MAM
The path of the entrepreneur: Key challenges in growing a business
Mumbai: Starting and running a successful business is no easy feat. Entrepreneurs face many obstacles on the road to growing their ventures. Here are some of the major challenges entrepreneurs must overcome:
Lack of funding
One of the biggest hurdles for many entrepreneurs is accessing capital and financing. From startup costs to ongoing expenses, building a business requires significant financial resources. Entrepreneurs may bootstrap their business initially but eventually need outside funding from investors, loans or other sources to scale up operations. The process of raising funds can be time-consuming and frustrating.
Building a customer base
Every business needs customers to survive. Attracting a customer base and expanding it takes strategic marketing, great products/services and robust sales efforts. Entrepreneurs need to identify their target audience, understand their needs and effectively communicate how their offering adds value. With infinite choices available to consumers, cutting through the noise and convincing them to buy from you is hard.
Managing cash flow
Ongoing cash flow management is critical but challenging. Entrepreneurs need working capital to keep their business running daily. But fluctuating income and expenses can make cash flow erratic. Periods of low sales or high operational costs can strain the business. Entrepreneurs must master cash flow forecasting, credit management and lean operations.
Hiring and retaining talent
Skilled talent is essential for a growing company. But hiring and retaining the right employees is tough and expensive. Entrepreneurs must compete for in-demand experts by offering competitive packages and career growth. Developing a supportive work culture and effective HR policies to engage employees is equally important. High turnover can cripple an organization.
Scaling up operations
Rapid business growth sounds great in theory but is hard to manage in practice. Entrepreneurs struggle to scale up quickly enough to meet rising customer demand. Expanding production, services and systems in a sustainable way requires immense coordination. Entrepreneurs need to delegate intelligently and invest wisely to support scaling up.
Regulatory compliance
Navigating complex regulatory and legal frameworks is tricky but non-negotiable. Entrepreneurs must comply with diverse regulations covering areas like tax, labor, intellectual property, permits, health and safety etc. Staying up-to-date and compliant with evolving rules takes time, money and effort. Non-compliance can lead to hefty fines or lawsuits.
With dedication and resilience, entrepreneurs can overcome these challenges. But it takes great skill and perseverance to build a truly successful and sustainable business in the long run. The entrepreneurial journey is demanding yet rewarding for those who persist through difficult times. With flexible thinking and innovative strategies, entrepreneurs can adapt and flourish in a dynamic environment.
The author of this article is India Bartender’s Guild founder Archit Singhal.
Brands
Workday unveils Sana, a new AI tool for businesses
New conversational interface, 300+ skills and deep integrations aim to turn AI from sidekick to operator
CALIFORNIA: Workday has fired a fresh salvo in the enterprise AI race, rolling out “Sana”, a system it touts as “superintelligence for work”, designed not merely to assist, but to act. The pitch is blunt: stop dabbling with disconnected copilots and start letting AI run the plumbing of business.
Unveiled globally on March 20, Sana arrives as a three-part stack, Sana for Workday, a conversational interface; a self-service agent with more than 300 skills; and Sana Enterprise, which plugs into tools from Gmail and Outlook to Salesforce and Slack. The aim is to collapse the sprawl of enterprise software into a single AI-led workflow engine.
At its core, Sana promises four things: find, act, build and automate. Employees can query internal data, execute tasks such as updating records or contracts, generate dashboards, and trigger multi-step workflows, all within the same interface. The twist is where it sits, inside Workday’s existing systems, inheriting their permissions, compliance rules and audit trails.
“AI only works in the enterprise when it’s connected to trusted, deterministic systems,” said Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and chief executive. “Sana is what brings it all together… a powerful way for people to search, reason and orchestrate work across the enterprise.”
The critique of current AI deployments is familiar, flashy pilots, little real impact. Workday’s answer is to embed intelligence where decisions are made and actions executed. Gerrit Kazmaier, president, product and technology, framed it as a shift from suggestion to execution: “AI agents take action using trusted context, not just provide suggestions… a single experience where AI is embedded directly in the flow of work.”
Early adopters suggest traction. Berner claims 90 per cent adoption within 40 days, scrapping 400 ChatGPT licences. Cheffelo calls Sana its “AI backbone”, while Telavox says the conversation has shifted from automating tasks to reimagining entire processes.
Analysts, too, see a broader play. Josh Bersin described the integration as “a major milestone”, arguing it could reshape both customer and employee experience by making AI-native workflows the default.
Sana is being bundled via Workday’s Flex Credits, no separate licence, no added paywall, a move that lowers friction and speeds adoption. Meanwhile, Sana Enterprise extends the system beyond Workday, allowing users to search documents, schedule meetings or track project tickets across multiple platforms in one conversation.
The bet is clear: whoever controls the workflow, controls the future of enterprise software. With Sana, Workday is trying to move AI from a helpful assistant to an invisible operator. If it works, the software menus may vanish, and with them, the way work itself is done.
