By | Emily Gibson
Whoever said “success doesn’t come easy” might have been launching a small business. The first few months to a year of entrepreneurship is full of excitement — but also challenges. You’ll be faced with crucial decisions, long meetings and exciting celebrations.
Starting a business is an exciting time full of opportunity — but it can also be hard. In your first couple of months and years, you’ll be faced with big decisions to make and the hard work of getting your business noticed.
And though there will be some growing pains, these will also become important business lessons and learning opportunities for you as you continue to scale. Handling these challenges will help you grow as a leader and develop your entrepreneurial mindset.
Below, we’ll detail some of the more common small business struggles and how to overcome them.
Developing a Training Program
Your early employees will help you create your company. So just like a house needs a strong foundation to stay strong, employees need a good training program before they can truly thrive and do their jobs.
A sufficient and thorough training program can help your employees know exactly what they’re supposed to do and how to do it. This can help crucial work get done, and can also help reduce turnover and, in turn, save your company money.
Your training program should set your employees up for success so they can set your company up for success. You should create a training program that can be referenced in the future, either by recording training sessions or creating a series of PDFs or online lessons.
Knowing When to Outsource
We get it — your small business is like your child. But just how parents sometimes need the night off and hire a babysitter, SMB owners need to know when to step away from some nonessential work.
Though big decisions, big meetings and crucial work should be left up to you, other tasks can be delegated to your employees. Make sure to separate urgent, essential needs from tasks that can be completed later, or by someone else.
Doing so will give your employees a sense of importance and confidence, while saving you from the headache of having too much work on your plate.
Lack of Work/Life Balance
It’s been said time and time again: work/life balance is crucial. Though it can be tempting to work late or send that email in the evening or on a weekend, doing so could be bad for your wellbeing and that of your employees.
With more than 70% of employees feeling burnt out, it’s more important than ever to foster well being by making sure your company is supportive of employee wellbeing and a healthy work/life balance.
Make sure everyone is logged off at a reasonable hour, avoid sending or checking work emails when it isn’t business hours, and be a champion for the mental health of everyone in your workplace by allowing for mental health days.
For more info on small business growing pains, check out the following infographic.
