email list to send out updates and run ad campaigns wherever possible. 

Building a relationship with your clients is also crucial so you can get the right kind of feedback to continue making the best products and services for your clients. 

The Write Direction can also help you in this step with our social media writing services, SEO and website copywriting services, advertising copywriting services, and even blog writing services.  

How To Start Your Own Business With The Write Direction

The Write Direction provides professional solutions for companies and organizations that need assistance in business, technical, and professional writing. Our company is dedicated to producing high-quality content about various business industries and subjects. Get started on your business ideas now with our pointers and let us help you along the way through our services.