I often meet entrepreneurs who tell me that they are stuck and can’t figure out what to do with their businesses just at the first months of their start-ups. They say that they have done their homework and planned everything thoroughly but now that they are just at the beginning of their venture, they’ve realized their strategies haven’t been working as expected or they have faced the kind of problems they couldn’t have predicted early on.

While such constant stagnations are frustrating but they are not unusual. The beginning stage is filled with challenges. If you face such difficulties, you are not alone.

Planning, however perfect, cannot guarantee a smooth growth particularly at the first couple of years of any business. But here are some suggestions that can help you move on with your progress:

1. Keep moving: While the first instinct is to stop and wait when facing an obstacle, you need to know that your business is either moving forward or dying soon. Business is like an airplane, the same way that you can’t stop an airplane in the middle of the air to figure out what to do next, you can’t stop your business or otherwise it will decline until it reaches a point that you can’t pick it up. You have to move on. Your business is sucking up money and if you are not making money you soon run out of it. So when you face an obstacle, instead of sitting and waiting to see what’s going to happen for the hope that things get better, you work on another part of your business until you find a solution for the obstacle at hand.
2. Look from the above: Sometimes you are stuck because you are the obstacle on the way of your business. By learning how to see things including yourself from the above, you will have a different perspective about the problem and will be able to find a good solution sooner or later. This is called hovering, like a helicopter you hover over your business and analyze the situation away from all your emotions and personal preferences. When I get frustrated and feel stuck, I usually drive outside the city and go for a hiking. Sitting on top of a hill or peak of a small mountain gives me the perspective of hovering. I see myself, my business and my business environment from the above and get a better perspective at what has been going on. The fresh air also definitely helps!
3. Watch out for being perfectionist: You are stuck perhaps because you are waiting for the opportunity to make your work perfect. You haven’t found the perfect employee, or haven’t designed the perfect product, or all the system is not perfectly set and you are obsessing over details. While striving for excellence is a good strategy for building a highly successful business, you should know that at the beginning you need to allow some flaws here and there but commit to long term improvement along the way.
4. Seek advice from experienced people: It’s always helpful to talk to someone and share your situation with them. Even if they don’t give you any helpful advice or support, by simply talking to them and explaining your situation, your mind starts working and finds you solutions that you never thought of earlier.