Launching a startup has never been easier! Unfortunately, in our current era of advanced technology and modern solutions, it is now more difficult to start a firm and effectively guide it to the 5-year milestone. Even the most brilliant idea won’t guarantee your survival in the current market environment.
You have to ace endless factors and consider numerous elements before and after opening your company.
- You must check your Credit report regularly to avoid any credit surprise,
- You must secure good funding to keep your business running,
- You need loyal returning customers to spread the word about your brand.
However, taking a business from 0 to 10 is probably the hardest to achieve, especially when you have zero knowledge of the corporate world. Let’s read some of the greatest financial challenges start-ups have to face.
Disclaimer: We have also discussed solutions to overcome these obstacles.
1. Insufficient Capital
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Your financial decisions in your early business days can greatly impact your company’s future. So, you must make all necessary funding preparations before beginning a business.
Here’s a rough statistics of businesses launching every year:
- Total start-ups worldwide: 150 million
- New start-ups opening every year: 50 million
- Start-ups launching every day: 137, 000
The point to ponder is how many of these survive? How many of the start-ups get to reach the 3 or 5 year success mark?
However, you should know that there isn’t a perfect financing solution. The capital acquiring tips change based on the requirements and growth of your company.
Solutions:
- Consider alternative lending,
- Look for low-interest short-term loans,
- Get help from government-supported programs
- Ask your wealthy friends or family members to be your business partner.
2. Poor Cash Flow
Raising funds to launch your firm is imperative, but doing so presents new difficulties. Business founders and proprietors need to be completely aware of all the moving pieces that make up the financial structure of their organization.
- It is necessary to account for every daily spending,
- To pay all fixed and variable costs,
- To make sure that suppliers and the outside providers are paid on schedule.
Additionally, the incoming cash flow may become more complicated as the firm grows.
Solutions:
- Practice record-keeping,
- Manage your funds online using free business tools,
- Open investment accounts to improve cash flow,
- Think about leasing instead of buying,
- Study, understand, and analyze your business cash flow patterns.
3. Unworthy Profit
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Because expenditure comes in various ways, it can be challenging to identify your biggest sources of financial leakage. For example, if your sales are strong but your profitability is declining, this may signify excessive spending or unmanageable hidden expenditures.
There can be numerous reasons for low profitability. To name a few:
- Unnecessary operational expenses,
- High costs and low revenue,
- Overstaffing/understaffing,
- Poor money management, etc.
One of the most crucial measures of corporate performance is profitability, which indicates whether a company has a good chance of expanding.
You can apply particular methods within your organization to generate income and cut expenses by learning numerous effective strategies to improve your business profitability.
Solutions:
- Lure new customers with limited-time offers,
- Reduce your production cost without compromising quality,
- Improve customer retention rate by offering incentives and discounts,
- Plan online or offline events to market your business.
4. Bad Financial Planning
Poor money management can ruin your company in no time!
There we said it. So, if you want to make your name in the tough industry, you must make immediate financial decisions to right the wrongs.
- Improve your financial literacy,
- Learn the fundamentals of accounting,
- Hire professional staff that can help you manage money,
- Read and understand your financial statements and record,
- Register for a cloud accounting tool or platform.
In reality, companies rely largely on the financial support of banking loans or investors. As a result, small businesses, especially startups, can struggle to accurately manage their funds during periods of influxes of cash and buckle under strain.
Solutions:
- Hire a professional business analyst to deal with critical revenue-generating business projects,
- Negotiate payments with suppliers and lenders (don’t cross the friendly limit),
- Don’t skip financial review and evaluation to update your budget,
- Monitor every minor to a major expense.
5. Competitive Market
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It won’t be wrong to say that the corporate world is like a shark tank full of business giants in which small fishes (start-ups) compete to survive.
New businesses put all their might and resources into avoiding becoming mere bait to financial killer whales. So, one must put extra effort into growing their business and making a name in the sea.
- There is almost no room for error; one small mistake, and boom, you blew your only chance to stand out among your competitors.
- You have to play fierce and come up with aggressive marketing and financial planning to ensure there’s no loss from your side.
Think wisely, make financial budgets, plan marketing strategies, and promote your business to attract customers. You must do anything and everything your competitors do (but make it even better)!
Solutions:
- Do a deep competitor analysis to find what’s missing in your business plan,
- Try to include best-selling, trendy, or viral products to increase your sales,
- Do a content gap analysis if you market your business with content,
- Update your website to make it user-friendly and catchy.
Of course, you can look for many other solutions online or from your consultant.
In fact, we have only mentioned the basic yet necessary problem-solvers, which can give you an idea of where you need to start!
Conclusion
If you want to grow your start-up, you have to have enough funding. However, inadequate capital is one of every new business’s greatest challenges.
But, don’t be sad! You can still get funding and all that money you need for your business from loans, alternative lenders, or even your business leads.
Of course, a business can face more than enough challenges other than funding. Want to know more? Read the complete guide to find the problems businesses face and their expert solutions.