Business Poll Results. 

Business poll results reveal the biggest challenges small business owners face, from marketing struggles to sales fears, debt concerns, AI adoption, and growth barriers.

In this episode of The How of Business, Henry Lopez reviews recent poll results from listeners, highlighting the top challenges and concerns facing small business owners today. From avoiding common mistakes to embracing AI tools, these insights provide a clear picture of what entrepreneurs are struggling with most.

According to poll responses, the leading concerns include poor marketing and the tendency to “do it all yourself.” As Henry explains, many owners fall into the trap of unfocused marketing or refusing to delegate, both of which limit growth. “If we try to be everything to everybody, we will likely fail,” Henry notes, emphasizing the need for a clear plan and target customer.

Sales challenges also emerged strongly, with listeners citing not knowing what to say and fear of rejection as the hardest hurdles. Henry shares tips for crafting an elevator pitch and reframing rejection as feedback rather than failure, pointing listeners to related episodes on sales fundamentals and elevator pitches.

Borrowing money was another hot-button topic. Many respondents admitted to fearing debt altogether or being unsure how much to borrow. Henry stresses that while personal finance often teaches us to avoid debt, smart leverage is essential for growth. He offers his free Small Business Borrowing Checklist to guide owners through best practices.

AI usage continues to gain traction, with most listeners experimenting with platforms like ChatGPT or features embedded in existing tools such as QuickBooks. Henry encourages pushing beyond simple content creation to using AI as a true assistant in research, planning, and decision-making.

When asked about the most important skills for success, self-discipline and resilience topped the list. Henry highlights how discipline and the ability to make tough decisions are critical traits for entrepreneurs transitioning from corporate roles.

Finally, growth challenges tied to lack of strategy and weak marketing or sales reveal the importance of clear, focused planning. Henry reminds listeners that even a one-page strategic plan can create the clarity and consistency needed to scale.

Business Poll Results – Q&A:

Question: What are the biggest challenges small business owners face based on recent polls?
Answer: Marketing struggles, doing it all alone, sales fears, borrowing uncertainty, AI adoption, and lack of strategy are the top concerns.

Question: Why is marketing such a challenge for small business owners?
Answer: Many small business owners underfund marketing or approach it without a clear strategy, leading to wasted time and poor results.

Question: How can entrepreneurs overcome sales rejection?
Answer: By reframing rejection as feedback, practicing pitches, and building confidence through action.

Question: Is taking on debt always bad for small businesses?
Answer: No, debt can be a valuable tool when used strategically for growth, as outlined in the Small Business Borrowing Checklist.

Question: How should small business owners start using AI?
Answer: Begin with tools like ChatGPT for content creation, then expand into research, planning, and leveraging AI features in existing platforms.

Transcript:

Henry Lopez(00:13):

Welcome to the How of Business Podcast. This is Henry Lopez. If you’re listening to this podcast on Spotify, and I hope you’ve noticed the poll questions that are associated with each episode, your answer to these poll questions help me better understand the challenges and priorities that matter most to you as you start and grow your small business. In this episode, I’m going to share some selected poll results. We’ll look at what you’ve told me are your biggest concerns, things like avoiding common mistakes, challenges with sales, borrowing money, using ai, building the right skills and breaking through growth plateaus. And I’ll also share some additional thoughts and suggested related episodes and resources to help you address these same challenges. You can find the how a business resources, including the show notes page for this episode and learn more about my one-on-one and group coaching programs@thehowabusiness.com. I also invite you to consider joining the Howa business community on Patreon, and please subscribe wherever you might be listening so you don’t miss any new episodes.

