Starting and growing a business is never an easy challenge, and finding a way to get through problems and recognizing real business growth opportunities can mean success for businesses. That’s for sure. After thoroughly surveying the internet we have found the 3 greatest challenges entrepreneurs are facing right now as of 2015.
Who among you predicted integrity would be first on the list? Good thing integrity is an ability we are born with. It is our ability to do the right thing even in the face of great pressure for us to do wrong. In short, it is doing what is right despite all odds and circumstances. Amy Rose Anderson (a famous successful entrepreneur and a public speaker,) noted that if she could only teach one value to live by, it would be: “Success will come and go, but integrity is forever. ” Now this is inspiring.
Way back in 2013, in an article published by Forbes about 8 great business challenges, surprisingly integrity was the first among the challenges. Resource management, which is about capital and making profit, was only second (can you believe this?), and competition was at third. Interesting isn’t it? But for competitive organization or companies who value trust before anything else, Integrity is arguably the greatest challenge.
As of 2015, there are more challenges than ever. Among the challenges, Uncertainty is one of the hardest challenge any company is facing right now. The thing is, unpredictable changes in global market is running at exponentially fast rate, and strategies that worked a month ago may not work this time. From market trends, global economy, new business stature, Google algorithm update and improvements on social media strategy are only but few of the never ending lists in uncertain factors.
Unfortunately, uncertainty clouds an entrepreneur’s judgement which misleads them to conform to safe decisions. As you fail to strategically plan five years ahead into the future, you will end up destroying your business value. The irony, as the flow of market is rapidly changing, businesses with short term goals are sure to fail. So this is why you should invest time in carefully planning a long term strategy for your business growth.
Is innovation a real challenge for your business? Maybe if things didn’t change the way it is before, then you could just keep doing what you always do and innovating for your business growth opportunities may not be of necessity.
If markets are stable to begin with and customers are too easy to predict, if competitors would not think of fresh ideas to come up with new products and if technology would just stay constant, maybe we could all just do things comfortably and not think of better ways to grow our businesses.
This is not the case however, because innovation is accelerating constantly at a faster speed. You close your eyes at night and when you wake up, there’s something new in the Internet. It is the real thing now, and needless to say, you and your company should think of new solutions or existing solutions and innovate them so you can compete or your business die.
Good news, innovation is not a gift, it is a skill. You don’t need to hire extraordinary employee after all, since your employees are already extraordinary on their own. You just need to encourage them to think outside the box and inspire them not to follow a path that is already existed. Exercise an innovative culture and your employees will strive for excellence.
While Integrity, Uncertainty and Innovation are often presented as great challenges since long ago, these factors have not been more challenging as it is now. Logic dictates that competition now is tougher, world economy is more vulnerable and technological advancement is more volatile than ever.
So if you are an entrepreneur, value your employees more, think of challenge as opportunity and teach your employees to create their own path. Do a lot of research on latest market trends so you won’t end up making business decision based on outdated information. Lastly, develop a long term strategy for your business. It should be practical and profit generating so you can ensure your business success over the long term.
