All successful entrepreneurs have risen through adversity and perseverance. Before becoming established, all firms must go through the starting phase. They have to start somewhere, too. Ask any ambitious entrepreneur, and they’ll tell you about the exhausting, persistent process that has kept them awake countless nights.

It’s fascinating to learn about the beginnings of significant corporations that have become household brands. Others of them came from humble beginnings, and some of the well-known firms have founders with fascinating backstories.

In this interview series, we spoke with 53 business owners and executives in the United States to learn how some of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs and leaders faced adversity and triumphed. We have also gone over several strategies that you can utilize to overcome any obstacles that come your way.

INTERVIEW HOST

The host of this interview was Jed Morley. Jed Morley is the CEO of a leading payment processing service provider called PlatPay.

Table of Contents

The question we asked:

Can you tell us the difficulties that you faced on your journey to becoming an entrepreneur/CEO?

Kristina Alexandra Kovalyuk

The difficulties with becoming CEO are many and it is a journey not meant for all. As Elon Musk said, “being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and looking into the abyss”. Some of the challenges I faced in becoming a CEO have been:

• Leaving a comfortable well paying job on Wall Street that provided a salary, benefits and security and going into the unknown. Not knowing where or when my next ‘paycheck’ was going to come from.
• Marketing. Knowing what my product and service is, is one thing, but how to get it to my target audience, getting it on their radar, marketing, pitching, doing PR.
• Establishing corporate governance, accounting, operations, structure, CRM.
• Hiring talent. Probably one of the most challenging parts of being an entrepreneur is finding talent and then being able to give them the freedom to do their work and not micro-manage and let go. This was a very tough part as an entrepreneur wants to instinctively do everything themselves.

Matt Post

Whenever I am confronted with difficulties and challenges as a leader, I always remind myself that great leadership is forged in the fire of adversity. Yes, difficulties can sometimes discourage you from pursuing your goals further, but if you adopt a growth mindset around them, you will learn to embrace each challenge as an opportunity to grow. That is what I have continuously tried to do throughout my career as a serial entrepreneur.

Chris M. Walker

The hardest part for me was learning to lean on other people.

I waited literal years too long for my first hire and once I did it changed the game for me overnight and let me take things to the next level… but I still didn’t learn.

After that hire I was able to add more offers, grow more products and help more people… until I plateaued again, and had to be convinced to hire further.

This was a vicious cycle that I eventually broke out of long after I should have. I have now finally learned that not only can I not do everything myself, but I should do very few things myself so the things that I do, do get me at my best.

Your business is your creation and it is normal to think no one can do things up to your standard, but you can’t do it this way for long if you have any level of success, it will lower the quality of your work, make you hate what you do, and prevent your from rowing.

I am fortunate now to have a great team that handles most everything for me to the point that I joke that I am just the face on the sign like Colonel Sanders… but it took me a long time to get there, and if I hadn’t struggled with this I’d be years further along than I am now.

Brett Larkin

One of the biggest challenges I faced on my entrepreneurial journey was prioritizing work-life balance. When you start a business, it is hard to focus on anything else, but this hyperfocus can actually cause a lot of fatigue and stress that can lead to burnout.

The key to being a well-rounded leader and business person is to figure out how you can balance your professional life with your personal life. External factors, like friends, family and your social life can actually benefit you hugely by providing comfort and support on your entrepreneurial journey!

Kate Lombardo

The journey to becoming an entrepreneur, also a Yoga Director at YogaRenew Teacher Training is one that is filled with constant challenges. While I’ve faced all the typical ones– from conquering self-doubt to navigating bankruptcy as a result of the pandemic– I think the biggest difficulty I’ve faced is learning to accept that things are always going to change.

When it comes to being an entrepreneur, you have to be open to always learning and growing and learning how to pivot as things around you change. Every time you think you’ve finally got things figured out, something else shifts in the world and you have to adjust in order to stay relevant.

For example, right before the pandemic began I finally felt like my yoga studio was in a good place and then we had to close and learn how to teach online. Thankfully by then, I had already gotten comfortable with needing to always be able to pivot, but that took a long time for me to learn how to accept that I’ll never be “done” when it comes to being an entrepreneur.

The exciting thing about that is that it means you can never truly fail. You just need to keep trying until you find the way that works.

Adam Rossi

Many entrepreneurs have similar stories on their way to the top. Everyone has problems they face on a daily basis, but what separates those who are good from those who are great is how they deal with the adversity that appears in everyone’s lives.

I’m no different. I’ve faced the same issues, dealt with the same issues of people not believing in me or in my journey toward success. The only difference between me and those who haven’t reached their success yet? I didn’t let any of those problems stop me. That’s the big secret to being a successful entrepreneur. Don’t stop.

Don’t let anything get in your way. You’re going to have problems. You’re going to have haters. It’s inevitable. Don’t let it stop you. Let it fuel your fire. Prove them wrong. Prove everyone wrong.

Devon Fata

The core of my journey to becoming a CEO was the slow realization that it was the only way I would be able to work in a way that fit my vision and values.

I started in the web design business right out of college as a salaried employee at a big design firm. While I learned a lot about the industry and built my skills, I found that there were a lot of things I wanted to do differently, but lacked the power to change.

This led me to becoming a freelancer. This gave me a greater degree of control over my work and the freedom to find clients for myself and start acting a bit like a business instead of an employee, but I was still limited both by the clients I could find and by my inability to bring together teams for bigger projects. That’s when I launched Pixoul. Now I can finally implement my vision on entire projects, from start to finish.

Dain Dunston

One of the biggest difficulties I faced during my career journey was failing as a leader at a tech company, where I lasted only four months. It shook me to my core. The worst part was I knew in my bones it was a bad decision before I accepted the job, and yet I went ahead with it anyway.

I came into the role feeling so uncomfortable for so many reasons that I surely would have come across as inauthentic and even just a little weird. I left feeling crushed, humiliated, and defeated. I had no idea where to go next, yet I was determined to find the answer to one burning question:

How had I become so lost? The experience fired me up to find out why I had made such bad decisions and how I could rewire my mind to be the awesome, inspiring human being I always wanted to be (but secretly doubted I was worthy of becoming). Who among us hasn’t found ourselves in the wrong job, or feeling that we didn’t belong, or wishing we could stop making decisions that took us into dead-end career moves?

My failed job experience allowed me to look inward, and over time, with daily personal practice, I rewired my mind to be the leader I know I could be. Along the way, I helped many other leaders do the same, from CEOs to those just starting out in their careers. Nothing I’m doing today would be happening if I hadn’t gone through that and a few related experiences. All experience happens for one purpose: to increase our awareness.

Ryan Yount

Establishing a clear direction for the business was the most difficult challenge I faced. Developing strategies that will lead the business in the right direction is not easy, especially when starting from scratch.

You must always be ahead of time to avoid losing the relevance of the business. One of an entrepreneur’s most important responsibilities is to bring what has yet to be done into the present. An entrepreneur is also tasked to find solutions to other business issues, such as poor customer service, which is a challenge due to a lack of experience.

Keeping up with business trends and changes is another challenge I faced. When starting a small business as an entrepreneur, you must adapt to the changing trends in the business environment. Trends create or destroy businesses at their initial stages. Seasoned business owners recognize that a trend is a friend, and they are always ready to adapt their operations to the current trend quickly.

It isn’t easy to keep your eyes open for trends while you are on your journey to becoming an entrepreneur, but the real challenge is always the ability to capitalize on these trends rapidly.

Thomas Mirmotahari

The difficulty I faced was the challenges that accompanied the commencement of this pandemic. Overcoming those challenges meant finally taking a leap of faith to start my own business which I did in 2020. Fast forward to 2022, I have 7 full time employees and 2 part time employees on my team. We are dedicated and focused on producing great results that continue to sustain the enterprise.

I am a Business School graduate and my knowledge on what it takes to be a great leader started at college. So for me, making my way to the top of my own company meant hard work at strategizing a business plan that was relevant to the market, taking the bull by the horns and finally getting down to implementing a marketable solution.

Starting your own business is gutsy. It involves many long hours of hard work. So I could say that developing a higher treshold for discipline, and time management was an initial challenge. I believe that if you truly believe that you have a viable solution to a business problem then test it out and go for it. But have a willingness to work hard. You must be willing to put some skin in the game to make anything happen in life and business.

James Parsons

Digital marketing was already a highly competitive niche in 2018. It was a big challenge to market my company since many digital marketing agencies existed.

The best solution was to offer business proposals to my existing connections at more affordable rates with excellent data-driven results. I hired experienced offshore writers and marketers to save me some money and invested in dependable project management software to boost collaboration and increase productivity.

I created a website for my digital marketing agency and marketed my content marketing services across different online platforms. These steps tremendously improved the company’s online presence, gaining decent traffic for the first year and overwhelming content orders the years after that. More client referrals came in because of the soaring 700% increase in our average clients’ conversion rate in 2020.

William Cohen

One of the issues I had to deal with regularly was criticism. It could be about business concepts, small biz decision-making mistakes, or even launching a firm in the first place.

My business was continuously reminded about the different ways it may fail. People would be jealous of and intimidated by me, so these critics would get personal sometimes.

It’s also quite challenging for any new firm to acquire customers, especially if the company has a limited marketing budget. This concern was always on my mind, and the fact that consumers want to stick with well-known brands made it more difficult for me to advertise.

Tim Absalikov

Being a digital marketing agency, we did not vividly sense the negative effect of the pandemic. We have a mixed staff – both onsite and remote employees – so, we did not have to significantly change the mode of the work. At least, the effect of the changes was not painful for us as we didn’t have to adapt to changing market conditions. We were already practicing remote working, at least part of our staff.

Gian Moore

I’m a single mother. So, Building a business while my daughter was growing up was a huge task for me.

Emily Cooper

Hi Jed,

I’m Emily, the founder of Oliver Wicks, a luxury Italian menswear brand with an online presence.

Being a business leader requires a lot of social responsibility and accountability. There will always be challenges and setbacks present. The only thing that is within your control is your mindset and attitude towards things.

I value integrity and resilience the most in running my business. Enjoy the journey ahead and use the difficult times as fuel to perform better. It’s totally fine to fall down sometimes. The important part is getting back on the saddle and learning from your mistakes.

The first few years of establishing the business are usually the hardest. You are finding your footing, and grappling with growing pains at the same time. It really helps to center on your “why” in venturing into your business, as well as having the right team in place. Never be afraid to ask for help, and always give credit where credit is due.

I hope you find these inputs helpful. I will be happy to elaborate more on the topic, should you need more information.

Warm Regards,

Michael Dean

One of the main difficulties I’ve faced while being an entrepreneur is keeping up-to-date on current marketing trends. I never realized the absolute importance of marketing and SEO strategies until I started my own business.

You can have a fantastic idea, but without good marketing tactics, building an audience for that idea is next to impossible. Successful marketing requires an understanding of your brand, and solidifying your brand at the beginning of your business journey can often be challenging.

As someone who is not naturally savvy with social media, I have had to really put in effort and research into understanding how to use it as a business tool. Social media is one of the most accessible and valuable marketing tools out there. If you’re not prioritizing social media and digital marketing for your business, you are missing out on tons of engagement.

Becky Brown

I have 20+ years of experience in business, but becoming a CEO took more effort than I could ever imagine. My entrepreneurship journey began remotely when I took control of ShoppingKim, and I had to put in a lot of effort to make it all work.

The initial difficulty was learning how to navigate the online space, getting acquainted with the technology, and learning how to utilize it to grow my business. I had to learn a lot about website development, content creation, e-commerce, and digital marketing.

Managing a remote team was another difficult issue to resolve because I had to learn how to rally my employees to do their best work so that my business can grow.

All things considered, it took a lot of time and effort to learn and understand how everything works in order to make the best decisions as a CEO. Every CEO has to learn the inner workings of their business, but there’s also the need to acquire people and leadership skills to succeed.

Sherry Morgan

The hardest challenge I faced in my road to becoming a business owner and CEO is actually starting the journey. I had a lot of self-doubts and I always thought that maybe I shouldn’t start since I’m sure that there are always people better than me out there.

I got stuck in the planning stage for a long time, always visualizing what I want to happen but not taking any action towards it. Eventually, I decided not to pursue my ideas anymore but then my closest friends talked some sense into me.

They reminded me about the problems I want to solve and why I wanted to start my business in the first place. They also gave me a lot of advice and support and made me feel that I can do anything that I put my mind to.

There may be better people out there, but what’s important is looking at my own progress and aiming to be better than who I was yesterday. This motivated me to finally start and now whatever challenge I face in my business, I’m now brave to face it.

Stephen Keighery

One difficulty I faced on my entrepreneurial journey was keeping my head out of the competition.

Aside from the struggle to stay competitive in the marketplace, you also have to be aware and not get lost in the competition, which may influence how you conduct your business and offer your services.

It is challenging to stay level-headed, especially if you see your competitors earn more than you despite providing the same benefits as you do. You have to learn to extract yourself from that mindset, focus on the quality of services you offer, and establish a good rapport with your clients.

Devin Schumacher

The transition from being a technical consultant or contributor or employee to a full blown businessman providing payroll to others is a large step and it is not always a smooth road to walk on.

The growth pains of building a sustainable business in its infancy on top of a highly irregular business climate with covid-19 is a real challenge. I worked by developing grit and having systems, making small decisions on a daily basis that build into great results.

Here are the things that helped me:

Discipline through a Regimen or Workout
I was able to develop grit and resilience by training in the boxing ring for fitness. This really helped me show up for myself and my business rain or shine.

Center on a Natural Industry of Interest
You can zero in on so many materials when you are incredibly passionate about a subject. So the sucess comes more naturally on the things that feel and seem appealing to you.

Have a Why or Purpose
Ultimately, I thrive in serving clients by making them more digitally visible for revenue. I take pride in being close to the revenue line of my clients and that empowers me everyday.

Erik Wright

Any new enterprise has a significant risk because there is always a fear of the unknown. The worry that I carried with me was leaving a well-established and stable job to pursue my dream of being an entrepreneur.

As there is no in-time or out-time while running your own business, it is hard to manage a job and a new business venture at the same time. For the business to succeed, 100 percent devotion is required.

It’s difficult and scary to leave a well-paying career, but if your instincts tell you that being an entrepreneur is the best fit for you, go for it. Do something that makes you happy at the end of the day, and if becoming an entrepreneur is your desire, work hard to make it a reality. That is exactly what I did.

Bryan Scudiere

When I think about my journey into entrepreneurship it almost happened by accident. My father lost his job in the ’08 crash which removed college from my option list, and I had to get a job in sales.

With no degree, the only type of sales job i could get was a commission-only D2D position – so I had to completely trust that I was capable of producing results. I spent 4.5years in the ups and downs of a commission based sales role some weeks making great money others, not so much. My first hurdle in my career was actually learning to manage cash flow, so I could survive a dry spell of sales.

This was where I learned budget based/profit first type of budgeting. In 2016 Once I opened the doors of my first franchise, I was off to the races and grew extremely fast in just 30 days, shooting up to a 30 person organization. I was young, audacious, and exceptionally loud haha I was running a sales floor in a Class A office building with incredibly thin walls next door to a 100+ year old Law Firm.

The music blaring and sales reps on the phone trying to close appointments made the owner of the building quite upset. He stormed in, and in front of my entire sales team screamed, smashed my speaker, and proceeded to aggressively kick everybody out.

So about 4 weeks into opening my first business I was banned from ever coming back into that office building [to this day] and had to find another location on the fly, while saving as many reps from quitting as possible. I managed to hold onto 12, find a cheaper bigger office space, and still put up over 300,000 in sales in the next 90 days and over a million the following year.

Garnering me the #1 franchise spot in the company for new business created in 2017. Just one of the many wild stories from owning a small business. Hope this is inspiring and helps people who are on the verge of quitting, I know i sure was back in 2016.

Kathleen Steffey

The difficulties faced on my journey to become an entrepreneur/CEO shaped me into the successful business owner that I am today.

When 9/11 happened, I was working as an ex-pat overseas in the Netherlands and I was part of a reduction in force for the European operation. All of a sudden, I found myself unemployed and so far from home during a tumultuous period for our nation.

This was a very pivotal moment for me to stop and reflect on myself, what I want for my future and quality of life while growing my career, similar to the behaviors and decision-making that you see in our current “Great Recession”. This is when I really began to ask myself “What do I want to do?”

I took that hardship and evaluated my life. This hardship gave me a wound to look back on but also to look ahead to new beginnings. Without the events that struck the nation that day and the immediate impact it had on the world and my career, I wouldn’t have had the fortitude or even moment to reflect on what I could make of myself.

I am so glad that I took the entrepreneur road (less traveled) instead of getting back into the corporate rat race. Here I am today celebrating 20 years in business!

Paul Sherman

The key challenge that I faced in my journey to the top was growing my network. The higher you go, the more you run into groups of people that are closed off to newcomers and like things the way they are. They’ve climbed up the ladder and pulled it away from under them, so to speak.

Breaking into such groups and thus moving my career forward required me to grow my network, but it was a vicious cycle. I couldn’t grow my network because these people often didn’t welcome newcomers, but I couldn’t break into these groups because my network was so small. The solution for me was pure luck. I met someone, who I consider to be a mentor, who vouched for me and helped me break into these networks of very high-achieving experts in the field.

Once I had my first break, it was, ironically, a virtuous cycle of my network growing, being accepted into more business professionals groups, my network growing even further, and so on.

As the saying goes, your network truly is your net worth.

Dragos Badea

A little over ten years ago I was your standard software engineer working at a design agency when I had the bright idea that it would be great to be able to digitize offices – really make it so that every aspect of the office was interconnected via software rather than all of the random clunky systems and paper-based processes that dominated the office at the time.

A good place to start, I reasoned, was a digital meeting room booking tool. As luck would have it, the concept caught on and here we are in 2022 with a rapidly growing hybrid workforce management solution business that’s been ranked as an industry leader by G2.

Naturally the way to get there was paved with it’s own fair share of difficulties. At the time everyone thought I was crazy. “Why would I pay to stick a tablet to the wall just to tell me whether the meeting room is busy?” is a phrase I heard more than once, which is not a great motivational help after you’ve taken your leap into entrepreneurship.

This wasn’t helped by the fact that I was, as I mentioned earlier, a software engineer. I knew next to nothing about the business side of running a company, but thankfully you really can learn just about anything online these days. I was putting together the tool, gaining our first clients and taking an online sales course on our way to bring in our first million of repeating yearly revenue.

What I took away from this is that not knowing how to do something or going against the way things are done are no real excuse for not giving your idea a try. Find the way to make it work and change the industry paradigm as you’re doing it.

Pati Recarte Iguaz

Patricia Recarte Iguaz is the founder and CEO of KADO Networks, a remote networking company. Pati created KADO during the pandemic as a way for businesses and individuals to grow meaningful relationships through a remote app you can download to your phone.

You can learn more about KADO by going to www.kadonetworks.com. Here’s what Pati has to say about some of the difficulties she’s faced on her journey to becoming an entrepreneur / CEO:

“On a personal level, preserving my mental health was an issue and still is, but to a lesser extent. Not managing my personal anxiety and stress levels ended up taking a toll on me. It’s key to find activities that allow your mind to drift away and escape the constant fires that need to be put out. It doesn’t necessarily have to be meditation. It can be anything from going for a run to boxing, or even a night out with friends.

Bringing on a co-founder can also help with the feelings of solitude and stress management. Entrepreneurship is a long and lonely road. Bringing in a co-founder helped me with sharing the weight and also helped with having different perspectives.

On the business side, setting a clear go-to-market strategy and getting our first clients was a real hustle! How can you convince people to use your app when no one else is using it? How can you convince a company to pay for your service when you have no referrals or reviews?

At the beginning, we did a lot of beta testing for free and interviews with potential clients, while also improving the app at the same time. To encourage usage, we’ve been offering it for free to individuals. Having some metrics is critical for SMBs and enterprises to move forward. Potential customers often ask about the number of users or need some name-dropping to be convinced. We are still at the very beginning of our story and this is still one of our key challenges, but we are getting better and improving every single day. “

Kunal Gandhi

Kunal Gandhi is the founder and CEO of EZPT, a new at-home fitness app. Kunal’s app tracks movement using your phone’s camera and corrects form using AI technology to prevent injury and encourage a safe workout experience. You can learn more about EZPT by visiting their website at www.ezpt.xyz.

Here’s what Kunal has to say about the personal difficulties he’s faced on his journey to becoming an entrepreneur and CEO:

“Every day is a new challenge. The fun part about building a startup is that we are constantly faced with obstacles that we must learn to jump over while also running at top speed. One of the biggest challenges that I faced as a founder was building product, talking to customers, and staying focused. As a young (& first-time) founder, there were tons of experienced founders and investors out there providing their advice on which direction to take the company. Our technology had a great problem – there were so many industries to apply the technology to.”

“Everything from sports, fitness, physical therapy, warehouses, truck drivers, day-to-day consumers and so many more. Learning about all of these industries and the market opportunity for each has really helped us evolve our roadmap. Focusing in on our core vision and brand values has allowed us to focus on building a movement health platform creating injury specific workouts for patients and providing data to care providers. We’ve also learned along the way to listen to customer feedback first, rather than jumping to the next industry. Talking to customers is a major key.”

Lauren Petrullo

I think the biggest difficulty I faced on becoming an entrepreneur and CEO was realizing that my unique set of skills in Facebook Ad has like one tenth of the skills that I would need to lead a team because I have to figure out project management, account management, reporting and every other course service that we offer.

We service lead generation and e-commerce clients which I can do all day long and Facebook ads. We extended our services to include marketing automation with emails and SMS, Google, Bing and Amazon PPC as well as the host of other services and having to mitigate the ability to know enough about services we offer to speak at it at a high level to build our client as well as to hold our team accountable.

The biggest difficulty was like to figure out how to manage a team, manage a remote team, manage a diverse remote team so that when my name, my face, my company is at the forefront, everything we do with every pack member equally represents the same level of quality my customers and clients came to know when they work with just me before I was a CEO.

Barbara Bolotte

The pandemic forced a majority of businesses to have to change the way in which they were doing something in order to adapt to their new environment.

At Clean Creations, we saw this as an opportunity to expand our services to help more individuals. During the height of the pandemic, fewer people were going to the grocery store or eating out. In response to this, we doubled down on keeping our staff safe and healthy which included COVID safety protocols like hand washing every hour on the hour.

We have an obligation to our community to keep them healthy and we wanted to maintain our service, especially for those who might not be comfortable leaving their homes to go to the grocery store. The pandemic has only fortified our mission of changing people’s lives with clean eating. We are grateful to be able to continue our mission during these times.

Renee Dominguez

I had struggled from very early on and it has been a journey to get where I’m at today. I was a high school dropout that never truly felt that I would have what it takes to be successful. As the years went on, I learned from many of my positions and I ended up going to private colleges earning multiple degrees. However, I continued struggling with imposter syndrome and feeling that I would never be educated or skilled enough to hold a high-ranking position.

Again, I underestimated myself. I have created glass ceilings for myself that I have also shattered. Now, I teach others to do the same. I went from a statistic to a bad-ass CEO and continue to prove to myself that I can do hard things!

