In this article, Aditya Srivastava, Marketing Manager at iPleaders discusses 3 Biggest Challenges Entreprenuers Face And What Can They Do About It.

In this era of startup, competitiveness has increased manifolds. Dynamic regulatory compliances have led to individual startups dying, and other challenges like lack of proper contracts, improper co-founders agreement, and most importantly creating a customer base have proved to be some of the significant issues that startup founders face.

However, it is also undeniable that with the rise of technology, unfathomable content on internet and courses like these have proved to be a boon to combat such challenges. In this article we will talk about the three major challenges that the entrepreneurs today face and discuss the possible solutions for the same to ease your business operations:

1.  Where Does The Cash Flow?

Cash flow is the very essence of any business. However, especially for small businesses where the reserves aren’t as much, it becomes all the more vital. It is stressful for most of the fresh, resource-less entrepreneurs to pay all the bills, exorbitant employee remunerations, and for the everyday transactions while the income cheques are yet to arrive. A lot of their issues also stem from delayed billing, which is no stranger to the startup ecosystem.

The process generally is to provide your goods or service, send them an invoice and then if all goes well, get paid 15-30 days later. In the meantime, your employees are jumping on your head for incentives, your wife likes to buy the expensive stilettos, and your investor wants to see your coffers jingling with gold coins! Waiting to get paid, especially in the first few years, often is the most prominent trouble. Even one delayed payment by a client can prove to be a severe blow.

Advance planning, budgeting, and financial projections are the biggest key factors to maintain the cash flows. However, if your business model involves a later payment option, no one can take the stress away from you. I will give you two easy strategies.

Ask For Faster Invoice Payments And Get Invoiced At A Later Date

You can ask your own vendors to invoice you at a minimum of 45 days to 90 days. You can send the invoice to your clients every 15 days. For example, if your customer has to pay on a specific payment date and even if the customer is late on the payment, you will have two weeks to address it, and you can get paid while the next month’s bill is due.

On the other hand, you can ask your vendors to invoice you for later days, so that you have ample time and resources to pay their bills. You will roughly have double the time to make payments after receiving your fees.

Do Not Function Without Down Payments!

If you need to be sure that you are never out of cash, make it a point that you have a system of the downpayment in place. However, you might argue that a downpayment might not cover all the costs. In such a case, ensure that the down payment includes a majority of expenses and a small profit to you. By doing so, you can at least be assured that you won’t be in the middle of nowhere after clearing all your bills.

You can learn more about financial management techniques here.

2.  The Tedious Task Of Hiring!

Having worked with a startup for quite some time now, I have realized that it is the entrepreneurs which dread interviewing people the most. For them, taking interviews is the most time-consuming process. It takes days to review resumes, give them tasks, sit through the interviews, and finally reach a conclusion.

It gets all the more difficult because generally, the bright individuals are hesitant to join startups. They are always questioning job security, the scope of work and are constantly looking to switch. To retain good talent is a big problem. The challenge is greater because most of these startups don’t have HR Managers who could help them with such critical issues.

The best solution for it is to approach the employee the same way you would have approached your customer. You don’t need a bunch of ads seeking candidates. You can have a few ultra-specific advertisements which can save you a ton of time by pre-qualifying candidates. Give them a task to perform; this will further bring clarity.

My current employer took a writing test for me. He told me, that out of 50 people who applied for this job, at least 25 did not even submit the assignment. If they were interested or enthusiastic, they would do it. This works like a filtration process. Once you have extended the offer, please ensure that you get on a long call and have proper expectation setting.

You need to be absolutely aware of what the candidate is seeking from the job, and it is okay for you to bend a little to meet a good prospect’s expectation. You don’t have to compromise on the rules and policies of your startup but ensure that a bright employee is made to feel that his or her expectations are respected.

3. The Ting Of Marketing!

The entrepreneurs are on the top of their game when it comes to their product designs, deliverables, and quality in most cases. The biggest hurdle they face, however, is that they do not know how to market themselves. It is not uncommon to see the cheesiest of advertisements on our social media platforms. Some of them even go to the extent of using print, SMS, and mobile advertisement.

All these methods take up a lot of costs and hardly produce results. Answer it for yourself. How many of us even go to buy jewellery on Akshaya Tritiya?

It is understandable if you are not adept at making marketing strategies, placing advertisements and tracking it. It is advisable for you to go ahead and outsource your marketing strategy to someone who knows how to go about it. Give them a budget and let them do the needful for you. Experimenting at an early point can be problematic. What you can do instead is get an expert to help and once you get the hang of it, do it yourself.

There is no denying the fact that entrepreneurs face innumerable challenges and there has been a lot written on the ways to overcome them. You need to be extremely patient while dealing with such challenge. Use perseverance combined with brains as your best friends. Keep in mind that you are not the first person to face such issues. There are courses which can help you get out of such ruts and help you make your business truly rewarding.

All the luck!