A Better Answer's annual spring cookout is a tradition that has been going on for decades, thanks to our boss, Dee Hawkins. We all look forward to this event and the opportunity to relax, socialize, and enjoy some delicious food!

Startup companies need more than an idea and ambition to succeed. They need money, experience, and strong leadership to stand even a chance at making a profit. These challenges are so strong that the majority of new businesses fail within the first seven years.

True, it's tough out there for any aspiring entrepreneur. But don't let the odds diminish your desire. Understanding some of the most common challenges of startups can help you get ahead of these difficulties and build a plan – and business – that will survive and thrive in the modern market.

Just what are those common challenges? Let’s take a closer look at each one by one.

It’s no secret the economy is in the midst of a recession. For many small businesses, a recession means layoffs, tough financial times in the future, and even tougher decisions from management.

Need professional answering services to handle customer inflow, message taking, and similar work? A Better Answer is just the ticket, especially if you own or operate a small business with limited staffing.

As customer service becomes more important to businesses, many are turning to answering services as a way to provide excellent customer care. And while providing the best customer service possible is the primary goal of an answering service, there’s a lot that goes into achieving that.

In the modern market, it’s not enough for a business to create stellar products or offer fantastic services. Successful brands also need to communicate consistently with their clients — after all, no brand can bring in money without keeping its core customers satisfied. 

Growing a business is tough. Maintaining top-tier customer service as your customer count skyrockets is even tougher! As you scale your business from a small operation to a medium-sized or even large company, you’ll still need to keep your customers happy, answer complaints effectively, and constantly operate the phones or chat lines.

There’s a lot that goes into a successful business: brand identity, marketing style, product quality, and, perhaps most importantly, customer service. In fact, good customer service is often what separates subpar brands from companies that dominate distinct industries or niches.

In order to thrive and not just survive in the modern market, businesses must grow. More specifically, they must increase how much money they make, their customer bases, and their market dominance across as many vectors as possible.

To keep your business up and running — and to keep your customers satisfied — you must maintain constant communication channels between you and those customers. There’s just one problem. Customer calls don’t always come in during normal work hours.