Tapping into my intuition has allowed me to energetically attract the right type of clients. I grew up thinking I didn’t have any skills or talents. I seriously thought GOD missed me when it came to assigning these to babies. It took me nearly 40 years to realize I didn’t just have a skill or talent, I have a superpower. Now that I know this, I don’t doubt my decisions or waver on them. This superpower has guided me to create transformations not just for myself, but also for my clients who are now able to tap into their next levels of success, with ease.

My clients are women in Leadership who are ready to empower themselves and claim their seat at the table. I work in collaboration with you to develop your own unique leadership style in order to be heard, seen, and respected in the workplace. I have created strategic development tools to uncover your core values, true worth, and passions that will lead you to success and future endeavors. My clients are then excited and prepared for what lies ahead for them.

Joseph Gardzina

I’m Joseph, the CEO, and founder of ADAPT Programs which provides outpatient treatment services for substance abuse disorders. I’m a licensed US DOT Substance Abuse Professional along with a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor. Throughout my professional career, I have worked in several agencies and have worked as the Program Coordinator of their inpatient adolescent treatment program as well as the Director of Programs for Phoenix House in San Diego, CA. I have faced many difficulties in order to get to the position of a leader.

The trek up to leadership.
The journey to becoming a leader is much harder than it seems. Transitioning from a manager or employee or starting your own business is a completely new experience and that difficult part about that is no one ever teaches you how to become a real leader, it’s something that you only learn from experience. The journey towards leadership is one with obstacles at every step.

In my personal experience, when I was working as a manager and the next step was a promotion to a director, every day was a challenge. What differentiates a good leader from a bad one is how quickly you bounce back. Problems will be common in your role as a leader. How swiftly you deal with them as well as stay motivated throughout is how your become a good leader.

Dealing with the challenges.
The hardest part of becoming a CEO was taking the position of a leader. Deciding on goals for the entire team was something that was relatively new for me. I was used to defining goals for myself but forming goals for the entire organization was a challenge. Moreover, the added responsibility of so many people is a huge burden as well. I am responsible for the culture of the workplace and the execution of creating such a culture is a daunting task especially when you want to create a healthy and motivating environment.

The best way, in my opinion, to overcome difficulties on the way to the top is to find mentors and allies. Your support system is what will make or break you. Engage with your mentors who have ideally been in the same position as you and gather their insights on the process. Learning from their mistakes will prevent you from making your own.

One more thing I learnt is to not put off difficult decisions. As a leader you will have to make hard decisions every day. Surround yourself with people who are there for you in these hard times but also encourage you to do the right thing. The journey is not an easy one but staying focused is what works.

Lastly, one of the greatest challenge while on the journey to becoming a leader is learning the art of patience. It’s a removal of the ego and you cannot lash out on anyone if you are in a rut. You must always be calm and collected and embrace tough times as they come. A positive mindset and mindfulness goes a long way.

Will Cannon

How Do Leaders Cope with the Challenges
Leadership is what everyone is aiming for. Aside from the power that you are entitled to, it is also a door for more opportunities. However, it does not only take overnight to become one. A lot of successful leaders have endured the hardships that may come along with their careers.

There is no exact formula on how to be a leader. And, there is no precise number of levels of work needed for leadership. Some leaders have to spend a lifetime to attain success. But there are explications to achieve the goal.

How do leaders cope with the challenges?

1. Face conflict positively
2. Always stay calm in every situation
3. Look for opportunities
4. Reach out for help when needed
5. Be proactive and creative
6. Make sure to have a personal time
7. Leaders possess humility. They always remain humble even if they are on top. This characteristic keeps them in position.

Adit Jain

As you progress through your entrepreneurial journey, the kind of challenges that you face keep changing. For example, right now our biggest challenge is how to scale the business to $100M in terms of revenue. But for us, we were hardcore techies, so learning sales as just a three-person team, without the money to hire a team was the first challenge we faced.

During those early days, it was about product-market fit, and after that, it was about hiring the best people to build the best solution. That said, hiring the best is a constant challenge throughout a business’s journey.

Now, coming to overcoming these challenges. As I mentioned earlier, we were hardcore techies, and sales were something we had to learn from scratch. But we gradually learned. We understood how to sell to investors and customers alike. To add to that, we were dealing with the fear of “What if someone says no?” But over time, we’ve learned that you have to be comfortable in your skin because 99 out of the 100 times you hear a no. The day you get that lodged; you improve.

That’s one, now coming to the challenge of product-market fit. Product-market fit tells you whether you should start scaling or not, and it is critical because it tells you whether or not your business idea will be a breakout success.

So, we decided to go back to our customers to understand their needs and figure out how we could effectively solve their problems. It is important for entrepreneurs to go back to their customers and understand their requirements. As soon as you see repeatability in your customers, you know it is a fit.

Jonathan George

At the age of 26, I was named the Grand Champion Winner on Ed McMahon’s “Next Big Star”. It was the highlight of my career and my dreams were coming true as a brand-new record deal slid across the table… and then they discovered I was gay. I was left with no deal, no direction, and my dreams shattered.

My team tried to get me married, they tried to change my music, they tried to change everything about me. All I heard was…“You’re. Not. Good. Enough.”
You see, I had already spent a lifetime of being relentlessly bullied for not being a sports kid. Also, as the son of a preacher, I was told that I could never fulfill the purpose I knew I had in my life.

Again, “You’re not good enough.”

I didn’t know who I was or how to show up in the world. And no matter the accolades, I truly felt I wasn’t good enough.
That’s when I said “no more” and vowed to become the kind of coach I so badly needed in my own life. I needed someone who wasn’t going to CHANGE me… and make me different from who I was. Instead, I needed someone to help me ROCK the person I already was.

Since then, I’ve spent over two decades developing celebrity personal brands for entertainers, influencers, politicians, entrepreneurs, and professionals. As the CEO of Unleash Your Rockstar – Personal Branding Agency, they now call me The Human Hitmaker because my clients have over 150 million online followers.

My battle wounds gave me purpose and helped me impact the world around me.

Dan Voss

Thanks for putting this query out, hope you are doing well! It is true that every leader has faced difficulties and challenges, and continues to do so, that’s what a leadership role is about. As a leader, you are going to pave the way for your team, company, industry, or sector, and it comes with a whole lot of challenges.

One of the biggest I’ve faced in my years of working is ‘people management. Working together synergetically to achieve the best outcome, or to make sure everyone is productive and contributing to their fullest. Initially, it was thought that having the best players in the industry on your team would automatically mean success, but that’s not all that matters.

You need to be able to lead that team, navigate negative attitudes, bring direction, monitor outcomes among the other intangible things, like job satisfaction, culture, work-life balance, loyalty, etc. This for me was a big challenge and learning for me when I started out, but once you get a hang of it, it can be one of the biggest driving factors to your success.

Corey Tyner

GETTING PAID DIFFERENTLY
Real estate’s financial and technical dynamics were the most challenging aspects when I started as a new agent. Because I was used to salary work, it was a financial challenge. After putting in a certain amount of labour, I was used to receiving a paycheck every month. I only ate what I killed in real estate.

WEARING MULTIPLE HATS
For the first time, I considered marketing budgets, marketing tactics, branding, and lead generation while also attempting to pay the bills. During my real estate schooling, I received training on performing specific tasks and the regulations that govern them. Still, they did not provide me with training on operating other areas of my business. To remain afloat, I quickly understood concepts like lead generation, how to follow up with leads, and organizational procedures.

NO OFF-HOURS
Off-hours work is one of the most challenging aspects of the real estate market. My working hours are opposed to those of my friends and family who work the regular 9-to-5 job. People who purchase and sell houses work full-time throughout the week and are only accessible in the evenings or on weekends. This entails working throughout your friend’s and family’s vacations. Knowing that you are required somewhere else while others enjoy a weekend BBQ can be depressing.

WORKING ALL THE TIME
As a real estate agent, I’m in charge of establishing my business. I have absolute control over my business, which means I can make or break it based on my efforts. There’s always more work that has to be done. This leads to a desire to work as hard as possible and a sense of slacking off when attempting to rest.

Keron Howe

I am passionate about helping people and also love real estate. A friend bought me Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. The book made me focus on the idea of building wealth and freedom through real estate, and ultimately led me to co-founding Property Nation in 2011.

The journey has been incredibly rewarding, and I really appreciate that I can help people who are facing financial difficulties. Admittedly, at the start of the business, I had a very steep learning curve and faced many challenges.

Initially, I relied heavily on my business experience, research, and instinct. Real estate investment encompasses a lot of different aspects. Understanding renovations, repairs, and building a list of fair and reliable contracts were some points I needed to learn fast.

Seeking a mentor helped me meet those challenges. I learned it is unnecessary to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Finding the right mentor for each stage of my journey, to learn from their knowledge and experience, lowered the learning curve whilst motivating me to succeed.

Finding a mentor can be a challenge, but by networking within in the industry and expanding your personal circle, it is possible to find your perfect match.

Sophie Chiche

The greatest difficulty I faced as an entrepreneur is, ironically, also my greatest strength The fact is, when you’re running a company or starting a new business venture, you have to devote virtually all of your time to it.

You have to eat, sleep, and breathe your business; to truly be successful requires an almost 24/7 commitment. But despite the never-ending dedication that your business requires, you still need to find time for yourself – some time to get away, to forget about the business or venture for a bit. Most people can only do so for short snippets of time here and there, but even these tiny respites will help to recharge you and keep your mind and soul fresh.

Unfortunately, as I was getting my business established, I found myself unable to follow this advice. I was completely consumed with growing the business and “keeping my eye on the prize.” I did grow my business – quite well, in fact – but it took awhile for me to learn how to step back and occasionally relax, putting aside all work-related items to “smell the roses.” I’m sure I would have burned out if I hadn’t been able to adopt this mindset. Even if you give 99% of your time to your business, you’ve got to save at least 1% for yourself. That 1% can go a long way towards helping you maintain your sanity and your focus.

Erin LaCkore

1. Following through.

This is the most common challenge a leader faces in their life. They can get busy so much that they won’t even have time to look into every problem. So it is important that a leader creates a priority list that includes which task needs their most attention. This will help them to pay attention and overcome any challenge.

2. Dealing with stress and anxiety.

Having a busy life can cause stress and act as a hurdle in achieving your tasks. So it is important that you take out some time to meditate to deal with your stress and anxiety. When you have dealt with it, you can pay more attention and put all your focus on the work.

James Simmons

James Simmons is the founder and CEO of GameApart, a new online gaming platform. The platform connects users to loved ones via their favorite card game or board game by using virtual software such as Zoom, Teams or FaceTime.

Simmons created GameApart during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way for loved ones to connect virtually. You can learn more about GameApart by going to www.gameapart.com. Here’s what James has to say about some of the difficulties he’s faced on his journey to becoming an entrepreneur / CEO.

“The biggest challenge was learning when to take risks. As a senior leader (but NOT the CEO) you can suggest or advise tough courses of action, but the ultimate decision on whether to bet the deal, the lawsuit, or the company fell on someone else, and there was always a little bit of comfort in the fact that someone else was making the final call on the really big issues (and also a bit of frustration!).

When it’s all on you, the fear of making the wrong choice can be crippling or, conversely, actually making the wrong choice without due consideration can be catastrophic; learning to handle this and find the right balance of caution and boldness (still working on it!) has been a huge part of my personal founder/CEO journey!”

Shawn Plummer

In my journey to becoming a CEO, I struggled with transitioning from a corporate environment where I had a lot of resources and people to support my work to starting my own business where I had to do everything myself.

There were a lot of things I took for granted and having to get everything in place on my own was difficult in the beginning. However, I’ve never looked back. I greatly value working for myself and investing in my own growth.

Stephan Baldwin

At the start of my CEO career, I dealt with internal conflicts regarding the conditions of existing care facilities. Many of these centers are well-decorated and promoted with excellent advertising, but they often lack financial support to sustain senior dependents. Some people might say that the negatives drove them to achieve successful businesses, but that disappointing reality nearly deterred my plans.

That experience taught me to leverage the power of research as a professional marketer. If we commit to learning about our competitors, we should also dedicate time towards recovering the facts about our industry of interest.

I realized that Assisted Living couldn’t be better or stand out in an uninformed environment. So I spent months performing a deep dive into senior care facilities, learning about each company’s history and retention rates. My choice to take a journalistic approach to healthcare marketing allowed me to uncover more than 19 000 care centers in the U.S. and Canada that I partner with proudly today.

Here’s the bottom line: If you want to be successful, you need to be willing to accept some hard truths and build on them. Entrepreneurs who shy away from the nitty-gritty work miss out on the foundations for thriving businesses.

Benjamin Rollins

The difficulties I faced in my journey in becoming an entrepreneur / CEO was learning to focus on other people instead of myself and not being secretive about the problem I was trying to solve.

I thought that if I talked about the problem I was trying to solve, people might steal my idea or take advantage of it. I was focusing only on myself and wondering why I wasn’t achieving the success I wanted.

After I got over myself and started focusing on helping others, and I started talking to others to get feedback on my idea, I was able to build a better business.

Froswa Booker-Drew

When I started my business, it was the result of dealing with a boss who was threatened. Instead of nurturing what I brought to the organization, my willingness to grow and learn, she saw it as a problem. This experience along with others taught me to value my team and create the space for them to unleash their talent. Insecurity is a trap that destroys your possibilities and the confidence of others.

I was already being asked to provide consulting. I walked out on faith believing I could grow my business. In a year, I exceeded what I made at my job through my business. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs, ebbs and flows. I initially struggled with understanding my value and worth which I cheated myself financially. I undervalued what I brought without accounting for my lived experience and education combined. When you aren’t clear on that, you’ll attract clients who also will not see your value.

Over the years, I’ve had my business in a full or part time capacity but I’ve never stopped. I’ve learned the importance of surrounding yourself with others who can offer support so you can focus on what you are good at—you can’t do everything all the time. As much as the grind is important and working hard to make your dreams a reality, you must take time to focus on building yourself.

You can’t grow stagnant and you must keep learning. Self-care both individually and in community is necessary. It’s important to take time to relax and rest. I remember pushing myself so hard that my health suffered. If you aren’t well, your business suffers. Learning to prioritize is paramount. Relationships are important and neglecting those that bring you life only hurts you.

I’ve learned so much because of the lessons I gained over the years. Your mistakes are lessons. Use them as a foundation to grow and bless others.

Lauren Carroll

In my industry of real estate, my biggest challenge would be where I operate, as potential clients often associate experience with age. As a young entrepreneur, it was a challenge to prove myself as an expert in my market.

Typically in this field, they say it takes seven years to get your business up and running. Of course, this is different for everyone. However, in Real Estate you do have to hustle and find different avenues in which you can generate revenue until you are off the ground. One takeaway from my experiences is that persistence and consistency are essential for new business owners.

Lauren Cohen

AN ANOMALY IN THE LEGAL AND REAL ESTATE WORLD!

Lauren Cohen is recognized as a premier International Legal Expert and Global Expansion Strategist. She operates several international companies focused on delivering full-service solutions for business owners.

She helps expand their global impact by facilitating the logistics of moving businesses and their owners across the country and around the globe. Her superpowers rest in anticipating challenges before they happen to ensure a painless and efficient transition and build sound, goal-oriented business strategies — legally, structurally, and physically. She takes away the worry and the sense of overwhelm away so her clients can stay in their lane, focus on building their business and achieve their version of the American Dream.

After her husband’s deportation on the return trip from their honeymoon, she was devastated. Although the marriage was not meant to be, the turn of events was traumatic and life-changing. She knew she had to make some changes and find a way to have a more significant impact on others to help them avoid suffering a similar plight – or worse. So, she turned to the ever-changing and dynamic world of immigration and international law to help others avoid a similar fate.

As a Canadian immigrant, Lauren received her U.S. green card in 2007 and started her own business in 2008. She gave birth to her son, Zevi, two years later, at the age of 43. Being a single working mother and entrepreneur was challenging. Lauren initially struggled in her career path, especially when balancing her two hectic work and home lives.

Lauren battled with ongoing pre-conceived notions about women in the business field and not having the right to have a “seat at the table” while developing her own. But, with the help and advice of trusted advisors and her determined and gutsy approach to life, Lauren managed to refocus her energy to become the successful business owner and single working mother she is today.

Since its founding, she has transformed her company, e-Council Inc., from a one-woman-operated organization to a small but thriving business. Her expertise as the founder of e-Council Inc. is in advising business owners, entrepreneurs, and investors on immigrating to the U.S. and helping them develop business plans based on visa processes and gaining access to foreign capital. She has since expanded her expertise into other areas of business and advisory services.

In 2017, Lauren founded “Find My Silver Lining,” a 501(c)(3) organization that inspires single mothers, working parents, and “mompreneurs” to focus on the bright side as they strive to lead fulfilling lives. Lauren offers strategic guidance and legal advice to simplify complex business matters. She aims to help her clients develop a business plan, find a work/life balance, and discover their business. She also helps others develop and grow their non-profit entities as they strive to expand their reach and impact.

Lauren since has developed her signature program, “How to Immigrate Through Real Estate,” which exemplifies her years of expertise in moving or investing into the U.S. and international markets. She also has sponsored numerous coaching programs dedicated to teaching women how to invest in real estate worldwide.

She has also created a program where she helps investors establish a path towards a visa through various business models, has partnered with multiple Canadian and American law firms, and maintains active law and real estate licenses. Her mastery lies in building top-tier “power teams” for each client based on her intrinsic understanding of the scope of professional expertise needed for each situation to protect assets, minimize risk with cross-border expansion, and ultimately achieve the client’s short- and long-term goals.

Although her list of accreditations is long, Lauren utilizes the specialized expertise of various vetted professional partners to guide each unique situation on a path to seamless success.

When faced with challenges, Lauren has persevered and thrived time and again. She has continued to create unparalleled international alliances through personal and professional obstacles to offer her clients borderless, quality, conscientious service.

Indeed, the economic and other worldwide challenges faced in 2020 saw Lauren overcome adversity and continue to expand and enhance relationships, develop new partnerships, and teach others how to access funding and strategies for business and investment opportunities. She equally applies her unwavering tenacity to represent her clients’ interests. Lauren’s satisfaction comes from the personal changes she can actualize for her clients through her turnkey suite of services.

In light of the current COVID19 crisis, Lauren pivoted her business once again. She now offers a wide range of services related to business continuity, the coordination of funding solutions, and pivoting strategies for business owners across North America from governmental and private resources.

Having experienced the challenges of immigrating first-hand, Lauren is passionate about helping others – citizens and immigrants alike – to successfully expand domestically and globally by protecting the soul of their businesses so they can invest, live, work, and play anywhere in the world.

How Leaders Overcome Difficulties on Their Way to the Top

Being a leader does not mean that you will consistently achieve the desired outcome. Being a leader means that when you don’t accomplish that goal, you have learned from your mistakes and, most importantly, improved from that moment onward.

All leaders in any professional field are going to encounter difficulties. Whether it is in the industry, you have chosen or your personal life, it is inevitable. There are many skills all leaders must be equipped with when confronting difficult situations. But I believe these to be the main ones: 

The skill of Confidence:

If you don’t believe in yourself and your service, no one will do it for you. It is of the utmost importance that you be confident in what you are doing because confidence alone can open various opportunities for you even when undergoing a difficult situation. Don’t be afraid to take the next step in your career because it may be difficult. Do it, and do it with confidence!

The skill of Communication:

Nowadays, we communicate in so many ways – e-mail, text, phone – it’s hard to tell when nobody is communicating something anymore. When you do, it’s essential to know your audience, but most importantly, to be respectful. I cannot tell you how many times a person has been rude intentionally and even unintentionally. When confronting challenging situations, never respond out of anger. Take a second to cool down, and remember, you are always talking to another person. Be kind to one another, and don’t burn bridges unnecessarily.

The skill of Balance:

Having a work/life balance is crucial for mental health and emotional connection. Spending quality time with your family and friends (and your dog) is essential. Don’t ignore these emotional connections in your daily struggles because they will be your support system through thick and thin whenever you need them.

The skill of Prioritization:

You will have many instances where you are juggling numerous things at once, and perhaps all within the same deadline. Setting a list of tasks and events you prioritize and moving things around will save you from having a mental breakdown. Don’t be afraid to say, “no, I can’t meet with you on Thursday, but I can meet with you next Tuesday.” No one expects you to be available 24/7. You’re only human – don’t put that much pressure on yourself. But, be reliable and be punctual.

The list can go on and on about things leaders can do to overcome difficult situations on their way to the top, but these, I believe, are the most noteworthy.

Michelle Diamond

Starting my businesses was not hard because I got a lot of advice from others who were successful in my field. However, navigating and managing the ups and downs during the years was the challenging part.

The ups and downs did not always necessarily correlate with the economy or external factors. Sometimes it was partnerships that had to end and other times, pivoting to new territories, and expanding or ‘fine-tuning’ my target customers and customer base.

However, through it all, I understand that embracing and understanding change, along with updating my mindset to make room for it, has been the key to success.

Logan Mallory

One challenge that many people face when they become a business owner is learning how to guide their team to become great leaders. The best way to build leadership is to give people opportunities to lead. Provide guidelines and consult, but don’t take a directive approach all the time.

Of course, you need to manage when there are performance or attendance or handbook issues, but otherwise you should act like a coach. Let your team members test their limits, try new things, and fail without being punished.

Mark Pierce

One way to overcome difficult times as a business leader is to improve your emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence can help leaders approach challenges from a more nuanced perspective and use that nuance to find better ways to resolve the issue.

Emotional intelligence helps people not only better understand the emotions and feelings of others, but also control their own emotions and emotional responses to situations. This can help to defuse tense situations, find ways to connect with people to resolve challenges, and in general stay more in control of a situation.

Marla Cormier

I never wanted to be my own boss. I grew up watching my parents slave away to make their own business successful, and even after all of their hard work and dedication, after 13 years, they had to declare bankruptcy and close.

That entire experience made me think that owning a business was far more work than it was worth. My parents were honest, hardworking people so if they couldn’t make it work, what chance would I have? Many years later I met my husband, a serial entrepreneur who had started his first successful business at age 17. For him, owning his own business was the only option and he started encouraging me to carve out my own path.

At first I thought he was just being nice, you know, telling the new girlfriend how capable she is and taking an interest in her passions. But he never let up. In fact, after we got married he only encouraged me more. Then one day I realized that if I did start my own business, I’d be able to work on all of the things I love without all of the things I don’t. It took a few years but eventually I created my own training company.

I’d love to say that I was a huge success right out of the gate, but like most success stories, there came some huge failures first. My first failure was one of timing. I was selling escape room learning, highly engaging mobile escape room experiences that I would build and host on-site for clients in a training or conference room. It was the most fun training I’d ever developed and the results were remarkable with participants remembering and using what they’d learned months after they attended.

It as a great vehicle for participants to learn essential skills from time management to communication, and collaboration to listening. Unfortunately, I was ramping up right when COVID came on the scene. Within a week, my business model was irrelevant. Businesses were going into lock down and the idea of putting employees in a room together without social distancing was unthinkable. Almost overnight my fledgling business was on the verge of demise.

Since COVID was quickly becoming a long-term concern, I knew I had to make a change if I was going to keep my business going. I decided to abandon the escape room training model and instead, develop virtual training that allowed employees to learn from wherever they were. At a time when companies weren’t sure how to manage return to office, training that could be done virtually was a good solution. I expanded my content to include all the previous topics and many new ones in an effort to capture as many clients as possible.

