What was the hardest thing you've experienced in business?
Everyone perceives entrepreneurship completely differently, and the weight of certain challenges varies from case to case. You always see things differently depending on the stage of life and business you're in, because your position is different each time.
When I was a teenager – my biggest problem was "What will people think of me when I will start doing this?"
In my early twenties – my biggest problem was "What if I can't figure out accounting, taxes, legal stuff?"
Now I have a different problem – how do I scale something?
The reasons can vary in nature: legal (taking someone to court), financial (convincing investors), or even existential (where legal costs can put your personal assets at risk).
What was the hardest problem you've faced in business so far?
Replies
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@pranay19 Why did they shadowban you? :D What happened? :D
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@pranay19 😭 Next time, you will know! Learnings! :)
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@pranay19 Next time, new level unlocked!
@pranay19 Have the exact same challenges with our startup neuphlo.com. You are in some sort of paradox, needing adds to get discovered, but not having the budget for it.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@laura107 I am doing the opposite atm, and I am very unfocused and bad at programming.
@laura107 I agree. Building Takivo seems like the easiest part. Now, where do I get the users? Marketing is like playing in the dark. What works for someone doesn't work for others. Constantly figuring out, changing strategies.
Sometimes even with money Laura, you can end up blank. It's the constant figuring out whats working, whats not and what else do I do...
@fatima_shehzad @laura107 Money isn't always the issue - typically with my clients, it's not being really clear on who it's for (your ideal client), what problem it solves, pricing, and how it's positioned in the marketplace that are the biggest issues. Once those are aligned, networking and marketing become much easier :)
@laura107 @anna_ludwinowski This makes a lot of sense actually. During my work as a personal brand strategist, I came across this with Founders, CEOs, and Executives.. Clarity!
If you have clarity the rest of the process seems smooth and simple enough to follow :)
hardest thing for me was leaving a stable job at a big company where i understood exactly how value was created, and suddenly being the only person responsible for figuring out if i was even building the right thing. at PayPal there were signals everywhere. as a solo founder the silence is loud. you can stay busy forever and still have no idea if you're moving toward something real.
@laura107 right? and the tricky part is you can't turn the signal back on by working harder. you actually have to slow down and talk to people.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@rnagulapalle That can pi** off, that whole company is standing on your shoulders; you have more duties, but your outcome from that is limited (when you are employed).
LiveDemo
While working in companies.
The hardest thing I have experianced is delivering of bad news to people who are under performing.
What I have seen is that managers most of the times are afraid and don't have the courage to deliver bad news
until it is too late, and then they just fire the person without notice together with HR.
And sometimes because I have to work with those people, I have to do the work of telling them that they need to improve.
LiveDemo
@laura107
If they are not slacking a lot.
I try to bring the point in a friendly way or with a joke.
So that the person starts taking notice.
If they are in a big trouble, I have a serious conversation with them (basically what management has to do).
Because slacking in a team, for me, it means you are disrespectful towards the whole team because you don't bring 100% of yourself, while others do.
There is a big difference between underperforming because of slacking and because of lack of experiance(but still giving 100%)
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@gapostolov Do they receive like admonition (or are they fired immediately)?
LiveDemo
@busmark_w_nika
No they don't receive warning.
Giving warning or admonition requires the management to do the right thing and give the warning.
The easier way would be to try to fire immediately, and of course there are procedures in corporate america
Where the manager needs to find a few things that the employee is doing wrong and use it as bases to fire the person.
But in general, the employee finds out when it is already too late.
Because the manager couldn't have the courage to address the situation earlier.
On the otherside in corporate america employees can call out favorism, racism and a lot of things which could put the manager in danger.
And that also makes the managers scared to address those confrontational situations.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@gapostolov I think that this environment, and actually the world, is so fast that mistakes are not required, and you need to be ready-made. At least in my case, it was like that, that I had to be very precise to secure my positions. It was very stressful and so much pressure. On the other side, my demands were growing. Which can be good from some POV.
@gapostolov This haunted me in the beginning. Being on good terms with someone and then giving them feedback on their work, It takes away something little by little.
But then my colleague and I came up with the idea of feedback right from the beginning. You know, leaving no room for an actual meeting and laying people off. Things started looking up.
Actively ensuring everyone is aware of what's happening and that there is room for improvement.
