Skip to Content

The Top 5 Reasons Why Opening a Business Is Hard

Published on November 21, 2016

Share Tweet Share

What’s better than ditching that 9 to 5 job and starting your own business? The freedom, the luxury! Starting your own business can be very rewarding, but what if I told you that half of small businesses fail in their first year? Or that instead of 9 to 5 you’re now working 7am to 11pm – or on weekends!

What are the top five reasons it is hard to start a new business?

5 – Competition is Tough

Your idea is great, but have you researched ALL your competitors? Have you explored the size of your market? What does your product or service offer that differentiates you from competition? How much of the market can you reasonable expect to take from competition? If you can’t answer these questions stop reading now this article and do more research. You are not ready to open a business. is article.

4 – Hiring The Right Staff

You have a great idea and know you can gain market share and compete with existing competitors in your space. What will it take to get that job done? You’ll need a website, social media presence, development of marketing material and office space. Smart entrepreneurs hire people that complement their skills. You need the right staff that can contribute in ways you cannot, or do not, want to do. Are you a skilled web designer? Great, you don’t need one. Do you hate bookkeeping? Hire a bookkeeper! Just remember: employees are looking for a 9 to 5 job. They won’t be there at 7am or 11pm helping you. Hiring the right staff means finding those that will do what you can’t.

3 – Not Enough Money

To develop your business, you need to spend money. Even without employees, you still need to buy a domain, lease an office or retail space, purchase inventory or invest into marketing. Do you have enough capital to self-fund your business? Are you a ‘bootstrapping’ entrepreneur? While that sounds cool, the reason most businesses fail is the lack of capital to sustain a growth period. How long can you keep working your business without making a profit? One month? One year? If not for one year, find some financing to build a cushion. Apply for an SBA loan, borrow from a family member, get a bank loan, remortgage your home. Whatever you do, make sure you can afford to focus on your business. This means having enough capital to pay yourself, cover your bills, hire your team and market your product or service.

2 – Stress, Stress and More Stress

You need to hire and train employee and you need to be on sales calls or in sales meetings all day. You need to deal with your website crashing today and your landlord yesterday. Your last marketing effort didn’t pay off after you spent a lot of money. The last tradeshow you attended flopped. You had to fire an employee who was doing a lot of work you couldn’t. The bank wouldn’t approve that loan you applied for. You forgot to pay a bill or a check bounced. Your last customer didn’t pay or your outstanding receivables are growing impacting your cash flow. Your customers are complaining. What piece of the puzzle demands your attention today? The task that you forgot to do today or the conversation you had with a customer eats away at you when you’re up at 4am because you couldn’t sleep. As the stress and workload pile up or you spend hours sitting at a desk your stress level increases. This increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer.

1 – Personal Relationships Will Suffer

Entrepreneurs are driven to success by having a passion for their business and working hard. But these traits also have associated risks: you’re a dreamer, relentless and stubborn. Many qualities that help you run your own business can also negatively impact your personal relationships. Working 16+ hours a day, seven days a week will strain your love life. It’ll impact your relationship with your children. What hurts your personal relationships the most is that every time there is a personal issue that crops up you can’t be fully there. Your child is sick; well you still must work. You’ve got a repairman coming to your house; you still need to work. You never – I mean never ever – check out. You are always about your business. You are on a date; you still think about what you didn’t get done yesterday. There is never enough time in the day to get done all you need to do. This means that your personal time is still not down-time and that affects your relationships.

What does all this mean for you?

Can you live with the realities of starting your own business? If you start down that path prepare to work hard; very hard! You are 100% committed to your idea and you believe in your cause. It consumes your days.

Do you want to open a business but are scared that it will be too hard?

Buy a Franchise!

A franchise can help support these hard realities and make it easier for you to manage a change from your 9 to 5 career to owning a business.

About the Author: Jeff Lefler
As the CEO of FranchiseGrade.com, Jeff understands that there is no Silver Bullet or sure-fire, simple way to pick a guaranteed franchise system winner. However, by using a little science and a lot of hard work, Jeff and the team at FranchiseGrade.com have developed a sophisticated research, analysis and comparison model to help potential investors and existing Franchisees assess a realistic value for any franchise system relative to others. It's called a Franchise Grade. With over fifteen years of small business experience and ten working in franchising as a multi-unit Franchisee, consultant and Franchisee Association President, Jeff has a good understanding of the level of hard work, dedication and commitment that drives a successful franchise system. As part of his ongoing involvement with the industry, Jeff also served as a Member of the Strategic Committee of the International Association of Franchisees and Dealers. Get in touch with Jeff to see how your system measures up at [email protected].


Thinking about buying a franchise?
Not sure how much can you afford?

Fill out our Franchise Affordability Calculator




Related Articles

Open Your Own Independent Business or Buy a Franchise?

From the outset, you’ll have some obvious questions you’ll need to ask yourself before you can start formulating your own strategy to begin your venture.

Read More

New York Times Investigates Subway’s Abuse of Franchisees

New York Times investigation into the use of questionable practices by one its Franchise Development Agents that culminated in the agent acquiring two of a franchisees Subway stores.

Read More

The Fall of A Giant – Are Subway’s Healthiest Days Behind Them?

Not even a decade ago, Subway was the champion of healthy eating. In fact, they were the largest fast food chain in the world.

Read More

What Sub-Franchising Really Means

Sub-franchising is frequently confused with other franchise models, including area developers, master franchisors, regional developers.

Read More

Maximize Market Penetration and Branding with Multi-Unit Franchisees

Multi-unit franchising grows in popularity, in the Quick Serve Restaurant sector, this model continues to expand into other franchise sectors in popularity.

Read More

The Top 10 Franchise Grade Facts & Figures From 2017

Detailed studies on emerging franchise success rates, errors in Item 20 disclosure and sector performance, Franchise Grade’s reports help you.

Read More

A Road Block to Franchise Growth is Right Under Your Nose

New franchise growth is the top priority for emerging franchise brands. Many of these franchises have an obstacle on the road to more franchise locations.

Read More