That brings me to my second failure. I’m a people person so meeting new people and maintaining relationships comes easy to me. Everyone says that should make me good at sales. Well, it didn’t. I had no trouble making contacts and opening up conversations about my services and the benefits to my potential clients, but when it came down to talking money, I got nervous.

In those early days, I didn’t know my own worth and because of that, couldn’t speak to pricing with confidence. Instead of closing contracts in one conversation, it would take me three or more. Rather than being able to adjust offerings and pricing on the fly, I would need to regroup and go back with a new package and price for services. It was exhausting and ultimately had me leaving money on the table while creating a lot of extra stress.

I started to worry that business ownership wasn’t for me but I just wasn’t ready to give up. Afterall, I’d navigated COVID by changing up my offerings and switched from escape room learning to virtual delivery for various topics including leadership and customer service training. I had a small but loyal client base and I really wanted to believe that I was only steps away from figuring out the key element that would take me from surviving to successful.

And then, after a couple years of struggling against my own nature, I realized that I could be hugely successful if I changed my business model. What if I stopped trying to be all things to all people and just focused on my greatest passion, developing emerging leaders? That would eliminate all the packaging and repackaging of services which took up a lot of time and created a lot of anxiety. What if I put my pricing right on my website so I didn’t have to mix and match calculations on the fly? I would probably be able to close more deals more quickly and eliminate all of the anxiety around money.

So that’s what I did. I built a program for emerging leaders and outlined it on my website. And unlike other training companies, I posted my pricing right there for everyone to see. As soon as I made the shift, a giant weight was lifted and I was freed up to do what I’m great at, telling potential clients about my services. It’s amazing the impact this has had on my outlook and how it’s given me the confidence to sell now that price is essentially off the table (or, on the website as it were). I have better discussions with potential clients and close more contracts, most within one call, than I ever could have imagined.

The truth is, deep down I had always wanted to be my own boss. I grew up thinking that I’d take over my parent’s business so when it closed, I was devastated. I somehow took that experience and generalized it, deciding that I couldn’t run my own business. I had so much fear about business ownership that it held me back from dreaming big. That’s the biggest failure I had to overcome. I’d convinced myself that working for someone else, collecting titles, was the safer route.

Thankfully, I married a man who dreams big enough for both of us and eventually, with his support, and his constant push to help me see things differently, I decided to put fear aside and focus on my own happiness and fulfillment. Because I did, and because of my failures, I now have a business I’m proud of, that makes a difference in the lives of employees and in their abilities to grow their careers. I get to do what I love every single day.

Peter Ord

I’ll focus on three major difficulties that I have faced during my journey as the CEO of GuideCX and those are:

1. Creating a new software category (Client Onboarding)

Those who have successfully created new software categories know that a great deal of patience and intuition is required to be successful. Because your product is so new and innovative, you don’t have prospects seeking you out yet. We’ve had to build a strong outbound selling motion to overcome this.

2. Staying no.1 in our new category

It’s one thing to create a category, but it’s another thing to lead it. We are grateful that competitors have popped up. They have helped us feel validated, spread awareness for the problem that GuideCX solves for, and migrate our sales motion into a competitive sales process versus an education-based sales process. These are all things that are needed in order to help our company and category grow.

3. Grow our team

I’m a big believer that the first 50 employees define the long term trajectory of your culture and brand. I’m thankful we were patient in the early days by not just hiring people that would be great to “work with” but holding out for people that are great to “be with” and “work with” as well.

Shaun Connell

I built a small media company in 2014 that went from 0-to-1m per month in one year. I was only 25-years-old, so it was quite a ride. My greatest challenge, hands down, was learning how to build a reliable staff fast enough to keep up with growth.

Up until that point, I’d never hired more than one freelance writer at a time, and suddenly I needed writers, editors, a CTO, COO, etc.

I learned to integrate a simple strategy that worked very well for my situation: hire fast, fire fast. It was a brutal year, but one I’ll remember forever.

I sold that business a year later. I also still build small passion projects for fun, especially for investors. But I’m not looking to recreate anything on that scale.

Brianna Socci

As a startup founder, you face a lot of challenges during your journey. One of the things I’ve had to learn along the way is being able to bounce back and grow from the failures. Entrepreneurship is a long, bumpy road, and you can’t let the hard times dictate your attitude to advance. Move quickly, fail fast, learn from the experience and do it better the next time.

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The post 53 Stories of Successful Entrepreneurs From USA that Will Inspire You on Your Journey first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jed Morley

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Success is a process, not an event. To do any great task, you must first begin from somewhere. This could be the start of a new idea, a new road, a new approach, or a new business. In our everyday life, we frequently end up focusing on achieving what others consider to be a success rather than returning to our original goal or purpose. In this interview series, we spoke with a variety of entrepreneurs and leaders from around the world to learn how some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and leaders faced adversity and succeeded.

“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” Arthur Ashe

INTERVIEW HOST

Hello, my name is Jerome Knyszewski, I’ll be the host of your interview today. I am the CEO of HeavyShift. My specialties are online reputation marketing and SEO. Looking forward to reading your insightful answers and publishing your featured interview.

Table of Contents

The question we asked:

Can you tell us the difficulties that you faced on your journey to becoming an entrepreneur/CEO?

Sweet Ha

First is the income threshold. Many bosses are the backbone of the company before starting a business. They are highly appreciated by the boss and are naturally worth a lot. However, due to various reasons in the early stage of the business, after a year of hard work, the income obtained is far less than that of part-time jobs. “This vast income gap is a cruel reality that every early-stage entrepreneur must face and accept.​​

Second, family ties. The impact of the decline in income will gradually spread to the family. In addition, entrepreneurs work day and night without taking into account the “internal affairs” of the family. At this time, the family’s resistance tends to increase day by day. At this time, entrepreneurs need to withstand the pressure and work hard. Disagree, keep going.​​

Third, lead the hurdle. There is an essential difference between management and leadership. Entrepreneurs must have specific management skills and strong leadership skills to lead the team in the right direction, continuously create benefits for the company, and benefit team members. More importantly, entrepreneurs can make mistakes in management, but they must not make leadership mistakes; otherwise, the company may encounter danger.​​

Fourth is the human bond. In the early stage of starting a business, entrepreneurs will encounter setbacks and blow in various aspects, especially criticisms from others.

Valentine Okoronkwo

Family
One big difficulty I faced on my journey to become an entrepreneur was pressure from my family to stick to a 9-5 job and not venture into entrepreneurship.

My family never wanted me to become an entrepreneur. They got really depressed and disappointed when I quit my job. This got to me as well. It affected my productivity and also affected my belief in myself.

I noticed it was getting to me, so I had to avoid communication with them for a while to focus on making my business work. I made sure I put in work every day to accomplish my goals to my dream a reality.

Till today, though I earn 10x what I earned in my last job, my parents still encourage me to get a job and still send me job opportunities and offers. However, I am happy they have gotten the fact that this is what I want to do.

But to be honest, it’s just my mother that is happy with the path I chose to take. My father is still disappointed with me because I disobeyed him and went against all the plans he had made for me. So this is a difficulty I still struggle with today.

The thing I have learned from this is that: against all adversity or motivation you have, just to do something every day, no matter how small, that can take you closer to your goals. The action you put in every day will bring results, and those little results or wins will help you believe that you can actualize your dreams, which will also motivate you to put in more work.

Action => Inspiration => Motivation

Mapesho Mukanga

Running a platform that is centered on creating content which inspires people to improve their lives is always difficult because each person is going through something different but the best way to stay original and authentic is to use your own experience as a map to serve as inspiration for others.

Putting yourself out their in front of others is always going to be challenging but when you think about the lives you get to impact, it becomes much easier for any individual to feel the freedom to speak freely.

Nate Tsang

The biggest challenge in running your own business is in hiring. You first have the immense difficulty of finding the right person for your specific job.

You’ll find many great marketers out there, for example, but are they informed and experienced enough to market your business in your niche to your specific buyer personas?

I recommend working with a hiring expert who knows your field. It’s an expense, but it also saves you a great deal of time in sourcing candidates. And they can teach you enough about the process to where you can run it more independently in the future. But building those initial skills takes time and expertise.

From there, you also have to give your new hires the right responsibilities. A lot of entrepreneurs I know (myself included, admittedly) have trouble with delegation at first.

They’re accustomed to doing everything themselves and only want to delegate the tasks they have little to no experience in. Recognizing that you’re not the best person for this task—at least in the long-term—takes some self-reflection and involves making tough decisions. But that’s what being a business leader is all about, and if you trust your talent they tend to thrive more than they fail.

Alex Bryce

When I reflect on my journey, I believe the biggest challenge has been making the right decisions. As a business owner, you will be responsible for making all of your company’s major and minor decisions on your own.

The burden of making decisions is real and unavoidable. One of the common challenges I believe every entrepreneur faces are making decisions on their own while being conscious that making the wrong decision can result in losses. However, I believe that experience improves your ability to make important decisions.

Another obstacle for me, I believe, was pivoting my business during the pandemic. But it taught me one important lesson: everything works out in the end.

Aquif Shaikh

The difficulty I had to face while launching my own business was obtaining funds, securing finance is one of the most difficult tasks for new entrepreneurs. Raising funds and obtaining loans was a difficult undertaking for me.

Even the most experienced entrepreneur will have difficulty obtaining financing at first because many capitalists are unwilling to participate in new enterprises.

However, this is only a temporary setback because, if the business idea is innovative, fresh, and compelling, getting an investor to provide startup funding is not a difficult undertaking. As a result, as an entrepreneur, I had a well-thought-out strategy and business model to present to investors and banks to persuade them that their money was being invested wisely.

Meera Watts

Our lives were turned upside-down by the pandemic. We changed the way we used to approach challenging situations in the past.

We had to use a variety of methods to teach our students as teachers. We concentrated on offering them online yoga courses. We emphasized tutorials, live sessions, and even fun activities to encourage students to practice yoga at home.

I’m quite pleased with how things are going right now because my learners are enjoying their classes and learning something new every day.

Baidhurya Mani

I am Baidhurya Mani, and one of the greatest challenges I have faced towards becoming the CEO of my own company was whether or not I should pursue this lifelong dream.

My biggest enemy was no other than myself. I spent a lot of sleepless nights riddled with anxiety during the week before launching my company. You see, my business is far from the usual, and it will either be a hit or a miss. I was so full of self-doubt, but I am incredibly grateful for all the support I got from my family, friends, and even my previous boss.

I believe in the theory that to overcome this, you have to be careful with the stories you tell yourself. You should stop the self-loathing and start telling yourself that everything will be fine even if you take a giant leap of faith.

One thing I would always tell myself every time things don’t go as planned is that “I stumble, and I rise.” It’s a tremendous mindful practice to keep you going. You have to repeat this to yourself even in the minor errors or mishaps that occur throughout your day so that it doesn’t snowball into heated anger and frustration, which will not help you at all.

Through this, I earned the confidence, and now, I am in my 6th year of running my own company. A dream I never thought would come true.

Smita Das Jain

After 14+ years in leadership roles in Fortune 500 companies, last year I decided to pivot my career to transform my passion of mentoring people to become the best version of themselves into a professional pursuit for coaching, and founded the ‘Empower Yourself’ Coaching Program-a customised set of personal clarity and executive performance enhancement coaching interventions.

The first challenge was the resistance that I encountered from my well-wishers who dissuaded me from leaving a stable job for an uncertain future. It took a lot of willpower, and not insignificant time, to listen to my inner voice and move ahead on the path that my heart was set on.

Then opening my business while simultaneously undertaking three certification programs as opposed to the usual norm of starting a business after completing your certifications was a leap of faith that entailed straddling different time zones and plenty of workload. My time management skills held me in good stead here.

Then came the challenge of a successful Go-to-Market. Given my background, Executives and leaders were more willing to hire me as one of their team than entrust me the task of coaching them or their employees. I decided to focus on Life Coaching to start with and put Executive Coaching on the backburner.

Having a structured yet productive day is a constant challenge for an entrepreneur who is her own boss and works her own hours. So far, I have managed it well by ensuring that I open my laptop at the same time every morning as when I worked for someone else (even though the work hours stretch much longer sometimes), and planning my key priorities for each day of the week, a week in advance.

Discipline, Patience and Consistency has been my mantra to overcome any challenges that I encountered in my business. With less than a year and close to 150 coaching hours, webinars, and live learning sessions, Empower Yourself has positively impacted the lives of many working professionals ranging from entry-level to the topmost hierarchy, I can say that this mantra has worked for me.

I enjoy doing what I do, have never been happier and earn more than what I used to do in my corporate role. Success is not called success unless it entails overcoming challenges.

Adam Jacobs

First, entrepreneurship could be a journey — but often times, it’s a rollercoaster. A journey indicates that there is an end, but in entrepreneurship, that’s not the case. There are highs, lows, ups, downs, twists, turns and then the process repeats itself.

There are so many obstacles you have to overcome, such as the bravery to go ahead and pursue your goals, especially when people tell you that you don’t necessarily have what it takes or that you won’t succeed. The first obstacle is to have a reasonably good idea, and many struggles with this.

Saying you are going to create the next Netflix with no money, no concrete idea on how to make it happen, and without a team to back you up.. this is no surprise, but man, that’s not happening.

The second most pressing obstacle I’ve had is to secure funding or capital. Followed by finding a team: Either in the form of partners, staff or both. Once you’ve got some start-up cash, a plan on how you are going to tackle it, and then a team.

Now take this: People will always be your biggest obstacle – your customers, your staff, your stakeholders. You will have to balance yourself with your staff, staff will have conflicts with you, with each other and even with your customers.

Difficult customers can drain your energy and your cash, and learning to manage them quickly and well will be one of the biggest obstacles that you will have to tackle and need to revisit regularly.

Going back to entrepreneurship being a journey and a rollercoaster — I am sure of one thing: obstacles, big or small, are just bumps on the road to goals – be resilient, be persistent. Know when to zig, know when to zag, when obstacles come up, run through them, over them, and know when to avoid them altogether. Obstacles could be big, they could be small, but just believe that you’re on a monster truck to conquer them all.

Craig Schulze

My name is Craig Schulze and I have been in business and an entrepreneur for over 20 years.

In short I left home at 15, been financially independent since 17, fired my boss at 21 to follow my dreams and passion.

Started a fitness club which led to be 5 and 22 franchises. I have built business online, been in coaching and consulting throughout the last decade.

I am an investor. Two of my biggest challenges. One was the lessons learned throughout the global financial crisis.

The second was my wife and I losing our first son stillborn which inspired me to build a brand around peoples “One Shot” at life.

I have travelled the world and been to over 120 different cities and gains huge perspective from that experience.

Ashley Bellino

As an advocate for mindful modern living, I launched home decor and styling brand, Stoned Crystals, in an attempt to re-position and redefine the role of crystals in modern society with a focus on ethically sourced a-grade crystals that are used as functional pieces of art. I believe we sit on the knife’s edge of spirituality and design offering decor, furniture and jewellery made from crystal.

Our physical retail store endured 262 days of closure during the pandemic in one of the worlds most locked down cities, Melbourne. Despite this, we were able to increase sales thanks to our virtual live-sales model. To say the retail landscape has changed in the last few years is an understatement.

The global pandemic in particular forced businesses to diversify their business model. Thankfully, we were ahead of the curve in establishing a very successful virtual live sales model. Whether our bricks & mortar location is open or not, we’ve been able to maintain and actually increase our sales through online shopping. And, with social media impacting the way consumers interact with brands, we were able to take advantage of this evolution and create the next generation in e-commerce.

Stoned Crystals further leveraged the virtual live shopping on social media by developing an App that allows for an uninterrupted shopping experience for the customer, while giving control back to the brand. The result is a less static and more immersive experience that allows for a more authentic and personalised shopping experience.

The concept of selling over live video was established with my partner, Jeremy LeBard, in 2017. We have since taken those learning and tuned them into their own Omnichannel App and plan to make this available to like-minded brands. We essentially redefined the bricks & mortar store through an innovative live sales model that turns our space into a virtual showroom.

Our customers can tune in from anywhere in the world and receive VIP service from our Crystal Concierge team who offer styling advice as well as mindfulness and intention setting tips. In a declining physical retail world we were able to transform the intrinsic value of a physical space into the online world. Our live sale business model alongside a message of mindfulness and hope has generated great interest and found itself a very pertinent strategy that saw us continue to take flights, even in the face of adversity during a global pandemic.

Bree Stedman

The biggest obstacle I faced in my journey towards being an entrepreneur was my own internal insecurities – particularly around feeling like a fake and a fraud. That devil on my shoulder consistently told me I wasn’t good enough, despite my accomplishments.

The second part of this difficulty was finding someone who could help me to irradicate them without having to explore the WHY….. as an ambitious entrepreneur, I already knew the value of Personal Development and growth, however didn’t ‘have time’ to spend hours on hours exploring all of the possible reasons why I felt like I did. And I didn’t want to have to ‘keep working’ on myself. I just wanted a resolution that worked with who I was as a woman, that could get to the root of these insecurities, so I could move forward.

Acknowledging and working on these saboteurs have helped me to confidently build a business while authentically being myself to the point where I now facilitate the training of others in an International company.

J.D. Drayton

After running a locally based branding agency in Melbourne, Australia, I too, was forced to adapt during the pandemic in early 2020.

90% of my clients cancelled their contracts because suddenly we were all stuck in lockdowns (in the city that ended up spending the most days in lockdown, 260 days within 18-months).

I couldn’t survive during the lockdown, so I closed my business. Overnight, I lost all my income! Days later, I launched my coaching and online education business while also launching a new online-based branding agency to serve online-based female CEOs.

The online world was thriving during the pandemic, but I had no idea what I was doing at first. Traditional marketing was not the same as online marketing. Yes, it was similar in some ways, but it was different. It pushed me to think outside the square, but it was not easy, after 20 years doing traditional marketing and seeing clients in-person.

I invested all my savings into online courses and business coaches. Slowly, I started to work it out and to transition online. Transitioning was difficult, as I attempted to translate everything that I had known to the online space.

I was either going to swim or sink, and for a long time, I was sinking fast! I felt hopeless. Defeated. And very lonely, now working from home, without that in-person interaction with clients.

I missed the human-to-human connections, but eventually, I choose to swim as a tiny fish among some big sharks. I became obsessed with self development and online learning and turned to the big names such as Amy Porterfield, James Wedmore, Lewis Howes, Jenna Kutcher, Jasmine Star and Rachel Pedersen.

Marty Spargo

With the changing marker conditions that involves increase in competition within several industries, our yearly sales massively declined in comparison to the past years. It was indeed a tough time for the business and almost left us bankrupt.

But we didn’t allow this setback to stop us, we formulated a strategy that could help us get our numbers back up again and with everything we’ve got, we rose up to most of the competition and even led the market for some time.

Toby Schulz

As a young entrepreneur, co-founding a house cleaning business with my brother when I was 21 and he was 26, the biggest challenge I faced was convincing others around me of the goal I was working towards.

Explaining to family and friends that I had to say no to a lot of plans was not easy or readily accepted. I had to make many sacrifices on the personal front to start a successful business.

When you rely on self-motivation to get an entire business off the ground, if you don’t make the time to do something, it won’t happen.

It was a learning curve to figure out where to spend my time, and how to handle things that I’m not the best at, yet need to be done.

Bronwen Sciortino

I am an International Author & Simplicity Expert.

Having experienced mental health issues after suffering from burnout, and a complete breakdown as a result, I wrote my first book during my recovery which received international critical acclaim and 5-star awards.

During my recovery, I learned a lot about the role that stress and exhaustion play in our lives, and the way that we accept them as a normal way of living. As I pieced my life back together, I made the choice to find the simplest steps for me to move forwards in a way that supported both myself and those with whom I was working.

With burnout on the rise all around the world, this saw me create a global business teaching people there’s a very different way to live so they can tailor-make the life that allows them to lead happy, rewarding AND successful lives.

From burnout to global business happened within 3 years.

There’s nothing normal about being constantly stressed and exhausted AND there are simple and easy ways for people to do things a little bit differently. Everyone deserves the opportunity to create their own life, in the way that is absolutely perfect for them.

Because I live my life governed by simplicity principles I have not been affected by the chaos being experienced around the world and I have been able to easily adapt and quickly move forward in a different way.

Women, in particular, are carrying the load and research conducted pre-COVID showed that they were suffering from burnout more than men. COVID has only exacerbated these statistics.

All three of my books provide individuals with tools and activities that they can apply to their own lives, so they can find their own answers and move forwards on the pathway that is right for them.

I recently launched an online platform to assist busy, professional women to reduce stress and beat burnout. I launched this program (and continue to run it) at a 96% discount so that as many women as possible can access it in these tough times. I’m currently building mini-programs around self-care, stress and energy management so that people can access the information they need to move forwards in bite-sized pieces.

I’m also currently building new online mini-programs that help people to tackle their stress and improve their health and wellbeing in a bite-sized way.

I work with people globally through my books, corporate programs, leadership development programs, conference platforms, retreats , professional mentoring and in the online environment. I share practical and easily implemented steps and inspire individuals to simplify their lives.

I also guest blog regularly for membership platforms around the globe, have been featured on the TODAY Show, Ticker TV, James Miller Lifeology Show and The Author Show and contribute regularly to major online publications such as HuffPost and Thrive Global (Arianna Huffington’s new platform).

I am also frequently asked to be interviewed through global radio, podcasts, vlogs, YouTube, Facebook Live, print media and blogs.

Elley Hudson

The first difficulty I faced on my journey to becoming an entrepreneur occurred when I was 17. I had dreams of breaking into the real estate industry, but I was turned away for being too young. However, I was determined to prove myself, so I worked as a property management assistant for the next 2 years. My persistence paid off and I eventually landed a career as a real estate sales agent.

Unfortunately, that’s when I faced my next challenge, as I quickly discovered the position had a quick turnaround of relationships. As someone who loves to maintain close connections, I was left feeling dejected and depressed. This, and the ridiculous pressure caused by the GFC, led to me leaving my position. Instead, I returned to my roots and spearheaded the company’s property management division.

Soon after, a new difficulty arose with my superannuation. Long story short, I left the company, made my way to Townsville and became the co-owner of a local agency. However, their staff were poorly trained, and their owners were losing money. The worst part was that despite my position, I was helpless to change things. At this point, I started to believe the difficulties would get the best of me and I was ready to give up.

Thankfully, I remained strong and told myself that if I’m having an issue, I should do something about it. All I wanted was a job that allowed me to create great relationships and work in an environment with well-trained staff. I figured the best way to do that wasn’t to rely on finding the right agency but to become an entrepreneur and create it myself. After all, only you can make your dreams come true.

Ellie Pietsch

With a marriage imploding, an 18 month old in and out of daycare – leaving a ‘safe’ job halfway through a global pandemic, to join a team of business owners whose model involved face-to-face delivery seemed like a stupid decision on paper.

But deep down, I knew it was the right time for me to step out of the shadows and into my own light. Pivoting an entire delivery model dependent on building meaningful and trusting relationships into a virtual space virtually overnight seemed crazy, but with a deep commitment to our purpose – helping leaders and teams achieve high performance – and a conviction to live our trademark as colleagues – go the extra yard- , we achieved the unthinkable.

Our business grew 25% during the pandemic, recruiting new team members and building our expertise. And I became the person I always wanted to be. A people-focused, outcome driven business leader who helps leaders and teams improve their performance.

