Seven Challenges on the Road to Entrepreneurship
So you want to become an entrepreneur? If you don’t its okay, keep on reading. You never know there may be a potential entrepreneur deep down inside of you just waiting to be unleashed. On the other hand, if you are currently thinking about stepping into the vast world of entrepreneurship. Understanding some of the challenges you may face on your journey will make your experience more enjoyable.
As budding entrepreneurs, your first task is to prepare your entire body and mind to face and overcome new challenges every single day. Challenges may often reinvent themselves over time taking up new shapes and forms. However based on how you choose to overcome these challenges, will determine success or failure as these challenges create the foundation and building blocks for success.
Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, “Why do I want to become an entrepreneur?” Is it for the fancy cars (preferable Audi), the yachts, private jets, having your name on a building? Or is it to be known for your wealth like Bill Gates or cool gadgets like Steve Jobs? May be its simply just to make a difference in the world. Whatever your reason, take a pen and paper and write it down, while I go grab a glass of juice.
Now that you have written down your reason(s) on paper and I have quenched my thirst. Let’s get straight into it, by the end of this article we will revisit it again and see whether or not your reasons need to be improved or changed. If you didn’t write anything its ok, you can write them after you have finished reading.
First challenge – Paperwork: Remember those 6-8 pages paper you detested doing in college, double spaced at font size 12? Ok good! Now forget about it because until you can afford to hire those expensive lawyers and a secretary, YOU will be the one stuck with the task and responsibility of writing and organizing 18 page contracts, single spaced, font size 11, business plans, revenue models and the list goes on.
Second challenge – Delegation: There is a famous saying which goes “No man is an island.” Let’s face it. No matter how skilled you are, no matter how many times you can rub your belly and pat your head at the same time, you simply CANNOT do it all by yourself. For me, the main thing I had to learn was trusting that the person who I assigned a task to would be able to do it AND do it well. As I did, you will have to learn to let go of perfectionism and learn to empower others to do the job in their own creative way.
Third challenge – Projects: Many project fail due to lack of planning or strictly no planning at all. Even if you do manage to muster up one of the best plans ever, you still have to ask yourself, “Do I have the capabilities to manage this project from start to finish ensuring it’s successful?” If the answer is No, I would suggest getting somebody who can do it well. It will be a hard task but it will save you a lot of anxiety and frustration as well as preserve your company’s reputation in the end.
Fourth challenge – Procrastination: We all have been bitten by the procrastination bug from time to time: “Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?” The issue arises if you allow yourself to be bitten too often by the procrastination bug. There is no vaccine for the procrastination flu. Your new venture depends entirely on you completing even the most mundane tasks. Let’s rephrase the question to this: “Why do tomorrow, what can be completed today?”
Fifth challenge – Getting Organized: As your organization’s first employee, you will need to have an idea as to how every link in your organization chain connects. You are the captain of your ship! It is your job to ensure that whoever comes on board, will know exactly how to connect and be in sync with the organization because as they say “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”
Sixth challenge – Lack of Focus: You have so many brilliant ideas, that each one seems “shinier” than the next, so you start with one then realize, “Oh!! This new idea seems way more fun than the previous one! I’ll just do this one on the side while I work on getting the other one fully operational” I’ll share with you an analogy which I shared with one of my entrepreneur friends:
“Imagine you are in the construction business and you received a contract to build five houses. You have planned everything right. You know one house requires x amount of blocks therefore you would need x amount for five houses. You gave a contract to the biggest block manufacturer of which they inform you that they would not be able to supply you with all the blocks initially before the project begins but will supply you as your project progresses. So, you start all five houses and everything is going as planned. Midway through your project, you receive a phone call from the block manufacturers who have been hit by an unforeseen circumstance (it may be a flood, hurricane, tornado or whatever you like) and they are unable to supply you for the next six months. Now you are stuck with five unfinished houses. What if you had started and focused on completing each house one at time. You would now have had at least two houses ready for sale.”
Moral of this very long story is to pick one venture, stick with it and see it through from brainstorm to an established business. If you have to pivot, change your business model or accept its failure then do so. At least you know you gave it your full focus and everything it needed to succeed.
Seventh challenge – Time Management: Time is money we all know that. If you can’t manage your time wisely, you will lose money. It’s just that simple. You are frequently late, over-committed and over-promising. You underestimate the duration of completion of projects and often scramble to catch up late into the night. Time is your most important asset. The key element is learning how to use it wisely to avoid losing money.
Your turn to share
These were just some of the challenges I have faced and had to learn to overcome. Share with us some of your challenges. If you are not yet an entrepreneur, feel free to share with us why you want to become an entrepreneur.
