In business things can go wrong sometimes. Sometimes they are just more difficult when you are on your own or in a small team. The measure of your ability as a great business owner is how you deal with setbacks. This blog post will look at what things can go wrong in your business and what you can do to get help when things don’t go to plan.

Staff - hiring

Start up business owners often try to do everything themselves in the early months to save costs. However, you will quickly realise that you need to get help if you are to continue to grow. That means you’ll have to hire staff which can be a time-consuming and laborious process.

It can be a very expensive mistake if things go wrong and you hire the wrong staff member. If you don’t have time to handle staff recruitment, it may make sense to outsource all the admin associated with the hiring process to a VA. That way you can focus just on interviewing to find the right person rather than all the paperwork that goes with it.

Staff - absence

So, you’ve got a great little team in place, but what happens when staff are away unexpectedly - off sick or need time away for other reasons? How will you ensure that your business keeps its commitments to customers? You could keep a VA on a retainer who can pick up any slack in your team so that if you have any unplanned absences, you are still able to meet your deadlines.

IT problems

Computer or other equipment can fail from time to time, or your internet connection might go down. These are annoying issues that can adversely impact your productivity but you don’t need to be the one hanging on the phone trying to reach customer service helplines. Put your VA in charge of logistics management. Great VAs are a treasure trove of useful information and contacts that can help your business operate more effectively.

Lack of time to work on your business

One of the biggest mistakes that start-up business owners make is spending too much time working in their business on tasks such as email and diary management, bookkeeping and social media. These tasks are vital but they don’t have to be completed by you. Outsource the admin as much as possible to free up time to work on higher value activities such as pitching to new clients or for funding or delivering your core service.

Marketing strategy/business development

These important areas of your business can be harder when you don’t have a team or only a small team. How to grow your business is a question many company owners struggle with. When you don’t have a business partner or staff to discuss the approach with, you can end up focusing on the wrong things and making poor decisions. Brainstorming and having a sounding board for new ideas means you can get crucial feedback before you spend too much time and energy on something that isn’t likely to work well.

Projects missing deadlines and budgets

The early months of being in business can be a bit chaotic - there’s a danger of trying to run before you can walk and that can lead to taking on too many projects at once. To avoid the potential for missed deadlines and increasing costs, why not hire an outsourced VA with project management skills who can help keep your activities on track.

Incorrect pricing strategy

A big issue that early-stage businesses can run into is not charging enough for their products or services so that the business quickly runs into trouble with profitability. If you haven’t clearly defined your ideal customer and their main pain points, you might be trying to solve the right problem for the wrong customer or the wrong problem for the right customer. Either way this will make selling so much harder than it needs to be which could cause you to make an incorrect assumption that your offer is too expensive. This is another area of your business where a VA could help you to get clarity on how to position your offer.

Credit control problems

One of the biggest threats to the success of your business is lack of cash. Even with a personal capital injection or funding from investors, you might find your organisation struggles with cashflow issues. Being profitable and having enough cash to pay your suppliers is not the same thing. Outsource your invoicing and invoice chasing to your VA who can make sure your customers pay on time.

Underestimating your competitors

If you don’t have a good idea of what your competitors are doing, you could miss out on opportunities to diversify or take advantage of a niche that they aren’t serving. Competitor research can be time-consuming though so this is another task that can easily be outsourced to a VA who has good researching skills.

Getting support when things go wrong

If you need someone you can rely on to be there when things go wrong or are just tricky to manage on your own, please give me a call on 07932040454 or email me at and we can chat about what I can do to relieve your stress.

I’d love to connect with you on LinkedIn so please send me a request.

Other articles you may be interested in:

Top time saving tips for email and diary management

Why an outsourced project manager is great for business