Most entrepreneurs know that starting a business is difficult. But that doesn’t mean they know what they’re getting into when they strike out on their own. Many, maybe most, underestimate the sheer challenge of launching and scaling a successful enterprise.
Some of these difficulties are external ones over which founders have little or no control. For people used to commanding every room they walk into, it can be humbling to realize that some things simply resist order.
Other founder challenges are internal. They’re easier to overcome than the external difficulties, though “easier” is a highly relative term in this situation.
Both types of challenges can hold new entrepreneurs back. Both can keep you, a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed founder, from reaching your business goals and your full potential as a leader.
Here’s what you need to know about five of the most important — and how to overcome them.
1. Not Making the Leap in the First Place
As the sneaker slogan goes, “Just do it.”
Many entrepreneurs don’t. Or they “do it, sort of.”
Half-hearted doesn’t cut it. Trying it for a little while to see if it pays off doesn’t work, either. To give yourself the best possible chance at success, you need to go all in from the very beginning.Listen to enough origin stories from successful entrepreneurs and you’ll soon see this pattern emerge. Green Dot founder Steve Streit told Home Business Magazine that his first advice to any first-time founder is: “Nothing happens until someone does something.”
In this scenario, that “someone” is you
2. Not Trusting Yourself to Make the Tough Calls
Once you’re off and running, you’ll find yourself making difficult decisions almost immediately.
Or rather, you’ll find yourself in a position to make difficult decisions right away. You need to find the confidence within yourself to actually make those calls.
This confidence might not come naturally. Some entrepreneurs are decisive types who relish taking action, but others are deliberative and hesitant. While being cautious isn’t necessarily a bad thing in business, it can hold you back early on.
It’s OK to ask for help. Consider hiring a business coach, but only if you’re prepared to take their advice to heart. Entrepreneurship expert Tonia Kendrick advises new entrepreneurs to treat their business coaching relationship like mentorship, which means going all-in on the process.
3. Not Knowing When to Delegate to Experience or Expertise
As an entrepreneur, knowing when not to make difficult decisions is just as important as knowing when to make them.
Because sometimes you’re not the best person to make those calls. Sometimes, you need to delegate to a more experienced person on your team or in your network. Other times, you need a subject matter expert.
This is Business Growth 101 stuff, but it’s important to get it right. The first five hires you make are much more important than the next 50.
4. Getting Bogged Down in the Details
Often, experts become entrepreneurs because they believe they can do a better job than the incumbents, or because they identify a solution (and market opportunity) no one’s pursuing yet.
Maybe you’re this type of entrepreneur. If you are, you could also be the type who gets bogged down in the details of processes or decisions.
Remember, two things can be true: It’s good to be cautious, but also good to be decisive. Early on in your entrepreneurial journey, decisiveness should win out.
5. Misjudging the Business Case for Your Solution
This is another common entrepreneurship challenge that affects both generalists and subject matter experts.
If you’ve been in an industry for a while or studied it closely from the outside, you might feel like you’re qualified to identify business opportunities within it. But at the same time, you might be too close to the subject. You might not have a true outsider’s perspective.
That can lead to missteps. Most consequentially, it could lead you to make a fundamental error in assuming there’s a market for your solution.
The way to overcome this is to adopt a “fail fast, iterate enthusiastically” mentality. You need to go all-in on your idea in the short term while also knowing when to “call it” — to say that it’s just not going to work. From there, you need to be prepared to iterate toward a more workable solution.
What’s Holding You Back?
Regardless of how driven and goal-oriented you are, something is holding you back. Probably more than one “something.”
You’re in good company. The world’s very best entrepreneurs all faced obstacles earlier in their careers. They continue to face obstacles, just of a different sort and at greater scale.
One of the most important attributes separating ambitious business leaders who don’t make it from those who do is a willingness to do whatever it takes to meet and overcome obstacles — or, if that’s not possible, to find another way around them.
Be like the successful ones. Figure out which of these difficulties is keeping you from reaching your full potential. Then make a plan to overcome them.
