There’s nothing quite like the excitement of owning your own business. But it also involves plenty of challenges you need to understand and be prepared to face. The common challenges include:

1. Capital and Cash Flow
2. Failure to Plan
3. Not Getting Expert Advice
4. Time Management
5. Resistance to Change

1. Insufficient Capital and Cash Flow

FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL: By far the biggest hurdle faced by start-ups and other small enterprises is not money – it is POOR PLANNING………Too many times, entrepreneurs who attend our workshops realize that what they need is not MONEY but rather a better STRATEGY/PLAN for their business……..Funding is most often the easy part but planning is the hardest hurdle….Yet this plan is what the funders are interested to see

At the beginning you find that business owners either don’t start with enough capital or the start-up costs exceed the budget if even there was one….A good majority will start the business with absolutely no plan………..ni kubahatisha tu if it will work (I can see you smiling over there)

For existing businesses,most do not plan for expansion so it ends up being haphazard….Have you ever wondered why the quality of service most times goes down after a rapid expansion? It was not planned for……..the team ends up fire fighting everyday until the dust settles and of course after loosing some clients in the process of fire fighting (usually, you loose the first clients you started with)

The other challenge we see often is poor financial management – most business owners have no clue what are management accounts nor do they know what the accountant is ever doing…..They are often very good at building a product or delivering a service but poor at financial management…FYI Knowing how much sales you made is not equal to financial management thank you lolll…….Yes we all know our daily sales but we do not know our daily expenses nor do we forecast the cash flow……Due to this, a lot of businesses fall into in serious cash flow crunches

All too often entrepreneurs “fly by the seat of their pants.” Unfortunately, many of these businesses become casualties before they get very far off the ground.If you want to succeed, you’re going to have to treat your small business in much the same way that larger, successful companies treat theirs.

Have a strategic plan with your vision, goals, and some market analysis,develop a business plan with a detailed budget, cash flow and break-even analyses. These don’t have to be long, narrative documents. In fact, you can create most of what you need with a few flowcharts, mind maps, project charts, and other business strategy diagrams.But don’t cut corners in your research and analysis.

It’s easy to get anxious about your new venture and overlook the difficulties you will face. Take your time and create well thought-out plans. Dealing with and planning for tough issues in advance will be a huge step toward your ultimate success.

2. Not Getting Professional Help

Many avoid it due to the cost involved…Yet an advisor like Entrepreneurs spot,a human resource consultant, an accountant, sales & marketing professionals are important to get your business established than if you do it yourself without the necessary skills – Mistakes are extremely costly and you cannot possibly know how to do everything!

Good advisors will more than pay for themselves over time and you’ll sleep better knowing that you have things set up properly…..And we’re here to help you through all this……

3. Time Management

A plan is only good if you stick to it. That requires managing time well. Now, managing time well doesn’t mean packing so much into your calendar that you can’t possibly get it done.

Pick and choose what’s important, focus on the critical stuff, and get it done. Little things will fall through the cracks. Let them. If they’re really important, they’ll come back up.Use tools to help you, such as Gantt charts or Kanban boards. The visual displays make it easy to quickly decide on important tasks and follow them through to completion.

4.Resistance to Change

Whether your company is a start-up or has been around for 100 years, innovation can be a frightening thing.Many are stiff scared of incorporating technology into their business because they do not know how and technology sounds like some huge dinosaur…….. But change is real and change is the only thing that remains constant. Don’t get stuck in archaic ways of doing things. Embrace a culture of forward thinking. Be open with your staff about changes taking place in your organization, as well.