Connor Ondriska

Finding product-market fit was the largest challenge I had. Prior to launching SpanishVIP, I dabbled in some different business models that worked but did not easily scale with my skillset.

This journey, which is quite normal for most entrepreneurs, entailed significant testing and analysis to determine where to focus my energy.

It’s also incredibly important to be a great leader. If you want to do something truly innovative, you will need many smart people to build towards that goal. Understanding how to attract and work with a talented team was something that I struggled with. Studying leadership has and will continue to be of immense value.

Victor Fredung

AI and ML were relatively new concepts when I got into the industry ten years ago and here I am today, CEO of Shufti Pro, an award-winning AI-driven company that seeks innovation and has 5 international offices.

The way to becoming a CEO of a company is absolutely not easy. It may look like a piece of cake from the outside but when you really get into this game, you realize that there is no such thing as “time-limit,” you have to work day in and out to turn your passion into reality. The same happened to me.

Talking about the difficulties, I had my fair share of challenges along the way. The biggest challenge that came my way when I started out was to make my business flourish between the big giants that were already associated with the industry. To make your space in an already packed room is difficult of course, but I believed in resilience and trusted my team that soon we will be giving them competition, and boom, here we are. A company serving in 230+ countries and territories.

Another challenge that I encountered was my belief in the thinking that I can get everything done single-handedly. I was of the view that only a few teammates would suffice for my company. However, this is not the case. One cannot be the expert on everything and you do need a team of highly skilled people in every department to ensure higher levels of productivity. I am glad that I understood it on time and saved my company from becoming a victim of this thought.

In the end, I would like to say that it’s like to be living in a fool’s paradise if you think that you are headed on a journey of becoming a CEO and would not encounter any challenge. Or you have a smooth path looking your way. No, it does not happen in real life. Challenges are a part of every entrepreneur’s journey. CEO’s/entreprenuers must take these challenges as a stepping stone and motivate themselves to keep doing more and better

Paul Peros

I spent over 10 years in management consulting being part of GEA (a “pre-McKinseyan”) strategy boutique in Milano, mainly working on new product and brand development and engaging with global leaders in numerous consumer product categories.

This is where I realised that the majority of the business leaders and models are working in the same way, bringing the same old solution to a problem. I believe this was one of the biggest challenges I faced at the beginning as well – to develop critical thinking skills in order to bring a true and meaningful innovation, one that will address the real concerns of consumers.

Many years of experience has taught me that you need to be adaptive, resilient, always evolving, and going with your instinct, especially during the COVID-19 time. A true entrepreneur should have the courage to see things as they are, the vision to organise resources beyond the way things were done before, and solidarity to trust in one’s and our colleagues’ abilities to tackle challenges.

This critical thinking allowed me to be a true disrupter as a CEO in the beauty tech world. I have been pushing the industry and growing brands from start-ups to companies with more than $1Bilion annual revenue. I am now at the helm of RÉDUIT and our innovative thinking is pushing the high-tech beauty industry further to find the most advanced solutions to skincare needs.

We have merged the laws of physics with beauty to create the world’s only smart and customizable skincare innovation – BOOST. This device and its accompanying app, customize your favorite skincare products, ensuring your skin receives the actives it needs most and provides four times more absorption than fingers alone, to give five times better results.

We launched via Kickstarter and in less than one day secured more than $60,000 in pledges, which is a true testament to how innovative and desirable our solutions are.

Indiana Gregg

Indiana Gregg is the founder and CEO of WeDo, a new app that simplifies work for small business owners, gig workers and freelancers. In Indy’s app, users can connect, make and receive payment and network within their community. Indy created the app during the pandemic and the Great Recession.

You can learn more about the app by going to www.getwedo.today. Here’s what Indy has to say about some of the difficulties she faced on her journey to becoming an entrepreneur / CEO.

“Entrepreneurship isn’t ever easy. It takes grit and belief. When I first started out, probably the biggest challenge was being a woman in tech. It was very difficult. You’d be the only woman in the room talking about a build, and the guys would act like you should be out getting them some coffee. Even now, as the CEO of a fintech, I’m told that I won’t be needed on a tech call even if I’m the only technical person in the conference call.

The second most difficult thing was raising capital on those early rounds. Again, a lot of investors are still skeptical about investing in a female led tech company. Only 2% of VC investment goes to female led companies and even with an outstanding team, a track record of success and innovative scalable fintech, it can still be difficult.

So, from an emotional point of view, that can be very frustrating. I’ve learned that persistence wins over the years and that if you want to make it happen, you will find a way to get through those barriers. Another difficulty was being too early to market, learning that timing is everything and understanding that sometimes you have to keep working on something until the market is ready and the time is right and that the myth of ‘fail fast’ doesn’t always apply.

I think at the beginning, new founders and entrepreneurs are learning as they go, so over time with years of practice in building companies, you learn to be intuitive to the point where you know what your business needs next. This doesn’t always come naturally, so I had to go through a few failures before I had my “overnight success”.

Some people think there’s luck involved in it, I’m telling you, you make your own luck. Overall, I wouldn’t trade my failures for anything. Knowing that you put something out there and learned from your mistakes always leads you to your next success. In leadership, I’ve learned to gather the best people on the planet who align with the mission of the company. That wasn’t always the case with my first couple startups.

You live, you learn. I have a funnel of ideas and a quality filter now that I didn’t have when I started out, so I only create things that I believe will leave the world a better place and help millions of people.

Rafał Młodzki

It was a challenge to stay ahead of the crowd. My brothers and I decided to start a business during our studies. I broke away from the typical way of studying – corporate job – next career ladder. Several people discouraged me and told me it wouldn’t work.

They said we have no experience so that we won’t succeed. It caused me to doubt my ideas, and I was on the verge of resigning.

However, thanks to the support of my friends and family, I was able to survive that social pressure. The experience taught me resilience. Now I trust myself and stand by my decisions. I discuss critiques with people I trust and do not worry about others’ opinions.

Tomek Młodzki

My journey to becoming an entrepreneur required one big sacrifice. In my twenties, I was studying law. You can imagine that this is not a simple field of study and consumed most of my time. Simultaneously, I wanted to pursue my passion – my first online product, Fiszkoteka.

The idea was simple – my website offered customizable flashcards to learn English and other languages for free. Together with my brothers, I used flashcards to study when we were kids, so I transformed them into the online world!

Fiszkoteka was getting better and better, and I realized I would have to sacrifice something – a secure, respected job as a lawyer or what I really love doing. I don’t believe in the efficiency of partial engagement. You do or do not.

Fiszkoteka’s small successes and listening to the voice of my heart made me choose to abandon the law. At first, I felt guilty, but then I realized that it was the right decision with time.

Johannes Larsson

One of the biggest difficulties in my career was when I had to start over from scratch after months of working hard on my first business. I ran several websites that relied on ads to generate revenue, and it took half a year of hard work and not getting paid to finally make a consistent albeit modest amount of income.

I was happy that my work was finally starting to pay off, but things quickly derailed when my advertising account got banned for reasons I still don’t know. Not only did this prevent me from accessing my earnings; it also got my websites blacklisted.

Fortunately, the skills and experience I had already gained let me start over and work up to the same income in a relatively short time frame. I also decided to change my business model to something more stable to avoid the possibility of getting banned again.

The main thing that got me through this hurdle was the knowledge that I had already succeeded before. I knew that if I worked hard and used what I learned to my advantage, I could build something better that would last for the long term. Today, I’m happy to say that I was right.

Christiaan Huynen

Proactive management. Even before a problem arises, I acknowledge the threat and attend to it immediately. Prevention is certainly better than fixing a wide-scale damage in the future.

As a leader, I stay on top of the game through assessing possible difficulties that may be perilous to the business. For example, if a trend on tech is booming, I analyze its connection or relevance to my company. The visionary in me seizes that opportunity to either advance or protect my business from its effects.

Jake Smith

The biggest challenge I faced in establishing Absolute Reg was self-doubt amid uncertainty. As a new entrepreneur, I was anxious to make business decisions outside my comfort zone. However, to be a CEO, I need to conquer the fear of apprehension and teach myself when to take a risk.

Success requires a high level of critical thinking skills. Most often, this aspect is what most business-minded people fail to develop. The ability to decipher calculated risks from foolish ones makes an excellent CEO. Only those who possess such immense skill to discern situations worth risking make it to the optimum peak of their careers.

On my journey to becoming a CEO, I trained to be resourceful and mindful with all my decisions as I am my company’s brain. My command is powerful since I have the final say in every transaction we make. One wrong judgment about when to take risks can put my business at stake.

Lucky enough, I have persevered and treated every downfall as a lesson to progress. I have defeated my fear of the unknown and become the successful person I am today.

Nanditha Vijayaraghavan

The biggest challenge I’ve faced in my executive journey so far has been more internal than external.

I’ve had to frequently challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone, as often as I could, dipping my toes into roles that weren’t fully within my job description, and essentially working the role/position ahead of me.

David Bowen

The main difficulty I faced, is feeling like I had to do everything. There is a lot of competition out there, and often, it feels as though you have to be on top of every single opportunity in order to succeed. Especially because everything is so fast-paced nowadays, and people expect your business to cater to absolutely everything.

However, I learned that it’s best to prioritize and focus your efforts on a smaller niche, and to then build a strong management team to help you keep everything on track! That’s certainly how I ended up developing my own business, and not only did it make things easier, it built a more reliable target audience too.

Daniel Foley

The most difficult thing I found managing was maintaining a healthy work-life balance:

When I launched my business, I could not afford to take breaks. Running a business added to the burden of achieving a work-life balance. Unfortunately, all entrepreneurs are subjected to this strain.

This is because when you started working on your own business, you were only busy during office hours, but once you started working on your own business, there was no clock to regulate.

You are always working without regard for the time of day, and family time is lost, but in order to achieve something, you must make many sacrifices, and things are now in a better place.

James Dyble

Time is frequently one of the most difficult challenges I had to overcome when ascending the echelons. There is frequently the perception that there is not enough time to perform the necessary activities for growth, and this was often the case for me.

As a result, delegation was one of the most critical skills I developed early in my career. Delegation allows for more time to work on the most important tasks and allows for more to be accomplished in the short and long term.

Anthony Mixides

When I first started my business, I experienced a variety of problems. Different difficulties and possibilities need different answers as a firm expands, and what succeeded a year ago may no longer be the ideal approach.

All too frequently, avoidable errors convert what could be a fantastic company into a flop. If your organization is to keep expanding and thriving, you must recognize and overcome the usual problems connected with expansion.

Importantly, you must guarantee that the actions you do today do not cause new problems in the future. Effective leadership will assist you in making the most of the opportunities available to you, resulting in long-term progress.

I believe, confronts a variety of hazards, including insolvency, financial risk, competitive risk, environmental risk, reputational risk, and economic risk. So, in response to the query, I worked on team building to avoid such a danger because a team is the pillar of any company, and I understand that I am not the best to face any difficulty.

We needed experts in specific fields such as financial or demand planning, and I don’t believe an entrepreneur can do everything or be the best in every field, so I worked on team building as a strategy to avoid business difficulties.

Gilles Bertaux

When Livestorm was launched back in 2016, we had a few challenges to face: our brand awareness was non-existent, many large competitors were already present in the market and our SEO traffic was weak as we had just launched the website.

We built an early website targeting specific keywords and created a lot of content around our chosen topic. But when it came to prospects further down the buying process, we didn’t have any content to attract them to our website. In January 2018, we came up with the idea to create comparison pages on our website to address that problem.

Our objective was to present Livestorm as an alternative to our main competitors, in a tone that was as neutral as possible.

This project was a success: the comparison pages generated 6% of Livestorm’s organic traffic and they generated links from over 130 referring domains.

Also, we realized that there were quite a few people asking for advice on the Quora platform on how to organise webinars. I took the time to give very detailed answers, which brought credibility to my profile and made Livestorm known by providing answers to some people’s challenges or needs. In addition, these answers were upvoted and he had more visibility on the platform.

However, after a while, a lot of people started to adopt this technique/hack and it was not really useful anymore. Also, Quora is not used much anymore, but it was something that worked quite well in the beginning of Livestorm to give credibility/visibility, and it was a free technique.

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The post Various Entrepreneurs From Around The World Tell Stories Behind Their Success & Accomplishments first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jerome Knyszewski

The post How to Keep Your Business Safe & Secure in 2024 first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Gia Patterson

At Tekrati, we deliver engaging tech news stories and in-depth analysis to keep you on the cutting edge. We cover AI, computing, smartphones, cybersecurity and all tech innovations with curiosity and clarity. We believe technology empowers progress when guided by diverse perspectives. Visit Tekrati.com to explore the future of tech through our thoughtful articles, how-tos and interviews.

The post Safeguard Your Assets: Business Umbrella Insurance Guide first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Khezia

In recent years, the manufacturing industry has undergone a significant transformation with the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. AI has revolutionized manufacturing processes by improving efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing product quality. Through the use of advanced AI algorithms, manufacturers can optimize their operations, increase productivity, and streamline supply chains. AI improves manufacturing in many ways, making it a crucial part of the modern manufacturing landscape.

AI Solutions for Manufacturing

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is being increasingly integrated into manufacturing processes to streamline operations and improve efficiency. The following are some of the AI solutions that are being utilized to optimize manufacturing:

Predictive Maintenance

AI algorithms are being used to predict when equipment maintenance is required, reducing the risk of unexpected downtime. AI-enabled predictive maintenance can save costs for businesses by minimizing the need for manual inspections and increasing the lifespan of equipment and machinery.

Quality Control

AI is improving quality control by helping to identify defects and anomalies that are difficult for human operators to detect. Computer vision systems, for example, can inspect products with greater accuracy and speed, reducing the risk of product recalls and improving product quality.

Supply Chain Optimization

AI is being used to optimize the supply chain, from forecasting demand to managing inventory levels and improving logistics. This optimization can help reduce costs and improve product availability, ensuring that products are delivered to customers in a timely and efficient manner.

Inventory Management

AI can automate inventory management by tracking stock levels, predicting demand, and identifying slow-moving items. This information can help businesses optimize their inventory levels, reducing the risk of overstocking or stockouts and minimizing waste.

Incorporating these AI solutions into manufacturing processes can result in significant improvements in efficiency, productivity, and profitability.

AI Advancements in Manufacturing

Recent advancements in AI technology are revolutionizing the way manufacturing processes are optimized, leading to significant benefits for businesses. The use of AI in manufacturing has resulted in cost reduction, increased productivity, improved product quality, and enhanced safety, among others.

One of the major advancements in AI technology for manufacturing is the ability to analyze large datasets to identify patterns and optimize production schedules. By utilizing AI algorithms, businesses can create more accurate demand forecasts, minimize inventory costs, and reduce waste.

Another significant advancement in AI technology is its ability to automate various tasks in the manufacturing industry. With AI-powered robots and machines, businesses can streamline operations, reduce the risk of injuries, and improve overall efficiency. Furthermore, AI-driven automation frees up human workers to focus on more complex and creative tasks, leading to higher job satisfaction and better output.

AI is also driving manufacturing processes towards a smarter and more sustainable future. Businesses can optimize energy consumption and reduce waste by using AI to monitor and analyze production processes in real-time. Additionally, AI can enable proactive maintenance, identifying equipment issues before they turn into costly breakdowns.

As AI continues to evolve, the potential for its application in manufacturing is limitless. With the continued growth of machine learning and computer vision, AI holds the promise of more energy-efficient manufacturing processes, real-time quality control, and personalized mass-production.

Businesses that embrace AI technology can gain a competitive edge in the market, paving the way for improved efficiency and profitability.

AI Optimization for Manufacturing

AI technology is changing the way manufacturing companies operate, utilizing data analytics to optimize production processes and reduce costs. One of the ways AI is optimizing manufacturing is through its ability to analyze large datasets and identify patterns.

With AI algorithms, manufacturers can better predict which products will be in demand and adjust production schedules accordingly. They can also optimize inventory management and supply chain operations, reducing waste and streamlining processes.

Overall, AI optimization is helping manufacturers save time and money while improving the quality of their products. As AI technology continues to advance, manufacturers will undoubtedly find even more innovative ways to apply it to their operations.

AI Automation in Manufacturing

AI-powered robots and machines are increasingly being used in the manufacturing industry to automate various tasks. This has led to improved efficiency and reduced costs, as well as increased safety for workers.

One of the key benefits of AI automation in manufacturing is the ability to perform repetitive tasks with high precision. This can greatly reduce the risk of errors and defects in production. Additionally, AI-powered robots can perform tasks that are too dangerous or difficult for human workers, such as working with hazardous materials or in extreme temperatures.

AI automation is also helping to reduce the workload of human workers in the manufacturing industry. This can free up time for workers to focus on more complex tasks that require human expertise, such as quality control and problem-solving.

However, the implementation of AI automation in manufacturing also raises concerns about job displacement. As machines become increasingly capable of performing tasks previously done by humans, it’s possible that some jobs may become obsolete. It’s important for businesses to consider the impact of AI automation on their workforce and take steps to reskill and train workers for new roles.

AI-Driven Manufacturing Processes

AI is driving the manufacturing industry towards a smarter and more sustainable future. Manufacturing processes that are optimized with AI can lead to significant improvements in energy consumption, waste reduction, and proactive maintenance. This not only helps businesses reduce their environmental impact, but also leads to long-term cost savings.

AI-powered optimization allows manufacturers to fine-tune their energy consumption by taking advantage of off-peak rates, adjusting their consumption based on production forecasts and reducing their overall usage. This kind of energy consumption optimization can lead to significant HVAC energy savings, lighting control optimization and more. Such AI strategies are increasingly being employed by environmentally conscious manufacturers.

AI can also be used to reduce waste in manufacturing processes by identifying areas of excess usage or by helping businesses analyze and fine-tune their supply chain to reduce unnecessary waste. This not only has environmental benefits but also contributes directly to a company’s bottom line through reduced costs.

Another way AI is driving manufacturing processes is through proactive maintenance. With AI analytics, manufacturers can monitor equipment and assets in real-time, detecting faults and scheduling maintenance before issues occur. This not only reduces downtime but also ensures safety and helps prevent accidents in the workplace.

Overcoming Challenges in Implementing AI in Manufacturing

Integrating AI technology into manufacturing processes comes with various challenges that need to be considered for successful adoption. Below are some of the most significant challenges:

Cost

As with any new technology, implementing AI in manufacturing can come with a hefty upfront cost. Depending on the size of the business and the complexity of the AI solution, the investment required for AI integration could be substantial. However, it is important to note that AI can also lead to significant cost savings in the long run.

Integration with existing systems

A major challenge in implementing AI in manufacturing is integrating it with existing systems. Since most manufacturing plants already have a range of legacy systems in place, finding a way to seamlessly integrate AI with these systems can be a complex process. This requires careful planning and coordination to ensure that AI works smoothly with existing systems.

Workforce training

Introducing AI into a manufacturing plant means that workers will need to be trained to operate and maintain the new technology. This requires investing time and resources in training programs to ensure that workers are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to work alongside AI-powered machines.

Data security

Integrating AI into manufacturing processes can lead to increased data collection and analysis. This can raise concerns about data privacy and security. Businesses need to ensure that they have the necessary security measures in place to protect sensitive data from cyber threats.

Despite these challenges, businesses that successfully integrate AI into manufacturing can achieve significant improvements in production efficiency and competitiveness. Overcoming these challenges requires careful planning, a strategic approach, and a willingness to invest in the future.

Future of AI in Manufacturing

The future of AI in manufacturing looks promising, with emerging and evolving technologies poised to transform the industry. Machine learning, for example, can analyze vast amounts of data to improve predictive maintenance and optimize production processes. Computer vision, on the other hand, can enable machines to identify and classify objects, improving quality control and safety.

The role of human workers in this AI-driven landscape is also a topic of discussion. While AI can automate various tasks, humans will still play a crucial role in overseeing and managing these processes. The need for upskilling and reskilling workers will be paramount to ensure they can work effectively alongside AI-powered machines and algorithms.

Challenges and Concerns

Of course, there are challenges and concerns that need to be addressed as AI continues to transform the manufacturing industry. One major concern is cybersecurity, as increased automation and data sharing can lead to vulnerabilities in the system. Additionally, the cost of implementing AI technology and integrating it with existing systems can be a barrier for some businesses.

Another concern is the potential displacement of workers and the impact on the workforce. While AI can improve efficiency and reduce costs, it can also lead to job loss in certain areas. Ensuring a just transition for workers and investing in training programs is essential in mitigating these effects.

Opportunities and Advancements

Despite these challenges, the opportunities and advancements in AI technology are too significant to ignore. From reducing waste and improving sustainability to increasing productivity and enhancing product quality, the benefits of AI in manufacturing are numerous.

As the technology continues to advance, it will be interesting to see how AI is further integrated into manufacturing processes and how businesses adapt to this changing landscape.

Case Studies: AI Success Stories in Manufacturing

AI technology has significantly transformed the manufacturing industry, and many companies have already experienced the benefits firsthand. Let’s take a look at some success stories:

These case studies demonstrate how AI can improve production efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance product quality in manufacturing. They also highlight the diverse range of AI solutions that are being implemented in the industry, from predictive maintenance to supply chain optimization.

Ethical Considerations: AI Improves Manufacturing

As AI becomes increasingly prevalent in the manufacturing industry, there are several ethical considerations that need to be addressed to ensure responsible and ethical use of this technology.

One major concern is data privacy. As AI algorithms rely heavily on data, companies need to be transparent about what data they are collecting and how it is being used. It is crucial to ensure that sensitive information, such as employee data, is not being misused or mishandled.

Another consideration is the potential for job displacement. While AI can improve efficiency and productivity, it can also render certain jobs obsolete. It is important for companies to provide training and support for employees who may be affected by AI implementation.

Bias in AI algorithms is another issue that needs to be addressed. AI algorithms can perpetuate existing biases in data and result in discriminatory outcomes. Companies need to ensure that their AI systems are designed to be fair and unbiased, and that they are regularly audited to detect and correct any biases.

Finally, it is essential to consider the broader societal implications of AI in manufacturing. As AI becomes more sophisticated, it is possible that it may lead to a concentration of power in the hands of a few large companies. It is important to promote diversity and competition in the development and application of AI to avoid this scenario.

Conclusion: Harnessing the Power of AI in Manufacturing

As we have seen, AI technology is transforming the manufacturing industry, providing businesses with unprecedented opportunities to improve their production efficiency, quality, and sustainability. Through predictive maintenance, inventory management, and supply chain optimization, AI is streamlining processes and reducing costs.

The recent advancements in AI technology are making it possible for businesses to optimize their manufacturing processes even further. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data, identify patterns, and make accurate predictions about demand and production schedules. This enables businesses to make informed decisions, reduce waste, and improve overall efficiency.

Ethical Considerations in AI-Driven Manufacturing

However, it is important to note that the adoption of AI technology in manufacturing also raises ethical considerations. Data privacy, job displacement, and bias in AI algorithms are just some of the issues that need to be addressed to ensure the responsible and ethical use of AI technology.

In conclusion, the transformative power of AI in manufacturing cannot be denied. As businesses seek to remain competitive in an increasingly globalized market, the adoption of AI technology may be the key to unlocking greater efficiency, cost reductions, and sustainability. By embracing AI technology and addressing the ethical considerations that come with it, businesses can achieve greater success both now and in the future.

