Three Biggest Challenges that Aspiring Entrepreneurs Face
Three Entrepreneur Challenges
Contains unread posts
Aleena Nokham-Phan posted May 19, 2022 4:29 PM
Subscribe
Ratings: 0
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
New and aspiring entrepreneurs can face many challenges at the start of their venture. Here are three of the biggest challenges they may face:
First, developing the business idea. Creating an idea for a business is the first challenge entrepreneurs face when starting a business from scratch. Growing the business concept and finding the right opportunity is not easy. One of the solutions to overcome the first step, entrepreneurs can first learn how to process what others may not see, such as if we look at the definition of an entrepreneur where they can identify opportunities where others may see chaos, contradiction, or confusion (Kuratko, D. F. (2020). Another solution would be to forge the opportunity and integrate it into the business plan to help develop a business idea, in other words, learning how to create value out of nothing.
Second, Raising capital for the start-up. Convincing investors to believe in something that doesn’t exist is a challenge in helping them understand the concept and the trustworthiness of an entrepreneur’s intentions and motivation. Setting up a portfolio is one of the suggestions to overcome this challenge. Developing a portfolio to showcase to potential investors can indeed make the difference in finding some and having them invest in an entrepreneur’s idea (Kuratko, D. F. (2003). Visually presenting the concept in a presentation and providing a portfolio to match is a great way to have investors partake in your idea, which can build funds and capital for a new business.
Third, assembling a great team. Entrepreneurs’ third business challenge will be starting the business from scratch and creating the right team to make the dream come true. Not necessarily employees but business partners that can help develop and grow the company with its concept and ideas. Business partners the entrepreneur can rely on and trust. As one of the top 10 rules by Steve Jobs, he mentions building a great team as one of the essential rules. Entrepreneurs should surround themselves with smart people and bring a positive factor to their business idea (Nikolov, 2015). Steve Jobs also suggests keeping the business partners at five people, including themselves (Nikolov, 2015). I believe this mentality can be applied to our everyday lives and not just to build a new business.
References
Kuratko, D. F. (2003). Entrepreneurship education: Emerging trends and challenges for the 21st century. White Paper, US Association of Small Business Education, 22(2003), 124-136.
Kuratko, D. F. (2020). Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, practice. Cengage.
Nikolov, C. (2015, October 16). Steve Jobs’s top 10 rules for success. MotivationGrid. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://motivationgrid.com/steve-jobs-rules-for-success/
Chester Dunbar Discussion Week 1
Contains unread posts
chester dunbar posted May 19, 2022 10:24 AM
Subscribe
Ratings: 1
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
One of the biggest challenges that aspiring entrepreneurs face is cash flow issues. New entrepreneurs often have problems with strict budgets and delayed invoicing that result in cash flow issues. The reason that this is a problem is that there can be a waiting period from delays in invoicing and customer payments. A customer not paying their bill puts the entrepreneur at risk of losing everything. One way to resolve this cash flow problem is to ask the customer for a down payment for the product or service. Another way that this challenge can be overcome is to file invoices within 15 days of the order instead of 30 days. This way you have two weeks to address any cash flow issues before the bills come in for the next month.
Another challenge for new entrepreneurs is time management because they are required to play many roles in their new adventure. For example, new entrepreneurs must deal with marketing strategies, hiring staff, and dealing with vendors. The solution to a new entrepreneur and time management is to break down the tasks and goals into manageable pieces. Prioritizing and aligning the daily activities with the new entrepreneurs’ goals is the most helpful solution. Also, breaking the entrepreneur’s vision into yearly goals, then quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals help with time management. If there are tasks that do not align with one’s goals, they need to be eliminated or delegated accordingly.
