What are the challenges to starting a new business? | Big Think

What are the challenges to starting a new business?

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One big challenge is finding an untapped niche.

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Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz:

As chief strategist/consumer education for Charles Schwab & Co. Inc., Schwab-Pomerantz is a leading advocate for individual investors. She speaks and writes extensively about personal finance issues and is a driving force in the movement to improve financial literacy in America. As president of the Charles Schwab Foundation, she also oversees the company's philanthropic strategy and resources.

With her father, company founder, chairman and CEO Charles R. Schwab, Schwab-Pomerantz co-authored "It Pays to Talk: How to Have the Essential Conversations With Your Family About Money and Investing," which Publishers Weekly called "a well-rounded primer that provides one-stop shopping for the many phases of financial understanding and planning."

Schwab-Pomerantz is a sought-after speaker whose public appearances have included appearances on "The Today Show," CNBC and NPR. In 2001, Working Woman magazine recognized her as one of four “Market Movers” in America who are “rewriting the rules of finance,” and she was also recognized as one of the “25 power Elite” in the financial services industry by Investment News. For four consecutive years, The San Francisco Business Times has named her one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s 100 Most Influential Women in Business.

A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, Schwab-Pomerantz later earned a master’s degree in business administration from George Washington University. She holds NASD Series 7, 63 and 8 registrations.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: What are the challenges to starting a new business?

Carrie Schwab: I would say starting business is not necessarily my spatiality, but I think the biggest thing is finding a niche, finding a need for people, that is difficult and very-very important to being successful.

Funding is another big issue; finding people to invest in your company or your product.

I do know, from statistics, that women do have a harder time getting investment dollars; so that is a challenge as well.

Another key is surrounding yourself with people who are smarter than you. That is a key to success and something that we apply at Schwab.