Key takeaways on how AI is improving manufacturing:

• AI is revolutionizing manufacturing processes by optimizing operations, increasing productivity, and streamlining supply chains. Solutions like predictive maintenance, quality control, inventory management are being used.
• Recent advancements allow AI to analyze large datasets to identify patterns and optimize production schedules. This leads to more accurate demand forecasts, reduced costs, and less waste.
• Implementing AI automation enables tasks like assembly, packaging, and inspection to be performed with high precision and consistency by robots. This reduces errors and frees up humans for more complex work.
• AI is driving manufacturing towards smarter, more sustainable processes by optimizing energy use, reducing waste, and enabling proactive maintenance through real-time monitoring.
• Key challenges in implementing AI include upfront costs, integrating with legacy systems, training workers, and ensuring data security. However, the long-term benefits outweigh the challenges.
• The future looks promising as emerging technologies like machine learning and computer vision are poised to further transform manufacturing. But concerns around cybersecurity, job displacement, and bias need addressing.
• Case studies show AI improving efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing quality in manufacturing across companies like Ford, Siemens, and Intel.
• Ethical use of AI in manufacturing needs considering issues like privacy, job displacement, algorithmic bias, and concentration of power.

At Tekrati, we deliver engaging tech news stories and in-depth analysis to keep you on the cutting edge. We cover AI, computing, smartphones, cybersecurity and all tech innovations with curiosity and clarity. We believe technology empowers progress when guided by diverse perspectives. Visit Tekrati.com to explore the future of tech through our thoughtful articles, how-tos and interviews.

The post AI Improves Manufacturing: Revolutionizing Production Efficiency first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Khezia

The post The History of London’s Soho Area (& Why It’s an Ideal Business Base Today) first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Gia Patterson

We interviewed 20 company entrepreneurs in the United States about the greatest unexpected challenges they faced with their Companies and how the pandemic prompted many companies to pivot and adapt to new market conditions.

INTERVIEW HOST

The host of this interview was Jed Morley. Jed Morley is the CEO of a leading payment processing service provider called PlatPay.

Table of Contents

The question we asked:

The pandemic encouraged many businesses to pivot and adapt to changing market conditions. How did you adapt? Did you introduce additional product lines or services?

Mike Nemeroff

After three very tough years of my siblings and I putting all our time, efforts and money into Rush Order Tees, we were bringing in about $30k a month. We were doing everything ourselves: the marketing, printing, designing, selling, accounting and even shipping.

So the biggest challenge came when after all that hard work, at the end of the year we were either losing money or barely breaking even, even though we were saving every bit of cost we could possibly think of by doing things ourselves. This was when I reached burn out.

My tip for entrepreneurs starting the business is to factor in all the costs, including hiring employees as this is no sustainable. It is emotionally, mentally and physically draining and a business should not depend solely on it’s owners.

When creating a business plan and setting a budget, factor in every possible cost to determine what your expenses really are and ensure that you do not burn out before making by trying to take on too much. It was only when we doubled up on the marketing that we starting seeing really change and managed to slowly and gradually hire new people and work towards becoming a $90 million company.

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David Ruggeri

There are millions of good ideas out there. One issue I have is that I almost have too many ideas. Seemingly daily I say to myself, “oh, that would be a great business…” It is a challenge to keep all these ideas under control. Everyone has a different way of sorting through ideas, but what I do is keep a notebook.

When I get an idea, I write it down. Then I revisit my ideas and go through them. Some ideas, after letting them sit for a while, seem ridiculous, while there are a few that have stayed very strong. I do this for both future artwork ideas, as well as for future business ideas. There are 2-3 business ideas that still get me excited when I re-read them. This excitement tells me that not only they are strong ideas, but ones that I would enjoy the challenge of starting.

For me, writing things down and working through them can really help develop an idea. Additionally, this process can often lead to other ideas. It is impossible to think of every possible variable that goes into creating a business, but by putting effort in the early stages of a business idea can help someone see the scope of what is involved. This should also create a tremendous amount of excitement, and I think that being excited about a business will increase the probability of success.

As important as being excited about a new business is, there is something far more important: research. Once you have your business idea, the research component begins. Starting a business is inherently risky, but these risks can be reduced (never eliminated) by doing quality research. This research will be what guides your decisions, and to succeed you need to make the best decisions you can. The data you collect and knowledge you gain are the foundation of your business.

You need to be knowledgeable on not only what is going on in your industry, but other industries as well. We live in an environment where everything affects everything else. Many variables are out of your control, but you need to be knowledgeable about them for when they change you have a plan ready to react to this change and minimize the impact on your business or optimize the change to grow your business.

No one should start a business without a thorough business plan, SWOT analysis, market analysis, financial analysis, to name just a few. This may seem like a lot of work, and that is because it is. However, these are vital tools that will reduce the risks that every business will face.

Lori Cheek

I’m an architect by training that one day had a light bulb moment. This moment led me to leave my safe and secure $120,000 per year job and career to build an online dating business I called Cheekd. When I launched in May of 2010, I “did it right” by putting the trademarks, technology, and patents in place to ensure I was protected. I also had partners and strategists, not to mention my own grit and passion as a foundation.

One of the greatest opportunities of my life came when I had the chance to pitch my startup Cheekd on an episode of Shark Tank. But that day has also put me in the cross hairs of someone who watched a re-airing of that episode in July 2015.

Two years later, that same individual named me in a $1 million lawsuit that claimed he “invented” the idea behind my company, while also accusing his former therapist in the same lawsuit of sharing his alleged invention with me. The catch is that the therapist and I have never met and had never spoken and did not know of each other until this lawsuit.

And despite this fact – and despite my having conceived of and commenced building the business before he even began treatment with the above referenced therapist – it took over 10 months and $50,000 to get the case in front of a judge who dismissed the lawsuit in a pre-trial conference on April 5, 2018.

Back? Well here’s where it gets crazier. Because without reproach, the same individual whose case had already been thrown out less than one year ago, has now tendered a second lawsuit against me containing the same allegations! Such is the Kafka-esque world that I’ve found myself thrust into.

So like a terrible movie that keeps generating sequels no one ever asked for, he came back. This time, the stakes skyrocketed into a brand new $5 million lawsuit against myself, my business and the therapist. The suit also requested inventor’s rights to my patent! Further, he asked not only for a “cease and desist” order for Cheekd, but also for our startup business spinoff Networkd, a Bluetooth networking app.

Fortunately, the judge dismissed the $5 million claims, but I was still forced to fight the inventor rights issue. I found myself again fighting to protect all that I have created over the past 12 years by spending over $114,000 that I do not have in order to save what is mine.

After nearly 2 years and 7 months defending my idea, my business and my patent in 2 back to back lawsuits, on December 23rd, 2019, Honorable Judge Englemayer directed the Federal Court of NY to enter judgement for the defendants (ME!) and to “close this case” as “no reasonable juror could find that he is entitled to be listed as a joint inventor.” 

After a series of procedurally complex twist and turns that resulted in an agreement by plaintiff to not oppose defendants’ motion for summary judgment, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer (S.D.N.Y.) granted defendants Lori Cheek (me) and Cheek’d Inc.’s motion for attorney fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285 and ruled that plaintiff’s counsel should pay. On May 26, 2020, defendants submitted their fee application seeking $17,000 for fees and the judge granted us these fees but the plaintiff’s counsel has appealed the judge’s decision so ultimately, this could take another year and cost another $17K to fight off the $17K this lawyer’s meant to pay back.

The story gets a little crazier because the plaintiff sued me a 3rd time for going to the press while trying to bring light to what was happening to me in hopes of trying to get my story in front of someone/ anyone that could help financially or legally… he sued me a 3rd time for defamation and all sorts of other claims in a $10Million lawsuit. 

His current lawyer dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice which means the plaintiff can try again. I’ve done everything in my power to keep my business afloat over the last decade but I just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel fighting this battle with a complete and total stranger that I still have no idea what looks like to this day.

Last spring, this lawsuit came to an end— after almost four years. The lawyer had to pay me a small portion of my legal fees for ‘vexatious conduct’ in the end. I’m still out over $100K in the end but it’s over and I can begin to rebuild now…

There’s my story. And what could help??? Our US legal system is not protecting businesses from frivolous lawsuits. From my conversations and investigations, it is clear that these types of frivolous lawsuits are epidemic and even the best PR support, strategic advisors and board of directors cannot help overcome. 

And while an employee of a company is protected, someone who boldly follows their own vision and chases their own dreams is virtually unprotected from the absurdity of lawsuits claiming that your idea is not actually yours.

As far as my current app (a Bluetooth app) that is meant to help singles connect in real space and time– within a 30 foot radius in bars, cafes, at the gym, etc… Now during this time of social distancing, the beauty of our app has become obsolete… hence the need to evolve.

A New Yorker of 25 years, I recently relocated (due to the above financial reasons) to my home state of Kentucky and am working on a new app idea inspired by my own struggles trying to network and meet new people in a new city during an extremely unsocial time of purposefully distancing. 

My solution will allow users to have a more organic, yet virtual way, of making connections for anything from business, networking, dating, fitness, friendship, hobbies or anything with anyone all over the world!

It’s a big brand new start for me in so many ways… and my dream plan for 2022 is to launch my new dream inspired by this dreadful pandemic.

My favorite quote that keeps me fueled every day of my entrepreneurial journey::: “You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth

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Charmaine Allen

BLOCKING OUT THE NAYSAYERS
When you first start a business you are ridiculously overenthusiastic. However, as you progress and you are constantly bombarded with problems or setbacks the doubt begins to creep in.

At the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey, you can find yourself going weeks and sometimes months without clients or sales. When you have this situation exacerbated by the naysayers it’s normal for doubt to start to set in. My advice to entrepreneurs in this situation is to find yourself a seasoned entrepreneur as a mentor who can help you navigate the various stages in your entrepreneurial journey.

Jake Hare

The greatest challenge was not realizing how important sales and marketing was when I first started out. I had the belief that if I just built a good product or offer that people would find it and flock to it, and I could sit back and relax. That thinking caused 2 years of frustration, thinking to myself, “We have a great product and offer, and all our customers love it, so why isn’t our balance sheet reflecting that?”. Once I realized how important marketing and sales were, and that without being an expert in those things, I dedicated 100% of my time to learning how to be a scrappy marketer, specifically related to copywriting and traffic generation. Once I did that, the business grew exponentially, and we went from me working in a room above my garage to a team of 12 and growing. The advice I give entrepreneurs now is that if they want to start a company, they better learn how to generate traffic and get conversions before they spin their wheels focusing on their product.

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Andrea Sok

So many new entrepreneurs that I work come to me after diving into marketing their business without a strategy in place. They may have a decent budget, but they don’t see the results because there is no plan! Spend time mapping out your strategy.

What are your goals? Who is your customer? What is your budget? If you start with those three basic questions you can begin to map out a strategy. Also, seek help! A Fractional CMO is a great way to get the executive level strategy and implementation without busting your budget.

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Julia O’Mara

One unexpected challenge that I’ve faced while starting Pickle is determining the ideal target audience and most effective marketing messaging. It is very easy to fall for the “if you build it they will come” fallacy, but at the end of the day an inferior product can win market share through superior marketing.

I’ve learned an incredible amount in this space and am continuing to learn what the best strategies are to present Pickle. My recommendation to new entrepreneurs would be to make sure they are focusing on the marketing aspects just as heavily as the product portions of building the business and to make sure they have a marketing strategy in place prior to launch and are ready to adapt as they measure its success.

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Deb Porter

Honestly, had I known I might not have started at all—so maybe it was for the best that I didn’t know…nevertheless.

I very naively believed that all it would take to be successful was an announcement to friends asking them to share and we would have clients. I did NOT know that it can take 23 touches before someone decides to buy a product or service. I have since learned this is a very common mistake of new business owners.

This led me to scramble to find mentors, and it required grit to continue believing HOLD’s service is valuable and needed in the world. One mentor, Rod Jorgensen, a connection through the SBCA, suggested that my business is unique—that is both the greatest weakness AND the strength.

I heard him, and I have been using that leverage to write articles and speak on Podcasts. I allow people’s natural curiosity to propel both my story and the goal of HOLD, to “Mr. Rogers” the world. Another mentor, Renee Taylor Plain, who volunteers her time at the Adams Hub for Innovation, has been given me invaluable counsel teaching me the basics of marketing–I do the work, but she helps me see what’s next.

I have gone from knowing nothing about marketing, (because really–you can’t count the grade school assignment to make an ad) to confidently identifying and sorting evergreen content, and using a customer avatar to adequately target my ads. I even understand what “brand” means thanks to her. As soon as you stumble on something you don’t know, find a resource or a person to guide you.

I have also kept an open mind, and pursued any and all ideas that came to me, quickly choosing the best way to implement them so that I didn’t get bogged down in my perfectionism or fear. Further, I have a mental image of pouring concrete into the whack-a-mole game to stop negative thoughts. I have learned to ask myself the question, “What is going right?” multiple times a day, and let the positive reframe of that propel me forward.

I have so much joy because I jumped into the unknown and took the risk to bring what I saw in my imagination to life. I hope you do too!

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Art Shaikh

The biggest challenge that I didn’t expect when I started CircleIt was the amount of investors that wanted to own part of the company. There are plenty of startup incubators out there that promise the world to new founders, but they don’t tell you that they want to take 10, 20, or 30% of the company in return. I worked two jobs and created my own seed money to avoid this problem, because eventually, the company wouldn’t have been mine. I think that’s the best advice I can give any new entrepreneurs

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John Gardner

The biggest challenge is not finding leads, it’s converting them into paying customers and keeping them on. The problem with the fitness industry is not providing a great product or service, the biggest challenge is convincing your potential users, even though they already know how important fitness is for your health, to actually start heir fitness journey.

Tapping into a users brain and trying to change their habits while they already know what’s best for them and still come up with excuses of why not to exercise isnt an easy task. It takes a lot of pcychk analysis, studying human behavior and finding a mix of health benefits with other benefits that will resonate better with the consumer is a challenge.

We’ve come to realize that user-geenrated content is highly appreciated by potential consumers as it comes from someone who was in their exact position, understanding their struggles, fears and insecurities showing incredible results just by finally taking a step. User generated content has the ability to persuade consumers, trust in the service/product being provided and boost sales like no other.

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Nandini Sharma

Entrepreneurs face a range of challenges at one time or the other. Things are tough when starting a business, but even when you have a well-established business, you can run into some unexpected obstacles.

As an entrepreneur, there are some challenges you are mentally prepared to face (shortage of resources, potential losses, failing to hot set sales goals, red-tapism, etc,), and then there are those issues that spring out of nowhere when you least expect them to.

These unexpected challenges make you think out of the box because you had not anticipated them in the first place.

For me, the biggest unexpected challenges came in the form of attracting the right talent, building a results-driven team of individuals, and then retaining your top performers.

Organizations across various industries make every effort in the book to hire the best people. It’s not easy to hire the right people when they are offered attractive incentives by other recruiters. And what makes the task even more challenging is that more people prefer to work for companies that offer them the flexibility of remote work.

I have personally conducted interviews with many candidates and found that they have as many questions as you have as an employer! You have to make them understand how they’ll benefit and grow by joining your organization not just professionally but personally too.

Once you have a dedicated bunch of people working for you, keeping them together is another great challenge that you have to tackle. When people with varied personalities, working styles, and cultural backgrounds work together, there are high chances of conflicting opinions and misunderstandings.

If you don’t control minor issues early on, these can quickly turn into major conflicts. So, I make sure that we regularly organize team-building activities, like team outings, games, and fun events. Such events help team members know each other well and understand others’ way of working.

Now, moving on to employee retention. Again, retaining your top performers is an uphill task as your competitors try to lure them with seemingly lucrative job offers. When your best performers leave, it does impact your business’ productivity and it can take some time to find the right replacement.

I regularly hold one-on-one conversations with the most talented lot of my organization to understand if they are facing any bothersome issues at work. This gives me an opportunity to find the cracks early on. I listen to their problems and if something needs to be fixed from the organization’s end (unrealistic deadlines, excessive work pressure, bad employee behavior), we resolve it soon.

This approach also helps our employees feel that their opinions, problems, and ideas are listened to carefully and acted upon, if required.

I hired the right people who worked tirelessly as a cohesive team to nurture a dwindling startup and turn it into a flourishing business. So, I try my level best to retain our best performers and I can brag that I have succeeded in it!

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Greg Friedlander

One of the biggest unexpected challenges in business is, ironically, one that a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs create for themselves. They know they want to be a CEO, and they start there, identifying an industry that aligns with their expertise or passions, and launching a business.

Few, however, plan in advance for (rapid) growth. Not considering this possibility can lead to structural issues in the foundation of your business that will haunt you for years to come and hold you back in times that demand innovation.

The best way to avoid this problem is to plan ahead for all growth possibilities — slow, moderate, and rapid. When I first founded my business, I definitely didn’t fit the mold of a typical CEO — owning a business was never my plan. I have always been a very competitive person, and I saw a way to disrupt the talent booking industry.

By first focusing on people (our team and our clients) and then leveraging the power of technology (via the internet initially, then by building our own proprietary software that we use every day) we’ve been able to grow faster than many other companies in our market.

Two years into a pandemic that hit the event industry particularly hard, and amidst abysmal hiring and retention statistics, our company is breaking records, minimizing turnover and continuing to grow our team. All of these metrics speak to the power of building a scalable foundation based on disruptive ideas.

Chris Gadek

We were struggling to grow our business past a certain point. We found that we had plateaued and needed an extra boost to build greater brand awareness, so we turned to digital marketing. However, digital marketing can be a fickle friend as it’s challenging to find consistency in the results.

Some months we’ll perform really well and others we won’t. While digital marketing is now a critical part of our overall marketing strategy, we primarily focus on SEO. And working with a digital marketing agency helps increase the number of backlinks to our website. Whether through articles, guest posts, or digital PR, strategic link building creates a network of websites connected to your home, blog, and inner pages.

Having lots of other sites linking to yours builds awareness and authority for your brand, which boosts consumer trust in your business. Backlinks also drive more visitors to your website, leading to greater conversions. While digital marketing agency fees can be pricey, the return on investment is worth it.

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Henry Bell

Though it’s hard to imagine, founders of a startup, the very individuals who worked tirelessly to turn their vision into a company may be adding to its difficulties. Despite their best efforts, the company’s founders will not be able to do everything on their own.

And even if they could, it’s not something that should be allowed to go place. It’s more than simply a matter of time, it’s a matter of expertise. Good leaders are aware of the limits of their own knowledge and abilities.

A great developer, for example, does not always mean a terrific salesperson, or even a great financial manager or an expert in human resources management. Avoid assuming you can do it all on your own as a startup entrepreneur. Distribute the effort and the responsibility for big choices rather than keeping them entirely to oneself. Fill up your knowledge gaps by hiring other CEOs and listening to what they’ve got to tell.

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Gerrid Smith

The absence of guidance

In order to take your product to the next level, it may be that you lack the appropriate advice, market experience, and/or expertise to do so. In order to cross such obstacles, you’ll need a mentor, someone who has the experience and confidence to guide you.

One of the most helpful things you can have when making big decisions is someone to bounce ideas off of who has been there and done that. As a result, not all students will have mentors. Find inspiration from inspiring entrepreneurs you respect via books, articles, or podcasts if you don’t have the opportunity to meet them face-to-face. Focus on expanding your professional network while you’re at it.

It’ll come in handy later on. As soon as you reach the top, use your own hard-earned expertise to help others in need. We’d love to hear about your startup experience now that we’ve disclosed some of our biggest hurdles. Is there anything in particular that you’ve had to overcome as a new company? What were your methods for dealing with them? Please let us know in the comments section.

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Laura Schaack

One of the greatest challenges in starting Tattd was hiring and managing my first employees. I’d managed teams before but it’s so different when you’re hiring the first or second employee that’s having to help you build from the ground up.

It’s such a delicate balance to find someone that not only has a great skill set but also has the commitment and endurance to push through the rockiest of times. When you’re hiring, absolutely prioritize that quality over anything else that an employee brings to the table, otherwise you’ll have to be dealing with turnover during the most important, high-stakes time of your company’s growth.

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Mark Daoust

The biggest unexpected challenge we have faced is tackling our administration needs. Our business is fully remote with employees all over the world, and bookkeeping, keeping track of costs, purchases and sales are necessary and unexpectedly time-consuming.

Adequate bookkeeping is vital to keep the cash flowing. We now have a payroll service that helps take care of our needs, and we have been on top of adopting new technology, which helps us focus on time with our clients rather than administrative tasks.

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Gregg Cantor

We are a design – build construction and remodeling firm in San Diego California. Our projects have always been contracted at a fixed cost with our customers who are homeowners.

The greatest unexpected change we faced in our business is the supply chain issue that caused shortages, major shipping delays and huge price increases. At the same time, the municipalities who issue building permits become backlogged causing the process twice as long.

We had to pivot quickly by securing labor and materials much earlier, even before we have permits, to minimize the additional cost to our customers. This type of business challenge is impossible to anticipate. As a new entrepreneur, I recommend having regular communication with your customers and being transparent. It makes all the difference in the world!

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Vimal Patel

The greatest challenge we faced was with the lender – post covid with a CMBS loan, you are still obligated to pay a monthly mortgage and there is no person like a local bank manager that you can talk to, and explain your situation – so we defaulted and we came in real danger of losing our asset, our hotel. In this kind of scenario the owners have to ensure they have enough line of credit or loan available – whether there is a natural disaster or covid, you have to be able to self sustain and meet your obligations – so either don’t do it – don’t go with a CMBS loan or make sure that you have enough reserves at your disposal.

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Admir Salcinovic

Due to the pandemic, there’s been a shift in focus to essential products. Over the last couple of years, a lot more people discovered how well they enjoyed staying at home while executing DIY home improvement projects which skyrocketed across world.

This shift in focus led to increasing prices of products. More people are now cooking in their homes, spending less on luxury, and spending vacations around their community. The question is “What if you don’t sell essential products? “. It is important for your sales team to identify ways to approach customers and convince them of the necessity of the products you offer. Creating Buyer Personas and understanding their psychology takes priority today, more than ever.

A lot of customers express increased comfort with technology today, compared to the pre-pandemic period. As remote work policies are implemented across numerous industries and workplaces, a lot of people work from home using technological devices like laptops and desktop systems.

They’re savvier about the significant number of identity theft attempts and expect your brand to make security and compliance a priority, protecting their precious information. Embrace new technologies as they arrive and invest in the ones most likely to benefit your users. Look for ways to make the sales funnel run more efficiently for your users.

Employee churn is always a problem for companies. You spend money, time, and effort recruiting and training the best staff you can find. You pour resources into making sure they have the latest skills in your industry. Unfortunately, they often choose to leave for better prospects.

You may not be able to compete with the salaries of the large corporations, but you can offer perks they can’t, such as a family-like company culture, remote work options, and causes they can get behind. Talk to your workers about the things they’d like to see implemented and start the programs you’re able to offer. The more your staff loves their jobs, the more likely they are to stay and not bounce to a competitor.

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The post 20 USA Business Experts Talk About The Unexpected Challenges In Business World first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jed Morley

The Covid-19 outbreak wreaked havoc on the commercial sector, forcing several enterprises to close or file for bankruptcy. Thankfully, some people made it out alive and even stronger. Many business owners quickly adapted to the pandemic situation by converting to a digital office. Some pivot only to improve the corporate culture and flexible working paradigm, while others offer any new product line.