One of the hugest challenges new entrepreneurs face is self-doubt. A lot of entrepreneurs push the self-doubt away when planning their venture, but it is extremely easy for one to doubt themselves and give up when things are not going right. Self-doubt can come from the people a new entrepreneur surrounds themself around. The solution to self-doubt is to surround oneself around people who care about the entrepreneur as a person and people who believe in what their accomplishing. For a new entrepreneur having a support network of friends and family who understand the entrepreneur’s vision and goals is an excellent way to overcome self-doubt. With positive support around the new entrepreneur, it is easier for the entrepreneur to trust those that are there for them by listening and making necessary changes.
Reference
McDaniel, K. (2018, November 15). Top 3 challenges of entrepreneurship and how to overcome them. Bill Wooditch. https://billwooditch.com/top-3-challenges-of-entrepreneurship/
Discussion 1
Contains unread posts
Aaron Lombardo posted May 18, 2022 5:48 PM
Subscribe
Ratings: 2
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
There are a multitude of factors that can cause an element of risk to a prospective entrepreneur. Most of these can be boiled down to a few main categories.
The first of these risks, is the risk to a person’s time. Starting a new venture can dominate a person’s life. Time that could have been spent with pursuing a more safe career, or quality time with family will be sacrificed in pursuit of a business goal. This is time that could be considered wasted if the venture does not pan out. One of the first, and most important ways to mitigate time risk is to create boundaries. Ensure that enough time is spent with friends and family, that you don’t lose touch with who you are. Also, it helps to never look at failure as wasted time, frame the ‘failure’ in your mind as a learning opportunity!
The second risk, is the risk to your finances or assets. The entrepreneur might invest vast quantities of their personal assets and equity into their pursuits. The trick is to manage that amount. Don’t invest more than you are willing to lose, and whenever possible, use someone else’s money! With a strong enough business plan, many places will commit to financing the operation, and personal assets can be left out of the equation as much as possible.
The third risk is to the career of the entrepreneur. Many entrepreneurs have regular jobs and would face declining promotional or expansion prospects if they diverted attention away from their careers, and into their ventures. A way to avoid this is by proper planning, and boundary setting as described earlier.
There is no way to avoid risk all together, risk is inherent in entrepreneurship. However all risk can be held to a limit, and the best way that is found in all three of the prior risks, is by having a clear and precise plan. A good plan can be the best safeguard to protect against most causes of failure in entrepreneurship.
Discussion 1
Contains unread posts
Matthew Viscusi posted May 18, 2022 1:03 PM
Subscribe
Ratings: 1
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
For those who wish to become entrepreneurs within the modern era must be prepared to face grueling challenges that will easily shake those with a weak foundation. However, despite the challenges one might face this perhaps is the best time in human history to venture fourth into the entrepreneur landscape as the internet as well as social media has brought everyone’s knowledge closer together. There are many challenges one might face on this path with fear of judgement, failure and financial starts plaguing the minds of newly formed entrepreneurs.
First, fear of judgement from one’s family, friends, community, school etc is perhaps the biggest fear of every aspiring entrepreneur. Being shunned by loved ones by giving up everything to follow a dream could be seen as not only as a foolish endeavor by also a smack in the face for those who thought they were putting you on the right path I.E college, 9-5 job etc. Judgement can also come from not just the fact of choosing to through away more stable paths but also the path itself such as the new trend within the digital era onlyfans or twitch where peoples lives are permanently put on display for the internet forever which comes with long term negative consequences.
Second, failure is the fear of all human beings. Putting years of hard work, years of financial earnings, moving to a new location, giving up friendships, relationships, all the sacrifice of blood, sweat and tears only to find the end results of your brand new business not being lucrative enough to keep running. It is the unfortunate truth for many to plan years for a dream only to not see it fully actualized.
Lastly, having an incredible idea is only part of the overall battle it takes to become a new entrepreneur. It is no coincidence that finances are incredibly important in all aspects of life as they produce untapped potential of opportunities within ones own endeavors. There are many outside factors that can stomp out our ambition for the ideas we wish to realize and none is more obvious then the lack of finances it is often why when one proceeds to create generational wealth it is described as “Life changing”.
