The 3 Biggest Challenges for New Entrepreneurs

The 3 Biggest Challenges for New Entrepreneurs

The 3 Biggest Challenges for New Entrepreneurs

Finding a profitable idea

There’s a saying that my mom once told me before I purchased my first car, “The hardest part about a car, is not having it, but it’s in maintaining it”. As I entered the world of entrepreneurship, this saying reminded me that anyone can start a business, but maintaining a business is where the difficulties lie. It’s no secret that nine out of every ten businesses fail. And it’s no secret that most businesses fail because they are not able to turn any profit from their idea. Finding a profitable idea is half the battle, the other, making sure it’s something you’re passionate about, complements your skills and aligns with your interests.

Something that really worked for me before starting a business was having a brainstorming session, which allowed me to get a few things on paper:

What am I good at?

What am I interested in?

What problem do I want to solve?

How can I solve the problem?

As a first time entrepreneur, the right idea plays a significant role in determining your success. Before you begin the journey, make sure you understand the roadmap.

Embracing the transition

It’s not often we start from complete scratch. Think about it, up to this point, many of our paths have been building on one another. Someone going to college has been prepared their entire lives by going through the school systems since they were in grade school. I mean that’s one of the goals, right? An actor/actress has spent countless of hours being prepared through acting school to take the stage. No matter where we want to go, we are never starting from scratch.

There’s this misconception that entrepreneurs start from scratch and that’s not necessarily the case. Yes, you most likely have never built a business, I get it. However, there are skills that you already have that can be carried over and leveraged. It’s important you embracing you can fit the shoes, even if it is a little bit, you will grow into them.

Narrowing a single focus

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to solve every single problem but to have the most impact, I highly recommend you focus on one problem at a time. As a first time entrepreneur, the hardest thing to overcome is usually YOURSELF, and getting in your own way. If you want to build a high impact business that delivered tremendous value to your customers, you have to restrain yourself from doing everything, and rather focus on doing something really really well.


JumpStart Online Course

After years of working with entrepreneurs and helping them narrow down to find a single focus, I developed an online course to help you jumpstart your idea and support you in your journey:


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Written by

Abu Fofanah