Let’s face it, there is no “get rich quick” business out there. All successful businesses have literal blood, sweat and tears built right into them. There are struggles with everything in good in life and a prosperous business will never just be handed to you. Growing a business takes a lot of hard work and dedication and there will be plenty of times when you just want to give up but you can’t give up that easily.

Here’s our list of struggles that we’ve encountered, as well as many other start ups.

1. Your target marketing isn’t clearly defined so you try to sell to everyone. It is so important to think about who your target market is, especially in this day and age. It will help develop more engaging marketing and really bring the customer in. Are you one of those people who think they can sell to everyone? Well, you are wrong. So stop.
2. You’re the only one and on the verge of a burnout. This is so common when you think you’re the only who can do everything. Look at your tasks and try to delegate some tasks to a virtual assistant. Here is an article with a great list.
3. There aren’t clear processes and protocols. Just because you are a one-man business owned and operated does not mean that there should not be set rules and guidelines. It may sound silly, but following the same rules you would expect employees to follow will help you become much more organized and keep things consistent within the brand image.
4. You are losing track of prospect clients. If you want a big book of business, keep a literal book of business. Find a great CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Tool to help you track every valuable lead. This will also help you manage time with your usual daily work.
5. You’re afraid to spend money to market or seeing no return on investment. Many people think the free way of marketing with social media will be enough. Well, no. Yes, they are still super important to have, you will need to invest some money into social media. When you do this, make sure to have a clear idea of your target market because social media gives you the tools to target them specifically. Say you do all this and you aren’t seeing a return on your investment. Are you tracking everything? Are you adjusting where you see fit? You probably aren’t going to get the secret formula on the first try to revisit your settings and adjust where you see fit to reach your target demographic.
6. You make decisions out of fear. This makes a huge difference. You never hear a success story that starts off with, “well I wanted to make the safe choice so I decided to cut back”. GO FOR IT.
7. You work at this alone. We have all been there where we are so scared to tell anyone we are starting this cool new business because what if it does fail? Then you feel stupid. But it’s harder to go through this alone than to tell your closest family and friends. They will be excited and they will help you try to succeed.

Have any more suggestions? We want to hear about it! Leave a comment for us!

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