What are you struggling with right now?

[DustinG]

Figured this can be a good way to share problems, and hopefully give other board members ideas of how they can help others (either on here or through their own business).

What are you currently struggling with in your business (or in your decision to start a business)? In other words, what are some of the biggest pains your facing?

I'll start:

-Getting website traffic. I feel like I'm creating valuable content, but struggling with marketing.

-Getting my audience to engage on Facebook and Twitter.

-Getting visitors to sign up for my email list.

-Finding time to work on my business while working a full-time job, and raising 2 kids.

Who's next?

 

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[DennisD]

-Doing tedious gruntwork until I can hire a VA.
-Finding a VA worth hiring
-Stopping myself from jumping on new ideas until current biz is more automated.

 

[Hope]

Heres a few:

• Getting traffic to my sites, I can't afford thousands of dollars in search engine and social media advertisements yet, so organic traffic has been kinda a pain.
• Doing tedious work until I can automate some parts of the sites.
• Getting better conversions for some of the higher priced products.
• Getting enough money to fund a big project I am planning.
• I cant get extremely enthused for the small businesses I operate right now, I want to move on to bigger projects I have planned, but I need to fund them first, so its frustrating.
• Even with my experience so far, I still get annoyed setting up split tests.

Anyone care to solve these problems for me for three easy payments of $19.99?

 

[Evelio]

-Getting website traffic. I feel like I'm creating valuable content, but struggling with marketing.

-Getting my audience to engage on Facebook and Twitter.

-Getting visitors to sign up for my email list.

Hey Dustin,

This article might help you with some of your current issues. Let me know what you think.

 

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[Stanley Mala]

Balancing my time.
High school (IB) starts in about two weeks and I feel like I need to prepare for it. At the same time I'm close to finishing my "flagship" app.

This will be a long night! :/

 

[Andy Black]

Not talking to or hanging around enough people who "get" what I'm trying to do. It results in much reinventing of the wheel.

 

[DustinG]

Hey Dustin,

This article might help you with some of your current issues. Let me know what you think.

Awesome post!

 

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[Gale4rc]

The balance between fixing bugs on the web app and building features.

 

[AdrianL]

Preventing myself from shooting myself in the leg... Once an idea pops in my head, I'm thinking it could be something good, I figure ways to implement it, and see that there might be some demand, but later when other things pop up, I think that maybe it's not worth my time, maybe there isn't that much of a demand, and I can't find a easier way to test it without implementing it partially...

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Sticking to one idea at a time, makes my progress slower than ever.

 

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[Boo Blizzi]

Finding the balance between design and copy on my landing pages.

 

[Boo Blizzi]

Preventing myself from shooting myself in the leg... Once an idea pops in my head, I'm thinking it could be something good, I figure ways to implement it, and see that there might be some demand, but later when other things pop up, I think that maybe it's not worth my time, maybe there isn't that much of a demand, and I can't find a easier way to test it without implementing it partially...

Try this: https://www.leanstartupmachine.com/validationboard/

 

[ChasingPaper]

Needing some money, would like to start flipping some houses. Got my real estate license, so hopefully I can make some money selling some houses in the near future. In two years, going to start up my own brokerage.

 

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[SarahSH]

Getting through the amazon red tape on restricted categories...making website improvements...lots of things to do before making sales on these platforms

 

[Stanley Mala]

amazon's review process. It's not a bug, it's a feature! They couldn't upload a level, because nothing was created in it! This is frickin spam protection not a bug!!! Losing potential customers here due to bullshit

 

[DustinG]

Sticking to one idea at a time, makes my progress slower than ever.

It's definitely tough having a lot of different ideas and trying to figure out which one(s) to pursue.

It's also a big reason so many businesses fail - people give up on their idea too soon to move onto new ideas.

 

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[Solrac]

Trying to see opportunities to pursue. I can't think of any, but I am getting better at listening to problems.

 

[Mike.B]

Not accomplishing anything right now. No job, very little income, and not communicating with anyone. I'm basically at a standstill.

And ... I've just about given up on any previous business ideas. <------ Sucks!

 

[NicoleMarie]

Great idea having a public vent board ha.

Concerns
Mental:
-starting off with a big idea when I have no experience
-having to lead a cofounder more experienced than me; worrying about my competency
-still not quite convinced that I'm going to "make it big" with my first idea
-mom still not confident in this and wants me to get a part time job (ugh)

Technical:
-hoping I'll have all the legal/accounting stuff covered
-it's been tough designing a website layout from scratch
-the wifi in our house sucks, booster didn't help

@DustinG it's good that you at least have a job so you aren't relying on your business to cover expenses. Also, pretty sure the founder of Zappos had a baby during startup mode so you're not alone!

