8 Challenges that Young Entrepreneurs Face

A true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer. Today’s business world has become ultra-competitive as every other person is dreaming to become a successful Entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is a person who plays a very important role in the economic development of a country. In the present world, there are many young entrepreneurs who dream of creating a successful venture of their own. They love the daily hustles and are risk-takers.

They do not want to pursue a job and work under somebody. Instead, they want to be their own boss. Fortunately, modern times have blessed fresh young entrepreneurs with a bundle of resources to tackle problems like never before.

To become a successful businessman, your need to develop entrepreneurial skills. Starting a business is an achievement for an entrepreneur but he/she also faces many challenges along the way. Many young entrepreneurs start a business but aren’t able to sustain it for long.

Never start a business just to make ‘money’. Start a business to make a ‘difference’!

Marie Folio

Long term patience, regular hustles, the right mindset and a strong reason of “WHY” you want to become a successful businessman are the key factors that leads a person to a successful venture. Many young entrepreneurs have made it big because they knew what they would accomplish once successful. A few reasons are mentioned below:

• Financial independence
• Being our own boss
• Work flexibility
• Accommodating a desired lifestyle
• Enjoying freedom
• Carving your own niche (especially for female entrepreneurs)
• Making a difference in the world
• Utilizing one’s own skills and knowledge to the best
• We can work according to our own comfort and plan accordingly

But as mentioned before, the entrepreneur journey is not an easy one. There are many times when you might feel like giving up but you have to overcome them. Entrepreneurship is hard. And many times, entrepreneur hustles for years without any result. At this time a strong entrepreneurial mindset is important to keep you going.

Here are a few common challenges that every business faces at some stage, especially in the initial period. A few of them are:

• Finding like-minded people
• Brand Building
• Client Acquisition
• Business Promotion
• Developing a customer base, and so on.

Few Points To Remember that will help develop your entrepreneurial skills

• Small businesses should never depend on a single client.
• Financial management frees up an entrepreneur to focus on other operating concerns.
• Hustles are necessary but never try to do everything on your own. Always, hire the right people (initially freelancers, interns)
• Promoting the business socially at an initial stage is really essential.
• It is also important to maintain a balance between long hours of working and business success.
• Avoid a situation wherein the business could not sustain/continue in the absence.
• Accept it or not. But problems faced by women entrepreneurs are more than their counterparts so don’t feel guilty or try and be a perfectionist.

Challenges Faced By Young Entrepreneurs

Every successful businessman started making it big after overcoming many challenges. May it be love, life, or career, there are challenges at every other step. Instead of freaking out about the constraints, we should embrace them and they will guide us. For young entrepreneurs, there are some challenges that are a bit difficult to overcome. Let’s take a look at the following difficulties faced by new entrepreneurs.

1. Quitting The Current Job/Career

Entrepreneurship is a long term game. Doing a business full time and continuing it as a side hustle is a big decision most young entrepreneurs have to make.

Even at the initial level if you start your business as a side hustle. To make it big and reap huge benefits, you would have to dedicate your complete time to your venture. Though quitting a promising and steady job for something unpredictable is scary. But, it proves to be fruitful in the long run.

But for your initial financial security, if you’re looking for a job. You can read our article on best job search tips.

Also Read: Career Change at 35: Is It Too Late? – Multi Niche Blog (revampmind.com)
Rate of Unemployment During Lockdown (COVID-19) in India & Career Tips | RevampMind

2. Team Building

This is something that is tough if you’ve never managed a team before. It is really important to pick the right team for a startup. It might become stressful and difficult at times. Finding like-minded people who work hard for your startup just as you do is quite tough.

Also, it is not enough to find candidates who qualify for certain roles; you also need to consider their culture fit, the cost to the business, their way of working, etc. Moreover, these considerations become harder when you are pressurized to fill the open positions in a short span of time.

3. Handling The Finances

Another challenge that new and young entrepreneurs face is handling the finances. Fresh entrepreneurs do not have enough money to invest as there is always a risk of business failure. If we talk about getting some investors, the issue remains the same. No investor would want to put his money in a fresh business where there is less hope of earning profits.

As a new entrepreneur, one has to start from scratch, which means there would be a need to start networking dedicatedly. Also, it is important to think about all possible funding options before settling down on one.

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4. Being The Visionary

As a Founder of a startup, one needs to come up with new ideas all the time. When a competitor/rival emerges, one has to be ready with a responsive plan. This demands on-the-spot and out of the box creative thinking. Having a creative and optimistic mind is really essential. Less experience brings more pressure and it becomes difficult to find solutions to problems and come up with acceptable plans.

5. Decision Making

This is one of the most stressful challenges on this list. New entrepreneurs have to make hundreds of decisions a day. From big impacting decisions to the little hour-affecting ones, decision making can affect the business in positive and negative ways.

Decision fatigue is a real phenomenon. Many new entrepreneurs would experience the same if they aren’t prepared for a new level of stress. One correct decision takes you up the ladder, while one wrong decision can throw you down. The first few months are quite impactful and one needs to be extra cautious about the decisions that one makes.

6. Finding The Right Clients

Good and potential clients are hard to find at an initial stage. Finding a potential client/customer is really essential to growing the business. Convincing a client to work with our startup is really hard as nobody trusts a new business so easily. Hence, it is essential to find “good clients or customers”. A good client is loyal to the business and will forgive us if we make a mistake.

Also, a potential client would try to do the right things that would benefit both the company and the client. Bad customers will always look for loopholes in the company’s policy to exploit and criticize. They always try to exploit the company’s goodwill and are responsible for bad debts. Good customers build the business and bad customers liquidate it.

7. Loneliness

Maybe it is hard to believe, but a new entrepreneur has to believe that he has to walk on this path all alone. It’s a rarely mentioned problem of entrepreneurship but it is indeed a bitter truth. The only person you can trust is Yourself.

Being an entrepreneur is quite lonely. It’s a singular position, so you won’t have teammates to rely on completely. You’ll be working round the clock at an initial stage. Days and nights would be the same and your only focus would be your company/business.

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8. Dealing With The Unknowns

A pilot has to keep a watch for unpredictable bad weather, technical failures, or thunderstorms. Similarly, a good entrepreneur must always be prepared for all the ups and downs that come in the way. Such challenges can ruin the plan if not handled properly. Another challenge could be an unforeseen increase in business expenses while you are not able to earn a satisfactory amount. Unexpected challenges could be a few or all of the following:

• Not being able to make a profit
• Bad debts from customers
• Lack of funds
• Unpaid bills and taxes
• Low quality of stock or inventory
• An unexpected resignation of a staff member
• Betrayal of an important pillar of the company/business

Conclusion

There are many other challenges that fresh entrepreneurs might face. But, it is important to stay focused and confident. All dreams can come true. All that is needed is the passion to pursue it. Everyone can see the risk, but only the right ones can see the reward behind it. Finding like-minded people and getting started is the key to getting successful.

Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them, just find a new way to stand!

Oprah Winfrey