To work too many hours to be disappointed with a seller and underestimation costs, a new survey reveals the biggest obstacles to which business owners face at the start.
A survey of 1,000 owners of small businesses (SBOS) and freelancers identified the things they wanted to know from the start.
The results have shown financial schemes as one of the most common challenges that SBOS has been confronted – underestimating the quantity of things would cost and guaranteeing an appropriate cash flow on a third of SBOs (36%) at the start.
Wishing to have had more support or having been able to do more marketing was the second area mentioned (29%), while obtaining a good balance between professional and private life was something on one (27%) business owners and the self -employed said they had struggled to manage.
While the struggle to achieve the balance between professional and private life has affected many new entrepreneurs, the results have shown that a support community can really make the difference – eight SBOS out of 10 attributes a large part of their success to their network of partners and suppliers.
The investigation carried out by the research on speakers in the name of Hp For its instant ink service, if many SBOs have been faced with early adversity, they have strengthened their leadership capacity – the average SBO questioned said that it had taken a little more than two years to feel like a fully confident business owner.
This experience is hardened – the average SBO estimates that they devote a little more than 50 hours per week to launch their business or settle as a freelancer in their field.
A quarter (27%) of the owners said that 60 hours or more were the standard, while one in six (16%) blocked more than 70 hours.
“Having a trusted technological partner is essential for small businesses,” said Diana Sroka, please Consumer Services Product for HP. “With a limited time and budget, it is important to find intelligent, flexible and adaptable solutions to the unique needs of each company.”
These long weeks show that owner of a small business must often wear many hats. In fact, the average owner believes that they have made the equivalent of three full-time roles, customer service, operations and sales being the most common SBOS zones said they had to manage themselves.
This emphasizes the need for solid partnerships and a reliable network, but many SBOs say they are disappointed. Two out of five (38%) said that a seller or a partner had failed them in a way that had had a significant impact on their business.
It is therefore not surprising that 79% claimed to have a network of confidence of partners and suppliers is important for their success – they even ranked by having good connections as larger than having sufficient cash flows when evaluating what contributed to performance (76% against 64%).
Interestingly, despite the difficulties, 41% said they would not change anything at all in their entrepreneurial career because they thought that these experiences helped them to become more resilient and were an integral part of their learning.
And to go to a rider alone, you need the vision – when you asked you what their most essential resource was as an entrepreneur, SBOS massively quoted “my own creativity”.
“In the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship, the importance of solid partnerships – in particular with a reliable technological partner – cannot be overestimated,” added Sroka. “Too many owners of small businesses face setbacks due to broken confidence, missed expectations and technological failures. The construction of a solid technological partnership is crucial to advance business in a constantly evolving landscape. ”
The biggest obstacles facing owners of small businesses
- Underestimated costs (36%)
- Do not do enough marketing (29%)
- Ignore the balance between professional and private life (27%)
- Price or services products in an incorrect manner (25%)
- Do not do enough research on the market (15%)
- Choose bad suppliers or partners (14%)
- Do not invest enough in technology (10%)
- Do not delegate (10%)
- Neglect the customer experience (7%)
- Non-outsourcing (7%)
- SKIMPING ON LEGAL AND Administrative Essentials (6%)
Survey methodology:
The search for speakers interviewed 1,000 owners of small businesses (SBOS) and freelancers (split 50/50); The survey was commissioned by HP and administered and conducted online by the search for speakers between March 17 to March 26, 2025.