182- Top Issues facing a struggling entrepreneur

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In this episode of The Struggling Biz podcast show, we deliver an updated post dealing with the top 10 issues facing a struggling entrepreneur.

Addressing the Issues Facing the Struggling Entrepreneur

Welcome, and you’re listening to a reposted and repurposed episode from The Struggling Entrepreneur, a former podcast (since it has podfaded) where we addressed the challenges that you face when you’re a struggling entrepreneur, and where we tried to assist you with experienced and successful small business owners who share their lessons learned, as well as resources to help you become successful.

This is Fred Castañeda, your host. Welcome.

Here we present you with evergreen content. This is the summary version of the topic, “Addressing The Issues Facing The Struggling Entrepreneur.” Note that there was also a full version, which contains the detailed discussion of these ten issues that face the struggling entrepreneur.

Do you have a desire to go for it? That is, to launch into the business world for yourself? Do you have this desire to break free of the corporate environment or the public sector or the private sector environment? Are you tired of “working for the man,” as Roy Orbison said in his song from 1961? Is it time for your ambitions and desires to say, “I’m going to be the man!” If you’re tired of, as we say, “working for the man,” are you going to stop and think and plan first? Are you going to be realistic with time that it takes in order to accomplish this? Or do you have the feeling that you’re just ready to jump in with both feet and either sink or swim? Are you going to try to be the next rags-to-riches story? There are a few of them out there. They hype the small business/entrepreneur/home-based business environments on infomercials day and night on television, podcasts everywhere, and they have seminars that you pay a pretty penny to attend to tell you how they go to be from rags-to-riches.

The question is, can you?

The real question is, do you have a burning desire to lead? That is, to lead others, or to lead yourself. The real question is, do you have a burning desire to direct? That is, to direct your company, to direct your ideas? To actually create a direction, and then to march in that direction? Do you have a desire to implement your ideas? Are you tired of having others shoot you down? They shoot down your creative talents because they push back on your ideas; especially when you know that what you’re proposing could be the breakthrough in your business, either for your company, for your firm, for your manager, for your boss, for your supervisor; or just because you know that this is the right thing to do, this is the right moment to do it, and let’s do it. And somehow they push back and there’s always a ton of excuses from not accepting your idea. And then, later on, you find out that the idea was paraphrased by someone else, usually in management or supervision, and then they take it as their own idea; they get the bonuses, the project starts with them, and you’re left in the dust.

These are all questions that come into the mind of people who all of a sudden get what we call the “BFO” — the Blind Flash of the Obvious. And they get excited; they get a euphoric feeling. They get all this excitement within their soul to say, “You know what? I want to be the man. I don’t want to work for the man. I want to set up my own business. I want to run it. I know I can do it. I’ve got what it takes. I’ve got some ideas.” But most of all, they have a passion and an excitement. They have the thrill of creating their own business.

Well, the objective of this discussion is to raise the ten key issues that can either take control of your life during the first time when you most need the ability to control that fate yourself and have you dangling as a struggling entrepreneur, or if, addressed correctly, these can be leveraged to help you take control of your direction and give you the edge of traveling down a journey to become a successful entrepreneur.

Well, we hope that the latter is what you’ll become: a successful, not a struggling, entrepreneur. Welcome to this discussion from www.TheStrugglingBiz.com – These are Lessons Learned and Resources for Your Success. Let’s list these ten challenges, and then discuss each one a bit more in detail.

Now, from my own experience of having started several companies, not only for myself but for other people, and also having run my own businesses within the past 43 years at certain times, either as part-time businesses or as full-time businesses, I tried to place these issues in somewhat of a priority order, although many of them are very critical. As a matter of fact, they all tied for fifth place in some cases. So I’m going to suggest that the top four issues, the first four that we talk about, are the ones that really require the most time and the most investment; both financial investment and what I call “self-investment.” These are the cornerstones and the foundations that will either house a sturdy well-built structure, or they can be shoddy, because they were very quick to be done, they were hardly considered; you gave them lip service and a little oversight, and then they become the albatross around your neck later. They become the monkey on your back that’s going to cause you to be nothing but a struggling entrepreneur. And the danger is that you’re going to fall into and end up in frustration, debt, maybe even bankruptcy. You’re going to feel stressed out, burned out, and you’re going to have the feeling of failure. Well, nothing can be farther than what we hope for you.

Remember; when we talk about entrepreneurship, there is no such thing as failure for an entrepreneur. There are just mistakes that we make; the mistakes that we learn from as a struggling entrepreneur. And then, there are the wiser decisions that we make later on, to minimize our mistakes by learning lessons from other people and also investing in those resources for success. So let’s talk about these ten different issues, and discuss them a little bit at length. Remember, the objective here is to address these issues of the struggling entrepreneur, and hopefully they will give you some insight into the top ten things that, in my experience, have been the biggest challenges that needed to be addressed early on, so that then you can be successful.

First, let’s list all ten of them, and then we’ll discuss each one in detail.

Having the financial stability to begin and to grow. Does this sound familiar? We’ll spend a few minutes on that.
Finding and leveraging resources for assistance in a very timely manner.
Eliminating the dominating feeling of being overwhelmed.
Dealing with a poor feasibility plan, or dealing with no feasibility plan at all.
Creating and maintaining an effective business plan at the right time, but having an exit strategy.
Interlocking and leveraging relationships with mentors for the proper experience and lessons learned that you can get from them.
Using key technologies and using the Internet to your advantage. Notice that we specify that technologies and Internet can be separate, because the Internet dominates so much of what you’re going to be doing.
Leveraging your strengths while outsourcing effectively.
Creating and promoting your own brand, or your own brands. Remember: you as an individual can create your own brand as well, and your business can have a brand as well. And in some cases, you need to do both.
Making your business a “well-oiled machine.” That is, running your business, not operating your business.

As you address all these challenges, do they support your planned exit strategy? That is, did you “begin with the end in mind,” taking the phrase from one of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, from Dr. Stephen R. Covey.

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You’ve been listening to the summary version of the topic “Addressing the Issues Facing the Struggling Entrepreneur.” It was originally published in 2007 at the older site of StrugglingEntrepreneur.com (now podfaded) and is currently published as updated evergreen content at the updated and newer site of TheStrugglingBiz.com.

Thank you for your attention, and we hope that you can address these issues in your business — be it a startup or entrepreneurship.