Five challenges to overcome when running a small business

We have all heard that small businesses help to run our country and without them we won't be able to survive. Small businesses are important to the economy and many people have the dream of running a small business as it will give you the opportunity to work for yourself and to really be in control of what you can make. Since every large business was once a small company it is easy to see how you can dream big and possibly have the opportunity to make your business into a large company that will last for many years. Every business has unique challenges and obstacles that they must overcome. However there are 5 common obstacles that you do need to worry about in order to successfully run your small business:

1. Staffing. This is one of the biggest problems that small businesses face. While small business is ideal for job creation it can be hard to offer a lot of money to your employees. What this can end up doing is really causing problems to arise between you and the staff as you cannot hire talented individuals to help run the company and you often get cheap labor that is not committed to the company in the same way that you are. Failure to offer health insurance and other benefits to your employees can make it difficult for you to be able to attract talented employees. It may take awhile until you reach the level where you can offer some generous compensation and benefits. Just expect a lot from these individuals that you hire and interview a lot of people to really work hard on finding the best talent for your organization.
2. Improper leadership. As a business owner you may be able to enjoy the freedom and flexibility that your company offers but your employees do not have this luxury. If you are hardly ever around to run the company it will quickly cause employees to become lazy and they won't work as hard. If you cannot be there all the time, hire a manager to care for the day to day needs of the company and to make your staff accountable. You are the leader and you need to set an example for your staff by showing up on time and performing your job to fullest.
3. Training. This is a huge problem for many businesses as they spend so much time on finding an employee that they just work hard on getting them into the job as soon as possible. You need to be aware that without adequate training people are just thrust into a job that they really know nothing about. You must take time to adequately train your employees and to really focus on growing the business. Put in a lot of effort to the training program so you can give your employees an opportunity to be successful at their job. Take lessons from Disney as they will spend 6 weeks training their employees! This allows them to teach them just about everything about the company and their job so they won't have questions that need to be answered when they get out on the job.
4. Sales. This is always going to be a challenge as you need to find new ways to market to your customers. You need to devote plenty of time to sales and really bring in some talented salesmen that can close deals for the company. This is the best way to keep the company afloat and to always have money coming in.
5. Turnover. Since you cannot offer higher salaries it may be seen that your company is just a stepping stone for a career. People may end up using you to move to a larger company. Dealing with turnover is hard but it is inevitable. If the turnover ratio is high you need to step back and find out what is going on as there could be management issues causing turnover to occur.