Henry Lopez(01:12):

So let’s get right into it. The first poll question I selected was the one I asked related to episode 5 74. That episode title is Five Reasons Your Business will Fail. And the poll question asked, which of the five common mistakes that lead to small business failures are you most focused on avoiding? And there was a tie for the top answer, poor marketing and doing it all myself. Those are the top two failure reasons that the people who answered the poll question are focused on avoiding. If we look at marketing, that one doesn’t surprise me. I find that often small businesses are either underfunding their marketing, but more critically, a scattered approach, an unplanned approach, an unfocused approach to marketing. So the key there to ask yourself is do you have clarity on your marketing strategy and tactics? And it starts with a clearly defined target customer, a target avatar.

Henry Lopez(02:05):

If we try to be everything to everybody, we will likely fail. I want to recommend episode 5 34 on episode 5 34, which I titled Before You Spend On Marketing, I lay out the things that I think you need to do first, and it starts with a plan, some sort of a marketing plan. And a key component of that marketing plan is identifying very clearly who it is that you’re trying to attract. Very specifically, what are the pains or aspirations that they have and how will you reach them? What is the message of the solution or the value proposition that you have that you can offer that solves their problems or allows ’em to achieve their aspirations? And then doing it all yourself. Very common as entrepreneurs think we all suffer from this. Usually the reality is that we probably are best at doing all of the things or most of the things, but that doesn’t scale.

Henry Lopez(02:58):

And so that founder trap of thinking that only you should or can do it all yourself, you are spreading yourself too thin and you’re going to burn out. Not to mention that you can’t scale beyond the hours that you have available. And of course, you’re not empowering your team to do what you’ve hired them to do and what they are more than capable of doing. I recommend episode 3 55 for reasons to Delegate. And what you’ll find with that episode, but I’ll have it on the show notes page for this episode as well, is a delegation worksheet. It’s a free download. Just go to the how business.com, go to the show notes page for this episode. And this worksheet will help you think through how to cleanly delegate those tasks that you should get off of your list and delegate to someone on your team. Again, whether that’s an employee or somebody that is a virtual team member.

Henry Lopez(03:49):

The second poll question I selected was related to episode five 70, buyer first sales for business owners. And the question was, what’s your biggest challenge with sales? And sales I find is such a challenge for a lot of business owners for all kinds of different reasons, but the hardest two reasons why all of you who answered this poll question shared as to why sales is such a challenge. Number one is you don’t know what to say, and number two is a fear of rejection. So lemme break those two down a little bit more, not knowing what to say. It makes sense. If you’re not comfortable with how to pitch or sell your offering, then of course it’s going to be awkward, it’s going to be difficult, it’s going to feel not natural. So if that’s not something that comes naturally to you or you don’t feel confident in doing so, then you need some kind of a framework.

Henry Lopez(04:39):

You need talking points or a script. And I like to start with an elevator pitch. You want to start with being able to effectively communicate at a high level the value proposition that you offer and to whom do you offer it. So I’ve got an episode on this, of course, episode 3 73, your elevator pitch. And that might be a great place to start if you’re struggling with this. And then you’ll take it from there to develop if you’re cold calling or if you’re knocking on doors or if you’re networking, what are your talking points in addition to your elevator pitch? And you practice those, you role play it, and then you actually have to do it and you will get better and better. And as you have the courage to actually do it, you’ll develop the confidence to be more comfortable in knowing what to say to sell what you have to offer.

Henry Lopez(05:28):

The fear of rejection is of course a huge one for all of us, but remember that as they say, rejection is part of the process. It’s not a personal thing, especially as it relates to sales here in this context. That’s the thing we have to learn. Some of us learn it early life, some of us have to learn it later that because someone says no to your offering, you can’t take it personally. They’re simply rejecting the value proposition at that point in time. Now, it could be that we’re not communicating effectively, but more likely it’s that they don’t need or want what you have to offer at that point in time. And that’s okay. We look for the next person or the next business that does need and value what we have to offer at that point in time. So every no is feedback, we’re learning, we’re adjusting, and we must have the resiliency to fight through the failure of rejection and not take it personally. A great episode here related to this topic is episode four 30 that I titled Sales Fundamentals for Small Business Owners. And I’ll have all of these links to all of these episodes that I’m referring to. I’ll have links to them all in the show notes page for this episode@thehowabusiness.com.