In this series of interviews, we spoke with 20 business owners and leaders in the United States to see how the epidemic prompted them to pivot and adapt to new market conditions.

INTERVIEW HOST

The host of this interview was Jed Morley. Jed Morley is the CEO of a leading payment processing service provider called PlatPay.

Table of Contents

The question we asked:

The pandemic encouraged many businesses to pivot and adapt to changing market conditions. How did you adapt? Did you introduce additional product lines or services?

Paul Moody

We amplified our content strategy to educate customers about the nuances and different aspects of moving. This included helpful tips, analysis, and informative guides. It’s fair to say that we pivoted in this direction to serve our audience better. We had to adapt because the last two years have been pretty tough for us.

 

As a company that reviews moving companies across the country, we noticed reduced traction because people were less interested in moving. In response to this, we decided to create better content in a bid to keep the audience engaged and fill them with a sense that we care for their needs.

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Logan Mallory

The biggest challenge we faced was ensuring that we retained employees during times of change and uncertainty.

The way that we did this was by doubling down on the employee experience and employee engagement. With the Great Resignation looming, ensuring employees are happy and engaged is the secret to helping a business thrive by keeping turnover rates low and morale high.

A company’s performance overall can be tied back to one factor – and that’s employee engagement, for better or for worse. Increased employee engagement leads to happier employees, which in turn leads to a better customer experience, which means that we have happier customers as well, and happy customers remain loyal and become long-term clients.

Mark Pierce

The biggest challenge we faced was constantly evolving market conditions. We pivoted to adapt to the changing market conditions by re-focusing our efforts on services geared towards entrepreneurs.

We’ve seen an increase in entrepreneurship driven by the Great Resignation, so we’re more actively promoting our business formation services, and added a more robust offering geared towards entrepreneurs.

Tom Schaefer

I would say the greatest unexpected challenge is exactly that: dealing with the unexpected. In business, you can very easily fall into a mode of doing business as usual, where you expect the jobs and orders to come in just as they always have.

You get comfortable to the point that you can’t imagine the work not being there. It seems like a safe assumption until something like COVID comes along to disrupt that. The warning to new entrepreneurs would be to avoid being one-dimensional. Be able to work in multiple business sectors and keep a good variety of companies or products that you do business with.

If a certain area or sector has a lull or even completely disappears, have a contingency plan where you can swing your efforts into other areas.

Thomas Samuels

As a full-service trade show and exhibition company, we provide exhibit rentals and management services to a large number of clients all over the country. When the pandemic began, we had to quickly adapt to protect our clients, their customers, and their livelihoods by offering high-quality personal protective equipment (PPE) for our display booths and demo stations.

With venues having to adjust their events and safety precautions—sometimes without much notice—it was also important for us to ensure fast turnaround times for these new products in small and large quantities alike. We began to offer protective additions such as sanitizing stations, sneeze guards, and clear barriers, all of which help to keep our clients (and their employees) safe. Additionally, we began to print custom face masks and floor decals, incorporating our clients’ logos and branding into their public health protocols.

To account for the uptick in open air trade shows, we began to offer new outdoor curbside signs and flags, hanging banners, and weather-resistant tents, ensuring that our clients’ outdoor exhibits are just as impressive as their indoor booths. These new signs, displays, and safety products encourage social distance and physical separation, keeping customers protected and ensuring that trade shows can continue safely.

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Brian Nagele

One of the most challenging tasks I faced as an upcoming digital marketer was staying relevant. Technology has infiltrated nearly every industry, and it’s accelerated the fluidity of customer behavior.

Print ads worked well for specific demographics, but they were no longer a leading tactic for marketers by the 2020s. Being an entrepreneur pushes you to be creative and always think one step ahead of your competitors.

Ultimately, my team spent countless hours not only strategizing for existing marketing clients but looking for new ways to keep scouting prospects for our startups in such a face-paced landscape.

That dry spell taught me that if I wanted to expand my client base, I’d have to meet people at their level and develop the agility to maintain their attention. Through humanized marketing – curating a social media presence and engaging within niche consumer groups – I was able to scale multiple businesses to multi-figure brands that sold for their value. If you’re looking to be a successful marketer, you have to run at the pace of your audience (or faster).

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Stephen Light

A mission statement is why you start a business in the first place and is what keeps you energized and passionate. What I didn’t expect was how easily the myriad of moving parts involved in starting and running a business can get in the way of that initial spark, and how much work goes into continually recommitting and reminding yourself of why you began.

Entrepreneurs wear a million different hats and make a thousand decisions a day, and it can really bog you down. Continually recommitting to your mission is difficult but necessary, and entirely worth it. Schedule a specific time with your team to regularly reassess your mission statement and to take stock of anything that doesn’t align.

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Scott Spivack

For instance, we’ve added an ‘Accessibility Adjustments’ feature on our website that adjusts the interface as per the user preferences. As a medical financing company, we get customers facing all kinds of health problems and physical disabilities.

With this feature, we were able to smoothen their experience. Here’s how it works: If a particular user selects ‘Seizure Safe Profile’, our website automatically eliminates flashes and reduces color. Similarly, if someone selects ‘Cognitive Disability Profile’, our website assists with reading and focusing. This has helped us earn the trust of users and build loyalty during the challenging times of the pandemic.

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Marliis Reinkort

The greatest challenge that has faced my business so far, was definitely Covid-19, and as we know now, changed the world for everyone. I’m the CEO of Code Galaxy, which offers online coding courses to kids of all ages.

We teach kids coding, design and other technology subjects and skills in a virtual classroom. However, before the pandemic started in March 2020, we were a fully in-person coding school, about to open up a new location in Austin, Texas. Once the pandemic started, we were forced to close our in-person locations for an unknown amount of time, so we decided to make a pivot and transfer our business from in person to fully online.

Since our curriculum was already online and we had a good amount of courses available for kids, the transition ended up being easier than we initially expected. We had to create online scheduling systems, find a virtual classroom platform to run the classes, retrain our teachers and completely change our marketing strategy.

It was definitely a challenge but now that we have fully made the switch, we are actually very grateful that we were forced to pivot the business model, since now we get to work with students all over the world as well as with schools across the U.S. to provide their coding electives and after school programs. It’s a more accessible, flexible and financially viable business model.

Learning from this experience, what I would like to warn all entrepreneurs about is that never get too comfortable with your current business model and always look for new trends and options to diversify your business. And once the change has to be made, in a situation like the pandemic was, even if you’re not ready, be open-minded and try to find solutions that can turn around your business quickly. Don’t wait and just start testing and experimenting to find out what works. The more you try, the higher your chances of success. 

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Ryan Reed

CHALLENGE 1
The home improvement sector is currently experiencing the most severe labor shortage in its history. Failure to break the labor code will stifle growth, profit, and cash flow. Some businesses can perish due to their incapacity to deal with the issue.

The second option is to “survive” rather than “thrive,” with an insufficient profit to compensate for the risk and work necessary to produce a little net pre-tax profit. As a result, many businesses are sacrificing potential earnings to develop and strengthen their businesses while also providing stability for themselves and their families.

CHALLENGE 2
Advertising, the web, exhibitions, events, and self-developed leads, such as canvassing, have all seen an increase in lead development costs. This, along with backlog and cash flow issues, reduces profitability and restricts expansion.

It’s vital to have a well-thought-out strategy for dealing with these challenges. It also needs to be consistent with a plan to make your company stable and capable of weathering unanticipated changes, which can come from a variety of sources: a lack of financing, changes in the current economy, high turnover, the cost or effectiveness of the lead generation sources you use, and so on.

CHALLENGE 3
The expense of acquiring, training, and sustaining employees rises for small businesses. The ease of finding a job due to Great Resignation, especially for persons with mediocre talents or bad experience, results in high turnover, borderline mediocrity, and increased personnel expenditures.

These three challenges can become quicksand for small, closely-held businesses. This nation’s expanding economy, consumer confidence, and disposable income produce a two-edged sword: the sparkle of higher revenue clouds judgment and lessens the caution required in concerns such as staffing shortages, mis-hires, and mishandled staff.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGE 1
To overcome challenge 1, you need to train your labor. You need a highly efficient training mechanism to train your workforce effectively. You may have to cut back on potential profit in order to retain your skilled workforce as it will be beneficial for you in long run.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGE 2
As the advertising cost has skyrocketed, you need to set aside a specific budget that should be solely used for marketing purposes. I know this will cut down significant portions of the profit but it will effectively generate many leads for your business and it’s a necessity for eventual growth and expansion of your business.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGE 3
Every business is suffering from a wave of great resignation. Coupled with challenge 1 you need to effectively manage your employees or it will put an end to your business. To tackle this provide your employees with good remuneration packages. Provide them with effective perks and benefits that are actually beneficial and provide value to your employees.

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Sherrie High

One of the challenges about running a business is that you need to expect the unexpected! There will be unexpected expenses that you did not plan on for your business, slow periods where you may not get as much business as you thought you would, payment delays even supply increases.

Whatever it may be make sure you have the financial resources to keep your business afloat, a good budget plan which includes extra capital for these unexpected events.

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Carolyn Barbarite

In business nothing ever goes exactly the way you had planned and as entrepreneurs you must be open-minded to change.

The most unexpected challenge that I faced with Javamelts Flavored Sugar is having to completely rebrand, reformulate and reintroduce Javamelts to the marketplace as a direct result of losing not only one manufacturing facility (co-packer) but the second one we had found.

This challenge, by far, was my most difficult because my original product was very labor-intensive to manufacture. I had to figure out a way, as fast as possible, to create a seamless, more efficient, better-for-you and packaged more conveniently product all at once. The trick for me was to PIVOT and not fight the situation. It was very important that I evaluate all of the pros and cons and go down the path of least resistance.

I simplified the ingredients, packaging and formulation to allow Javamelts to stay in the game. My advice to anyone who is faced with a tremendous problem or hurdle is not to resist the change that is inevitable. Gather the information, consult with a team of experts in that field as best as possible, ask for help and then make a sound, informative decision.

Most often than not the problem that you are having is meant for you so that you can learn so don’t be afraid to switch gears and prevail. The problems I had led me to creating better products, packaging and process overall.

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Shira Truitt

Work/Life balance was my greatest, unexpected challenge with my business. After the newness of business wore off, no one wanted to hear about the business as much as I wanted to talk about it.

Moreover, I was spending extraordinary time working, but I was making extraordinary progress– and it was great! I was enjoying myself, my work, and my accomplishments.

I didn’t miss any of the big things, but my quality of life was diminished by the amount of work I was doing–even though I enjoyed it. I managed to overcome that by determining what, specifically, I would do if my business went as planned so that time and resources were not an issue. Then, I selected all the ideas that did not have a financial basis and that did not serve a dual purpose of helping me AND helping my business.

In that way, no change would be financially incentivized. Additionally, the changes that I choose to make would only impact me–not the business. I worked to implement those ideas by scheduling everything that was important to me and committed to keeping that schedule. That made time for things like a more meaningful prayer life, journaling, and exercise. I scheduled one night a month were work ends no later than 5:00 p.m. and I must do something I enjoy.

That lead to crafting, binge watching tv, and planning new opportunities. Additionally, I took classes at the local community college on everything from cooking to jewelry making and, even if I weren’t successful, I’d had a positive experience and raised the quality of my life for just those few hours.

That lead to meeting people with similar interests but from a different walk in life. I scheduled a monthly review of my activities so that I am intentional about maintaining this balance. The regimented nature of this decision took some time to get used to, but it has allowed me to be relevant in my community, meaningful time to reflect, a healthy lifestyle, and time to do the things I enjoy while my business continues to grow. As an entrepreneur, I could not ask for more.

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Steve Silberberg

Marketing is a loathsome, never-ending Sisyphian task that not only drains my company’s finances at an unprecedented rate, but also drains my spirit and the amount of time I can devote to any and all other aspects of running my business.

It forces me to permanently assume the role of a repugnant, self-aggrandizing, narcissistic shyster in a desperate attempt at getting the fleeting attention of prospective clients through a dense fog of sales messages incessantly generated by unimaginably wealthy, over-capitalized business interests.

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Devin Schumacher

The pandemic changes globally brought a new reality for the business and its own set of challenges. Pivoting during the pandemic is not just a concept for me but a reality we live with in the new normal of businesses.

Since our service is in digital marketing and transformation, I pivoted in this pandemic by onboarding new types of clients. I began developing campaigns for traditional companies that are new to digital marketing and diversifying our client base.

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Alexa Allamano

Before the pandemic my answer would have been split between overcoming a store burglary and partnering with a flash-sale website that was a flop and left me with thousands of pieces of unsold inventory. However, the pandemic caused unexpected disruptions to my main sales channels – in-store retail, wholesale partnerships, and pop-up events.

My online sales had been the smallest growth area since establishing a storefront in 2014, but everything shifted to DTC during 2020. I shuttered my previous storefront and ended an unpleasant relationship with the lessor during covid lockdown, re-establishing in a new tiny storefront later that year.

Due to the size limit of the new space, I innovated Scan to Shop window shopping by merchandising my window display to be shoppable 24/7 with QR codes. Now my storefront drives business online and I am in-store by appointment (I also teach other store owners how to implement Scan to Shop).

Overcoming the disruption of a global pandemic requires flexibility, creative problem solving, and making hard choices on what best aligns with your business goals and values. Making those tough decisions centered around my ethics led my business to prosper in a way I couldn’t imagine before the pandemic. I gave up my dream store and created my dream life.

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Kathleen Ahmmed

Speaking from personal experience, one of the biggest challenges that I faced at the start was overcoming the need to hire fast in order to fill empty positions in my business operations. This is because when you are first launching a business it can often feel like you are in a race with yourself to get things done and solve problems quickly.

However, when it comes to recruitment, this is a process that usually requires a lot of time and patience, because one wrong hire can often damage the reputation of your company by having a negative impact on employee morale, productivity, and collaboration, which ultimately leads to a toxic work culture.

And in my case, I was only able to see the effects of my hiring decisions much later in the startup process, as it was apparent that I failed to take into account other important factors like soft skills and cultural fit, with some of them either not meshing well with others, some lacking the necessary skills needed to communicate effectively with customers and others failing to collaborate with their team members in the field.

As such, I learned the importance of taking your time to do your due diligence and always hiring for intelligence, skills, and cultural fit first, because while it is easy to recruit people who are “good enough”, they can often end up being “detrimental” to your business progress down the road.

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Ouriel Lemmel

The biggest challenge I faced when I started was that there was no model for my particular business. It was a new idea, and no one had really tried anything like an app to connect drivers with lawyers to help fight traffic tickets. So I did my research. I studied my market well and ensured my product is something people want and need.

Don’t stay in your own bubble. My partner is a very good check on that as we come from different backgrounds. I’m also fortunate to have great mentors, advisors, and friends that are super helpful. Most successful entrepreneurs I know didn’t wake up one morning and decide to become one, they’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset. If you have a business idea or project, don’t be shy—try it.

Sam Cohen

The greatest, unexpected challenge was staying focused on business development. Sometimes the distractions are too heavy to resist. So I had to learn to manage my time properly. I will share how I did it and you can do the same too.

The solution is to reserve some time in your calendar for business development, and don’t let anything disturb you during those times. Also, you should try not to get too attached to any project because you will have to let go of all of them eventually.

Glen Bhimani

Marketing was my greatest initial and unexpected challenge.

Ultimately, it came down to an assumption I made. After spending years in the security industry as a guard, I realized most guards don’t care about the clients because they aren’t being taken care of by their employers.

That was when I started BPS Security. My company’s purpose is to provide a better security option at a lower price, so I developed an operations system that allows us to provide highly qualified guards who are well-paid so that they put their best effort into taking care of the customer. My assumption was that clients would find me because I had a website and was offering a better service at a lower price. That was a big mistake.

Because of that assumption, we spent several years without any clients at all: it’s a miracle we’re still standing. But when I finally realized we needed to work on our marketing and sales to actively let people know we are here, the business exploded! Even though it wasn’t all at once, it still exploded and today we’re one of the fastest growing security firms in the United States because of it.

I would love for new entrepreneurs to avoid my mistake: don’t assume people will come to you just because you’ve started your business. You need to find ways to actively attract clients.

Also, allow time for your marketing to kick in and begin working.
Our sales improved our clients drastically, but I had a business partner who would constantly argue for the first month that our marketing needed to be cut because it wasn’t bringing in new clients. I reminded him of exactly what I would tell new entrepreneurs: marketing isn’t a magic pill that works overnight.

Most of the time it doesn’t even begin to show serious results after two to four weeks. But marketing is a crucial part of building out your company’s reputation and improving your client base, and needs to be an essential part of your company at all times! Especially during difficult times.

These are a few of the very important things I learned and implemented that helped me overcome my marketing challenges:

Continue adjusting
The market is constantly changing, so you have to continually adjust as you go. One marketing campaign might not work super well, but another one might be incredibly effective. So keep trying different things and give them a few weeks to work before you cut them.

One of the ways we’ve developed such strong marketing is that we’ve continually revamped what we’re doing. Our website has changed multiple times in the last two years, and it has resulted in much higher leads and client acquisition every time we’ve changed it. So continually adjust your marketing and pursue what seems to work best after you’ve given it a few weeks to work.

Don’t expect immediate results
I know I mentioned this already, but understanding this is crucial. There are going to be marketing companies that tell you they can bring in hundreds of leads a month right from the start. They are frauds. Not because they can’t get leads, but because their leads are bad leads.

Good marketing requires time and effort, and as one of my mentors says, “great marketing has exponential growth.” Which means you might not see much right now, but it will grow and expand on itself if you keep at it diligently. Ours did, and now we’re getting regular news features and sometimes have more client requests than we have capacity to take on.

Be consistent
Marketing is a huge part of your reputation, so you need to make sure you have the same reputation everywhere. Your brand needs to be consistent, from your brochures, to your social media, to your website, to even how you answer the phone!

Building a consistent feel across every aspect of your company is a great way to work on your marketing, because it creates a more solid relationship between the company and the clients. If you look at your marketing assets and realize that your facebook page is completely different from your website, that’s a sign your marketing isn’t consistent and that your potential clients may not even know they’re looking at the same company.

Get feedback
Finally, getting feedback is one of the most important parts of marketing. Speak with your current clients to find out why they work with you and build that into your marketing. If you compete in the market on service or price alone, you’ll run yourself into the ground and won’t be able to compete with bigger companies. Find out what makes you unique and why your clients like working with you, then build your marketing on that feedback. When we began to do this, our marketing took a huge turn and began to show serious results.

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The post How 20 entrepreneurs in the United States Adapted To Changing Market Conditions During The Pandemic first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jed Morley

Many businesses have had to close as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, while others have had to adapt their operations. Many firms were prompted to pivot for pandemic success and adapt to changing market conditions as a result of the outbreak. We interviewed 26 company owners and entrepreneurs in the United States to understand more about the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on businesses and how it affected their operations.

INTERVIEW HOST

The host of this interview was Jed Morley. Jed Morley is the CEO of a leading payment processing service provider called PlatPay.

Table of Contents

The question we asked:

The pandemic encouraged many businesses to pivot and adapt to changing market conditions. How did you adapt? Did you introduce additional product lines or services?

Jessi Beyer

As a speaker, the pandemic could have sent my business crashing to the ground, but instead, a simple pivot from in-person presentations to virtual presentations allowed my revenue from speaking gigs to skyrocket during the second half of 2020 and beyond. While this pivot seems obvious, there were two key things I did that made this pivot as successful as it was.

First, I put some serious thought into how I could make virtual presentations as engaging as in-person ones. People were already sitting on Zoom all day, so I didn’t want them to just sit there and listen to me blab on for an hour.

Secondly, I sold bulk copies of my book to event and conference hosts that booked me to speak so that, firstly, attendees would have something they could physically touch and engage with after my virtual presentation, and secondly, the revenue from each virtual gig would be increased.

After so much time doing virtual presentations more frequently than in-person ones, I have to say that I like virtual ones more! They’re more accessible for attendees and less time consuming for me, and they allow me to speak at multiple events across all parts of the country in the span of a few short days.

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Lucie Chavez

Here at Radaris, we had to pivot in a big way in order to keep everyone safe and secure, while also continuing with the forward momentum we had leading up to the pandemic. We seemed to have a communication issue between departments and different levels within the company. A specific team was very communicative with each other, but there was an issue in continuously relaying progress and specific updates to the rest of the team in a timely manner.

This caused some delays and confusion among different teams who were waiting on the other for a specific item or answer. We also struggled to figure out an effective communication line from the managerial team down to part-time employees and more junior-level employees.

We had to find a way to connect everyone for important communications and also figure out how we can relay messages to other parts of the company. It came down to finding the most effective programs for us and making sure everyone was on the right page. Once we found these platforms and put them into effect, we had an easier job in staying on the same page, but there was definitely a learning period.

We had to find out who would do what and how they could do it to be effective. I think we had to stumble a bit early on in order to find our way and make sure we are as effective at communicating virtually as we needed to be. After that, things were much easier for us!

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Manville Chan

I founded The Story of Ramen in 2016 in San Francisco. We host ramen cooking classes as corporate team building events. We welcome company teams to our facility and make ramen as an offsite activity.

The majority of our customer base tech companies such as Uber, Facebook, Google and Salesforce which see great value in team-building activities for their employees. Prior to the pandemic, we hosted an average of 800-1,000 people per month.

We found our niche and market our business mainly via SEO traffic to our web site as well as positive word of mouth. Obviously with the pandemic, in-person events ended and all customers canceled their events in March 2020. By April 2020, we introduced virtual ramen cooking classes, which includes an instructor-led Zoom session and ramen kits delivered to our customers’ doorsteps.

It has become a hit as companies are desperately trying to find ways to motivate remote/work from home employees. When we first introduced virtual classes, we had a steep learning curve in knowing how to package and ship perishable food ingredients across the country and how to make the experience more interactive and engaging. We have learned and adapted very quickly mainly through feedback from our valued customers and simply making mistakes!

As the pandemic continued, we found ways to expand our business beyond the Bay Area as we host events all over the US and globally. We are also no longer limited to the capacity of the facility which seats 40-45 people. We frequently host nationwide corporate events with 100+ people.

Our virtual business grew from 150 guests in July 2020 to close 1,800 in December 2021. We recently launched an udon class that allows us to ship ingredient kits internationally; and we’re getting a lot of traction lately.

I do think that the stress brought by the pandemic actually helped us to think outside the box to grow our business, turning lemons into lemonade. Previously, we were in our comfort zone and we were too busy to innovate.

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Rohan Kadam

Hello, I am a marketing consultant and an established entrepreneur. I run a successful Niche website called Biking Know How.

I would like to share how I quit my job as a banker at JP Morgan Chase and started my blogging business for less than $1000 and turned it into a successful business. I started my blog just as a hobby.

I scaled my business, especially during the challenging COVID pandemic, and made it profitable in a short period (From the first month itself). I focused on doubling down my efforts on growing my niche website, which was initially just my passion project.

I would say that my online business has helped me stay occupied, motivated, and financially stable. I love the outdoors, biking and camping. I always wanted to share my unique experience with people. Initially, I would maintain a diary and would write about my outdoor camping endeavors.

Thanks to social media and my website, my audience over time has increased significantly. With social media and my website, many more people can access my adventures and plan their own.

