Major Problems We Entrepreneur's Face

Now let us see the problems with being an entrepreneur. These are really problems that can easily become crisis in your hands if you are not an entrepreneur at heart and if you lack the relevant knowledge and skills required to effectively handle such problems.

1. Structural Problem

You will be faced with a lot of issues from the outset that are purely structural in nature. If you don’t understand what I mean by structural problems, I bet you already are facing such problems or you are about to face them and won’t know what is wrong. The ability to execute your technical competence very well doesn’t confer organizational skills on you. Organizational skills are what it takes to build an organization in a way that puts the odds in your favor. Let me put it like this: you need two kinds of companies not one; a holding company and a trading company. Most entrepreneurs are never told when they start out. The trading company trades with clients and customers to make the ongoing profits while the holding company owns the assets in the trading company. If you still don’t understand, ask a lawyer.

2. Financial Problem

By this, I do not mean insufficient capital; in fact I do not belong to the school of thought that money is always

the first thing needed to start a business. By financial problem I mean accounting, bookkeeping and financial management tactics. Most people starting businesses do not realize how much they have to do per day. You have to learn how to keep your books, bank account(s) and make financial decisions strategically. This can erupt into business failure and bankruptcy if you violate the laws guiding organizational financial management. I’m not writing to teach you how to do that, but to show you the problems. Visit my blog for that.

3. Sales & Marketing Problem

This can be the most delicate problem of any enterprise as some are facing today. You cannot be an entrepreneur and report that you don’t like selling, you’re not good at marketing or that you’re shy to talk to people. Let me help you out: Go get a job! You are not an entrepreneur at heart; you don’t have the software pre-installed. I always jokingly tell people during conferences that the MD is the Chief Seller, Chief Marketer and Chief Public Spokesman for the company. Those are unabdicatable responsibilities of yours. Brian Sher, in his book What the Rich know and desperately want to keep Secret, advised “Never delegate your marketing and sales to anyone else”. Why? No one can sell what you produce or offer the way you can. Remember, bringing in cashflow is the most important area for any company. If you’re not making profit, you’re not in business. Bradley J. Sugars quipped, “You can cut costs to profit, but you can only sell your way to prosperity.”

4. Employee Headache

Hiring becomes a problem when you don’t know how volatile a recruitment error can be and how lethal its effect can be on the company. Managing people is one of the many headaches that come with being an employer, and if you don’t have the shock absorbers for it, you can go bananas. People remain the number one most appreciable asset of any organization but they remain the number one headache of employers (especially when you hire wrongly). For small organizations, your hiring decisions are very important. One wrong hire out of two payroll staff is a 50% loss to the company and a capital down effect. Pls be guided.

5. Clients Problem

The next terrible set of people you will have to deal with will be clients. I’ve been burned a number of times, so I speak from a standpoint of experience. Many things can go wrong from default in payment agreements to unnecessary difficulty in relating with them and much more. As a rule, it is wise to back all verbal discussions with written and jointly signed documents. And be sure to honor your part of the agreement. Making assumptions on behalf of clients can be a terrible experience too, especially when your staff makes such assumptions on behalf of the company. Client feedback is also a great way to measure yourself but getting that feedback can be a herculean task as most clients do not want to fill forms.

These are just a few problems I have highlighted. My intention with this writing is not to discourage you from entrepreneurial pursuit but to affirm the validity of that pursuit. If you should be an entrepreneur, you must have been reading with a burning excitement and figuring out what went wrong sometime ago. If you read with a broken heart or got all the more confused as you read, chances are you don’t have the software of an entrepreneur in you. You are better off not venturing into the jungle; there are wild ferocious beasts at large.

So, if I am not an entrepreneur at heart and I don’t like having a job, what should I do? I’ll end this article with my answer to that. People in this category are often supporters. They are drawn to entrepreneurship but do not have the spirit of enterprise. They are usually the people who support the entrepreneur. Hey, find an entrepreneur with a vision you are crazy about and support him to the very end. Lay all the cards on the table from the very start; express your desires, expectations and reach a conclusion so that you don’t strain your working relationship later on. Every entrepreneur needs an avid supporter, an undefatigable helper, a trusted second-in-command. That I believe is where you fit into the whole picture.

And if you are not in any of the two categories I have spoken about, stay on your job or make a transition to another job that you will find more fulfilling and challenging. Whatever you do, make sure that you are doing the right thing always.