Top 15 Challenges

It is not easy being an Entrepreneur or a Solopreneur. There are a plethora of hurdles you face when you are starting your business from scratch. Solopreneurship differs from entrepreneurship majorly because the level of autonomy the business owner has and the burden that has to be borne by the solopreneur individually. Here are fifteen of the challenges cited by solopreneurs that most Solopreneurs can relate to.

1.    Sense of Loneliness

Solopreneurship can be a very lonely road. As opposed to entrepreneurship where one can continuously pick their partner’s or employees’ brain, Solopreneurship could be quite lonely, and the average solopreneur has to deal with the loneliness. This can seem quite daunting.

2.    Juggling between selling and delivering

Being a solopreneur means that you must market your product and deliver on promises all by yourself. Finding the right balance between the two can get quite tricky. A solopreneur is in charge of every aspect of the business, from delivering on sales to marketing. Thus, finding the right balance between maintaining the existing clients and breaking new grounds is always a challenge for a solopreneur.

3.    Getting overwhelmed by the functions

Marketing, Logistics, Operations, Sales, Product Development. You are required to juggle through it all. This can get quite overwhelming and feeling anxious about it all becomes a common occurrence.

4.    Personal and Professional Development

As opposed to entrepreneurship where some other person or team may be in charge of professional and personal development, in solopreneurship, it is easy to forget about development because of the different activities competing for one’s time.

5.    Staying focused on the goal

With so much to do, it is easy for solopreneurs to lose sight of the vital goal they are chasing. Whilst dealing with other elements of the business, your focus may divert. Running a business by one’s self requires a high level of self-discipline and focus. Thus, the average solopreneur at one point or another struggles with maintaining focus while juggling several activities.

6.    Uncertainty

Risk and uncertainty should be synonymous to entrepreneurship. In case of a solopreneur, everything is being managed by a single person that further raises the stakes. The uncertainty combined with loneliness can be a deadly combination that a solopreneur has to deal with.

7.    Risk management

Every decision you take as a solopreneur has risks attached to it. Some find it hard to gauge the level of risk involved or to decide whether a given project is worth it or not. Since one person makes all the decisions in solopreneurship, they are bound to struggle with risk management stretching themselves too thin and not thinking actions through before taking them.

8.    Developing a business plan

Developing a sound business plan can get tricky. And not developing one means that you are sailing a boat without a compass. Either way, obstacles are bound to come your way.

9.    Sustaining the business

Seventy percent of startups fail within the first year. Sustaining your business in the long-run and ensuring growth can get quite challenging.

10.    Time Management

Every solopreneur faces the challenge of managing their time because of the thousand and one things they have to do. A solopreneur is involved in every process, from the production to delivery, and learning how to manage time between these different activities is a necessity.

11.    No objective feedback

Since you are the sole inhabitant of the boat, you don’t get any objective feedback on your performance or mistakes. As opposed to working with a team which is achievable with entrepreneurship, the solopreneur does not have that luxury thus may lack the objective feedback they need to effectively run the venture.

12.    Second guessing

As a solopreneur, your biggest challenge is yourself. It is easy to second guess and overthinks each decision, which then delays work.

13.    Resources

Getting enough capital or acquiring the right resources is much harder when you are a one-man show compared to when you are part of a well-established organization.

14.    Generating revenue

To generate revenue, each department must function smoothly. Since solopreneurs perform all functions, doing so flawlessly is quite hard, thereby impacting revenue.

15.    Prioritizing

With so much to do, solopreneurs must assign weights to different tasks. Setting your priorities can be a challenge when everything seems important. Solopreneurs tend to struggle with prioritizing activities and maintaining that priority irrespective of the changes that may occur. Thus, prioritizing is a fine art which every solopreneur must learn.

Conclusion

Each of these challenges may slow a solopreneur down, but with resolution and clarity of goal, you can kickstart your business towards success.

What are your challenges?