We interviewed and surveyed 50 small business founders and owners to better understand their biggest challenges and how they tackled them. We spoke to leaders from all industries, sizes, and years in business. They represented industry veterans and newly minted entrepreneurs.

• 48% have been in business at least 5 years with the remaining 52% less than 5.

• 37% in Services; 27% in Tech; 10% in Consumer Products; 6% in Retail; 6% in Non-Profit; remaining 14% in other industries like Media, Arts, Healthcare, etc.

We learned things that surprised us and things that aligned with conventional wisdom. Through it all we were amazed at the stories of grit, perseverance, and luck; of how strong founders could drive success through their credibility and sometimes the force of their will; and how many struggled in that middle space between selling their start-up ideas and building a sustainable business on a foundation of innovation and rigor.

Interesting findings:

Barriers to growth: When asked what the #1 factor preventing them from achieving their growth goals was, 44% said Bandwidth of key resources; 33% said Access to capital at the right time; 8% said Lack of required skills and capabilities

Some told us that even if they had more people available, they wouldn’t have the capacity to train them to be effective, and if they had more money, they wouldn’t be able to build more capabilities at this time due to this limited executive manpower.

This is consistent with the overall theme we heard from Founders - that talent and organizational strategies were their overall biggest challenge. (See Infographic at right.)

Not getting the right help: When asked about where they could use the most help, the answers were pretty evenly split among Market and Product Expansion, Goal Setting and Execution, Talent Strategy and Acquisition, and Operational Effectiveness.

However, these same leaders told us that they rarely engaged outside help in these areas. In fact, the majority who did seek outside help tended to focus their spending on back-office functions instead of the key activities that might help them grow.

Next Steps:

With gratitude to those who shared their valuable time and insights, we are in the process of developing some business, growth, and organizational strategy services that we hope will help these emerging businesses more effectively tackle these challenges and continue their success. Please stay tuned as we roll these out over the next few months.