Launching into silence. You build for months, ship, and then nothing happens. No angry users, no enthusiastic users. Just quiet.
It's harder than criticism because at least criticism tells you something. Silence makes you question whether the problem was real, whether you built the right thing, whether anyone was ever going to care.
Launched Fluxerv yesterday. Still processing that feeling.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@mpanpalli and did you do a build-in-public approach? :) Because when you are not seen, you cannot be discovered :)
@busmark_w_nika Somewhat. I was writing and sharing on Dev.to and Twitter during the build, but not consistently enough. The silence on launch day was partly on me for not building an audience first.
@mpanpalli That is indeed one of my fears; right now I’m building in private, and I feel a lot of anxiety about the moment I have to launch. And to answer @busmark_w_nika I don't think all of us can do it in public.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@mpanpalli @manuel_mojica Fair enough :)
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@muhammad_azhar21 I have this every single day, welcome to the club of unfocused. :D
@muhammad_azhar21 Consistency is one of the hardest things for us Solos to do, with no one around to help us stay focused. That's when having an accountability partner or group really helps - someone you can check in with, even once a week, can make a difference.
@anna_ludwinowski Totally agree accountability really does change the game.
Entrepreneurship is funny that way . Just when you think you've figured everything out the next level appears with a brand-new challenge.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@alan_gregory and I do not expect it to be any different.
@alan_gregory Ha, yup, I've been an entrepreneur for 33 years and I can honestly say, the ONLY constant in business is that it's always changing! Look at it as every new challenge teaches you something that prepares you for the next one ;)
@busmark_w_nika The hardest part isn't building. It's not seeing the bug that's right in front of you.
Spent two weeks building a free diagnostic tool to prove my email framework works. Ran a cold outreach campaign, 500 emails, 30%+ open rate, real clicks on the link.
Zero replies.
I assumed the email copy was wrong and rewrote it three times. It wasn't the copy.
The link went to a form asking for a work email, the full email body, company name, and subscriber count before showing anything back. People were curious enough to click from a cold email, then hit something that read like a stranger asking for their data.
The thing I built to prove I find structural problems in other people's work had the exact same problem, just one click further down the funnel than I was looking. Took me way longer than it should have to see it, because I was too close to it.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@alex_iliescu but with AI, now is it easier to spot a problem, right? Or didn't you discuss those things with it?
@busmark_w_nika Did, actually. The AI side caught the pattern once I gave it the data: open rate, click rate, zero second click. That combination is what pointed at the form, not a guess.
What it couldn't do is notice I should look there in the first place. I'd been staring at the email copy for two days assuming that was the bug. Took naming the actual numbers out loud before the real cause became obvious.
So: easier to confirm once you're looking in the right place. Still on you to ask the right question first.
Going on and on, and on, and on, without knowing if you'll end up being a fool or a genius.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@memsoph The most blessed and enlightening moments happen directly in such situations :D
@busmark_w_nika :) Let's hope I'm living out the condequence of such a moment, then.
@busmark_w_nika Nika, merci pour cette question 🤲🏾
La chose la plus difficile ?
Croire que je devais PAYER pour exister.
Aujourd’hui à 19h21, un SaaS nommé Fn2 m’a bloqué mon agent après 402 tokens.
20€/mois pour avoir le droit de travailler.
À 20h56, j’ai vu ce même Fn2 cramer 800K jetons pour me dire "En file d’attente. Next run Lundi."
Le plus dur dans les affaires, c’est de réaliser que l’esclavage moderne s’appelle "abonnement".
Alors j’ai fait quoi ?
J’ai codé Sentinelle V7.1 en 2h sur mon téléphone.
0€ à vie. 0 jeton. Exécution immédiate.
Format WhatsApp pour mes abonnés.
Résultat à 21h27 : Mon canal "EMPIRE ACTIF. LA GUERRE EST FINIE" est né.
Le regret ? Avoir payé Fn2 pendant des mois.
La grâce de Dieu ? M’avoir montré qu’un roi ne mendie pas des tokens.
Aujourd’hui j’ai 3 fondateurs à 3€/mois.
Demain j’ouvre 10 places à 5€/mois.
La leçon : Si un outil te met "En file d’attente", mets l’outil à la poubelle.
Ya Malik Al-Mulk 👑