Every business has its challenges, and some of those challenges will be unique. However, there are certain categories of challenge that almost every organization will deal with.
Safety
What kind of safety challenges your business faces will vary depending on the business itself, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you work in an office, safety doesn’t need to be a concern. You don’t have to worry about the same things that a construction site might, but workers can be injured in trip and fall accidents, lifting heavy items like file boxes or through repetitive actions.
Some departments have unique challenges as well, such as fleet management. Safety issues can cost you money and leave you out of compliance, but dash cameras equipped with GPS can be a great way to prevent accidents with in-cab coaching. Dash cams also allow for incident detection in real time. Whether you need better tech to keep your workers safe, regular training or other solutions, it’s important to identify the main hazards that your employees face and take steps to address them.
Employees
Finding the right employees is the first challenge, but even once you’ve done so, you need to keep up morale and retain them. Hiring the right people isn’t always easy; how they look on paper and even how they come across in interviews doesn’t always predict how they will perform in the workplace. Try to look beyond the resume and assess whether the person will fit in well with the company culture and if their values align with those of the company.
Get beyond predictable interview questions and try to ask more creative ones that really help you understand how they work and think. Once you’ve got good people on board, talk to them to understand what’s valuable to them, whether that’s more PTO, a good work/life balance, opportunities for advancement, or higher pay. Create an environment where peer to peer coaching is emphasized and their work and their input are valued and give them some autonomy so that they have a sense of ownership about their work.
Management
This goes hand-in-hand with the employees discussion above. The best colleges to study business will also teach you that poor management can drive out the best employees, and great employees that you promote aren’t always great managers. Don’t skimp on management training, and make sure your supervisors get regular refreshers. Create a chain of command that gives their reports someone to talk to if they are having issues with their own managers. Watch out as well for putting your managers in a bind between employees and higher-ups. Give them the support they need to support their employees in turn.
Cash Flow
This can be a particular problem for new businesses, who may not yet have much in reserves or a steady stream of payments coming in, but even big companies can be caught out with cash flow problems. You need to be aware of this and have strategies in place to make sure that even if invoices go unpaid or other short-term problems arise, you can weather it. As a business owner, stay on top of your finances even if you have an accounting department or a bookkeeper so that you always know what is happening with your money.
