Top 3 Struggles For First-Year Small Businesses

When starting your own business, there’s nothing more valuable than insight from those who’ve gone before you. And with 20% of small businesses failing in their first twelve months – there’s a great deal of data to glean.

On your journey to success and stability, these are three of the most common challenges for your fledgling business:

FINDING CUSTOMERS

Everyone from 133-year-old Nintendo to your day-old LLC can relate to this struggle. How do you find the people who want to buy your product? Who are they, and what need of theirs are you addressing with your business? 

Many first-year companies have not identified their ideal customer by creating what’s known as a “buyer persona.” This profile helps you tailor your message to a specific audience, targeting them with ads where they are likely to see them and in a way that speaks to their needs.

Before you start, figure out who you’re talking to and how they will most likely see your product (print, radio, television, online, etc.).

FINDING QUALITY LABOR

Every company wants to grow, but finding the right people comes with a cost for many. Drafting job descriptions and onboarding paperwork, conducting interviews, and training new hires all reduce your own productivity and administrative attention.

Throw in a protracted hiring process or bad hire, and you’ve now spent thousands of dollars of your own time that could have gone elsewhere. 

Much like the buyer persona, a great tool in alleviating the cost of hiring is writing “candidate personas.” Using these writeups on hiring platforms like LinkedIn, you provide defined responsibilities for prospects and your organization – reducing downtime during training and overall role redundancy.

FINANCIAL PLANNING

Unclogging cash flow can be the difference between success and failure. Solutions for almost all small business struggles are tied up with the necessary capital to address them. 

With our membership in their Preferred Lender Program, we can provide financing to small businesses when funding is unavailable on conventional terms. In these cases, the Small Business Administration (SBA) guarantees major portions of the loan on behalf of the business. They typically come with lower fixed, variable interest rates and longer repayment terms.

For an inside look at how Pinnacle partners with you via SBA loans, watch our customer testimonials here.

YOU’RE NOT ALONE

If you’re looking to start or strengthen a business, Pinnacle Bank is here to help. If you’d like to talk with us, reach out via customerservice@pinnaclebank.com or call 877.759.7939.