This gives me immense joy and fulfillment. Some of the details on my blog are as follows.

1. Bikingknowhow.com is my third blog (I run 2 blogs currently, all in different niches. I sold my first blog) that I had started. And it today gets approximately 5,000 monthly unique visitors. I earn money through two Ad-Networks namely, Google AdSense and Media.net which show ads on my website. (I make a minimum of $200 per month with both ad networks combined).
2. I also partnered with Amazon via an affiliate partnership, and I promote the products and services of Amazon on my website (I make approximately $100 per month) by promoting products on my blog.

Challenges
As far as the hardest part or challenges are concerned, I had to face many, but two challenges stand out the most. They are as follows.

1. Time Management:
This was a very significant challenge because I was managing and growing my blog while having a full-time job. I would use my weekends and holidays to educate myself on skills, especially web development and digital marketing.

My blog allowed me to have multiple streams of income. As I saw decent cash flow coming in, I was interested to upskill myself on digital marketing and social media. I knew this would require my time and dedication. So, at every opportunity that I got to polish my skills, I made sure that I dedicated my time and attention to get better.

2. Getting Right Education
Well, to educate and polish my skills in digital marketing, I enrolled in many digital marketing and web development courses. I used platforms like Udemy and Udacity to enroll in the courses. I started voraciously reading blogs and success stories of food bloggers. This helped me get creative and experiment with the growth strategy of my blog.

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Peter Ord

“The pre-pandemic world looks much different than our current times. With more employees working remotely or within a hybrid-like environment than ever before, we wanted to ensure that we adjusted our product, GuideCX, to meet the needs of business professionals everywhere, no matter what their workspace looks like.

It is critical for internal and external teams to be on the same page right from the beginning in order to achieve long-term success – and that begins with the client onboarding process.

We recently introduced a tool that we had been working on for years called the Navigator Reporting Engine because we recognized the need for teams to be able to understand each component of a project and the bigger picture of how it all intertwines, whether they are working side by side or across the world from one another.

The Engine offers never-before-seen metrics including forecasting revenues and the ability to meet deadlines, creating a strong foundation for projects and continued growth.”

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Ian Sells

We know how the pandemic has forced people to stay indoors and this has caused a huge spike not only in the number of people doing online shopping, but even the time they spent doing so. Surveys also found that many people do so on their phones more than on their computers.

To meet this customer behavior and make the most out of the influx of people doing online shopping, we decided to launch an app for both iPhone and Android users. This makes it a lot easier for them to shop and save money.

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Eddie Bye

I’m Eddie. Founder of Physio Flex Pro. As a business owner during the pandemic, I either had to give up and stop doing business or continue. Fortunately, I was able to make my joint supplement business profitable. I want to share the realization that I had.

As well as the challenges faced and lessons learned along the way The biggest lesson that I’d learnt during this whole crisis is that you get a chance to improve your life when a huge problem comes. Some of us are entitled. We want things to be given to us. We don’t want to work, we don’t want to suffer, we just want the good things in life despite our character not deserving it.

And so tragedy happens and we find ourselves whining. It’s important to understand that an entrepreneurial life without crisis is not possible. You’re going to encounter one if you play this game long enough. Knowing this, we understand that it’s useless to want something that is impossible.

Furthermore, I realized that in order to solve a business problem, you need to improve as an entrepreneur. The best solution that I found during the pandemic was by changing myself initially and letting it reflect on my business. I consider it a blessing considering that I make money the more I improve myself. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

Lauren Gast

Chief Marketing Officer on Pivoting in the Face of a Pandemic Because truck drivers are a part of one of America’s Essential Industries, pivoting in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic was of the utmost importance. Before the pandemic, our training required our instructors and students to be in close contact with each other constantly.

After COVID numbers began to rise, and supply chain shortages became more prevalent, we knew that stopping classes altogether was not an option. To create a safe CDL training environment for our students and staff so we could continue training, we developed a comprehensive pandemic protocol. In accordance with CDC guidelines, we instructed our trainees to postpone their training if they had recently been exposed to the virus or were experiencing flu-like symptoms.

We also published extensive sanitation and social distancing guidelines, requiring that our trainees wash their hands often and keep their masks on during in-cab training and testing. —Lauren Gast, Chief Marketing Officer at Truck Driver Institute, a truck driving school with eleven campuses across the United States 

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Brice Gump

The onset of the pandemic brought a shock to the system of many companies including ours. It is no secret that marketing services become a secondary concern for several businesses but as a business leader it has always been my priority to never remain stationary when faced with a crisis and to keep it ongoing.

The one thing that I did was constantly stay engaged with my existing clients and even network more than usual on my social media platforms to increase engagement and spread greater brand awareness. We started posting testimonials on our website to show potential clients a more realistic aspect of the services provided.

Constant engagement helped me gain more clients than I thought I would in these turbulent times and we even increased our brand awareness through this. we had to return clients as well. It wasn’t all sunshine and happiness for us, we faced serval setbacks with communication and workflow being hindered due to the transition from physical to remote/ hybrid work. But with a great team and the use of efficient crisis management, we learned to adapt and supported each other to adjust to the new norms.

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Richard Lubicky

Ever since the pandemic, the whole world has been transforming, whether our lifestyle or business! Majorly, a lot of businesses have had serious impacts!

Since such changes have Vern accounted as the new normal, businesses have to alter and align their business goals and vision to grab opportunities at the right time to gain competitive advantage.

Considering such a situation and changes, I also altered some of my Cybersecurity SaaS business elements to become a leader in the market. Since people had to wait in long queues in government offices to find vital information, we advanced our reach and provided them with that information within a fraction of seconds!

Most of our services are introduced as free services to help our clients test the deep waters! We added client reports and background checks as our revenue-generating streams. This was largely possible due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Paul Baterina

The pandemic presented unique challenges for businesses all across the board. Sleep Advisor was fortunate in that the bulk of our workforce (our marketers, developers and bloggers to name a few) already worked remotely before Covid-19, so all we needed to do was modify our work model to a remote environment for everyone who works in our headquarters (myself included) in Austin, Texas.

The pandemic gave us an opportunity to use alternative digital platforms to intensify our planning phases for our digital marketing campaigns and collaborate remotely simultaneously. For example, we shifted all our work communications and physical operations over to Slack and Microsoft Teams so we could utilize video calls and digital channels for specific work departments and projects.

My team and I at HQ had lots of days where our digital platforms didn’t sync up the way we hoped and where we experienced difficulties with performing certain tasks timeously. For example, we often struggled to stay on schedule with filming our YouTube demonstration videos due to some of our main vloggers contracting Covid-19 and needing to stay in quarantine and recover at different stages of 2021.

With that said, we did our best to keep the lines of communication open, express empathy and support those of us who couldn’t cope as well with our workload and physical health during the pandemic. We’re still learning and constantly finding new ways not only to survive during these trying times, but to thrive as well.

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Kim Marie Branch-Pettid

The pandemic was a shock to all of us and we had to make some quick changes to adjust to the state of the world and do whatever we could to stay afloat. It was especially important to me to ensure that all my members and staff felt supported and had the resources necessary to succeed in spite of the times.

To offset barriers to connection in the pandemic, I invested in LeTip Wired, a new proprietary software and mobile app that helps members electronically track existing business networks and recruit new members. Introducing LeTip Wired certainly helped my team feel like they belong to a nationwide community and ultimately ensured many small businesses wouldn’t have to close their doors.

As a result, between 2020 and 2021 we were able to invite more guests and had a 60% join rate. Thanks to a recent LeTip membership survey, I also discovered that many of LeTip’s members across the US also made individual changes to their businesses in order to adapt to the rapidly changing market conditions.

For example, Jack Watkinson is a member of LeTip of Somerset Hills representing the I.T. category for the Somerset Hills Chapter in New Jersey with a company called Outsource My I.T. He reported that in 2020 he used more online methods of service, added new products, and services to his catalog, hired new employees while retaining most of his employees.

Similarly, Chief Executive Officer at H3 Systems and member of LeTip of Napa, CA, Donald Hartung reported that to offset business slowing down he used more online methods of service and adjust because of supply chain issues as well.

About LeTip International: LeTip International, Inc., the world’s largest privately-owned business leads organization, is a networking organization made up of members held to the highest caliber of professionalism and achievement, all of whom strive to do business with one another.

Founded in 1978, LeTip has more than 250 chapters throughout the USA and Canada and is credited with hundreds of thousands of business referrals per year. Setting the standard for referral organizations, LeTip members are known throughout the B2B referral industry for their dedication to helping each other grow their businesses. Join a chapter or start your own at letip.com.

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Nathan Hughes

Due to the pandemic and its subsequent restrictions, both small and large businesses have suffered. As a marketing firm, we had barred traditional methods to market products and services. Traditional PR strategies were no longer functional. At the right moment, digital platforms came in as aid for us.

Digital Marketing and PR strategies, including backlinks, SEO (On-page and Off-page), social media, and email marketing, were some of the best strategies that helped our firm soar high from this pandemic.

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Adit Jain

The pandemic brought with it a lot of uncertainty for companies and people alike. Back then, we had not secured our series fundings, and we were operating with a smaller fund. We’ve always strived to be as transparent as possible with our team. So, following that same principle, we conducted town hall meetings and apprised each member of Leena AI of the situation regarding our finances.

Every member of our team was on board, and in fact, delivered 200% more than what we expected. Their perseverance reflected their dedication and motivation towards the company. Soon after, we secured our Series A funding, followed by Series B in the second consecutive year, and things started to get back on track.

For us at Leena AI, the pandemic really helped us grow as a company, both internally and externally. This adaptation to Covid brought in new ideas – we were introspective on what we learnt as a company, and utilized that to build solutions for enterprises that were facing issues brought on during the pandemic.

We introduced a number of products, such as the Covid-19 Workplace Response Suite, which assists organizations facilitate a safer return to the workplace, by helping them track and maintain employee vaccination records, employee health statuses, employee rostering, and even booking vaccination slots. In addition to this, during the pandemic we were approached by a number of healthcare providers for their requirements of a similar product.

One to track systems for vaccination statuses for both patients and staff, send reminders to patients about their second or booster doses, conduct Covid tests, and so on. We also came up with Work-From-Home surveys for employees to keep a check on their wellbeing, both mental and physical. In my opinion, Leena AI took the pandemic head-first and came out stronger, larger, and better than ever.

We pooled in all our resources, gave it a 100% and assisted millions of employees around the world cope with the pandemic.

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Edith Pearce

As a law firm involved with personal injury cases, we constantly have paperwork our clients must sign. Some of these documents include fee agreements, medical authorizations, and settlement agreements.

This often meant the client would have to come into our office to sign various paperwork during their case. When the pandemic hit, we began using DocuSign to provide clients the ability to electronically sign documents.

The DocuSign electronic signature solution in the United States complies with the definition of an electronic signature under the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (ESIGN) Act and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA).

This has allowed our clients to sign all of their documents in the comfort of their own homes. While we have also adopted other tools such as video conferencing software, DocuSign will probably be the most important remote working tool for our firm in 2021.

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Michael Dean

The biggest way my company had to adapt during the pandemic was in our online presence. With consumers stuck at home, it meant they were spending way more time on their devices. In order to continue growing as a business and obtaining a bigger audience, we had to start optimizing our business site for mobile use, and developing more of a presence on social media.

New businesses are popping up online everyday, so prioritizing your business’ online presence is crucial. As a content-based business, website traffic is currency, and the only way to secure consistent traffic is to lean into the current global digital landscape.

Tennille Thomas

I adapted to changing market conditions by doing things in reverse by creating a brand new business model that was a continuum of my current model. My business model was to create a living canvas if you will; whereby my products had to become services and my services became products.

This would spark innovation for the continual creation of products and services born out of the services and products I currently offer. In other words, my industry encompasses e-commerce, health/beauty, from the realm of natural skin care. I had to find a way to combine all those elements without losing the voice of my brand.

Please understand that your brand is your voice visually. It will speak for you before you show up. It is imperative for the message of your brand to be clear and concise so that people can identify it and engage with it no matter the platform(s) being utilized to represent it. By introducing new services and products out of your current offerings you will not compromise your brand identity.

For example, one of my products is a luxury hand oil. I made this oil come to life for my customers by way of a demonstration video in real time. This not only increased engagement by making them feel a part of the product but encouraged sales in real time. In addition, I created a service that is video on demand for those who truly desired this type of educational engagement by way of a subscription. It provides a platform for them to be able to watch how to use these products and services at their leisure.

Lastly, providing them an opportunity to engage with me directly. As a result of that direct engagement, opportunities have been afforded to those that are active on my platform. Such as participation in helping to create a product. If I use that product their contribution is recognized, they are given perks and directly become a part of my specialized engagement team.

As an entrepreneur you have to be innovative, creative, and inventive to separate yourself from the masses with never compromising your customer base. You do this by employing hi-touch.

You will not only create multiple streams of income for yourself but be able to continuously create avenues of opportunities and one of a kind experiences for your customers. Who would of thought that all of this would derive from a product that turned into a service sparked by innovation through the service that would create a product everlasting.

Darren Lopez

 “We adapted our business plan in two different ways. First, we added product lines that we thought people in the new normal would find appealing, including a new adult beverage we call Milli. We also added additional immune and health-related products including our Be-OnGuard series targeted toward people that want to “be on guard” against viruses and bacteria.

In addition, we adapted our distribution strategies and started focusing on streamlining and simplifying the sales process with an enhanced emphasis on direct sales and a new aggressive Amazon strategy.”

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Carter Reum

When we look at the pandemic and its effects on companies across the globe, it’s important to also look for some of the positives that have come from such an unexpected situation. Many companies have made huge pivots; yet this has also encouraged those businesses to become more innovative, creative, and open to taking well-calculated risks.

Some employees are finding that they can be more productive even when working remotely. Of course, many companies have found the pandemic conditions to be challenging, but just as many are also finding newfound strength and exponential growth. Specifically, we’ve seen that wellness and mental well-being are now unprecedented opportunities for innovation and investment.

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Greg Gillman

Being a leader during a pandemic will put your leadership skills to the test–most importantly empathy and flexibility. With the ever-changing rules surrounding the pandemic comes a lack of structure or even an office, which can potentially lead to feelings of isolation, lack of motivation, disruptions to processes, and even workplace conflict.

During these uncertain times, you can’t lead with certainty, which can be a challenge to leaders stuck in their ways. Pay close attention to your employees and their performance, and be sure to be sympathetic to their needs and pivot when and where necessary to ensure optimal success.

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Ryan Rottman

Functioning effectively as a leader or an entrepreneur during a pandemic is only viable if you can be flexible and understand how and when to pivot. This means encouraging innovative thinking and really listening to all the ideas your team brings to the table – big or small.

Playing it safe in uncertain times might seem appealing, but it’s important to take risks in order to yield results. Additionally, as some business environments slow down to accommodate changes, use this opportunity to brainstorm and plan for your next big move!

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Becky Brown

As a blogging business, we noticed a big increase in traffic as the pandemic grew but our audience’s demands grew as well. Producing content was no longer enough to convert our audience as they were looking for more concrete ways to engage with our business. What we did to adapt was we built a new webpage that shows limited-time shopping deals where our customers can quickly and easily buy their favorite products at a discount.

All we had to do was keep the page up-to-date and running, and our customers were more than happy with the feature. This approach helped us turn a simple shopping blog into something more than that, and we are looking forward to adding even more fun features like this in the future.

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Megan Sumrell

“The pandemic definitely brought many opportunities to add a digital focus to my business. Prior to the pandemic, my planners were all physical planners and much of my training was conducted live or in person. The pandemic caused people to really lean into technology and leverage digital assets more.

I created a digital version of my planner for tablets along with launching an app in the app stores to make training readily available via mobile devices. Now, my customers are able to participate in training events from their phones at their convenience instead of from their office at set times.” 

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Nick Collins

When the pandemic began, my clients in many parts of the country faced shut-down mandates issued by state governments struggling to slow the spread of the novel Coronavirus. Using this time to pivot again, I relaunched my company as Sartoris Digital to offer my clients an expanded and inclusive menu of services.

I previously had worked with big pharma, major airlines, telecommunications, finance, and sporting goods brands, which has given me a diverse set of skills to bring to my growing digital marketing firm. However, when the pandemic hit, I realized that many small businesses could benefit from my services, so he re-launched my offering (previously Sartoris Technologies), to include services that are better suited for small businesses, including better price points and a more tailored, hands-on experience.

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James Parsons

It’s crazy that people thought the importance of content would have decreased many years ago, but it has only risen in importance. Even during the pandemic, content continued its dominance and has been so important for online companies if they want to secure their position in the market.

It’s vital for businesses to have unique, quality content on their website for a variety of reasons. It stands out to potential clients, it helps them rank better on Google, it can be used across their entire marketing strategy, and it can even impact their PR campaigns.

We saw the demand for quality, on-time content when the pandemic hit and we worked hard to find writers who could join our team and become an asset. That’s the biggest thing we had to do when the pandemic hit and we were swamped with work: hire more quality writers so we could keep up with orders, but also cement our place in the industry because of the quality we deliver.

Finding writers to fit our team wasn’t easy, but that was helped by the fact that more people were working from home and open to working remotely. It took time to make a plan and execute it, but we did it and were able to pivot to this new demand.

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Gabriel Dungan

We didn’t introduce any pandemic-specific products or services, but we did use the sudden shift to increased online shopping as an opportunity to really personalize our social media engagement.

We started using customer testimonials and reviews in more marketing campaigns in an attempt to create more unique and personal consumer engagement. With digital engagement becoming the most important part of marketing, we used that as a chance to really invest time and money into creating high quality content on all channels, including TikTok and Instagram.

If you are a business leader and you’re not prioritizing your business’ social media channels, you are going to miss out on tons of possible conversions and traffic.

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The post Pivoting For Pandemic Success: How 26 American Entrepreneurs & Business Owners Adapted To Changing Market Conditions first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jed Morley

Businesses all throughout the world had to respond quickly and decisively to the pandemic’s difficulties. COVID-19 has impacted nearly every firm in the globe, yet results have varied greatly, even across countries and industries. To learn more about the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on businesses, we interviewed 30 entrepreneurs and business owners in the United States to see how they dealt with the pandemic.

INTERVIEW HOST

The host of this interview was Jed Morley. Jed Morley is the CEO of a leading payment processing service provider called PlatPay.

The question we asked:

The pandemic encouraged many businesses to pivot and adapt to changing market conditions. How did you adapt? Did you introduce additional product lines or services?

Kathleen Ahmmed

The number of active gig workers in the current market has already begun to increase due to the pandemic, as well as the rise of remote work.

This combined with the volatility of the job market in the past two years has proven that the gig economy is a valuable resource that small businesses will now need to take advantage of, in order to adapt, scale and survive in the post-pandemic future.

As such, we have opted to be more agile in our business operations, moving forward by outsourcing some of our projects to more skilled contractors, as we start to focus more on minimizing business costs and maximizing outsourced talent to boost productivity in this new remote work environment.

And an added benefit of this new change is that we no longer have to deal with the hiring and training costs that tend to be associated with bringing in full-time employees.

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Table of Contents

Mike Belsito

COVID seemed to have an impact on all types of businesses. But especially for conference organizers like me, COVID’s impact was especially dramatic. In 2019, my company, Product Collective, generated nearly all of our income from our live, in-person conference series — INDUSTRY: The Product Conference — which serves tech and software product management professionals. Our last in-person conference ended on March 11, 2020 in Dublin, Ireland — a day that felt like the world closed down.

Yet, in 2021 — we enjoyed (nearly) our most profitable year ever despite not putting on a live, in-person event. This happened because of three specific reasons:

1. We took swift action.
While many things were unclear about the longevity of COVID at the time, it was clear to us that live, in-person conferences wouldn’t be happening any time soon. So on the flight home, we began crafting our strategy for how we would change our business. We didn’t wait it out. We worked with extreme urgency.

2. We introduced new product lines that leveraged our strengths.
It wasn’t even two full weeks after we arrived back when we announced the launch of a series of virtual workshops. We already had great relationships with product management leaders and influencers.

Despite us never offering virtual workshops before, we worked with these individuals to create these high-value experiences. Our community responded — as hundreds of attendees signed up for the several sessions we created, which not only provided much-needed immediate revenue, but it also opened up an entirely new business line for us.

3. We reimagined the products we already had.
In 2019, very few virtual conferences existed. Those that first started emerging in 2020 were mostly free. We reimagined what our conference series could look like if it was “virtual-ized” — and still be worthwhile for attendees to pay for. In Spring 2022, we introduced a Virtual edition of INDUSTRY that ended up being one of our most profitable events ever (complete with Ben Folds playing a virtual set just for our attendees!).

We’re grateful to have adapted greatly throughout COVID in a time where many companies that have relied on live events as a primary revenue stream have struggled. But it couldn’t have happened without all of the above happening. 

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Angela Olea

As a nationwide senior placement and referral service, Assisted Living Locators quickly adopted a high-tech and high touch approach to meet the challenges of the pandemic. Our company’s franchisees used ingenuity with virtual consultations and online tours of senior communities to provide care when most facilities closed their doors to tours.

By leveraging technology, our franchisees created joint videos with communities for safe virtual tours, zoom call meetings for in-take interviews, and utilized state health department databases for the latest COVID-19 information to protect older adults. Assisted Living Locators franchisees persevered during the pandemic by upgrading personal service and guidance.

Our 140 Assisted Living Locators franchisees became dementia care certified, making us the first nationwide senior placement service to achieve system-certification. Using this knowledge, along with high tech tools, our franchisees are providing a new standard of solution-based alternatives for families.

Throughout the pandemic, Assisted Living Locators franchisees reached out to their communities to help in many meaningful ways. From letter writing campaigns to isolated seniors, to countless hours of Meals On Wheels volunteering, to collecting and donating iPads to ensure senior veterans connect to their families, our franchisees have worked tirelessly to support and improve the quality of life for seniors.

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Corey Tyner

Everyone wants to buy and sell
I had a firm belief that there are still a lot of determined buyers out there who want to take advantage of the current market. I took advantage of the bright side, such as low-interest rates. I realized that market activity would continue despite what the pandemic may appear to be.

Using technology
No more face-to-face meetings with prospects or clients, much smaller open houses, and no door-knocking/networking to generate leads are all examples of social distance.

Virtual meetings
Until further notice, everything was under lockdown, and this was a new reality. So I didn’t simply sit around waiting for it to end since I didn’t know how long it would take. I had to adapt and overcome obstacles. When I needed to talk to a prospect or customer who would ordinarily call for a face-to-face appointment, I utilized video chat apps like Zoom, Skype, or Google Hangouts. Video calls are far more successful than phone conversations in establishing rapport.

Hosting virtual open houses
At the time, open houses were ghost towns. Furthermore, several brokerages were beginning to prohibit them for the time being open. What was my strategy if I didn’t want to lose my listing? Having a virtual open house. There were several approaches I could take. Ideally, I hired a 3D camera technician to come in and film a tour. I put the 3D photos on a landing page and used Facebook and Google ads to promote the “virtual open house.”

Digital marketing
I’ve always been a big fan of Facebook and Google advertisements since they’ve helped me develop my business. And while the pandemic may not have seemed like the perfect moment to start using Facebook advertisements at the time, it turned out to be the exact opposite. That was a fantastic moment to launch Facebook advertisements.