Henry Lopez(06:39):

This is Henry Lopez briefly pausing this episode to invite you to schedule a free coaching consultation with me. I welcome the opportunity to chat with you about your business plans and offer the guidance and accountability that we all need to achieve success. As an experienced small business owner myself, I understand the challenges you’re experiencing and often it’s about helping you ask the right questions to help you make progress towards achieving your goals. Whether it’s getting started with your first business or growing and maybe exiting your existing small business, I can help you get there. To find out more about my business coaching services and to schedule your free coaching consultation, please visit the how of business.com. Take that next step today towards finally realizing your business ownership dreams. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Henry Lopez(07:32):

The third poll question that I selected was related to episode 5 66, good debt, bad debt. And this is related to what are your biggest challenges when it comes to borrowing for your small business? What I find often, if not regularly, is that we of course, understandably bring a mindset about money, and in particular about borrowing money, about leveraging money. We bring our personal finance mindset, which is one of avoiding debt. All debt is bad debt of course, with the exception of debt that we need to buy a house or buy an automobile, but certainly consumer debt is bad. But in the context of business, we need to leverage other people’s money, whether it’s a bank or investors or partners, so that we can often start and of course, to grow a business. And so we have to have a different perspective. But the top two biggest challenges based on the answers to this poll question related to borrowing money for your business, number one is the fear of taking on debt overall.

Henry Lopez(08:36):

And number two is how much do I borrow? What’s an appropriate amount? It’s normal. Again, debt feels risky and overwhelming and you don’t know how to think about it. Perhaps you want to start with productive or good debt. Of course, even in your business, if you’ve got credit card debt, that’s not good debt. But if you’ve got a loan with reasonable terms and reasonable rates or a line of credit that could be essential to helping you operate your business in particular, if you need those spikes of working capital or to expand, to grow, to continue to invest in your business, bootstrapping only gets you so far. And then you’re probably going to need more capital to really grow the business to the next level if that’s what you want to do. So you want to understand and acknowledge that there’s a mindset that perhaps is limiting you that you bring from your personal finance way of thinking to small business.

Henry Lopez(09:29):

And if you haven’t listened to this episode, again, it’s episode 5 66, good debt, bad debt, and then how much to borrow. I have a checklist that I’ll have on both episodes, the episode 5 66 and on this episode, and I call it the small business borrowing checklist. And it just has some things for you to consider, some ratios to consider as to how much might be appropriate for you to borrow some best practices there for you to consider. So I encourage you to go get that free download, small business borrowing checklist. Poll number four is related to episode 5 63, how I use ai. So course artificial intelligence is a hot topic. I think it’s critical for us as small business owners to learn about it and adopt it as much as possible. So the poll question here for this episode was, how are you using ai?

Henry Lopez(10:19):

And the top two responses were an LLM like chat, GPT or Claude or any of the others that are out there. And number two was AI features that are already in the tools or the software platforms that you’re already using. So I encourage you, if you haven’t already to start using Chachi, PT or Gemini or one of those other platforms, you’ve got to start using it initially. What most people do, which is a fine place to start, is to help you with content creation. But if that’s where you’ve been, it’s time to push it further. I use chat BT on a daily basis. I use the pro version $20 a month, and it is more than just content creation. It’s really my research assistant, it is my brainstorming partner. It helps me with a lot of thinking and preparation and research. And one of the keys to that is prompting chat, GPT or Claude or Gemini effectively.

