Entrepreneurs: 3 Business Challenges You Must Address

Working with entrepreneurial CEOs, I often hear them express common themes about why they started their businesses, as well as, the challenges they face as the business grows.

Conceiving, building and growing business are the reasons most entrepreneurs strike out on their own.  They want financial freedom.  They want control over their time.  They want independence.

Some build enterprises that far exceed their expectations.  However, it is at that point they begin to face some of the challenges they left behind in the corporate world.

The three challenges that surface most often are:

• Leadership challenges – in their industry as well as in their organization.  Many entrepreneurs have not had the opportunity to learn leadership skills before building their companies. However, leadership is a required skill even if you are a one-person company.  Or, I should say it is most important in a one-person company.

• Communication challenges – When an entrepreneurial organization grows beyond one or two people, communication challenges begin to surface between individuals, between departments and often with clients and vendors.  These challenges must be addressed to prevent infighting and company-wide melt-down.

• Immersion challenges – Most entrepreneurs find they are working just to keep up.  Being immersed in the business means there is very little time dedicated to working on the business.

Burn-out and overwhelm are the results of these challenges not being addressed and resolved.

When you find yourself in any of these situations, it is a good idea to get an outside, objective opinion.  Then, realign parts of the business to function better and allocate time to work on the business from a strategic perspective.  My company, Strategy Source, Inc., provides coaching and planning services for emerging and established entrepreneurs.

Leave a comment before you go.

Amelia Brazell, Strategy Source, Inc.