If you are new to entrepreneurship, one thing you will invariably encounter are obstacles that impede progress. And a lot of them will be random. Your ability to survive in business is directly correlated with your ability to overcome setbacks. Just last week, I was at the bank. I entered the bank through the drive through. And while there, I explained that my customer had spelled the business name wrong. The teller at the bank told me they were cracking down on this type of error. Whatever that meant. But the teller then walked away, presumably, to get approval from a manager. A short time later, they returned and noticed that… in addition to the misspelling, the business name on the check did not match our legal business name. We previously had a fictitious or doing business as name on the account, but had to remove it during the crisis of 2020, due to a crackdown on alternative business names. At the time, this was an important step in order to get approved for things like government funding. They only wanted an official name on the account. So after explaining the issue, the bank was still unable to deposit the check. Before showing up to the bank, I knew the error on the check could be problematic, which is why I brought it to their attention. But previously they would have still made the deposit without issue. At this point, my company would generally have two options: The first… contact the customer again to see if they could correct the error. The second option is to go to the secretary of state website and file additional documents to get the name legally recognized. Either way, I was looking at a potentially lengthy delay to get the problem resolved. And IF I was hoping to deposit the check by a certain deadline, that date probably would have come and gone. But there was this… third option. The third option came from my understanding of banking. And really what you have with any deposit is a digital transaction between two accounts… where the bank is just an intermediary. Tellers are not really needed for this type of transaction. So, what I did was download the banking app and deposited the check electronically. There were no issues with the check when I used the mobile deposit. In fact, I believe approximately five hundred dollars were available immediately, and within twenty four hours, the full amount was available. No issues. The message here for new entrepreneurs is once your business is up and running, you will have a number of similar obstacles that impede progress. And some will be more complex than this. For example, if your primary supplier goes out of business, will you survive? I’ve had that happen a few times. Sometimes organizations change the way they do business. For years, they did things one way, then they suddenly changed, maybe after getting acquired by a new owner. But whatever the challenge, as long as you can navigate around it such that the outcome is positive, you will last. You don’t have to be the smartest. You don’t have to work the hardest. And there is no perfect formula for predicting who is most likely to survive as an entrepreneur. But the ability to overcome obstacles using creativity and innovation is one way to increase the likelihood of entrepreneurial success. Basically, you have to be masterful at solving problems... Lastly, for anyone considering entrepreneurship but isn’t sure where to start, I created a free resource called the 90-day online launch guide that gets you set up with the important stuff. I also included some ideas on how to make money. If you’re wondering what software you need, and which other tools can make your business more efficient and easier to manage, and even how to do marketing… my suggestions are included. Once again, the 90-day online launch guide is free. For access, visit Leonardinnovation.com/launch once again leonardinnovation.com/launch. Also, the audio version of leonard innovation is available through any major podcast service like pandora, AMAZON music, audible, google, apple, and spotify. And if you found this information helpful, please share it with a friend.
