Today, we're going to be talking about 10 small business problems that you will face
as an entrepreneur when and if you have your own small business.
Stay tuned.
Hi, I'm Mike Mancini, I am a small business owner and entrepreneur and a coach.
Today, we're talking about how to master your small business.
And if you like videos about this on how to grow your small business, how to scale, how
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Today, we are talking about 10 small business problems that you will face at one time or
another.
Make sure you stick around, the last two I think are probably the most important ones.
Number one, do you like to wear hats?
And obviously, I do, but the reason why I'm asking you that is because you have to wear
a lot of hats.
You are the CEO.
You are the CFO.
You are the accountant.
Well, maybe not in my case.
You are the janitor.
You are the psychiatrist.
You are everything, everything to that business, but you are also everything to everybody else
that is working in that business for you unless they already have a role.
So if you've got somebody who is an assistant, that's the only role that you do not have
at that point in time, you have to wear a lot of hats.
If you can't wear a lot of hats, perhaps owning your own business is not something that you
should be looking to do.
Number two, how to manage the money that you make.
Now, this is something that I struggled with for years in my own business because do I,
"This is great.
I'm making some money now, but I just started, and it's so little and it's not used to what
I'm making, but I want to reward myself and do I pay myself more?"
It's a constant struggle.
The biggest piece of advice I can give to you is make a plan.
And what I mean by make a plan, write it down, put it in writing and say, "You know what?
This much is going towards salary.
This much is going towards marketing.
This much is going back towards the business each and every month," and stick to it.
But times are going to get lean.
There might be times when you can't take a salary, and you need to understand and be
able to deal with that.
So being able to manage the money that you make is one of the most important things you
can do as a small business owner.
Number three, how to put a team together.
Now, when we talk about a team, it might be a team of two, it might be a team of three.
It could be more, but the important thing is that you know what kind of team you need
to put together, and you don't do it too fast.
A big problem I had in my business was I needed a team, but I just wasn't making enough money
to really pay anyone what I thought they were going to be worth.
But when I've looked back on it, I should have hired some kids.
I should have hired some high schoolers.
Some people that could come into the T-shirt company that I built and help do some small
things, whether it's packaging, sorting, printing, whatever it might be.
But you need to understand you can't build a team too fast.
A lot of people will say, "All right, well, I need these five people to start."
Chances are you won't be able to afford those five people, so you need to figure out the
most important person that you need to hire first and then do that.
The second most important and do that.
Don't try, and hire everyone at once.
It is a constant battle.
You have to get those people trained.
You have to make sure that they can do their job correctly.
You have to make sure that they are the right hires.
There's insurance, there is worker's comp.
There are so many different factors.
If you're going to hire someone, you need to hire one person first.
Make sure you get your process down and then move on if you can afford it.
But hiring a team is one of the biggest challenges you will face in a small business.
Number four, unexpected and expensive problems.
Now, those problems could be anything from a piece of equipment breaking down.
It could be something like you getting sued.
Now, while obviously, nobody wants that to happen, you need to be prepared for it.
It could be maybe you're a service business, and a truck breaks down and that's the truck
that you have to have.
These are unexpected problems, and a lot of the times they can be expensive.
You need to understand that there are problems around every single corner.
You need to understand how to expect it.
How to manage it.
How to solve those problems.
And I think most of all, how to internalize it, where it's not going to completely ruin
your day because guess what?
There's a lot of problems that you have to solve and if it ruins your day, it's going
to be a miserable experience owning your own business.
Number five, vision.
Your vision for that business.
Now, is it the right vision?
I think that's key because a lot of people will go into a business, and I was the victim
of this as well, where I have the wrong vision.
I was thinking about the end game versus how to get there.
My vision didn't necessarily line up with what I really wanted in the future, and my
path changed completely.
So what I'm saying is make sure that you do have an eye on the end game.
However, you need to know how to get there and make sure that your starting point, and
your endpoint that the path that you're going to take is the right path.
Number six, and this kind of goes back along with money, but it's your salary.
How much do you take?
A lot of you are maybe coming from or already still have your corporate job.
I was in that situation myself and when I started my new business, it's how much time
can I put towards it and how much money can I make.
Now, when I started to make some money I thought, "Okay, this is awesome."
But then when I converted from a full-time corporate position into my full-time business,
I took a little bit of hit in the salary department.
I also took a hit in the benefits department, and I also took a hit in the paid vacation
department, so on and so forth.
You need to know going in, "All right, this is what I can expect.
This is what I can pay myself, and I need to stick to this," because a lot of the times
what's going to happen is you're not going to take a salary and guess what?
That's not the right way to do it either.
I did that for so long, and I realized after a couple of years of doing that, it wasn't
the right thing to do.
You are putting a ton of time into your business, and you need to make sure that you get paid
for that time and for your efforts.
You need to reward yourself step-by-step.
Otherwise, what's the point?
Number seven, this is one I hate talking about because I just really do not like it.
Taxes, attorneys and accountants, and it's not that I don't like those people, it's that
I don't want to deal with it.
