7 Common Challenges During Startup and How to Overcome Them

The idea of launching a successful startup can be a highly romanticized concept. However, anyone who has actually created their own business from scratch is well aware of the many challenges that come with starting a brand new company.

If you’re contemplating starting a business or you’re in the process of already launching one, here are a few of the more common challenges that you may face as well as suggestions for how to overcome them.

1. Finding Customers

Every company needs to find customers. This can include both repeat business from past customers as well as new acquisitions. Either way, the process of building an audience can be particularly intimidating when you have a brand new business that nobody knows about.

You can overcome this challenge by:

• Defining the specific industry and/or niche that you’re targeting.
• Researching the wants and needs of potential customers.
• Creating a buyer persona to exemplify your ideal customer.
• Tailoring your marketing efforts to pursue your target audience.

If you can highly target your marketing in this manner, you’ll be able to have a much higher ROI on each marketing dollar spent.

2. Hiring Employees

Right along with customer acquisition, it can be challenging to find the best talent for your new enterprise. It can be difficult to know where you need help, what kind of skills you’re looking for, and how to properly find, let alone vet, candidates. The added fact that it costs over $4,000 per hire on average only raises the stakes further.

You can overcome this challenge by:

• Definitively outlining your organization’s brand, vision, goals, beliefs, and culture.
• Creating an employee persona — much like a customer persona — of the ideal employee that fits well in your defined culture.
• Considering offering training and apprenticeships for certification and licensing in your state as a form of potential employee development.

By creating a hiring strategy, you can minimize costs while still attracting talented and qualified individuals to your startup.

3. Employee Benefits

Most startups offer jobs with low pay rates and few benefits. However, if you want to truly attract quality candidates that will help you succeed, the benefits package that you offer is a critical step in the talent acquisition process. This isn’t to say that you should break the bank by offering luxurious benefits. Hence the difficulty of offering a generous compensation package at an affordable rate.

You can overcome this challenge by:

• Offering affordable benefits, such as remote work and flexible work hours.
• Clearly outlining your policies on PTO, sick leave, and company-sponsored insurance.
• Assembling these items into a benefits package that you can clearly and positively communicate to potential employees.

By carefully considering each item, you can assemble a benefits package that offers as much as possible to each employee without undermining your financial stability in the process.

4. Brand Awareness

One of the greatest challenges of having a startup is the simple fact that no one knows about you. Sure, family and friends may patronize your company for a bit, but eventually, you need to figure out how to find and retain more customers.

While creating buyer personas and closing sales are important, a huge part of the process of getting established revolves around brand awareness. This includes spreading the word about both your new enterprise and the quality products or services that you offer.

You can overcome this challenge by:

• Encouraging word-of-mouth marketing through referral bonuses from existing customers.
• Finding complementary businesses to cross-promote, such as a plumber and electrician recommending one another.
• Building an affordable, user-friendly website that focuses on answering customer questions and showcasing your offerings.
• Using search engine optimization (even for contractors in local markets) to reach new customers via search engines.
• Utilizing social media and email to cultivate an online community.

By tapping into affordable marketing options like cross-promotions, a company blog, and social media, you can slowly but steadily build brand awareness, whether it’s in a local market, a specific niche, or even across the globe.

5. Scalability

When you start a business, the focus is typically all on survival. However, if you tenaciously and steadily overcome all of the challenges that you face, you may eventually find yourself amongst the third of businesses that survive ten years or more.

If that’s the case, you may find that you’re having trouble managing the transition from surviving to thriving. Success is great, but if you can’t scale your operations, you can miss untold potential profits along the way.

You can work to overcome this challenge by:

• Building the possibility of scaling your enterprise right into your initial business plan so that you’re ready for the possibility, should it arise.
• Utilizing various technologies to streamline activities, such as payroll, collaboration, file-sharing, and so on.
• Using the customer experience as a central focus and benchmark for all business activity as you grow.

By planning ahead, utilizing technology, and focusing on the customer experience, you can navigate through the growing pains of scaling your enterprise when the time comes.

6. Time Management

Time management is a common predicament for most entrepreneurs. When asked,  40-50% of small business owners responded that they were heavily involved in activities like payroll, sales, marketing, customer service, and human resources. This can quickly overstretch a business owner, leaving them with inadequate time to address all of their responsibilities.

You can address this challenge by:

• Using technology to manage time, such as an online calendar or a scheduling app.
• Delegating tasks to capable employees whenever possible.
• Outsourcing certain activities to contractors who are professionally trained and have their own liability insurance.
• Unplugging when you’re not working so that you can genuinely rest and recuperate.

By learning to manage your time better, you can ensure that you’re fully available and focused on the right tasks within your company over the long haul.

7. Complying With Government Regulations

Finally, remember to be ready to accommodate and work with any government regulations that may be required in order to operate as a business. Complying with government requests can feel exhausting, overwhelming, and distracting. Nevertheless, it’s important to do so in order to keep up with safety standards, stay within the law, and maintain a green light for your company to operate.

You can overcome this challenge by:

• Taking the time to choose a business structure and fill out all legal documentation when starting your company.
• Pursuing and maintaining any certificates of insurance or other operational documentation required.
• Keeping all government-related paperwork in a clearly organized and easy-to-access location.

By cooperating with government regulations, you set yourself up for a smooth path as you attempt to turn your fledgling startup into a thriving operation.