没人会提醒你的五大创业挑战
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创办一家公司时，你一定知道创业是有风险的。你知道，至少在短期内，你的公司不可能获得稳定的收入流，你也知道自己必然要牺牲前一份工作的潜在发展前景。你还知道，创业失败的风险还是很高的。这些都是常识。大多数创业者对这些可能性已经有了充分的准备。 但如果你一直在商海拼搏，你就会知道这些挑战并不是创业的全部风险。现实中将你打倒的，往往是那些意想不到的挑战。不幸的是，这些挑战很少被人提及。 1、意想不到的支出 对预算一丝不苟的人肯定非常讨厌这一点。比如说，你已经非常仔细地计算了所有产品成本，包括原材料的成本、租赁必要生产设备的成本、甚至是生产最终产品所需的劳动力成本。你的计算不留一个死角，你甚至算好了35%的利润率，你知道它也是这个行业的平均利润率。 但任何一种差异都会影响到整个模型。比如，如果塑料的成本上涨了怎么办？如果你选择的机器有瑕疵，你只能升级到一个更昂贵的版本怎么办？如果你估计的劳动力成本太低怎么办？这只是其中的几种可能性。毫无疑问，这些意料之外的之处会蚕食你的利润。怎样弥补这部分利润空间，则要看你的本事了。 2、工作流程不统一 创业刚刚起步的时候，一切都处于不稳定的状态，你没有时间、能力，甚至也没有经验为每项工作制定详细的指导标准。因此，你的员工会各尽所能——但你的运营流程也会出现多样化。 在创业的早期阶段，这并不是一个大问题——反正你在大多数领域都要“见招拆招”。但当你需要规范流程的时候，你就该头疼了。所以要尽量将操作规程统一起来，从一开始就为之努力。 3、遭遇欺诈 总有人想占你的便宜，这是现代企业面临的一个现实问题。如果你通过一个电商平台为顾客服务，就会有人利用你的退款政策谋取不当利益。如果你服务的是高级的企业客户，他们也可能会用高级的手段坑你的钱。你可能会因为一件极小的事被告上法庭，最终有可能支付赔偿金。 显然，你知道骗子是存在的，有些人总会想方设法地损人利己。随着生意节奏渐渐加快，被意想不到的人摆一道也不是不可能的。所以你一定要时刻对潜在的欺诈行为保持警惕。 4、失去干劲 创业公司有很多艰苦的工作要做——不光是你自己。长时间工作、周末加班、遭遇重大挫折、时常面临较大的财务压力，都是常事。照理说，你已经做好了迎接这些挑战的准备。但一旦这些问题真的发生了，它们造成的心理压力还是非常难熬的——对你和你的员工都是如此。 保持高昂的干劲，对于企业的生存和发展至关重要，但干劲并不是用钱就能买来的。保持干劲没有“秘诀”，这也是正是干劲难以保持的原因。不过作为一名领导者，你有责任保持干劲。 5、承受孤独感 很少有人谈论创业者承受的孤独感。不停变化的运营数字，所有的债务，客户流失等重大打击，只能由你一个人来承受。每一个决策所带来的压力，都只能由你一个人扛。最难熬的是，你只能把自己的恐惧和压力掩饰在坚毅的“领导”面具下，不能流露出来。 另外，长时间的工作和周末加班，导致你留给自己和家人的时间将越来越少。你将会觉得自己很孤立，无法寻求或获得帮助。这种处境是非常艰难的，但如果你想继续前进，就必须克服孤独心态。 以前可能从来没有人跟你谈起过上述这些挑战。希望你善用本文所传达的信息。你可能会接受其中一些观点，并且积极地加以应用；你也可能觉得其中一些挑战只是个别现象。反正，只要这些可能性都进入了你的“警戒雷达”即可，怎样看待这些挑战，就是由你自己来决定了。 要说面对这些挑战，我还有什么“干货”可以建议的话，那就是：保持灵活性。你永远不知道那个拐角背后有什么在等着你，你也不可能准备好每一件事，所以要时刻关注你周边的环境，并及时应对。（财富中文网） 译者：朴成奎 审校：任文科 |
When you start a business, you know there are going to be risks. You know you won’t have a steady stream of revenue (at least for a while), you know you’ll be sacrificing potential development in your previous career path, and you know there’s a relatively high risk that your business is eventually going to fail. These are common knowledge, and most new entrepreneurs are prepared for these possibilities with understanding and determination. But if you’ve ever been in business, you know the challenges you’re prepared for are rarely the ones that ruin you. It’s the challenges you don’t see coming that end up dragging you down, and unfortunately, there are plenty of entrepreneurial challenges that aren’t so readily discussed. Unforeseen expenses The meticulous budgeter is going to hate this. Let’s say you’ve calculated all your per-product expenses meticulously, including the cost of the raw materials, the estimated cost of renting the equipment necessary to produce it, and even the labor cost it takes to make a final product. You’ve left no stone unturned, and you’ve calculated a profit margin of 35 percent, which you know to be the average in your industry. All it takes is one discrepancy to compromise this model. What if the cost of plastic rises? What if there’s a flaw in your chosen machinery that forces you to upgrade to a more expensive model? What if your labor estimates are off? These are only a few possibilities. Undoubtedly, unforeseen expenses will start eating into your profit margins, and it’s up to you to compensate for them. Logistic consistency When you first start out, almost everything will exist in a state of flux. You won’t have the time, capacity or even the experience to draft out detailed guides on how to perform every job in the company. As a result, your workers are going to do their best — but your logistic processes are going to vary. This isn’t a big problem in the early stages of your startup — you’ll be improvising in most areas anyway — but when it comes time to start formalizing your processes, you’re in for a major headache. Try to consolidate practices as much as possible and strive for consistency from the beginning. Fraud People are going to take advantage of you. That’s a reality of modern business. If you serve customers via an ecommerce platform, they can use your return policies against you. If you serve high-level business clients, they could stiff you on the bill. You could even be taken to court over a trivial matter in an effort to get money out of you. Obviously, you know that scams exist, and that people will do whatever it takes to make a quick buck, but after establishing a good pace of business, it’s easy to be blindsided by an unexpected source. Always keep an eye out for potential fraudulent actions. Motivation Startups demand a lot of hard work — and not just from you. Long hours, weekend work, major setbacks and periods of high financial stress are common. When you start out, you can logically prepare yourself for these instances, but when they actually come, their psychological effects are more trying — and that goes for you and your workers alike. Staying motivated is critical to keep the business alive, but motivation isn’t something you can buy. There’s no “secret” to motivation, and that’s what makes it hard to sustain. Still, as a leader, it’ll be your job to sustain. Loneliness Few people talk about the challenge of loneliness that entrepreneurs face. You’ll be watching the numbers, taking on the debt, taking the brunt of major blows like client departures, and stressing about every decision you make. But the worst part is, you can’t express your fears and stresses under the guise of the unshakeable leader. Furthermore, the long hours and working weekends will leave you with less personal time and time with family. You’ll feel isolated and unable to seek or get help. It’s a tough position to be in, but one you’ll have to overcome if you want to keep moving forward. I’ve broken my own claim by telling you about the challenges purportedly nobody would tell you about. Use this information wisely. You might accept some of these and start preparing actively to handle them, or dismiss others as being rooted in anecdotal evidence. That’s for you to decide, as long as these possibilities are all on your radar. If there’s one solid takeaway I can offer you in light of these challenges (and more to come), it’s this: stay flexible. You never know what’s around the corner, and you certainly can’t prepare for everything, so stay aware of your surroundings, and don’t hesitate to adapt when the time comes. |
