Why running business is hard in 2023?

We all remember the game-changing year 2020. The pandemic led the U.S. economy to more than [20 million people losing their jobs](https://www.chartr.co/newsletters/2022-08-10). Nonetheless, over the last 27 months, the number of employed people in America has been increasing at a pace of 800,000 each month. As a result, employment returned to the pre-2020 levels.

It sounds like we should all be in great shape, right?

With 11.2M job openings at the end of July, workers are at an advantage. The problem is that business owners are not.

Let’s look closer at the following three problems of running a business in 2022:

1. Hardship of finding quality employees and constant struggle to strike the balance of the “perfect hybrid Gen Z oriented work environment”
2. Ever-increasing interest rates push the cost of capital out of reach for some businesses
3. Customer acquisition cost more than doubled in the past 5 years. See our weekly insight “Why developing customer loyalty is more important than ever?” (Aug 16)

If you feel extra pressure these days while operating your own business, just know that you are not alone.

What should we all do now? We all know that the U.S. economy is the most bullish (a.k.a. most optimistic) marketplace out there and tends to turn itself around every time. That’s why it is time to change your game plan and adapt to the new realities. This is a wave we all need to ride. Maybe, the largest wave you’ve ever surfed. That’s why the ones that make it are called leaders and change makers. My question to you: Are you thinking ahead and do you have a plan?

Let’s hope Fed Chair Jerome Powell calling it “until the job is done” does not turn this wave-riding experience into those waves knocking us unconscious entirely. Somebody, remind them about the concept of time lags in monetary policy instruments.

As to the rest of us... Surf on. Grow on!

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