8 Tough Moments Every Entrepreneur Faces At Some Point

In the world of boxing, if an opponent knows what to expect from his opponent, he has an edge. In war, if a country anticipates which side the enemy’s going to attack from, the country has an edge. If you as an entrepreneur know the challenges you’ll face, you’ll also have an edge since you’ll be better prepared for it.

Entrepreneurship comes with a host of challenges. These challenges may be extremely harsh, but they will be rather rewarding. Experienced entrepreneurs have to deal with this no matter how long they’ve been in business. These entrepreneurs have made it for a long period of time because they know how to deal with adversity as time went along.

Here are 8 tough moments every entrepreneur faces at some point:

1. Cash Flow Management

Cash flow is essential to the survival of a small business, yet many entrepreneurs struggle to pay the bills while they’re waiting for checks to arrive. Part of the problem stems from delayed invoicing, which is common in the entrepreneurial world. You perform a job, send an invoice, then get paid (hopefully) 30 days later. In the meantime, you have to pay everything from your employees or contractors to your mortgage to your grocery bill. As a result of this, you can look into different strategies to get a deposit from your clients or find a way to make sure your clients pay on time.

2. Teambuilding

This is especially hard if you’ve never run or managed a team before, but even if you have management experience, picking the right team for a startup is stressful and difficult. It’s not enough to find candidates who fill certain roles. You also need to consider their cost to the business, their culture fit and how they’ll work as part of your overall team. Such considerations are exceptionally hard when you’re under the pressure of filling those positions as soon as possible.

3. Funders And Investors

When an entrepreneur is embarking on a startup concept, he or she is attempting to launch a product or service to market. Often times, a business will need funding at some point to take it off the ground. This is sometimes an integral part of startup success.

At this moment, entrepreneurs have a very tough decision to make. They have to decide whether or not they want to borrow money, exchange equity for cash or continue to fund the business themselves. There is no right answer that works for every universal situation. Instead, you have to think about the pros and cons of each option and see which works best for your business.

4. Decision-Making

Believe it or not, this is probably one of the most stressful challenges on this list for many entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are forced to make hundreds of decisions a day, from big,company-impacting decisions to tiny hour-affecting ones. Decision fatigue is a real phenomenon and most new entrepreneurs will experience it at some point if they aren’t prepared for the new level of stress.

5. Uncertainty

All of us and especially business leaders find great discomfort in uncertainty. Because of global debt and economic struggles, uncertainty is more pronounced today than in the past. The sad news is that uncertainty leads to a short-term focus. Due to uncertainty, companies tend to shy away from long-term planning in favor of shorter-term goals. While this might feel right, a failure to strategically plan five to ten years into the future can end up destroying value.

Businesses must learn to balance the need for a more reactive, short-term focus with the need for informed, long-term strategies. Uncertainty tends to put many into a general malaise. The ever-running news cycle leaves everyone feeling a bit on edge. This causes business owners and executives to hunker down and customers to stop spending. You need to shut out the world ending news and get back to work.

6. Overcoming Fears of Failure

Fear of failure is a HUGE thing is an entrepreneurship. So many business owners fear growth, change or action, purely because they fear failure. In order to become a successful entrepreneur, you have to first remove the fear of failure. It’s important to be able to take risks in order to succeed and fearing that you’re going to fail is a guaranteed way to do exactly that.

7. Social Rejection

Another challenging obstacle that you may face as an entrepreneur relates to social rejection from family and friends. Your family and friends may not understand what you are trying to accomplish through your business and they may not immediately support you. Because of this, you can easily feel isolated as if nobody supports you.

While you may feel isolated from family and friends, you can network with other entrepreneurs to gain the support and friendship that you desire. However, remember that family and friends are still important and deserve your time. Eventually, these individuals will begin to support your efforts as well.

8. Criticism

Self-doubt is common for entrepreneurs, so you certainly do not need to hear unsolicited criticism. You may even hear criticism that dissuades you from pursuing your dreams or trying to grow your business. Some older professionals who failed with their attempts at entrepreneurial activities may try to steer you on the wrong path.

It is important for you to sift through the advice that you receive. Avoid taking all advice wholeheartedly and learn to take things with a grain of salt. Focus on the words of advice that will serve you well and that you can learn from. If you receive any advice that does nothing more than discourages you or dissuades you from moving forward with your goals, simply disregard that advice and move forward with a clear mind.

Conclusion

If you can work your way past these obstacles, you’ll be well on your way to establishing yourself as a successful entrepreneur. That isn’t to say they won’t continue to nag at you as the years go on or that new and varied challenges won’t rise to take their place. In this post, I shared with you 8 tough moments every entrepreneur faces at some point.