13 Common Challenges When Developing Your First Business

Starting a business, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the process, can be daunting. But while establishing a new business can feel overwhelming at first, there’s comfort in knowing that you’re not alone: Many other entrepreneurs have encountered similar challenges to what you’re facing when they first started putting their business together, and have found their own ways forward.

To help you get started, 13 members of Forbes Business Council, below, talk about the challenges people, including themselves, have faced when they began crafting their first business plan or start their first business, as well as share their advice for overcoming the hurdles.

Photos courtesy of the individual members.

1. Building A Framework

The toughest challenge for me on the first business was getting my vision “on paper.” I had such good ideas! So I built an outline using my “rule of three”—three core description points for the business, then three reasons why it was different, then three core reasons why it made sense to get into the business or invest. Below each of those reasons, list three supporting reasons, and so on. – Bruce Maxwell, MSI Management and Consulting Services, Inc

2. Having A Capital Financing Plan

A business plan that is reasonable and can be implemented involves many factors including management team, market assessment, competition, competitive differentiation and product development strategy. However, the biggest area that needs to be addressed is your capital financing plan. Ensure the financing, timing and source of funds is consistent with the needs to execute the plan. – David Crean, Objective Capital Partners, LLC

3. Being Concise

One of my biggest challenges was “how to keep it short and simple” when I have so much to say. I believe that the more concise and focused your plan is, the more likely for you to achieve your goals. In addition, having a realistic set of goals that align with your plan is a must! – Abigail Aboitiz, Advanced Remote Monitoring / ARM LLC

4. Overcoming Your Fear

For most people starting their first business, the biggest challenge seems to be fear. They plan out everything, they see the ideal market, but also lack the experience. So they often listen to friends and family who don’t have their own business and know how risky it is. And then they get cold feet! If you are 70% sure, just go for it. It’ll never be 100%, and by that time it’s usually too late. – Mikey Wu, MIKOL

5. Being Ready To Pivot

A challenge we faced was not accounting for changes in the market, specifically consumer sentiment. When building technology, one needs to be flexible and adapt to customer needs. Luckily with the team we had, we were able to make on-the-fly adjustments to tackle the ever-changing landscape. – Kyle Mitnick, Advertise Purple

6. Setting The Right First Target

I built my first business plan alongside a number of other early-stage entrepreneurs with the initial objective of getting to $1 million in annual revenue. I built our business plan around getting to $5 million in revenue and so I built the foundation needed for a larger enterprise. As a result, I found getting past the $1 million threshold was much easier. – Kevin Bonfield, Concentre

7. Trying To Be Realistic

When anyone is starting a business they are going into it because they think it’s going to be great, and they think they’re going to be making a ton of money, and that clients will just rush through the doors. You’ve got to be realistic. You’ve got to think about everything that could go wrong and prepare. You don’t want to end up in a hole because you haven’t accounted for any potential hiccups. – Hoda Mahmoodzadegan, BAḴT Global

8. Getting People To Care

Before I founded my digital agency, I was an IT guy. My most-liked Facebook photo of 2016 was a picture of my wife, and it only got about 30 likes! Essentially, my biggest problem was getting people to care. At that point I started to get envious of entrepreneurs around me, but also observed what was working for them. Now, using social media as a marketing platform is what I do professionally! – Jeff J Hunter, BrandedMedia.io

9. Talking With The Right Mentor

There’s much written that describes “the art of the start.” However, oftentimes many of the authors haven’t actually done what they have preached. Or if they have, they did it many years ago, making their experience irrelevant to today. It wouldn’t make sense to ask Bill Gates how to raise an angel round. Find a mentor that’s a little ahead of you to provide relevant, actionable help. – Derek Distenfield, GSD Venture Studios LLC

10. Accepting That You Don’t Know Everything

We did not understand the details of how the insurance industry worked and what the real drivers and levers were for decision-making by the industry professionals. We immediately sought leading experts currently operating in the industry to become early advisors or angel investors. Additionally, I went out and got licensed in the industry to understand what the operators go through. – Vishaal Hariprasad, Arceo.ai

11. Determining The Customer Demand

The biggest challenge while developing our first business was to determine consumer demand. The right steps were to define the problem, run multiple market surveys, consolidate the results of both primary and secondary data, and then seize the opportunity. It’s very simple—if you cannot validate the need of your product through real data, your product will not reach the right customers. – Neha Kesarwani, Vertoe

12. Trying To Reeducate The Marketplace

Let the market place educate you. Every time I’ve tried to reeducate the marketplace, I’ve failed. No matter how cool or neat the product or idea was, it’s just too expensive. The marketplace does the talking and you provide what it demands! – Skyler Ditchfield, GeoLinks

13. Embracing Integrative Thinking

The emotional attachment with one’s entrepreneurial idea is a strength and a weakness. The strength enables one to put in sweat, blood and whatever it takes to create a successful enterprise. The weakness stems from not being able to see things from customers’ and investors’ perspectives. Falling in love with the problem allows one to explore different ways to a solution by soaking in those perspectives. – Karthik Krishnan, Britannica Group