6 lessons on overcoming challenges from small business owners
Small business owners are often unsung heroes within local communities, investing their time, effort, and ingenuity to provide people with products and services that enhance their lives and bolster neighborhoods. Their many contributions are the reason why the Small Business Administration established National Small Business Week 60 years ago to recognize the critical contributions of America's entrepreneurs and small business owners.
In honor of National Small Business Week, ADP shares insights from its Grit & Wisdom awards. ADP recently asked small businesses to share lessons they learned from challenges they experienced, receiving responses from nearly 1,300 small businesses in January and February. Through their resilience and creative problem-solving, these entrepreneurs successfully navigated changing economic conditions, product launches, and challenging environmental factors like natural disasters.
The common thread? Trusting the drive and intuition that led them to entrepreneurship in the first place.
Lesson 1: Trust your employees and invest in their future
Achieving your business goals depends on finding the right people and empowering them with the right tools. Invest all the time and resources you can in building a strong team that will ultimately guide your business's growth and success. That's the lesson several small business owners credited with helping them succeed during growth periods.
Brian Parenteau, an entrepreneur and restaurant owner in South Florida, ultimately succeeded in expanding from one restaurant to four by training his managers and giving them the freedom to make changes on their own and help shape the path of the business.
Lesson 2: Meet the hardest moments with the strongest resolve
When challenges happen, whether changes in cash flow or dips in demand, many small business owners rethink the steps they've taken. But in those moments, lean into the resolve that drove you to open their business. Focus on the needs of your customers, employees, and communities to find solutions.
When the founder and owner of Luu Color Center in Maryland passed away unexpectedly, his 27-year-old daughter, Huong Luu, took over the paint store despite not having any experience. Rather than closing the company, she chose to restructure and transform the store into a unique destination for customers.
Lesson 3: Support the community that relies on you
Small businesses establish a relationship with their communities that goes far beyond buying and selling. They often serve as cornerstones of neighborhoods, whether by meeting a critical need or providing community support. In return, those businesses build a dedicated customer base.
Bookstore Malibu Village Books learned the importance of a business's reserve funds when the town was hit in quick succession by two major fires, an earthquake, and a mudslide that kept the major road through town closed for six months. The bookstore served as a space for connection and comfort for neighbors, and owner Michelle Pierce's creative strategies ensured that its doors stayed open, tightening the bookstore's bond with its community.
Lesson 4: Define the problem before finding solutions
Being strategic about which tools you adopt to solve operational challenges can streamline the backend of running a small business. Before introducing new tools, identify the problems they will solve first to keep processes simple and avoid paying for functionalities you may not need.
When California dog-training startup Ohana K9 Academy ran into growth challenges, owner Bo Flores implemented a strict budget and relied on unified cash flow and payroll solutions for better forecasting to support growth. Similarly, when Arizona couple Alex and Jess Carey bought B&C Tree Service, they inherited an entirely offline operation. After going fully digital, they found their workers empowered by the systems, allowing the couple to take on more executive-type roles.
Lesson 5: Honesty and transparency matter to everyone
When building a business and navigating challenges, trust is foundational. To build that trust, remain open and honest with your customers and employees. Keeping all your stakeholders engaged and supportive can keep you on a steady footing.
When Philadelphia-based solopreneur Paige DeAngelo realized the first iteration of Aer Cosmetics' beauty product wasn't delivering what she promised, she took the moment to get further in tune with her customers and together, through open and honest feedback, they reimagined the product. Now she sells out of her full production batch each time she releases a product run.
Lesson 6: Lead like a lifelong learner
When many entrepreneurs start their businesses, it's because of a passion they have for their product or service and the need it fills for their customers and communities. They don't often begin with the right answers for every question that might come along the way, but they have an innate curiosity and willingness to learn and grow. Staying curious and building the right teams and processes around what you offer can provide a strong start that ultimately helps drive success.
This story was produced by ADP and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
Copyright 2026 Stacker Media, LLC
This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 5:30 AM.