5 biggest challenges faced by solo startup creators and founders

One of the biggest and earliest challenges of founding a startup is finding the right co-founders. Convincing someone to invest in your brainchild is one of the biggest challenges a founder faces, and solo founders are often perceived by investors as an unsafe bet.

Finding your company on your own is very challenging. You would need perseverance, guts, discipline, and determination. Any business is difficult, and doing it alone would make it harder.

Here are few challenges you would face as a sole founder of your business.

1. Fundraising as a party of one
For a solo founder of a company the major challenge is fundraising. Investors often have certain doubts on businesses with a solo founder. It is very difficult to prove yourself an expert in everything- from engineering to sales. Even after your years of experience, you will have to prove your ability as a founding party of one.

Doing things all alone would require a lot of determination and persistence. You should stick to it with patience and things will pay off ultimately

2. Giving up your life while initially gearing up
Another big challenge is the sheer amount of work you need to do as a solo founder. In the very beginning, you have to do everythingyourself. You need to be sales, marketing, engineering and customer support. Not just proving to your investors, it’s genuinely challenging to do all the works all by yourself as a solo founder.

It’s obviously very difficult and you need to be much disciplined. You need to follow certain routines and make sure nothing is missing out.

In simple words, you might have to give your life to your company. You will have to work throughout the whole week and lose a lot of sleep. It would take so much time, but eventually, you will build a great team and move forward.

3. Setting your own routine
As an employee, your work day was probably fairly well-structured. You had set tasks to perform to meet clearly-defined goals.

As part of a team you could lean on others to ensure the workload was completed. Throw in an hour-long lunch and a sharp exit at 5pm and there’s a good chance that work won’t be on your mind by the time you get home.

Running your own business tears this schedule to shreds. It laughs in the face of a regular work routine. You’ll need to set your own workday plan if you have any hope of being productive.

4. Financial and Business Disadvantages
Solo founders may find it difficult to raise capital to expand. This is because sole proprietorships tend to be rather small and have a relatively low level of turnover. Investors are cautious of investing in sole proprietorships as a single owner and manager may entail increased risks. Furthermore, a single owner limits himself with his own training and experience. Any new ideas and ventures must come from himself, and without any input from other owners or managers that other businesses may have.

5. Building your best team
The act of recruiting is a looming challenge that deserves a closer look because learning to identity the right candidate based on a balance of experience and the culture you want to create at your company is a lot tougher than you might think. Like so many aspects of being a sole proprietor, it takes patience. You will make mistakes and then you have to learn how to fire people without the dynamic of “good cop, bad cop” to fall back on.

Successful recruiting and building the right culture simply takes practice. Plus, remember: There’s no shame in admitting you were wrong. It doesn’t make you weak, but it will gain you more trust and respect from the team.