From working too many hours to being let down by a vendor and underestimating prices, a brand new survey reveals the most important hurdles enterprise house owners confronted when first beginning out.
A survey of 1,000 small enterprise house owners (SBOs) and freelancers pinpointed the issues they need they’d recognized from the beginning.
Outcomes confirmed monetary missteps as some of the frequent challenges SBOs confronted – underestimating simply how a lot issues would price and making certain correct money circulate impacted over a 3rd of SBOs (36%) early on.
Wishing they’d had extra assist or been capable of do extra advertising was the second-most talked about space (29%), whereas with the ability to preserve work-life steadiness was one thing over one in 4 (27%) enterprise house owners and freelancers stated they discovered troublesome to handle.
Whereas the battle to achieve work-life steadiness affected many new entrepreneurs, outcomes confirmed a supportive neighborhood can actually make the distinction – eight in 10 SBOs attribute a lot of their success to their community of companions and distributors.
The survey performed by Talker Analysis on behalf of HP for its Immediate Ink service discovered that whereas many SBOs confronted early adversity, they constructed confidence of their management capability – the typical SBO surveyed stated it took simply over two years to really feel like a completely assured enterprise proprietor.
That have is hard-earned – the typical SBO estimates they put in simply over 50 hours every week to launch their enterprise or set up themself as a freelancer of their discipline.
1 / 4 (27%) of homeowners stated 60-hour weeks or longer have been the norm, whereas one in six (16%) have been clocking greater than 70 hours.
“Having a trusted tech companion is important for small enterprise house owners,” stated Diana Sroka, SVP of client companies product for HP. “With restricted time and funds, it’s essential to seek out options which are sensible, versatile and adaptable to the distinctive wants of every enterprise.”
These lengthy weeks present a small enterprise proprietor should typically put on many hats. In actual fact, the typical proprietor estimates they did the equal of three full-time roles, with customer support, operations and gross sales being the commonest areas SBOs stated they needed to handle themselves.
That locations much more emphasis on the necessity for sturdy partnerships and a dependable community, but many SBOs report being let down. Two in 5 (38%) stated a vendor or companion had failed them in a roundabout way that considerably impacted their enterprise.
It’s no shock then that 79% claimed having a trusted community of companions and distributors is essential to their success – they even ranked having good connections in enterprise as extra essential than having ample money circulate when evaluating what contributed to efficiency (76% vs. 64%).
Apparently, regardless of the hardships, 41% stated they wouldn’t change something in any respect of their entrepreneurial journey as a result of they felt these experiences helped them develop extra resilient and have been an integral a part of their studying.
And to go it alone, you want the imaginative and prescient – when requested what their most indispensable useful resource was as an entrepreneur, SBOs overwhelmingly cited “my very own creativity.”
“Within the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship, the significance of sturdy partnerships – particularly with a dependable tech companion – can’t be overstated,” added Sroka. “Too many small enterprise house owners face setbacks on account of damaged belief, missed expectations and know-how failures. Constructing a robust tech partnership is essential to retaining enterprise shifting ahead in a continually evolving panorama.”
BIGGEST HURDLES FACED BY SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
- Underestimating prices (36%)
- Not doing sufficient advertising (29%)
- Ignoring work-life steadiness (27%)
- Pricing services or products incorrectly (25%)
- Not doing sufficient analysis available on the market (15%)
- Selecting the incorrect distributors or companions (14%)
- Not investing sufficient in know-how (10%)
- Not delegating (10%)
- Neglecting buyer expertise (7%)
- Not outsourcing (7%)
- Skimping on authorized and administrative necessities (6%)
Survey methodology:
Talker Analysis surveyed 1,000 small enterprise house owners (SBOs) and freelancers (cut up 50/50); the survey was commissioned by HP and administered and performed on-line by Talker Analysis between March 17 – March 26, 2025.