Why? Many people were lounging around at home doing nothing except browsing social media. As a result, more individuals were viewing my adverts. Because many other businesses had to cut back on their advertising, there was less competition. Consequently, I was able to get more exposure for less money, resulting in exceptionally cheap costs-per-lead. I experienced around 30% more ad reach during the pandemic.

Some types of ad campaigns that I ran: Hottest homes for sale in (area) under ($X) Virtual open house Free guide for home buyer’s Free guide for home valuation Free guide for home seller’s Please link this to my website ‘Buy Yo Dirt’

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Luisa Favaretto

When the pandemic hit, we quickly realized that people were not going to be able to travel much, so we transformed our travel website into one that focused more on places to live and settle.

We updated our content based on interviews and market research to reflect the shift in people’s preferences for cities that offer more space and are more livable overall. As a result of this shift, we have achieved more growth in 2021 than ever before.

Stephen Light

The pandemic heightened environmental awareness, and over the past two years, consumer demands for organizational transparency and accountability regarding social causes have spiked.

Our mission was always focused on the elimination of harsh chemicals found in typical memory foam mattresses, but the pandemic threw into relief just how much more we could be doing to offset climate change, especially in the eyes of consumers.

In 2021, our company committed to a more eco-friendly footprint and launched products made with sustainable latex and bamboo materials. A pivot towards further sustainability was exactly what we felt the mattress industry needed to stay relevant and in touch with the world. We sourced all-natural and sustainable materials like Talalay latex, organic cotton and wool, and recycled steel coils.

Our two new latex hybrid mattresses and new bamboo sheet set are the truly natural options that we felt the market needed.

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Monica Barnett

I run a wardrobe styling and personal branding company which is traditionally very hands-on (e.g., touching fabrics, dressing people, ensuring fit, connecting with people) but the pandemic put a halt to that along with all of my speaking opportunities.

Given I am visual when I think of the word pivot, I immediately envision a line that is required to change directions thus creating an acute or obtuse angle of some sort, and then the line continues moving in that new direction.

As a small business owner, I adapted by making my services accessible digitally and being able to access me online/virtually. More specifically, I created an online style school to allow people to do short-form courses that still allowed them to pose questions to me but get the key takeaways that I would share in a one-on-one session, I doubled down on my social media by getting a social media marketer to help me create more posts that would engage people so they could still feel a “connection” to me and like they were getting to know me, and I shifted all of my in-person services to virtual options but leaving the same pricing intact.

I think the BIG keys in my pivot were not just offering virtual styling but:

1. In finding ways to stay connected and create touchpoints so clients felt like they were still get personalized attention, and
2. Reinforcing that style needs to happen whether they were at home, on Zoom, or doing occasional in-office. So no new services but finding ways to change the current services to virtual offerings!!

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Peter Robert

The pandemic has forced businesses across all industries to implement massive digital transformation efforts to stay relevant and productive. With ECS Office being a business that provides IT management services, we used the pandemic to update and increase the services that we provide.

Many businesses at the beginning of the pandemic had no idea how to run a remote working environment, so we decided to use that as an angle for advertising and pushing our services. We began using our social media more consistently, and advertising content on our business website that could provide business leaders with more insight into navigating their IT through the pandemic.

By creating more specific, useful social media engagement, this helped increase traffic on our website, and secure more conversions in the long-run. One of the most popular features we offer at ECS Office is our free IT consultations for businesses. This was something we really decided to push at the beginning of the pandemic, as it’s a very affordable way for businesses to gain insight into the current state of their business’ IT department.

During times of transition, collecting as much insight and information as possible is crucial for making informed business decisions.

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William Scott Goldman

Flexibility has always been key to our firm’s survival and growth. And this past year was no exception. Recognizing early on that the pandemic would affect various geographic areas and economic sectors in different ways, we decided to expand our focus globally, also reaching out to a wider range of industries.

As a result, when certain parts of the U.S. and particular regions of the world would see a spike in COVID cases, any consequent declines in demand for our services would be offset by increased demand elsewhere, thus ensuring a consistent flow of business and no interruption of workflow during these challenging times. We now intend to continue with more of the same as we’re perfectly positioned for this year and beyond.

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Liviu Tanase

Our entire team went remote in March 2020, but we soon realized the need for our service was going to increase quickly. As most businesses used email to communicate critical updates, they needed to make sure their email lists were fresh and healthy.

Using an email verifier is a must, so we stayed focused on best serving our customers. On top of that, we launched more tools our customers needed to ensure their emails land in the inbox.

In April 2020, we launched three tools:

• An email server tester to help senders make sure their configurations are correct.
• An inbox placement tester that allows them to see if their emails will land in the inbox (if not, they can adjust before they send).
• A blacklist monitoring tool to help them check if they risk being blocked by inbox providers.

In the spring of 2021, we launched a fourth tool, Activity Data, that tells them which of their subscribers have been active in their inboxes for up to a year prior. While some of our competitors have added extra tools to their platforms, none of them offer the variety of features ZeroBounce does.

The ability to access all these features on one single platform makes ZeroBounce the preferred service for brands like LinkedIn, Airbnb and Samsung. Another critical aspect is that we’ve worked relentlessly on our product and brand awareness. When the pandemic hit, ZeroBounce was already highly regarded in the email verification industry.

The product itself, the 24/7 customer support, our PR and marketing through the years, the awards we received – they all built up our brand, and that certainly helped when we needed to be top of mind. During the pandemic, we’ve intensified our PR and marketing efforts with tremendous results.” — Liviu Tanase, Founder and CEO of ZeroBounce.

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Ouriel Lemmel

The single most important mindset we had to adopt in order to make it through a pandemic was to be flexible. Our business longer functions in the way it always has.

We worked quickly to come up with new ways of thinking about our business and how it would function in the new context. Instead of finding this change stressful, we thought of it as an obstacle to solve.

We immediately introduced more technology into our daily work lives. Video conferencing and collaboration apps made sure our team members were always in contact with each other and felt supported no matter where they were working from. Because we were early adopters, we have managed to stay relevant and we weathered the pandemic coming out ever stronger on the other side.

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Paige Arnof-Fenn

I started a global branding and digital marketing firm 20 years ago. The biggest change for me, my team and my clients from the virus is the shutdown of all networking events, travel and conferences. This is typically a very busy time with many events, trade shows, business meetings on the road, etc. and for the past almost 2 years everyone is staying put and meeting virtually instead.

I have had more Zoom and Skype calls in the past 15 days than the 12 months pre pandemic! Pivoting to online meetings, webinars, etc. is a smart and productive way companies can continue to have conversations that educate and inform, build relationships and move forward during this crisis period.

So first and foremost I have learned to help small businesses to be flexible and open minded so we can keep working together during the crisis and create more flexible capacity going forward over the next year as the economy fully reopens. If small groups on the team want to talk through specific issues (managing anxiety, kids, parents, etc.) virtual coffee meetings online have been helpful too.

A few colleagues have even met online after work for virtual happy hour/beer/cocktails as well when they had more time to chat. It is starting to feel like the new normal by leveraging technology to build and maintain my relationships. We have learned that finding routines and things we can control helps I think.

Communication is key to all of our community, customer and employee engagement. Another pivot because of the pandemic, this is a great time to build your brand through online marketing and social media. Social media and technology are 24/7 so it is easy to get sucked into it but you do not have to let it run your life!

My advice is to pick a few things you enjoy doing and do them really well. You cannot be everywhere all the time so choose high impact activities that work for you and play to your strengths. I am a big fan of Content Marketing and Thought Leadership which are great ways to build your brand, increase your visibility more broadly, raise your profile and attract more clients/customers.

Activities like hosting a podcast or webinar, speaking at a conference online/offline, writing articles, building your following on social media all contribute to increasing your awareness with potential customers and building your credibility with a larger community. If you are not committed to blogging at regular intervals (weekly/biweekly/monthly) instead of trying to start your own blog or newsletter, try contributing regularly to existing well trafficked blogs in your industry or newsletters of like minded organizations reaching the same target audience as you.

Make sure you put your URL or contact info on it so they can find you and follow up. When your articles or talks become available online, make sure to send them out via social media to all your friends, followers and contacts. Everyone is not going to like you or hire you but for the ones who would be a great fit for you make sure they feel and keep a connection and give them a reason to remember you so that when they need your help they think of you first.

Don’t let social media drive you crazy, you do not need to be everywhere, the key is just to pick your platform, it does not matter which ones you choose just pick one or 2 that are authentic to you. It should look and sound like you and the brand you have built. Whether yours is polished or more informal, chatty or academic, humorous or snarky, it is a way for your personality to come through.

Whether you are B2B or B2C, thought leaders need to be on LinkedIn so that they can be found easily. It adds credibility and transparency when you know the people you are meeting or working with. LinkedIn has become more than an online resume or rolodex, it is the foundation for building trusted relationships in the digital economy.

You do not need to blog or be on all social media platforms but make sure you are active on the ones where you are. If your audience does not use Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to find you then you do not need to make them a priority. For many professional service businesses like mine, leveraging LinkedIn matters the most.

We have learned that CRM tools are only as effective as the relationships you have built so disconnecting from technology periodically and focusing on cultivating human, face to face relationships when not social distancing is important. Meeting for coffee or lunch even virtually can accomplish so much more than e-mail exchanges, social media posts, etc. and it is a great way to get to know people better, their interests, hobbies, and dreams.

I have found that building trusted relationships is what drives my business and technology supports them once they are solidified. Technology helps advance the conversation but it will never replace the human interaction that builds trust over time. I predict the most trusted leaders and brands will have a big competitive advantage in the new normal that evolves in a post-Corona world.

Employees, customers and clients will remember who treated them well during the crisis and they will be rewarded with loyalty from earning that trust during the bad times. The current crisis has provided a stage for leaders to rise to the occasion. We have learned that it is about touching people in meaningful ways which may mean being less busy not more for a while.

Maybe the silver lining is that this crisis reminds us that we have always needed each other and we have learned that everyone is struggling right now to find a new normal so the key is to show our humanity and compassion while we look out for one another.

With Zoom, social media, cell phones, etc. we see that technology does not have to be isolating, it can be used to build our real world communities and relationships too! This advice is not fancy and does not require big budgets but it does take time. It is a smart investment to get this right. Authenticity is the key, it has to be and feel real for it to work I think. For professional service firms like mine we will recover even if our revenues slow from the crisis.

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Cody Candee 

The pandemic changed promotional narratives, pushing ecommerce companies to focus their efforts more on informative customer communications that related to their current experiences.

As the stresses of the COVID began to wear on the public, businesses realized that pivoting to a more compassionate and sensitive communication style became necessary.

Addressing physical and mental health concerns of customers and employees alike, and utilizing a public service announcement style, was needed and used by ecommerce businesses to be more sensitive to the current climate. By pivoting in this manner, they were able to show they were part of the community, rather than just selling to it.

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Yuvi Alpert

The pandemic caused many problems, one of the major ones being the shipping of goods, which caused a loss in sales, so last year, we pivoted to pop-up shops to bring our products into the physical market space. The mountain of available retail space created a unique chance for retailers to lease property for short periods of time at very affordable rates.

Pop-up shops generated over 20 billion dollars in revenue in 2021 and will continue to grow in the foreseeable future. They not only allow retailers to get their in-stock products in the hands of customers, but created wonderful branding, promotional, and market research opportunities to continue to benefit businesses in the years to come.

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Woody Sears

The pandemic caused an increased demand on ecommerce businesses, and thus, extra stress on their websites, which means that companies had to pivot towards digital capacity adjustments to handle increased demand.

Nothing can be more crippling to an ecommerce business than a website crash or problems with accepting online purchases. Hiring experts to handle and increase bandwidth capacity, digital communications, and shopping cart transactions, was a necessity in order to avoid disruptions in service.

Ecommerce businesses that brought in professionals to assess, and then implement a strategic plan, were the ones that best weathered the website traffic onslaught.

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Amira Irfan

The pandemic has been a significant event for the world. It has affected the economy, culture, and way of life. The pandemic is not just about the virus, it is also about how you adapt your business to survive. One of the ways we adapted as a company to reach our target market was to focus more on video creation and Facebook Lives rather than written blog content.

We also developed new digital products and services (legal templates and blog online coaching) that people could sign up for and begin receiving results right away. Because people’s attention spans were short, it was critical to design products that were inexpensive and offered quick wins.

Video became a powerful tool for our marketing and business. It has become the most popular form of content on the internet. One of the main reasons why video has become so popular is that it helps communicate ideas in a more personal manner than other types of content like text or images.

It also provides us the opportunity to engage with customers on an emotional level, which leads to higher conversion rates and more sales.

Abe Breuer

There have been a lot of uncertainties and volatility in the market since Covid 19. Most business owners have had a terrible year, from canceled events to supply chain issues to the actual threat of Covid-19.

One thing was certain: we needed to be adaptable. Flexibility is essential in times of extreme uncertainty, as anything that does not bend will break. We learned at VIP To Go and John To Go that our staff was quite concerned about the long- and short-term effects of Covid-19 on themselves and their family.

We wanted to take some of the worries away from our employees because they are like family to us. After a great discussion, we decided to implement a comprehensive healthcare plan for all of our employees.

We only did it because we care about our staff, but we’ve already seen renewed passion and loyalty as a result. Our colleagues once again saw how much we care about them and wanted to reciprocate by showing their gratitude. We also offered a complete refund on any cancellations submitted within 48 hours, which significantly increased our sales.

This was so successful that we continue to do it. Improving communication was also critical to our survival and success. We devised a new communication strategy for clients, partners, suppliers, investors, and other stakeholders. Keeping customers up to date on our company’s policies, any operational changes, and any new methods we can serve them.

Furthermore, I discovered that the ability to pivot and be adaptable distinguishes the winners from the losers.

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Wayne Winsley

The pandemic caused us to totally pivot from the large assembly-style in school presentations which were our main product and develop something new to serve the in-need students who are our core clients.

We developed and launched Brave Enough To Fail’s BOSS Academy, a twelve session course that equips students with actionable tools and practices that they can use to achieve success in school and beyond.

As a result of quickly adapting to the changing landscape, we are now able to serve more students than ever before and Brave Enough To Fail is now the fastest growing student motivational program in America. 

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Calloway Cook

Illuminate Labs is a supplement manufacturer, so when we officially launched in March of 2020 we planned to grow through wholesale and retail marketing. The goal was to get our product in as many retail stores as possible, starting regionally and expanding domestically and internationally.

The pandemic shut down pretty much all of our retail marketing goals. We couldn’t pitch in stores, we couldn’t attend conferences, and many retail stores were shut down for months on end. This forced us to pivot to content marketing. Towards the end of 2020 we began formulating a content marketing strategy which we launched in July of 2021.

At the time we were achieving around 2,500 organic monthly pageviews to our site. Today we get over 100,000 monthly pageviews to our site, and nearly all of our sales are through our website rather than retail.

We only have our products in one single retail location and the pivot has been so successful that we plan to grow online-only at least for the time being.

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Bishal Biswas

The pandemic caused us to shift our entire business model remotely. Due to the pandemic’s increased uncertainty, we used different tools at our disposal, such as Trello and Slack. Through this technology, our employees could effectively communicate with one another and bridge any communication gaps.

Google Meet replaced the physical meeting at our office during the lockdown. This measure allowed for streamlined communication and didn’t affect our organization’s operations. Unfortunately, we didn’t introduce any new product line as our priority was to improve company culture. Through a flexible work environment, we gave reassurance to our employees that we hadn’t left them to fend for themselves.

Jason Kraemer

Our e-commerce business made a major pivot in our user acquisition strategy to adjust to the pandemic. Our acquisition had been nearly entirely paid ads for the first few years of the business, but when Covid hit we very quickly realized that would not be sustainable.

The cost per click skyrocketed and conversion rates plummeted. We made a major pivot from paid ads to 100% organic traffic acquisition. This was a major shift in the business model and meant creating & implementing a brand new SEO strategy.

Jesse Richardson

We’re a small, family-owned business who were impacted by the pandemic like everyone else, but we didn’t let the past two years get us down. We’ve continued to expand and actually add new products to reach a broader audience. While we’ve always been passionate about CBD tea, we’ve expanded into CBD daily superfoods, essential oils and body products, rosin honey and coconut oils, and more.

Our acclaimed lines of products are sold all over the country and we ship nationwide as well, which further expands our reach. The pandemic has forced us to be even more creative and innovative to stay afloat. Now, we like to think we carry something for everyone.

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Victor Garcia

I opened up my paleteria in Haltom City in October 2016 under the name Helados la Azteca. It was basically an extension of my family’s business in Waco, Texas. Between my father, brother, and several uncles, we own over 12 paleterias in Texas.

It runs in our blood. That being said, while my family has made paletas from scratch for as long as I can remember, we purchased scoop ice cream from Blue Bell or Blue Bunny throughout the years. I believed we needed to change that and incorporate the Mexican flavors of our paletas to the ice cream as well. In 2018, after many failed attempts, I learned how to make homemade ice cream onsite.

I added flavors to the menu like avocado, mamey, tres leches, and even tequila. People loved it, and we continued to tweak the recipes to improve the taste and quality of our ice cream. In Feb. 2019, Helados la Azteca was invited to participate in Big Taste of Fort Worth, a premiere event that raises money each year for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tarrant County.

We won Best Dessert out of over 20 of Fort Worth’s best restaurants and caterers. This validation really boosted our confidence that we could do so much with our brand. In May of 2019, we cleaned up an old building next to us and began renting it out for parties and events.

It quickly grew as our community really needed an affordable spot to throw parties. Later that year, we began building out our online store. I worked several hours each day learning to code and build our website and product line. It started off extremely slow. In the first month of going live, we only made a couple of sales. We continued working to improve the site and over the months it has proven to be a worthy investment.

It accounts for 33% of our revenue today. COVID 2020, the year of COVID, was a wake up call for us all. As an entrepreneur, you expect unforeseeable challenges that force the business to pivot. It’s probably one of the most exciting parts. COVID brought an entirely different level of uncertainty.

You didn’t know when they may shut restaurants down, how long it would all last, or if one of our team members would get infected. Never mind the worries of providing for your family and their health. We invested heavily early in the year expecting to kick off our busy season in March strong. As the pandemic hit and sales dropped to all time lows, we weren’t sure if we’d be able to pay our bills. We took a HUGE gamble by moving locations, rebranding and investing heavily in our e-commerce store. Three big challenges with no guarantee.

Months of hard work and dedication later we saw our efforts bear fruit. We now have a simple, universal name, a better location with a drive-thru, and our customers can reach us in safer, more convenient ways. In early 2021, we permanently closed our event space down (which we opened in 2019 to offer our community an affordable place to throw parties) after many months of poor performance and transformed it into a fulfillment center for our online store.

We believe in our mission, want to bring our delicious treats to more spots in Texas and want to give our team more opportunities so we are looking to open another storefront but have been struggling to convince landlords to give us a shot at leasing their spaces. Nonetheless, we will continue searching. This is simply another obstacle we must overcome in our journey.

Lindsay McCormick

Many leaders were thrown through a loop when Covid hit, especially when their daily management tasks often morphed into being a marketer, a content writer or whatever the day called for. People were working from home for the first time and sometimes, things fell through the cracks.

During this time, leaders either put expansion plans on hold, or found ways to slow down the process, so that it wasn’t depleting funds during extremely uncertain times. Additionally, leaders became mentors – and the idea of an open door policy was embraced more than ever before.

Every successful leader had to have their eyes on their team – anticipating when there was a lack of engagement. You see, with employee retention at an all-time low, there was no time (or often a budget) for hiring and training new team members. However, at Bite, we didn’t allow the pandemic to slow us down.

We still continued with the process of offering new products, and continuing to monitor our current product line. In fast, slowing down a bit during uncertain times actually allowed us the opportunity to reflect, brainstorm like crazy, and get really innovative and creative.

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Liz Hutz

The Covid pandemic has forced so many companies to shut down or file for bankruptcy. Thankfully we were able to survive the scare. We adapted by digitalizing our operations to cut costs and alleviate loss of international competitiveness.

We have made good use of information and communication technologies to enable remote work, supply chain management and an online relationship with our clients. No, we did not introduce any new product lines or services. Our only pivot was to digitalize our operations.

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John DiBella

How Did You Adapt? I didn’t have to. My business has always used a remote working model, and the small staff that I employ all work remotely. The nature of my business meant that it was uniquely placed to cope with the problems the pandemic created and capitalized on the surge in people looking to start their own online businesses. As horrible as it sounds, the pandemic actually helped my business to expand.

Did You Have To Introduce New Product Lines Or Services? We didn’t have to, as the service we offer caters to people setting up their online businesses and we were almost overwhelmed by new clients by the time we entered the second month of lockdown, and we’ve been rushed off our feet ever since.

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Ryan O’Donnell

 “We communicate with our clients as much as possible. It’s our way to be able to pivot during the pandemic successfully. All businesses are competing for attention to retain existing customers and attract new ones, and it isn’t easy to stand out among your competitors.

What worked well for us was continuing to connect with our customers across platforms. Connecting with them allows us to let them know that we understand their challenges, especially during the pandemic, and tell them about the strategies we have that enable us to adapt to the new normal. We also let them know that we are doing safety measures to keep our employees and customers safe during the pandemic.”

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Marina Vaamonde

I make all my decisions through a framework called First Principles, which is a thought process in which you boil a problem down to its most molecular level and always ask yourself the question: “What am I absolutely sure is true?”

Likewise, during the chaos caused by the pandemic and the madness that happened in the real estate market, I did the same thing. I knew that the changes in the market and the tremendous price inflation were caused by certain fundamentals: a lack of housing supply, a labor shortage, people wanting to move to less densely-populated areas (especially because they could work remotely), and supply chain issues that caused the price of materials to skyrocket.

Hence, I addressed these fundamentals, especially the issue of materials and labor shortages. We’re trying to partner with trade schools so that we can hire students who graduate and we’re trying to source materials more locally so that we’re less vulnerable to supply chain problems. All in all, we adapt by sticking to our First Principles and not letting “hot takes” in the media sway our decisions.

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Federico Crespo

It’s more that our clients adapted rather than us. Valiot has always been a company that operates remotely, however manufacturing has typically been more of an in-person industry, and one that, in my experience, likes to cling to older methods. However, with the pandemic we noticed that far more manufacturers were open to change, despite limiting their capital expenditures.

So we started a more aggressive sales campaign and supplied data showing manufacturers just how much money they are losing by sticking to older methods. This garnered a lot of positive results, and we have seen more and more companies open up to the idea of using remote operations, which in turn has led to more clients and greater innovation in the industry as a whole.

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Jon Carder

The health-care system is getting tested in ways never before seen in modern times, so it was beneficial to lean more into a concept that not only gave people more control over their physical and mental wellbeing, but also didn’t further inundate medical and laboratory professionals during a prolonged pandemic.

We created a way to provide greater health access to people by offering an easy, at-home wellness testing application.

Instead of going to a doctor and undergoing complex and time-consuming lab work to discover which toxins are affecting you or what nutrients you’re deficient in, we created a way to make testing easy and affordable for everyday people.

Our business is accelerating because the services we offer are greatly beneficial to those looking to better balance their lives. At-home medical testing is turning into a commonly used practice in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, so our product is perfectly in line with what the public desires.

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The post 30 Entrepreneurs From USA Share Their Experiences With The Challenges They During The Pandemic first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Jed Morley