9 Challenges To Overcome As a Business Owner

Posted on February 21, 2017 by Zev Asch, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

1. Stop chasing certainty. You know what they say about “death and taxes,” it’s true. You must try, risk, and experiment to find what is working and what is not.
2. “There is no free lunch” is truer today than it has ever been. Free doesn’t work! Posting on social media or sending emails rarely yield results; “likes” don’t pay the bills. To compete, you must spend. Commit to a budget and use it until you get results. Then spend some more; that’s what your competitors are doing – “can’t afford it” means “I quit.”
3. Referrals are great, but they can never replace smart marketing. None of your customers ever gets up in the morning saying, “I must find a new client for…” Your existing customer base is a goldmine, but there are other nuggets all around you, get them before your competitor does.
4. Take nothing for granted. Being a business owner, especially a 2nd or 3rd generation family-owned business, does not mean, or comes close, to mastering entrepreneurship. Humble yourself and recognize that the business world is bigger, tougher, and more complicated than it has ever been – your customers have choices, many choices, and they don’t have to work hard to find your competitors.
5. The Japanese auto industry invented Kaizen – the art of ‘continuous improvements.’ It is a system, and culture, that minimizes failures and allows you to be better and different. Adopt it, and you’ll be amazed how far you can take your business.
6. Share the wealth. You can’t do this on your own. Your employees hold the key to success; we’re in the H2H economy – Human to Human, not B2B or B2C. Each contact your customer service rep makes with an existing or potential client is crucial to staying in business. Develop a culture that allows employees to care about the business as much as you do and then reward them for caring.
7. Question everything and stay on your toes, especially when everything is going great. It won’t last; it can’t – competitors are everywhere, and each one fights like hell for a slice. Analyze and don’t be afraid to ask tough questions like, “what have we done to ensure sales will continue to go up next month?”
8. Humans are not wired to be objective – the Lizard Brain is alive and well. Get help, have an experienced and trusted advisor by your side; it’s that coach or consultant that holds a flashlight that shines a path you can both see. You can’t afford not to have one.
9. When it’s all said, and done, I have found that nothing replaces integrity and hard work. It may take a while for clients to notice but when they do, they will pick a business and an owner that personifies both.