Starting and operating a business is not easy and business owners often face common challenges that they may or may not have been expecting. Still, those that succeed in the long term are able to recognize when they are facing a challenge and take steps to handle it effectively. Let’s take a look at some common business issues and how to overcome them.
How to Overcome 3 Common Business Challenges
Unexpected legal issues
Despite best intentions, business owners sometimes find themselves on the receiving end of a lawsuit. Some examples include:
- Security data breach
- Employment lawsuit for harassment, wage law violations, personal injury, discrimination, or wrongful termination.
- Discrimination against customers
All business owners should get professional legal advice before launching their business to make sure they have a solid understanding of current labor and discrimination laws, and how to protect employee and customer data. Tracking changes to any associated laws is also necessary to protect the business. If your business is faced with a legal issue, the best thing to do is to seek professional legal counsel right away; do not attempt to solve the problem on your own. Businesses that have partnered with a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) have the benefit of prevention, coverage, and mitigation for employment lawsuits. Read about our PEO compliance services.
Not generating enough revenue
Every business owner starts out optimistic about the revenue their business will generate but reality doesn’t always match expectations. Especially if you have business loans to pay back, the stress to earn enough revenue can be overwhelming. The best way to deal with this situation is to make some adjustments to your budget and revenue stream. Start by getting your budget priorities in order and eliminating items that aren’t really necessary. Paying employees, vendors and debt payments should be at the top of the list. The marketing and sales budget is also important but spending should be kept to items that are bringing a clear return on investment (ROI). Marketing that gets results is the way to grow your revenue.
Stretched too thin
Many entrepreneurs start their businesses alone or with only one or two employees. This almost always means that the business owner is wearing multiple hats and taking on tasks that aren’t their strong suit. The overall issue is that there are only so many hours in the day and before long, the entrepreneur is stretched so thin that certain tasks aren’t being handled as well as they should be or worse, the person burns themselves out to the point that they can’t function well at all and/or their personal relationships suffer. The way to handle this issue is to create more time by following basic time management tricks like creating and following a daily, weekly, and monthly task list with priorities clearly marked, eliminating unnecessary tasks, and outsourcing what you cannot do. One of the biggest tasks that can quickly overwhelm small business owners is HR. As soon as you hire your first employee, HR comes into the picture. Many small business owners choose to partner with a PEO that takes care of employee needs from payroll to taxes, health insurance/benefits and worker’s compensation. A PEO offers full-service HR without the cost of an in-house team.
How partnering with a PEO can support your business during COVID-19
Covid-19 was certainly an unexpected business challenge and PEOs have been there to support businesses during the ongoing pandemic. A PEO provides small businesses with many advantages that they might not otherwise be able to afford. These advantages have become even more important during this international health crisis.
When small business owners form a partnership with Makai HR they:
- Gain peace of mind that they are complying with all of Hawaii’s labor laws, which is especially important when decisions are being made about how to handle a health crisis.
- Can provide comprehensive health care plans that allow your employees to go to the doctor for treatment and testing.
- Get help with workers’ compensation claims.
We are also here to support your business if you are working remotely:
- Our cloud-based platform means that your employees can manage their HR needs through a computer, tablet or phone, making it easier for them to work from home.
- Our cloud-based HRIS platform means that your HR team can manage HR remotely if they are sick or everyone is working remotely.
Pro tip: this is a good time to encourage all employees to update to Direct Deposit to reduce in person bank transactions and continue timely payroll payments. Do not delay. Contact us today to get started!