Top 10 Business Blockers

If you're feeling stuck as an entrepreneur, you're not alone. You and I have experienced this more than once, I'm sure.

It can happen in at least four stages of our transition and career as an entrepreneur:

1. Pivoting from employment to entrepreneurship;
2. Starting our business, coming up with an idea and bringing that to life;
3. Growing and scaling our business.
4. Getting what we wanted in the first place when we got into entrepreneurship (impact at scale; control; freedom). The fourth stage is perhaps the most important and the one that we tend to ignore.

So, this week, I share 10 common reasons why we feel stuck as entrepreneurs.

#10: Fear of Failure

Coming in at number 10, is a fear of failure.

You know, it happens to the best of us, all the way from when we’re pivoting into entrepreneurship or indeed, when we’re trying to grow and scale our business.

We’re always afraid of what could go wrong.

As we go further into our business, the stakes get higher, and that fear may get worse.

So, the one key tip that I would share is to change your perspective and actually embrace failure.

Mini failures, even big ones. So long as they’re not putting anyone’s health and wellbeing at risk, then you’re okay.

Embrace failure because your success sits on the other side of failure.

#9: Time & Money

Number 9 is this sense that we don’t have the resources we need to move forward in our business, in our venture.

Whether it’s time, this is a common complaint that I hear, you know, “I don’t have enough time to do that”, or whether it’s a lack of money and funding, which is another top reason why start-ups and businesses fail.

There are other reasons; we don’t have enough knowledge, education, or we don’t know enough people.

The insight that I’d love you to consider is being resourceful as opposed to feeling a lack of resources.

When it comes to time, especially, you have plenty of time.

I’ve always found that when I slow down, it’s in those moments of quiet and peace that ideas, the best ideas, come to mind.

#8: Clients

This one is about knowing your ideal client.

We know that we shouldn’t focus on investors necessarily, we should focus on who our actual clients and customers are.

We know that we need to dive deep through doing an ideal customer avatar or a customer persona exercise to really know our ideal clients, and what drives them, what are their fears and ambitions.

A critical one, which is important if you want to get the messaging right, but also getting the right product-market fit.

This is to know what stage of transformation your ideal client or customer is at.

Are they just exploring the idea?

Are they even aware of their problem?

All the way through to exploring solutions to their problems, and then how your solution stands out.

So go in at the right time.

#7: No Momentum

This one I see all the time.

It’s not acting. It’s about buzzing around with ideas in our mind and not bringing our vision to reality.

There are 5 things that have helped me:

1. Having a good enough pull, which is the vision has to be big enough to keep pulling us in the right direction.
2. We must have a strong reason why, to keep that momentum and push us towards that goal.
3. Using our GPS system, our innate intuition, which steers us in the right direction.
4. Listening to customers and acting, so the rubber meets the road.
5. Play the long game. Put some good music on and enjoy the ride.

#6: Self-Doubt

It could be imposter syndrome. It could be that we’re afraid of making mistakes.

Here’s a hidden one that has nothing to do with you at all.

Sometimes we don’t have the confidence in our products and services. We don’t really know or believe that what we’re offering our clients and customers is actually going to generate results for them.

So, sit with that and have a think.

What do you need to do to either generate the evidence or maybe tweak and refine your product and service so that you actually generate results and transformations?

#5: Sales

This one is a problem that I see all the time.

It’s about delaying sales.

If we’re coaches or consultants, we might be afraid to put ourselves out there so that we don’t come across as too salesy, or that we’re afraid that if we get rejected, it’s personal. They don’t like us.

Indeed, as tech start-ups, for example, we might think that we need to wait until we have enough funding and resources and that our final innovative solution is up and ready to start making sales.

Think differently.

Your ideal clients and customers have so many problems, needs and desires. See what you can do to get in there right now, this very moment, and start adding value, solving some of their earlier problems and generating sales today.

#4: Lead Generation

This one is when we have a solution, but not making sales and indeed, not having the leads to make a sale.

When it comes to lead generation, have a think about your messaging and marketing. Home in so that you help your ideal customer or ideal client transition from a phase of becoming aware of what problems that they have, what are the causes of their problems, and what’s the cost of inaction if they don’t solve that problem.

Move them up that transformation journey so that they can then explore the pros and cons of various alternative solutions, and then start talking about the benefits that your solution has and how it outweighs the competitors.

Then and only then, can you convert that lead into a sale.

#3: Customer Churn

There’s a trend that we should get everyone on to a subscription or a membership plan. Sure, that works, but one of the biggest problems is losing clients and customers early on.

So, if you want to reduce that, ask yourself this question: how can I move away from selling one product or service and solving one problem to instead building a relationship, a lifelong relationship, and adding value at various stages of their transformation journey?

What else can you do to help your clients and customers so that they keep coming back and don’t need to look elsewhere for the next thing that they need to keep them happy?

#2: Business Growth

This one is about a failure to grow and scale.

Some of the reasons might be:

1. We are working IN our business as operational people rather than being strategic and working ON our business.
2. Our product or service isn’t scalable.
3. We don’t have the right people, the right team that are actually focused on the right things to help you grow and scale. There are 2 key things that I would focus on for scale:

• Marketing, both to grow the number of people that you serve, but also serve those individual clients more deeply.
• Innovation; new products and services to help your ideal customers.

#1: Burnout

Here we are, number one of the top 10 reasons why we get stuck as entrepreneurs.

This happens at the best of times, but especially as we’re starting to grow and scale our business, whether it’s nurturing and growing our team, whether it’s bringing in new customers and clients, whether it’s just trying to please everyone around us, it can get overwhelming.

For this one, consider this quote by the French composer, Claude Debussy:

“Music is the space between the notes.”

Being busy and being in the trenches is a great place to be when you want to see the problems and feel them.

However, if you want to come up with innovative solutions, be creative, and be strategic to get to your vision, then you need to pause.

Sometimes just slow down and stop, because that’s when the new ideas come.

Hope this helps 😊

Behrooz, The Entrepreneur’s Doctor

The Entrepreneur’s Doctor helps entrepreneurs create a healthier, happier world through a unique blend of consulting, coaching, and training.

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Dr Behrooz Behbod is a Harvard & Oxford trained public health physician, with 25+ years of international experience across health, business, and education.

Host of Tribe Talks, his vision is to see a world where every individual has access to better health and wellbeing. This includes high quality preventive, wellness, healthcare, and public health services. It also includes products and services that address the wider determinants of health, across all sectors.

DISCLAIMER: The content is provided for information only and is not intended as a substitute for medical or any other professional advice. The content is not necessarily representative of any organisations affiliated with Dr Behrooz Behbod. The views or opinions expressed by guests are not necessarily shared or endorsed by Dr Behrooz Behbod. Individual’s experience may not represent the typical participant. Your background, education, experience, and work ethic may differ. This is used as an example and not a guarantee of success. Your results may vary.