7 Challenges Facing Entrepreneurs
At Elm, we are wholeheartedly committed to bolstering the values of community partnerships with entrepreneurs in times of emergencies. In line with that, we hosted our 13th virtual Elm webinar hosting Dr. Ahmed Al-Kabeer, who explored the most pressing challenges facing current entrepreneurs.
What do we mean by challenges?
Entrepreneurs often encounter many complex challenges during the course of their business endeavors. Some entrepreneurs might be forced to pull the plug early while others proceed and endure negative impacts. Thus, entrepreneurs must outline early on a roadmap pinpointing the most critical challenges that they perceive may arise in the future.
Seven types of challenges
Challenges are problems entrepreneurs face in the course of pursing their business endeavor. These vary from uncomplicated challenges that stakeholders can surmount to complex events that may cause a business to shutdown. We review the most prominent challenges that entrepreneurs typically must be aware of:
Leadership
The true meaning of leadership lies in the ability to create an impact. To motivate employees and ensure high levels of productivity and achieve set objectives. Leaders should brace a set of leadership attributes, such as: clear-sightedness, boldness, initiative-taking, and other skills.
The philosophy of your strategy
Every strategy is built upon a philosophy. Making sure that your philosophy is evidence-based will help you develop a profound and clear strategy. Hence, we can say that there is a direct correlation between your strategy's clarity and the intended impact.
Operations and Financing
Entrepreneurs suffer - in times of crisis - a management challenge. Their client reach often shrinks, and financial incomes may suffer significant declines. In these scenarios, entrepreneurs must reduce costs, merge some departments, and reduce jobs if possible.
Learning
Learning is a defining pillar of success for entrepreneurs. Learning is an asset that uncovers new ideas and products, and steers one away from mistakes. One knowledge-sharing tactic that is very effective is for entrepreneurs to share their readings with employees to foster a knowledge-based and learning-oriented organization.
Creativity and Innovation
Creativity and innovation are gaps that entrepreneurs struggle to fill. To sustain their customer base, entrepreneurs should seize opportunities to promote their ideas to their target market.
Marketing
Marketing is the real engine of any business. Without impact-driven marketing, companies will struggle to achieve their set objectives. To overcome marketing challenges, entrepreneurs must understand their target segment's mindset, adjust the marketing mix accordingly, and develop competitive advantages.
Survival
Every now and then, we witness a business's failure due to gaps and shortcomings in designing and implementing effective strategies. To overcome such challenges, entrepreneurs must thoroughly analyze the market in every crisis to fathom the extent of the impact and develop relevant mitigation plans.