Troubleshooting Common Challenges Among Startups

Most startups face a lot of challenges. One of the biggest they face is a lack of resources to get going. People and money are needed to get a business off the ground. On top of the resources, most don’t have a lot of awareness of their target markets and consumers. Being able to get through the startup phase and getting to the point of becoming a viable business takes a lot of hard work, diligence, and strength to keep going to beat the odds.

In order to better understand the process a startup must go through and the issues they have to face, we are going to discuss some of the unique things they must go through in the beginning. To get some more in-depth information about the process, we interviewed Kipp Bodnar. He is the CMO of the leading growth platform called HubSpot. Kipp has some great insight into what startups are facing because his company’s clients are mostly small and medium business owners with their own firms. Below are some challenges he has seen many of his clients face and how to try and avoid them.

•While working with small and medium firms, what has been the biggest challenge they have all faced when starting up?

According to Kipp Bodnar, the biggest mistake he has seen owners of all sized businesses make is trying to take on too much themselves. Many of the larger firms are able to get away with doing too much right away because they typically have less restraint with their resources. Smaller firms have to be more careful where they delegate their money and time. Doing too much right away can lead to big consequences for startups. Trying to do too much can lead to nothing getting fully accomplished. Even with the best efforts being at play, too much can lead to employee and client dissatisfaction. There will be high levels of turnover and the implementation of projects will be poorly handled.

•What Did Kipp Bodnar Mean About Doing Too Much?

To elaborate more on what it means to take on too much when founding your startup, Kipp began describing that it means choosing the right tactics and strategies. Many firms focus all of their efforts on their clients and try to reach them through too many channels. Unfortunately, most are not poised to give the expertise their clients need right away and end up doing damage to their reputation because of sub-par results. The key for a startup is to take things slow and build from there.

•Can You Give An Example Of Doing Too Much When Starting A New Firm?

Kipp Bodnar decided to go more into details about startups doing too much when they first begin their firms. Assume that a small startup has a single marketer working for them. This means they have around 40 hours of marketing labor each week to use. The marketer and the firm choose to divide those hours in the following way:

1. One weekly newsletter with original content for the firm.
2. Post content and communicate through social media platforms.
3. Work on marketing automation with support programs and software.
4. Create blog posts for the website to be posted monthly.

On top of these tasks, the marketer will need to understand all that is going on with the company such as projects, team staff tasks, and the committees. They will also need to spend time doing a little bit of all daily tasks. Because of this, they will be doing a lot of everything, but nothing will be done thoroughly enough. They will be spreading their time too thin among various tasks.

The marketer will not be honing their content writing skills because they don’t spend enough time doing it. Instead, they will create average content. They will not be spending enough time with prospects through social media or in-person to really engage. Essentially, they will be wasting time and sacrificing quality for quantity. The firm’s marketer will be working too hard, getting overwhelmed and not doing any job above average.

•How Can This Challenge Be Prevented In Startups?

Bodnar suggests business startups not plan the next six to twelve months without focusing on a single strategy to achieve their goals. If they are wanting to bring in more clients, they need to focus on that more than anything else until it gets achieved. They need to focus on becoming experts on one strategy before moving to the next.