Are you thinking about becoming a new business owner? You might be doing this to escape the rat-race when looking for a job in a jam-packed market. Or, you could be keen to ensure financial stability as early as possible. While this is undoubtedly an exciting decision, it’s important to understand that the vast majority of new businesses do fail within their first year. To ensure that your company doesn’t simply become another failed experiment, you need to make sure that you understand some of the problems that you can encounter from day one when opening your doors.

Troublesome Employees

First, do think about your employees. Depending on the size of your business, it is likely that you are going to need to hire at least some employees. If you hire the wrong people, then they could cause a lot of headaches for your company that you will absolutely want to avoid. One of the ways that you can deal with this is by making sure that you have the right vetting process in place. It is possible to complete background checks on any employees that you are thinking about hiring. This is particularly worth doing if certain employees are going to be able to access sensitive data relating to your business. You need to have the right protections in place.

Be aware that employees can also cause issues for your business even if there are no red flags that prevent you from hiring them. That’s why it’s important to have a legal advisor on hand to rectify problems. This isn’t the only reason why you might need legal support – as we’ll discuss further down.

SEO Woes

It’s impossible to run a business online these days without using SEO. That much should be clear. SEO is the bread and butter of your marketing campaign. Don’t forget that the majority of interactions online still begin with a search query. So, customers don’t know what they’re looking for when they start their search. You just need to make sure that they lay eyes on your business.

One of the ways that you can do this is by having the right SEO strategy in place. Unfortunately, not all SEO companies are equal. As such, you should take some time to seek out the right company that will be able to deliver the best results with your business.

One of the issues that you must avoid here is blackhat SEO. This is going to damage your company and result in your business brand having to take a long road to recovery online. It’s another reason why you need to find a business that can provide the proven results that you are looking for.

You should also be aware of negative SEO campaigns. This is where competitors work to ensure that your brand appears at the top of the SERPs for the wrong reasons. Fortunately, there are steps that you can take to tackle this issue head on.

Review Bombing

Review bombing is similar to negative SEO campaigns. However, review bombing can be completed by competitors or potentially a group of customers who have taken a dislike to your business. This could be incredibly personal and not based on the quality of the products or the services that you deliver.

It can be disheartening to suffer from review bombing. Particularly, if you are a small business that is just starting to find its feet on the market. If you are worried about this, then we recommend that you consider hiring the services of an Amazon sellers lawyer if you are selling your products on Amazon or a similar service for other ecommerce ventures. They will help you through fighting back against this situation and could even work to get unfair reviews removed or discredited.

Heavy Costs

Another issue worth considering when setting up your business is heavy costs. It’s vital that your company doesn’t become weighed down by costs that you can’t manage. It’s also incredibly easy to slip into the red, particularly if you are keen to grow as quickly as possible. To avoid this, you should use an accounting service. This will allow you to keep track of your spending and your sales so you never bite off more than your accounts can chew.

Downtime

Finally, do make sure that you are thinking about the issue of downtime. The problem with downtime is that it will end up costing your business an absolute fortune. Even a few minutes of downtime could cost a business thousands in lost saies depending on the size and success rates of your company. This is why you need to understand what causes downtime. The problems that cause downtime will depend on your business model. For instance, you might find that it is due to a hack on your business by nefarious actors. This is why you should always think about putting the right security in place from day one. Don’t fall into the trap of cutting corners with security because this is going to damage your business prospects in the long term.

You could also find that downtime is due to a tech failure in your business model. Most new businesses will be completely reliant on tech investments working correctly. As such, it’s in your favor to invest in the best tech on the market and ensure that you are taking the right steps to keep it operating smoothly. One of the ways that you can do this is by hiring an IT support professional. They’ll keep the cogs turning for you.

Challenges Facing A New Business Owner

We hope this helps you understand some of the issues that you can encounter as a new business. By being aware of these issues, you can make sure that you are able to take care of them with preemptive action or ensure that they don’t get any worse further down the line. Remember, these issues may not kill your company completely, but they could make it more of a challenge to keep the doors of your business open. Particularly, when you are facing rising costs that are simply unsustainable for you to manage.