9 Questions to Answer Before Starting a Business

Photo by Towfiqu Barbhuiya on Unsplash

So you want to start a business. Great. Before you start looking into names, logos, colors, or websites, pause for a moment and answer these 9 important questions.

1. Why do I want to start a business?

This question sounds simple, and it’s very easy to skip, but it’s one of the important ones as it shapes everything else, especially your mindset as you build your business.

When they decide to start a business, some people want freedom. Others want control over their time. Some are chasing impact, others are chasing income. None of these reasons is wrong. What matters is that you know which one drives you.

For Hamiz Mushtaq Awan, when asked why he started his business, Plutus21, on the YFS Magazine, he stated, “… I simply did not want to build someone else dream at the cost of my own.”

Jonathan Stark also put out this question to readers of his daily email list and got a ton of answers. You can check them out here.

One lesson you should take from this is, before you start building, define your reason for wanting to start a business. Entrepreneurship is undoubtedly a stormy ride, when you know what you want out of it, it’s easier to stay steady when things get stressful and messy.

2. What specific problem am I solving?

Most business ideas fail because they start from the wrong place. Instead of solving a real problem, founders build what they think people need or just something they find fascinating or think should exist. And then the business fails.

The truth is, customers will only pay for solutions to problems that frustrate them deeply enough to spend money on. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, nearly 35% of small businesses fail because there’s an insufficient need for their product or service.

So before you start that business, don’t assume, take some time and figure out if the business is actually solving a problem and if there are people who actually feel that pain.

3. Who is also solving the same problem?

Competition in business isn’t a bad thing. When other people are solving a particular problem you have your eyes on, it’s proof that there’s demand for a solution in the market.

Where you might run into issues is when you’re trying to be the “first” instead of focusing on being the “best fit.”

And remember, the problem and solution are two different things. There can be one problem and a 100 different solutions in the market. You can be the first to proffer your kind of solution, but most times, the problem you solve is the same.

So, before you start your business, find out about other businesses solving the same problem. What do they do well? Where are they leaving open for someone new to fill?

These will give you some insight into how to build the foundation of your business. The point is to know who else is in the game so you can decide how to play differently.

Related: How to Do a Competitive Analysis (Step-by-Step Guide)

4. Why am I the right person (or team) to solve this problem?

Every founder brings something unique to the table. Things like their background, skills, knowledge, and experiences can be a core strength or differentiator for their business. Knowing yours early will give you an advantage since most people ignore this.

Ask yourself why you (or your team) are the best person to tackle this problem you’ve found or provide this solution you’ve created.

Maybe you worked in the industry for a long time and understand the problem intimately. Maybe you have technical skills that make building the solution faster and cheaper. Maybe you have an audience, a network, or access to customers that others don’t. Maybe you’ve personally struggled with this problem for so long that you know every workaround and frustration. Maybe your team’s combined skills fill every gap that competitors miss. Find out your competitive advantage and note it.

When you understand why you are the right fit, it increases your confidence, and you also have a USP that you can use to differentiate yourself from competitors.

5. How will I fund my business?

Roughly 82% of small businesses fail due to cash flow problems. Not bad products. Not a lack of demand. They simply ran out of money before they figured out how to make enough of it.

Before you start your business, map out where the money will come from and how long it needs to last.

You have options: bootstrap with savings, take a loan, find investors, pre-sell to customers, or even keep your day job while building. Each option comes with tradeoffs. Whatever route you take, the key is planning. Estimate your expenses, decide how much runway you need, and don’t assume customers will appear on day one.

A business without a financial plan is like a plane with no fuel gauge, you might take off, but you won’t fly for long. Don’t wait until you’re desperate to figure this out. Financial pressure can make people make bad decisions, like taking on wrong-fit clients or pivoting away from their vision just to keep the lights on. You don’t want that.

6. What skills do I have, and what will I need to outsource or learn?

You cannot do everything, and pretending otherwise will slow you down. Starting a business requires a mix of various skills and competencies. You have to account for each as you start your business.

So take out your notes and list everything your business needs to function: sourcing or production, packaging, marketing, sales, customer service, accounting, legal, operations, and anything else that keeps things running day to day.

Now, honestly assess which of these you can handle and which you can’t. Be honest with yourself. You don’t need to be excellent at everything. You just need to be good enough at the critical things and smart enough to delegate or learn the rest.

Some skills are worth learning because they’re core to your business and you’ll need them constantly. Other skills are worth outsourcing because they’re specialized, time-consuming, or only needed occasionally. You can outsource them to people or software created for that purpose.

Related: Top Entrepreneurial Skills Every First-Time Entrepreneur Needs

7. How will my business make money?

This seems obvious until you realize how many businesses launch without a clear answer or idea of their business model. You need to know not just what you’ll charge and how the money will come in, but also why someone would pay that amount and how the economics work.

This is an important question to answer because revenue clarity gives you direction. It tells you what kind of marketing you’ll need, how to price your offer, and how to measure success.

8. How will I reach my customers?

The growth of your business will depend on the presence of customers, so if you want to start a business, you have to know how to reach them and get them to listen.

You can have the best solution in the world, but if nobody knows it exists, you have nothing.

So start by figuring out where your customers already spend their attention. Meet them there instead of trying to drag them somewhere new. Listen before you speak and observe before you advertise.

A trap that founders fall into, when it comes to customer acquisition, is that they go with the flow and follow what’s already popular. The best customer acquisition strategy is the one that works for your business and that you can actually execute. If you hate public speaking, a strategy built around conference talks will fail, so don’t include it in your plans. But always test the channels first to know if they work for your business and don’t base your choice off of assumptions.

9. Can I handle failure, rejection, or slow growth and keep my motivation alive?

Every founder hits a wall at some point. The real question is if you’re ready to keep pushing when things don’t go according to plan.

Your business will test your patience. That’s normal. What matters is how you respond. Do you stop showing up, or do you step back and try again? Resilience is one of the core traits of a good entrepreneur. Are you ready to be resilient?

Conclusion

There’s no checklist that guarantees success, and this definitely isn’t one. These questions are just quick check-ins to ensure you’re ready for the realities of entrepreneurship and the process of taking your idea and bringing it to life. We always encourage you to ask the hard questions now, while it’s still just an idea. That’s how you save yourself from the chaos later. Famous coach and speaker, Tony Robbins, rightly said, “Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.” These can be the first “better” questions you ask yourself to lay the foundations for a successful business.