Top 5 headaches among business owners

We list some of the most common problems that business owners have

1. Working way too many hours

It must surely be the most common problem among business owners. You are personally responsible for absolutely everything: running the business, executing business plans, winning new business but also answer the phone, sending emails, doing accounting, dealing with vendors, paperwork… 

Either you don´t have anyone else to do the job, or you don´t trust anyone else to do it. And then the classical “if I don´t do it myself, it will not be done correctly”. It´s hard to delegate tasks to other.

This problem is also connected to the fact that it is hard to find good employees. To really find that person that you can trust and that will work 110%, just like you. But the fact is that very seldom anyone will care as much about the company as you do.

So even if the day had 48 hours it would not be enough. Business owners tend to work much more than 40 hours a week and this causes a lot of stress. It also affects the family relations, with partners and kids complaining about you never being at home…

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2. Last time I had a holiday was in…

Can´t even remember the last time you were on holiday? You are not alone. Business owners always have a hard time taking days off. It´s the same thing here as with lack of time: either you don´t have anyone else to run the business while you are away, or the company doesn´t work very well while you are away. Again, having another person to run things while you are away, it is pretty hard to find that person.

The typical holiday for a business owner is one day here, another day there. It´s very hard to take even one or two weeks off in a row. Holidays for owners of SMEs usually means one Friday here, and one Monday there, a long weekend at most.

And even if you manage to take some time off and go away somewhere, you end up sitting in the pool bar with the laptop and talking on the phone all the time. Too many fires to put out, no time to relax. This WORKATION tends to be rather unpopular with your partner, a common source of tension while supposedly on holiday.

And if you close your business to take some time off, you end up with having many expenses but no income. A double blow for business owners. Vacations with the business closed means a huge hole in the bank account. People say you must save money each month to be able to take time off next year. Yeah right, we all save money all the time, don´t we?!

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3. Ineffective digital presence

If you are not online today, you don´t exist. We all know that it´s very important to have a digital presence. Online ads, local listings, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok… you name it. You know that marketing online is very important but how on earth do you do it, and how do you find time for it? The internet provides great opportunities to find customers but most business owners don´t take full advantage of these powerful marketing tools.

Maybe you have a website but how about the design? Is it adapted for different types of devices (computers, smartphones, tablets, etc.)?  Is it SEO optimized?

And if you use social media, when was the last time you posted something? Wishing someone Merry Christmas like 2 years ago?! It´s hard to be consistent posting stuff on social media, it´s pretty time-wasting. And how do you do that across various platforms?

4. Problems to grow

Of course, you want the business to prosper and land many big clients. It´s quite a common issue: one day you celebrate landing a big contract, and the day after you realize you are now overloaded with work and have a hard time keeping up with the needs of your new client. Many business owners become aware that it´s difficult to balance growth and quality.

Growing a business is much harder as it seems. You might have to hire more personnel, find bigger premises, or invest in new equipment. All this can be very expensive, and most small businesses owners have a lack of funds to invest.

If you hire more personnel, you know they will work at 80% of what you do, at the very best. Because nobody is as passionate about the business as the owner.

5. The feeling is that you know so much but earn so little

You have been running your business for many years and you have so many skills in business management: client contact, accounting, time management, marketing, customer service… The list of know-how is extremely long, you are a very versatile person.

But with so many skills, shouldn't you be earning a lot more?! Surely such a person should earn loads of money?! 

The common feeling among business owners is that they don´t get leverage for all their knowledge and skills.

But it´s actually pretty hard to convert all that knowledge and those skills into cash.

Business owners: Let us give you some advice on how to fix these common headaches!