 

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[Mexidan]

We´re having trouble coming up with our "why".. a solid story or value proposition that helps with our branding on an emotional level rather than just the ´technical´ benefits.

 

[sle3pyguii]

Not accomplishing anything right now. No job, very little income, and not communicating with anyone. I'm basically at a standstill.

And ... I've just about given up on any previous business ideas. <------ Sucks!

I was pretty much at this point also a month ago. What I did was I got a job. It's totally not what most people would do, but for me...it helped me become more productive and social again and reminded me why I wanted to be in the Fastlane (working for another person sucks, no matter what the job). I'm back on track now and making more progress on my business than before. Good luck and keep your head up!

As for my struggles, it's mainly having a bit of confidence in the product. I'm deploying more money than I'm used to for a sample run (I need specific materials to outdo my competitors).

That and I'm afraid of failing since I've never tried selling outside of Amazon...

 

[pickeringmt]

I am struggling with becoming who I want to be and not who I am - and the growing pains that come with it.

Its like pulling a dead body out of my life - or maybe a life out of a dead body.

Still, it's better than the alternative.

 

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[theag]

Not enough time. I work in/on the family business (marketing agency) during the day and on my own stuff (my own physical product through ecommerce) in the evening. Last 3 weeks I've been in the office from 9/10am to 2-3am, doing nothing else than working, eating, sleeping and sometimes showering, and its starting to get exhausting.

 

[Ninjakid]

I got 99 problems but a business ain't one.

Nah I'm kidding

Actually I was probably where everyone else was. Thinking to myself "okay I have this great idea. Now what the F*ck do I do to make it happen?"

I'm actually not struggling with anything right now. Yes there's a lot of work ahead of me, and yes, there's now employer to guarantee me a paycheck this Friday; but I'm calm and relaxed and watching everything play out as it should.

A few weeks prior I was really down though because of a break-up, and I wasn't doing any work on my business. But I'm feeling a lot better now thanks to the positivity from friends, family, and people on this forum.

 

[Guest24480]

Sticking with one idea or finding an idea that I can roll with and be confident in. I seem to find something wrong in every idea, but I'm almost positive that one idea on my extensive list is do-able. I just can't seem to find which one or convince myself to pursue one..

 

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[Jakeeck]

Seems that not being able to stick to one idea is a common problem. Makes me feel a lot better. I always get so excited about an idea and then a week later I convince myself it sucks and go to something new, repeat process. I'm working on one right now and I've told myself I'm just going to finish it and see what happens, no matter how wrong it starts to feel. It's likely some kind of unfamiliar fear that I haven't faced before that's preventing me from finishing things that seemed like great ideas at first.

 

[XOthermic]

I'm struggling to find my role in my business.

It's jointly run. My partner handles alot of cut and dry finances/production.

I fill in with marketing/sales but I basically do anything that jumps on our radar.

I KNOW what to need to do but have not developed strongly enough as a person to just go do it!!!

will be taking action on this tomorrow thanks!

 

[Boo Blizzi]

@DustinG it's good that you at least have a job so you aren't relying on your business to cover expenses. Also, pretty sure the founder of Zappos had a baby during startup mode so you're not alone!

If im not mistaken, Tony Hsieh had millions from an earlier venture where he sold an ad network to Microsoft for over $250 mil. So I dont think its quite the same thing.

But I have personally experienced this so use your desire to provide the best life for your newborn as your motivation.

 

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[Boo Blizzi]

Seems that not being able to stick to one idea is a common problem. Makes me feel a lot better. I always get so excited about an idea and then a week later I convince myself it sucks and go to something new, repeat process. I'm working on one right now and I've told myself I'm just going to finish it and see what happens, no matter how wrong it starts to feel. It's likely some kind of unfamiliar fear that I haven't faced before that's preventing me from finishing things that seemed like great ideas at first.

I think all entrepreneurs experience this self doubt from time to time. Is there anyway you can quickly validate your biz ideas before spending alot of time and money on them.

I know if a project shows promise, that could become a great motivator to stick with it and take action.

 

[NicoleMarie]

If im not mistaken, Tony Hsieh had millions from an earlier venture where he sold an ad network for Microsoft for over $250 mil. So I dont think its quite the same thing.

But I have personally experienced this so use your desire to provide the best life for your newborn as your motivation.

I think I actually do remember reading that, although I meant more along the lines of time. He still started from the beginning with Zappos and a baby, if I'm correct. Maybe he just used that money to hire a babysitter.