6 Questions You MUST Ask Yourself Before Starting a Business
You have an idea you want to turn into a business. You're excited. You're driven. You have a dream.
But ideas, excitement, drive and your dream will only take you so far. Here are six questions you MUST ask yourself before you start your business.
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Most of the time, when people think about being a business owner, they think about flashy cars, money, yachts, money, freedom, money… you get the idea.
What most people don't think about is everything that goes into starting a business. The long hours, the lack of money, the sacrifices, and the hard work.
Ideas are meaningless without hard work. Everyone has ideas, thousands a day, and 99.99% of people do nothing with them.
But…!
If you're one of those people who takes action… if you're willing to put in the work… if you're prepared to do whatever it takes…
Then here are…
6 Questions You MUST Ask Yourself Before Starting a Business
1: What Problem Will I Solve?
One of the most important questions you need to ask is
“What problem will I solve?”
If you cannot answer that question, you will struggle.
The problem can be small or large. The problem could be as simple as people want to buy hand made, custom greeting cards, but they can't find any. That's the problem my mother-in-law solves.
Solve one problem, and be the best at solving it, and you'll be able to start your business.
2: Who Has This Problem? Who Needs My Business?
After you know what problem your business will solve, you need to know who has that problem. You'll want to know how many people have it, who they are, and where you can find them.
My recommended tool for answering those questions is the Ideal Client Avatar Worksheet found here.
If you follow the worksheet and answer all of the questions, you'll know who has your problem, what they buy, why they have the problem and all sorts of other information that you can use to market your solution to them.
3: Why Do I Care?
If you don’t care about your business, no one else will either. If you're going to start a business, you must care about the problem, the people who have it, and your solution.
I started my business coaching business because I couldn't stand the idea of people being miserable every morning before they went to a job they hated or that they didn't like. Though the memory is fading, I still remember the anxiety and nausea I felt as I stood over my work computer and logged in.
I never want people to feel like I did. And, I want to show people there's a better way to live life.
4: How will the lives of my customers be better after doing business with me?
If you're in business just to make money, you'll fail. There has to be something deeper, something more meaningful if you want to succeed. And, that often centers around making the lives of your customers and clients better.
Obviously, unless you're a sociopath, you don't want to make the lives of your clients worse. But making people happy might not be what you think of when you think about starting a business.
If you start a restaurant, you might make their life better by filling your clients' stomachs with healthy and delicious food. If you're an accountant, you might not just want to help people file their taxes, but to save money or get a larger return too.
How will your clients be better after they buy from you? How can you go above and beyond what's expected and deliver an experience that brings joy?
5: What Am I Willing to Sacrifice to Make My Dream a Reality?
The other day, one of my mastermind clients told me that he never really understood what sacrifice meant. He said that he “got the concept,” but hadn't really experienced it until he started his business.
Before starting a business, make a list of everything you do in a week. Don't just list your activities for a day, but try to log everything you do in a typical seven day period.
After you've done that, make a second list of things that you're willing to give up, stop doing, or could live without while you build your business. Starting a business will cost more time, money, energy, friendships, and resources than you think it will, and you WILL have to make sacrifices.
To be honest, not all of my clients leave my coaching and mastermind program with a business. The people who don't leave the program with a clear path forward often see the things they'll have to sacrifice and grab onto them instead of letting them go.
They decide their dream of starting a business is not worth the hard work and sacrifices it will take to make that dream a reality.
And, also honestly, that's 100% okay.
For me to become a really great golfer, I'd have to spend money on lessons, practice several times a week, and say no to other fun things that I'd like to do. So I just play bad golf. Starting a business is the same way; some people would just rather do other things.
6: Why Haven't I Started Yet?
Ok, finally, if you've answered all of the other questions, there's only one left.
If you know the problem you're going to solve, and you know who has the problem you're solving and where you can find them…
If you're clear on what motivates you to fix this problem and you know how you're going to make the world a better place with your product…
And you understand the amount of effort, energy and sacrifice that it will take to get started and to keep going…
The only question that's left is: Why haven't you started yet!?
