Like every major decision in life, the choice and conviction to start a business is usually taken critically by those who wish to succeed at it because life as we know it is a gamble. It could either become a tremendous success or a woeful failure. However, the good news is, that most of the time we determine how successful we choose to become by our attitude, resilience and faith in what we do.
Running a business comes with challenges and risks and not many are patient enough to endure these challenges and reap the rewards thereafter. Success in business and in any endeavor for that matter is directly linked to the amount of preparedness.
These are some of the challenges you must be prepared for if you want to succeed as an entrepreneur.
Doors will be slammed in your face: yes you heard that right. Not everyone is as enthusiastic or as passionate as you are about your big dreams. This means that sometimes, you wouldn’t get the help you need from people. Nevertheless, it is wise to envisage that such events will occur and act accordingly. You should take their refusal to help as some form of motivation to forge ahead with your dreams.
Profit may not come anytime soon: As much as people like to downplay this aspect, it is important to note that sometimes the money just doesn’t come in as soon as we expect it to come. Whilst this is utterly frustrating, it will take strategizing, patience and persistence to keep going at it until you start raking in the big bucks.
Employees are not always loyal: So you have this great vision and you’ve penned it on paper, discussed it extensively with experts, spent nights fine-tuning it, and invested capital to get it running. Then, you communicate this vision of yours to your staff, you think they care about the business more that their monthly pay? Think again! About 50% of employees really can’t be bothered about the profitability of the business or even empathize when things aren’t going smoothly. You will lose staff. Be prepared for this. The best way to check this is to start out with people who really believe in your vision (yes, people pretend) and get them on board. Your attitude also matters a lot. Remember Successful people know that they need others to succeed. You can’t do it all by yourself. Therefore, when you get those employees who are committed. Treat them well and get them to stay as long as they possibly can.
Be prepared to lose: no one wants to hear this, but it is simply the truth. Entrepreneurship is such a huge risk and some people do not get it right the first time. Sometimes, your perfectly conceived business idea stands no chance of making it without serious adjustments to your business plan and marketing plan. At other times, you realize that this great idea of yours needs a lot of beating and hammering to get it to suit your target audience. Sometimes, losing means, some of your money will go without yielding anything, some of your best workers whom you’ve trained will walk away, and some of your clients will not pay. When this happens, be ready to shake it off and keep going. This is easier said than done. But look at it this way, whenever you win, you don't examine it very much, you go ahead and applaud yourself. You simply, and wrongly, assume it has something to do with your unsurpassed, exquisite, qualities as a person. What you do not realize is, winning only shows how hard you've worked and how physically talented you are; it doesn't particularly define you beyond those characteristics.
Losing on the other hand, says a lot about who you are. Among other things it exposes your deepest flaws: do you blame others, or do you own the loss? Do you scrutinize your failure, or just rant about bad luck? Do you quit? If you're willing to analyze failure, and look at the overall performance from the outward to the inner workings; then, losing can be valuable. How you behave in those moments can perhaps be more self-defining than winning could ever be.
Get ready for your big break: fortunately running a business doesn’t consist of only bad days. There will be good days. Big opportunities or breaks will come your way. But the question is, will you be ready? Will you be prepared to act on such opportunities and seize the moment or will you let it slip by?
When you develop a comfortable routine, it is easy to be caught off guard when someone makes a “juicy” business offer that could turn your business around. If the opportunity you’ve been dreaming of showed up today, would you have the nerve to accept it immediately? That moment will certainly come, and if you are not ready for it, someone else will grab it.