Thousands of small business enterprises are being founded and closed every day in this modern era of startup. This makes almost every niche highly competitive and company growth needs to be fast and continuous, since even the smallest oscillations and breakdowns can cause major loss of customer trust.

In this article I’ve reviewed some of the most common problems small business entrepreneurs face during their road to success.

1. Problem: Not having enough funds

This is a very common problem that affects many small businesses. In most cases good idea and hard work are not enough to turn innovative startup into a multi-million dollar business. One of the crucial ingredients in successful business mix is large funding. Many entrepreneurs are not able to secure funding for their projects, some because their ideas are not attractive and innovative enough, and others because they don’t know how to present their business ideas in the right way.

Solution: Learn how to promote your ideas to investors

Promoting your business to investors is definitely not easy, but it can be done with top notch business plan that mixes up facts, practical applications of the new product (or service) with some emotions and philanthropy. So learn how to write business plans and how to present your business in short in front of large audiences, and you will be able to spark investors’ interest much easier.

2. Problem: Inability to collect debt

Debt collection can become a major problem, especially for small businesses, because it cuts their money flow, which can seriously jeopardize their growth and further existence.

Solution: Be stubborn, courteous and practical

Debt collection is hard and irritating. Entrepreneurs need to be very stubborn during this process, but to remain calm and courteous at the same time. When business partners or customers are not paying back their debt for some time, entrepreneurs shouldn’t expect they will be able to collect their debt in full. In these situations it is always better to ask for debt recovery help, from professionals than to go to court, which can cost them both time and money.

3. Problem: Doing everything by yourself

Many entrepreneurs don’t have enough trust in other people to let them run parts of their business enterprise. These people are trying to do everything by themselves which makes them unable to answer all customer orders on time. This way companies loose loyal clients, which can drastically slow their growth.

Solution: Find partners, workers or freelancers

There are several different solutions that can be applied on this problem. Entrepreneurs that don’t want to regularly employ other people, because they are scared that employees will stole their idea or avoid hard work, should find business partners who will be ready to step in, with their own ideas and investments and take their share of obligations and benefits. In most other cases regular employment or hiring freelancers online, can do the trick, with freelancers being much more affordable option.

4. Problem: Bad management

It is hard to find good managers. ‘A’ players usually work for big companies only, while ‘B’ ones are trying to step into the big arena. This leaves startups and other small businesses with ‘C’ players who lack both experience and good leadership skills.

Solution: Educate lower level staff, hire trainees

Some experts say that is not good for companies to promote lower level staff into managers, but with good-enough training, specialization and a desire for advancement anybody can become a manager. Formal education in management is not obligatory anymore, especially with so many great online courses, which anybody can take. Entrepreneurs who still believe in superiority of formal education, comparing to online courses, can hire trainees and invest in their development until they turn them into top managers.

These are just some of the problems that can slow down company’s growth. There are hundreds, if not thousands of companies that get liquidated every month. That’s why entrepreneurs need to be top problem-solvers, and each step they take needs to be preceded by elaborate research.