-Matthew Viscusi
Discussion 1
Contains unread posts
Johanna Giard-Baton posted May 17, 2022 6:02 PM
Subscribe
Ratings: 0
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
In today’s excessively competitive business world, aspiring entrepreneurs are facing many big challenges. Luckily, this era also offers countless resources that help ease the process and bring solutions to these challenges. Among the biggest challenges faced by entrepreneurs, we find the fear of taking the first leap, the ability to multitask, and failure.
The first step for an entrepreneur can sometimes be seen as the hardest step. Taking the first leap for an entrepreneur can be a great challenge. In order to start as an entrepreneur, that person needs to be able to take the first step. Quitting a job, creating a website, approaching other professionals, and pitching an idea, or even committing to investing a certain amount of money; all of those can be difficult first steps to take as an entrepreneur. There are not many ways to overcoming such challenge others than “just do it”. Steve jobs had an interesting way of making sure he had no regret as far as starting something new. He said that the best way to think about whether someone will regret something is to imagine themselves being 80 years old and asking themselves if they would regret not trying or not taking that first step. One of the barriers to taking that first step can sometimes simply be timing and asking yourself whether the time is right. Interestingly, some of the most successful companies were launched during some of the worst economic crises. For example, Airbnb was founded in 2008 and saw great success thanks to the fact that people during that time were looking more and more into short-term and low-commitment housing solutions. Even more surprisingly, Disney was founded in 1929 during the Great Depression!
The second biggest challenge faced by entrepreneur is the ability to multitask. Some people might think of an entrepreneur as someone who oversees everything but doesn’t necessarily do the actual job. However, being an entrepreneur means needing to have the ability to wear all the hats at the beginning, such as being the salesperson, the manufacturer, the distributor, the support, and the manager. The best way to overcome such challenge is t simply being able to do research on how to accomplish every single task, create processes, and delegate work to the right people. Another important part of the solution is to be able to empower all the employees and partners and keeping in mind that the goal is not simply to hire someone who can do the job as well as themselves, but someone who can do an even better job and get better results.
The last major challenge that entrepreneurs tend to have to confront is failure. While we often hear in the news all the great multi-billion-dollar companies that made it, we don’t always hear about how they started and all the setbacks they might have gone through. The most important thing is to be able to see failure as opportunity to learn from past mistakes, adapt, and try again.
14, A. A., AnnishaAnnisha is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at Looka. When she’s not writing about branding, Annisha, & Annisha is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at Looka. When she’s not writing about branding. (2020, April 15). 12 businesses that started during a recession. Looka. Retrieved May 17, 2022, from https://looka.com/blog/businesses-that-started-during-a-recession/
Cremades, A. (2021, December 10). The 10 biggest challenges every entrepreneur faces (and how to conquer them). Forbes. Retrieved May 17, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/alejandrocremades/2019/03/02/the-10-biggest-challenges-every-entrepreneur-faces-and-how-to-conquer-them/?sh=2da116d66c3a
ModelingTheMasters. (2015, June 7). The #1 thing you must do if you want success! | Steve Jobs | Top 10 rules. YouTube. Retrieved May 17, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHzAtxW3TzY
ANSWER
Three Biggest Challenges that Aspiring Entrepreneurs Face response
Hello Aleena, entrepreneurs face many challenges when creating a startup. Some of the challenges include a lack of capital to kick start their ideas due to the lack of investors. However, I do not think entrepreneurs lack ideas when starting a business. For someone to decide that they want to start a business, they already have an idea of what they need to do, and thus that is not a challenge faced by most entrepreneurs. However, most entrepreneurs lack the knowledge they need to sustain their business; some lack the financial knowledge to run a business. Others lack the motivation to keep going, especially in the first days of the business before it starts doing well. I agree that getting the right team to work within a business can be quite challenging for a new startup. This is mostly because the business culture has not been created yet, and not many people want to work in a new business as they are not sure it will survive.