Henry Lopez(11:14):

And so on an episode that I recently released, episode 5 77, I chat with Susan Gonzalez about AI literacy for small business. And that episode is a great place to start. If you’re just now getting involved with AI or trying to wrap your head around what is it and how you can use it related to that second top response features in your existing tools, I encourage you to experiment and learn about those platforms that you already have, like QuickBooks or your CRM or your point of sale. Those all are starting to add AI features that you may be able to leverage and it’ll be a lot easier and already included in what you’re already paying for. Poll number six, skills for Success. That was episode 5 62 and the poll question I asked for that episode was, what’s the most important skill for success in your opinion? And so based on those of you who answered the poll question, the top two were self-discipline and resilience and decision-making.

Henry Lopez(12:16):

And those are two critical ones in my experience, my personal experience, and as a coach working with numerous clients over the years, you’ve got to be self-directed, you have to have self-discipline. I think that’s one of the biggest challenges that comes from transitioning from the corporate world to business ownership like I did. For most of us in the corporate world, there’s someone kind of dictating what we’re supposed to work on, what we’re supposed to focus on. Someone else is giving us our KPIs, someone else is expecting us to show up to work tomorrow. But when you’re a business owner, it’s typically on you. Now, you might have a partner and you have other obligations perhaps, but it’s up to you. You have to have the self-discipline to get it done. And in the second point of resilience and decision-making, I always believe that as a business owner, you must embrace decision-making.

Henry Lopez(13:01):

You have to want to be that person that makes the hard decisions, and I get it, that can lead to paralysis or decision fatigue. And so I recommend episode 4 23 on this topic titled Overcoming Decision Paralysis. And the last poll question I selected was related to episode 5 59, 5 reasons Your Business won’t grow. And the question there, the poll question related to that episode was, what’s your biggest business growth challenge? And all of you who responded to that poll, the top two business growth challenges you selected were one lack of a clear strategy and lack of marketing and sales or marketing and sales issues. So I touched on the marketing one related to an earlier poll. So let me focus here on that lack of a clear strategy. I see this as a common challenge. So you’re not alone with this if this is something you struggle with.

Henry Lopez(13:51):

Most small business owners I find, don’t have any kind of a strategic plan. So too many small businesses operate reactively and not strategically. You need priorities. Well, first you need a long-term vision. Where do I want to go? Perhaps what’s my exit strategy? But then we roll it back to the next 12 months. For example, the remainder of this year, next year, what are your goals, what are your priorities? And then what’s the execution plan ideally on a quarterly basis, so that you can execute in alignment with where you want to go with your small business. Even a one page plan can create focus and alignment that gives you some kind of strategic direction. So I’ve released episode 5 0 4. I’ve actually rereleased it a couple of times. So 5 0 4 strategic planning for small business. And of course I’ve got a download, which is a strategic plan outline.

Henry Lopez(14:42):

So you can download that either on the show notes page for episode 5 0 4 or the show notes page for this episode at the how of business.com. So those were six poll questions that I’ve asked that I thought were worth highlighting and exploring and giving you some additional resources. I’m thinking that you hopefully connected with some of those. Maybe some of those are similar challenges or similar answers you would’ve given if you didn’t have an opportunity to answer those poll questions. If I look at a common theme across these six poll questions, I think success in small business with this highlights depends on clarity and consistency, which is achieved in great part through planning and the courage to fight through, to accept failure, to accept rejection, but nonetheless be resilient enough to move forward. So ask yourself, what of these challenges or skills that I’ve shared here might apply to you the most?

Henry Lopez(15:34):

And then take action. Take one of them, go and listen to one of these episodes or download one of the resources so you can take action to help either mitigate or address or develop a particular skill that’s going to help you with continuing to grow your small business. Again, all of the related episodes and resources that I’ve mentioned here, they’ll be on the show notes page for this episode at the how a business.com. This is Henry Lopez. Thanks for joining me for this episode of the How a Business. I wish you the best as you start and grow your successful and profitable small business. I release new episodes every Monday morning. You can find a show anywhere you listen to podcasts, including the How of Business YouTube channel, and at my website, the How of business.com. Thanks for listening.