Small business owners constantly weigh how to reach customers, when to expand, where to invest and how to grow without losing what made the business unique. Every entrepreneur has a challenge to solve. But building a business doesn’t mean having to solve every problem alone.
Lenovo’s Backing Every Business initiative is grounded in a simple belief: a problem shared is a problem halved. Access to the right technology, guidance and communities can help founders navigate those decisions, whether they’re looking to reach new customers, scale their operations or make more informed growth decisions.
Recently, small business owners had the opportunity to seek practical perspective from someone with firsthand experience building and growing businesses, entrepreneur, investor, actress, producer and director, Eva Longoria. Through an Instagram Live Q&A and hotline responses, participating founders could bring their real business questions and discuss live with Eva for her insights.
Four challenges entrepreneurs brought to Call Eva
An analysis of 88 business question submissions, spanning eight countries across sectors and stages of development, identified four overlapping themes: building visibility, scaling strategically, leading through growth and finding the resources to fund the future.
- More than half asked how to be seen: Marketing, building visibility and reaching new customers.
- Half asked how to scale strategically: Expanding into new markets and growing without losing what makes a business distinctive.
- One in five asked how to lead, prioritize and partner: Managing founder capacity, leadership responsibilities and competing priorities.
- About one in eight asked how to fund the future: Finding capital, managing financial growth and investing in what’s next.
These findings, paired with independent research, reinforce a central idea behind Lenovo’s Backing Every Business initiative: entrepreneurs need more than opportunities to grow. They need access to the right technology, guidance and connections to turn challenges into opportunities.
Here’s what entrepreneurs shared with Eva, how their questions reflect broader small business challenges and the advice she offered to help them move forward.
- How to Be Seen: Standing Out in an Evolving Marketplace
For entrepreneurs, standing out means making sure the right people know and see a reason to connect.
More than half of the Call Eva submissions analyzed raised questions about marketing, visibility or reaching customers. Founders wanted to know how to stand out in crowded categories, build recognition without large marketing budgets, tell their stories more effectively and turn attention into lasting customer relationships.
This challenge is validated by the findings from the 2026 Small Business Credit Survey which reported reaching customers and growing sales was the most commonly reported operational challenge among surveyed small employer firms.
Furthermore, Constant Contact’s Small Business Now report shows 52% of early-stage SMB owners identify customer acquisition as their top marketing challenge. The research also highlights how entrepreneurs are leveraging social media and technology to reach new audiences, strengthen customer engagement and build visibility.
The holiday season adds urgency; ICSC’s 2026 Holiday Intentions Survey found that 52% of surveyed U.S. adults plan to shop with a retailer they have not used before this season. For small businesses, that creates an opportunity to introduce their brands, but standing out still requires a compelling reason for shoppers to connect and return.
EVA’S PERSPECTIVE: Lead with the story only your business can tell.
Eva encouraged entrepreneurs to use authentic storytelling to highlight the people, purpose and history behind their businesses. For one founder selling culturally inspired products, she pointed to the traditions behind products as a powerful tool.
“I love storytelling. I think that is a huge differentiator, especially when it comes to cultural items,” said Eva Longoria. “The tool that you have to use is storytelling. You’ve got to tell the story of the artisans and tell the story of the heritage behind these materials. I always think that cuts through the noise.”
Her advice reinforces a valuable lesson: visibility isn’t always about having the biggest marketing budget; bringing the story, perspective or purpose that only your business can offer to the audiences who matter most is key.
- How to Scale Strategically: Turning Opportunity Into Sustainable Growth
Around half of Call Eva submissions raised questions about scaling, including entering new markets, launching products and growing beyond the founder.
It’s a balancing act facing many small business owners. In a 2025 Goldman Sachs survey of 10,000 participants, 74% said they planned to grow their small businesses over the following year despite economic uncertainty. Ambition is only one part of the equation. Growth requires prioritizing where to focus, which opportunities to pursue and how to maximize limited resources.
Holiday expectations offer another example of the growth opportunities facing small business owners. In Intuit QuickBooks’ 2026 Holiday Shopping Survey, 76% of surveyed U.S. small-business respondents expect higher holiday revenue than last year, while an estimated $118 billion in U.S. holiday spending is projected to go to small businesses, an 8.3% increase year-over-year. These findings point to a promising holiday season but also underscore the importance of strategic planning as entrepreneurs look to capitalize on increased consumer spending, reach new customers and turn seasonal demand into sustainable growth.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s 2025/2026 Report, covering 53 economies highlights a widening gap between starting a business and successfully becoming established, reinforcing the importance of strategic, sustainable growth.
EVA’S PERSPECTIVE: Start focused, learn what works and build from there.
On expansion, Eva encouraged a highly targeted approach: start with one product, one customer segment, one region and one retail partner before committing resources to a broader rollout. Her advice emphasized the importance of testing, learning and building on what works.
“I would think about one SKU, one target customer, one initial region, one retailer… Let’s see how that performs,” said Eva Longoria.
