6 Psychological Obstacles in the first 6 months of your business
The first 6 months of starting a business, which is also called “The Honeymoon Period” includes the difficulties that every entrepreneur has to get through. These difficulties generally include problems in financing, managing time, knowledge gaps and so on.
In this article , we discuss the general Psychological obstacles that Startups may find familiar in the first six months of the business. Thus, we hope you feel sympathy and be mentally prepared before starting a new business.
How to start a Business: From Idea to Action
Starting a business entails a slew of activities centered on organization. The process includes coming up with an idea for the business (called concept development), researching the idea’s viability, and writing a business plan.
Progress of starting a business might include the following steps:
- Conduct market research
- Write your business plan
- Fund your business
- Pick your business location
- Choose a business structure
- Choose your business name
- Register your business
- Get tax IDs.
- Apply for licenses and permits
- Open a business bank account
6 Psychological Obstacles in the first 6 months of your business
Exhilarated
Day 1 of starting a business is always a peak in enthusiasm: This certainly one of the biggest leaps of life, despite the myriad of uncertainties, you’re officially on your way to making your dream business a reality.
At this stage, most entrepreneurs feel very enthusiastic. They receive support from family and friends, further boosting the entrepreneur’s feelings of excitement. There’s nothing wrong with feeling exhilarated; in fact, it’s a good thing. Simply enjoy it while you can, and use your excitement to propel you forward.
Loneliness
Once the initial excitement is gone, reality starts to take hold. For many entrepreneurs, the next emotion they experience is loneliness.
In the entrepreneurial world, loneliness is a bigger problem than most people think. Entrepreneurs are frequently portrayed as naturally introverted geniuses who work happily as introverts on a project and then transform into extroverts when speaking with clients or the press.
In reality, an entrepreneur is performing a delicate balancing act when he or she is around other people, storing up pressures, worries, and fears. This is a protective strategy, as revealing your fear to clients or the press could lead to your demise. Your team members may become unsettled if you share your worries with them, and your firm may become unstable as a result.
So, the only time you get to be your true self is when you’re alone. This is a manageable lifestyle for a few weeks, but after a few months, it starts to interfere with your health. Instead, seek support — from friends, family, mentors, peers and even counsellors who are there to help you through difficult times.
The role of partners, co-founders, or advisory boards is critical during this period because they have been your companion since the beginning. Facing the same direction, striving for the same goals, embarking on the same journey, and sharing the same ideal, the partners will accompany you through every stage of difficulty you may encounter and will always be there for you as the business progresses.
Uncertainty
There is no such thing as certainty, especially when you’re first starting your business. You don’t know if your market research is accurate, what competitors might emerge in the coming months, if your profitability model will work in real life as efficiently as it seems to on paper.
Uncertainty sounds like something that is too risky for a starter. However, it exists for everyone, successful entrepreneurs are willing to embrace it, because without risk, there can be no reward. Even if your first business fails, you’ll always have a chance to rise up or to build something new .
To overcome this uncertainty, we suggest you should consider the following ways:
- Look at the direction rather than discrete steps: you need to take a step back and make a high level overview of the whole project. It’s the long term result that matters the most.
- Ask for advice from your partner or experienced advisor: Although the uncertainty you’re facing is always unique and can not be exactly the same to any other’s experience, getting advice from someone who has experienced as an entrepreneur is extremely valuable. “based on research conducted by Endeavor, founders who have been mentored by top-performing entrepreneurs are three times more likely to become top performers themselves” (forbes.com)
- Ask your customer and review the data: To eliminate the doubts about what you should do next, go back to customers to get the qualitative answers and review your data to get the quantitative answers. Having both of these, your next steps are likely to get in the right direction.
Instability
Prepare for some natural instability in your first few months after facing the uncertainties of your six-month-old startup. You’ll most likely see rapid spikes in consumer interest followed by long periods of drought. Random, required expenses will arise; key team members will go; and unexpected windfalls will make all those losses seem small.
Startups are a roller coaster ride, but even if you enjoy it, the constant instability may be exhausting. Routines, foundations, and reliable structures are all things that people crave. You’ll be a lot more stressed if you don’t have them, which might make you impatient, overly emotional, and unhappy in general.
As a matter of fact, the stability comes from having clients using or buying your products/ services. Therefore, building a solid sales and marketing system is an important phase in your business development plan.
Responsibility
Being an entrepreneur entails devoting yourself to a business in ways you’ve never done before. Every decision you make will have an impact on your company’s bottom line, from naming the company to signing your first client contract. As your company grows, so will your responsibilities.
It won’t just be you on the hook in the end; your partners, employees, and investors will be as well. There is no simple solution to overcome this other than lowering choice fatigue in your daily life and realizing that incorrect decisions can be reversed.
Balance
It’s easy to be sucked into the day-to-day operations of your startup, especially if you’re enthusiastic about the field. It’s your baby, after all, and it’s normal to want to devote as much time as possible to it.
Unfortunately, that ambition can lead to 100-hour work weeks, long weekends, and restless nights, leaving little time for anything else. What’s more, this mismatch frequently develops without entrepreneurs even noticing it. So, make your health a priority and don’t be scared to take breaks.
Spirit Labs — Digital Solution Partner
🌐 Website: www.spiritlabs.co
📩 Email: hello@spiritlabs.co
🔷 Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/spirit-labs
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