Running a Startup would acquaint you with a variety of challenges, in every stage. In fact, the issues vary from the smallest to the biggest tasks and entirely depend on how the founders handle the situation. While doing my research on several start-ups, I saw some interesting facts and some hurdles faced by them. The challenges range from cash crunch to family support to, choosing the right investors when they were raising funds, to something simple yet crucial, like “Hiring the right set of people in your start-up with the same passion”.
Some of the common challenges faced by entrepreneurs are :
1. Lack of budget : The problem that the small businesses face these days is that, due to lack of budget they cannot afford many people and skilled labourers all the time.
2. Finding a tech co-founder : “Finding a tech co-founder is incredibly hard especially when you are from a non-technical background.” says Ian (founder of Coachseek). Similarly, Phillip Parisis (founder of Inflowlive) says, “Biggest hurdle was finding a development team lead that could manage the conception of an idea and lead it into a minimal viable product, and then, into beta.”
Read more: Hear what Chris Barton, Co-Founder Of Shazam has to say on ‘Entrepreneurship’
3. Lack of confidence: Often there are times when the entrepreneurs themselves are the biggest doubters, as jumping from a safe, well-trodden path in finance into a world of entrepreneurial-ism is not an easy decision. There are moments of self-doubt as well as doubt from peers.
4. Customer Acquisition : Finding the right customers and building trust with them is one of the most challenging task for any start-up. Convincing people about the idea is a very tedious job. It is just not about running for the customers it is also about retention of these customers so that the fixed retainer is coming every month.
5. Regulatory laws : In some food/cooking start-ups, the biggest challenge faced by entrepreneurs has been regulatory laws surrounding the cooking of meats, eggs, and organics in non-commercial kitchens. This leads to a decrease in the innovation by the chefs.
6. Marketing and publicity : The real challenge in many start-ups is to market and successfully set up their service and gaining users.
7. Inappropriate time : The market timing might be wrong. They could be ahead of the market by a few years, and people are not ready for your particular solution at this stage.
8. Fear of failure : Fear of failure leads to demotivation and so they try to get help from many others, but, either there is not much response or they ask to pay hefty amounts just to even look at the idea, which hinders the growth of the start-up.
Everyone has the dream of starting up their own business and being their own boss, and for most people it always stays a dream due to the many obstacles faced in starting a business and more so keeping it running and profitable. The key to being successful might just be staying ultra focused on the core.