Opening a business is hard enough when you have a brick-and-mortar storefront. When you run everything online, it can be even harder. If there’s an e-commerce element to your business, your failure rate rests between 80-90%. Becoming a digital entrepreneur has its own set of challenges, some of which are entirely separate from your standard start-up woes. Here are six of the challenges that you may face when starting an online business.
1. Creating an Effective Website
The first challenge of digital entrepreneurship is creating an effective website. All businesses require well-designed, well-functioning websites these days, but online ones live and die by their site. If you skimp out or lack experience in this area, you could find your business buried before it’s even had a chance to get off the ground.
2. Lack of Funding
Another major issue facing the digital entrepreneur is a lack of funds and difficulty tracking expenses. It’s harder for people working in non-traditional businesses to get funding from banks. That’s why a program like Winden can be a godsend for those starting a business online. You can learn more on Winden here.
3. No Clear Pathway to Follow
When you’re starting a business like a restaurant or boutique, there are clear roads you can follow. If you run something based on a brand-new business idea or an unknown service, it can be difficult to find a pathway to follow. You’re forging your own road, which is why mentorship is so important when starting a startup.
4. Flooded Markets
One of the greatest digital entrepreneur challenges is the nature of the internet itself. No matter how original you feel your business concept may be, chances are, someone else has already done it. Multiple someones, in fact. So, to stand out in such flooded markets, you need to have your marketing game nailed down to a T, including SEO work.
5. Finding Ways to Scale Your Operations
When you have a brick-and-mortar business, it’s easy to see when you need to grow your operations. A digital entrepreneur doesn’t have crowded buildings or sold-out shelves to indicate a need for expansion. Therefore, it can be hard to tell when you should start investing in scalability compared to other businesses.
6. Managing Your Online Business’s Social Media
Social media management is a key part of any business strategy these days. Traditional businesses often have a separate social media manager to handle their posts. However, when you run an online business on a shoestring budget, you will need to manage your own social media presence.
Looking for Ways to Overcome the Challenges Facing a Digital Entrepreneur?
A digital entrepreneur faces many of the same challenges as a traditional one, but much more of their business model relies on their online presence. Where a traditional business can rely on word of mouth to overcome online difficulties, a digital business cannot. So, if you’re looking for ways to overcome these unique challenges, check out the Start or Grow sections of our blog for more information. We update each day with more guides like this one.