The Challenges of Starting a Business


Author: Dan Boateng

Starting a business in today's world presents entrepreneurs with numerous challenges that need to be overcome before we start to reap the benefits there off. Most of the challenges faced by start-ups are related to funding, both raising it and managing it.

There a lot of avenues available to entrepreneurs who which to start a small business to get access to funds but a lot of these opportunities may require a long list of rules that the business must adhere to in order to qualify for funding.

There is one thing having the product and services and another thing altogether getting them moving in such a way that you are able to make some money to at least meet your expenses or breakeven. First you have to think getting some advertising done so that the public is aware of what unique products or services your business is providing and this will require quiet an amount of money to get on to TV or on the radio or in a newspaper advertisement.

In recent times, online marketing has become prominent, given its pervasive access among the public over the past decade. This has led to the springing many companies mostly involved in google search optimization to help some of these small businesses get a website noticed online for a small fees, with payments made on a monthly basis.

This is going a long way to help these businesses get their foot in the door. More so, a business will definitely need some form of an office where it will operate and this involves money. Not just the business space in they occupy, but they will also need the desks, the photocopiers and printers, papers and other office tools to ensure that their work is efficaciously done.

One thing before I forget, these small businesses have found the Facebook fan page as real marketing tool. Obviously, it is free and even if if you want an social media company to do a lot of the promtional activities, they come in relatively cheap compared to their other channels of advertising. But one must not forget that using facebook fan page alone may not be enough and can only be used to support other marketing approaches.

It will be interesting to see how the next few years will be like in the industry in terms of the competition. Hopefuly, competition will bring along with it the benefits of better products.

About the Author

Dan is a graduate of the University of Wales with a degree in Business Computing and Information Systems, and is currently working as an analyst/developer for Markets Online, a Web Design and Search Engine Optimization company based in Johannesburg, South Africa.


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