I don't want to keep up with tax laws.
I don't want to keep up with accounting rules.
I don't want to keep up with any of that or do any of it.
But it costs money, and it can get expensive when you're hiring other people to do that
for you.
My suggestion, find somebody you can afford at the beginning.
Find a small accountant.
Maybe it's just somebody working out of their home.
Find an attorney.
Once again, a small attorney, not a big firm, where you can ask questions when you need
to, and it's not going to cost you an arm and a leg.
There are some people out there who, I'm not saying you're going to get it for free, but
they won't charge you as much to call and ask questions.
But make sure that you're always inside the law as well as always inside the right tax
situation because that can come back to haunt you.
Plan for the future and make sure that you're setting aside money for that.
As much as we hate to pay taxes, we all have to do it.
You just need to make sure you're on the right side of that situation in case you ever get
audited.
Number eight, competition.
You're going to have competition.
Whether you're the first one to market, or it's completely saturated.
You are always going to have competition and if you have competition, chances are they're
going to be bigger than you are if you're starting out.
So my suggestion with competition is expect it.
Embrace it.
There is usually enough business out there for all of us.
Look at how many small business owners there are out there.
Look in your area at how many small business owners are doing what you do.
There is plenty of business for everybody.
We can treat each other with respect, but you always have to understand there's somebody
that's looking to squash you.
You need to accept that.
It's nothing personal.
It's business.
They have a business.
You have a business.
You might be competing for the same customer.
They might talk crap about you.
You need to be ready for that.
My suggestion, take it with a grain of salt.
Who cares?
If they feel they need to talk like that about you, let them, I promise it will only come
back to haunt them in the future, but competition is going to be there.
You are going to have run up against it and you're going to wonder, "How do I beat them?
How do I do what they're doing?
How can I figure out exactly how they're running their business and how they got it this big?"
It's always going to be there.
It's always going to be in the back of your mind.
It's going to be a problem that you are going to have to accept.
Now, the last two are probably two of the most important ones that I personally have
gone through in my business.
Number nine, it's lonely, and I can't stress that one enough.
I came from corporate America where I worked in a large group and there were about 50 people
just in my department, but it was a Fortune 500 company, so there was branches everywhere,
and I can walk upstairs and there're eight floors above us.
There was always somebody around.
Always somebody to ask questions to.
Always somebody that you could get answers from regardless of what the situation was.
When you're a small business owner, that's not the case.
It can be right now it can be 2:00 in the morning, and you could be watching this video
because you are trying to figure out how to run your business better.
You are doing everything you can to make it successful.
You are doing absolutely grasping at straws and make sure it doesn't fail.
It's lonely because chances are there's nobody else in your household that knows what you're
feeling, that knows what you're going through.
Chances are a lot of your friends and family don't have any clue what's happening inside
your head.
The stress that you're feeling, just angst.
It's a problem, and you need to understand how to deal with it.
I still struggle with it all the time, every day, but I've just learned that when I'm feeling
that way, whether it's, some people meditate, some people just do breathing exercises.
Some people literally get up and walk away from their desk for five minutes, they go
exercise, or they do something.
You need to understand it's going to be a problem, and you need to figure out how to
deal with it.
But it's a lonely job because there's nobody else to talk to.
And even if you do have employees, chances are they leave at 5:00.
Guess what?
You're still working cause it's your business.
It's a lonely game.
You need to understand how to deal with that.
Number 10, facing uncertainty.
I think every entrepreneur that's ever started a business has gone through this and if they
tell you they haven't, I would that a million times over.
Sure, as an entrepreneur and a business owner, you have confidence that you can start this
business, but at some point or another, whether it's for one second, whether it's for a week,
you're going to go through that point where it's going to be just a valley.
Whether you're getting depressed, whether it's just overwhelming.
There's so much to do.
You can't see a light at the end of the tunnel, "Can I do this?
Is this really the right move?"
"Oh, my God, I quit my job and, I've got to support my family and in what did I just do?"
Like I said, whether it's for five minutes or for five days, you are going to go through
that.
You need to understand how to deal with that and how to get out of that slump.
I still get in my slumps, but I know that you know what?
I know how to get out of it now.
I know that once I'm feeling that way, I can identify with that, and I know what I personally
need to do to get out of that rut.
You might deal with it by going and talking to somebody, whether it's a therapist or whatever
it might be, you might deal with it going and talking to a mentor.
Those are awesome.
Maybe a business coach, whatever it might be.
Learn that it's going to something be that's going to always be creeping in the back of
your mind.
You need to understand that it's part of the process of owning your own business.
If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.
You're special.
You are taking a leap of faith, and you need to understand that you can do this.
So do me a favor.
I'm going to be making a ton of videos here on how to help you master your small business.
So let me know if you're having other problems in your small business Let me know in the
comments below.
We'd love to be able to help talk you through those, make some video answers for you about
them, and see what we can do to help.
So if you like videos like this, take a look to the right.
There's a couple other videos that will help you master your small business.
And not the other way around.
Thanks for watching.