My Top 5 Frustrations of Running a Business

I’ve been running successful businesses since the mid-1980s and each has had its ups and downs, whether it's your own business or if you're part of a small team or a bigger organisation.

As a business owner - these are my top frustrations:

Marketing – this is my biggest challenge and frustration, but it’s an essential part of doing business. You need to constantly find customers because you never know when things will change and if you have only a few key clients and one leaves then you could be in a difficult situation. I like a mix of clients to make things safer but also interesting in the business, as we learn new things from new clients.

While I might fear the marketing and sales side of business, it's one I’ve had to learn and understand and now quite enjoy. My reputation is what attracts clients to me. For some aspects I find someone I can trust who can do it for me. But my key tip here is do what’s relevant for your business and a lot of it is PR and may not directly generate business but will enhance your presence and reputation.

Also getting out and meeting people gives you an opportunity to learn about your business and how to present it to people but also you’ll learn about other businesses and meet potential business partners/collaborators.

Finances - another area many people avoid but one that's essential to understand. It’s not just about the basics of keeping track of your income and outgoings but knowing what makes business sense. What you can charge for your products and services so you earn the income you need but are still competitive.

Being the cheapest is not a good message and clients gained this way may not be long term. Value what you do or you'll quickly find your customers won't.

Finance is also about making sure you invoice and get paid on time, cashflow is the life blood of any business and if this is not flowing you’ll have come to an abrupt halt. Having the right systems and processes in place to ensure you invoice and get paid on time is essential. You may get a book-keeper to help you with this but always know for yourself what is financially happening in your business.

Jack of all trades – you are and will always be a jack of all trades juggling the marketing, PR, accounts, admin, selling, working with clients and customers or producing your product/service, coming up with new ideas, running the business day to day, social media because  you are an entrepreneur, as you grow you will delegate some aspects, but you need to “keep your hand in” so you know what’s going on in your business. This means you can see opportunities to streamline or adjust your business to save costs and be more efficient. Also, it may give you ideas of opportunities that you had not realised that your business was capable of offering.

You will work long hours and weekends to cover your business, but you also need to take time away and refresh yourself and your mind as it helps you see things from a different perspective and it could spark ideas of service/products or efficiency.

Staff/Employees - in the early stages when you feel you can't afford staff or don't know how to outsource. You'll do everything but then you need to learn to recruit staff and suppliers and trying to find these gems that see the world as you do and deliver your service they way you do it going to be a challenge. You will need to hire and fire. Getting the right staff on board - either permanent, full-time, part-time, outsourced or freelance that will support and grow your business or are a good fit with the company objectives and values is going to be hard work. You also need to learn how delegate, so you can trust that the work will be done without micro-managing. And what to do when it goes wrong or things aren't working quite as you want.

Time – you’ll learn how precious this is and you will always not have enough time to get everything done but you need to use it in the most efficient and productive way. Distractions and wasting time on things that aren't going to benefit your business are great time suckers. You need to learn how to avoid being distracted by everything and everyone and staying focused on what's important. You need to understand the value of your time and where it can be most productively (and profitably) spent.

Running your own business will have an impact has on your work/life balance especially in the early stages so being supported by you close family and friends is important but, in my opinion, if you get it right it’s a sacrifice worth making. But you must constantly be looking after and nurturing your business and your clients if you want to reap long term rewards, don’t rest on your laurels!

Over all - all good things take time to get going but getting out there, building your reputation and a good solid business, finding clients, creating a good structure and the right processes for a successful business and a successful you, will reap many rewards and satisfaction. Once you get the bug you may want to branch in to other areas, so good luck with your business or businesses!