That mindset can help guide decisions about how entrepreneurs leverage technology to streamline operations, manage resources and make informed decisions about sustainable growth, helping them scale with greater confidence.
- How to Lead, Prioritize & Partner: Why Growing Businesses Need Support
About one in five Call Eva submissions addressed leadership, prioritization and founder capacity, as owners juggle daily responsibilities with growth. Entrepreneurs asked how to delegate, identify the right opportunities, build strategic partnerships and create businesses that didn’t depend on them personally managing every decision.
According to LinkedIn x Ipsos 2026 small business study, 53% of small businesses say their founder or owner is primarily responsible for lead generation. That pressure is also reflected in Gusto’s 2025 New Business Formation Report which shows more than 40% of new business owners lacked enough time to do everything they needed to.
From automating routine tasks to streamlining workflows, technology can help entrepreneurs manage competing priorities and free up time to focus on growing their business. However, adopting new tools also requires time, skills and resources. The OECD’s 2026 Digitalisation of SMEs Survey, drawing on more than 2,000 SMEs across 12 countries, found that time constraints, maintenance costs and skills gaps hinder tech implementation. These findings reinforce the importance of pairing technology with the guidance and expertise needed to put it to work.
EVA’S PERSPECTIVE: The right partnerships can help you go further.
In discussing brand partnerships with a participating entrepreneur, Eva emphasized the importance of identifying collaborators whose audiences and values align with the business, encouraging founders to think about how the right relationships could help advance mutual goals. Eva encouraged the entrepreneur to consider what each partner could contribute.
“Who are they trying to reach? What’s their demographic? How do you make this a win for that brand? So really think about the event you’re curating, the audience that would show up to that and matching the brand to that,” said Eva Longoria.
Whether it’s finding a strategic collaborator, learning from another entrepreneur or seeking guidance on new technology, access to the right expertise and community can help business owners make more confident decisions.
- How to Fund the Future: Making Every Investment Count
Around one in eight Call Eva submissions raised questions about financial expansion, managing cash flow, attracting investors or determining when outside capital makes sense. Access to funding remains a challenge. Among Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses participants who sought a loan or line of credit in the past year, 81% found affordable capital difficult to access.
But securing funding is only part of the decision. Entrepreneurs also need to consider what they’re gaining and potentially giving up, when bringing outside investors into their businesses.
EVA’S PERSPECTIVE: Look for partners who bring more than money.
Eva encouraged entrepreneurs to consider strategic investors who contribute expertise, relationships and opportunities as well as capital, and to weigh the consequences of choosing the wrong partner.
“You’re looking for a partner that adds value and not just in money,” said Eva Longoria. “So, you need a very strategic partner. I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make is partnering with the wrong investor.”
For entrepreneurs, the right combination of capital, technology, strategic guidance and trusted relationships can make a meaningful difference in navigating what comes next.
From Questions to Connection: Why no entrepreneur should have to grow alone
While every business faces its own challenges, the questions shared through Call Eva highlight a common need: access to the right guidance, resources and connections to navigate what’s next.
That’s the belief behind Lenovo’s Backing Every Business initiative, which connects small businesses with technology, mentorship, community and access to expertise to help them navigate challenges, work more efficiently and unlock opportunities for growth.
Through Call Eva, Lenovo brought that commitment to life, connecting entrepreneurs with Eva Longoria’s firsthand business experience and practical insights. The initiative reinforces a simple idea: sometimes moving a business forward starts with having the right person to call.
Watch the Call Eva recap and discover more advice from Eva Longoria: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/business/backing-every-business-intel/
Learn more about Backing Every Business: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/business/backing-every-business
Methodology and research sources
- Call Eva Entrepreneur Recap: Analysis of 88 usable business-question submissions from the Call Eva submission dataset. The submissions span eight countries and businesses across different sectors and stages of development; country-by-country counts, sector counts and business-size breakdowns are not supplied in this document. Questions were coded into recurring, non-exclusive themes, so one submission may appear in multiple categories and the themes should not be ranked or added together. These findings describe participating entrepreneurs only and are not representative of SMBs globally. External statistics cited in the article come from separate third-party studies with their own populations and geographies.
- Constant Contact’s Small Business Now report (2025):
- GEM 2025/2026 Global Report: From Uncertainty to Opportunity (February 2026):
- Goldman Sachs Survey: Small Business Owners Plan to Grow, Bullish on AI Productivity Despite Concerns Over Government Shutdown (2025): https://www.goldmansachs.com/pressroom/press-releases/2025/small-business-owners-plan-to-grow?
- Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices: Small Businesses Face Challenges Accessing Capital, Uncertainty Around Tax and Trade Policy (2025):
- Gusto’s 2025 New Business Formation Report (April 2025):
- ICSC’s 2026 Holiday Intentions Survey (October 2026):
- Intuit QuickBooks’ annual holiday shopping survey (2026):
- LinkedIn x Ipsos small business findings (2026): https://business.linkedin.com/small-business/resources/2026-small-business-study
- OECD’s 2026 Digitalisation of SMEs Survey (2026):
- Small Business Credit Survey, Federal Reserve (2026):
