3 Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Ask Before Launching a Business
By Trevor Shorte
If you ask 10 different Business and Marketing experts what are the key questions that an entrepreneur must ask themselves before launching a business, you’re likely going to get 10 different answers. Some of the questions you would probably see:
What are my goals as an entrepreneur? Most entrepreneurs find it difficult to separate their personal goals from their business goals.
Do I have the right strategy? What are your short-term and long-term strategies for achieving your goals as an entrepreneur?
Can I execute the strategy? This question is probably the hardest to answer. A great idea is not a guarantee of success. Most entrepreneurs fail simply because they can’t execute any kind of strategy. Even with the right funding, poor execution can doom some of the brightest among us. Case in point… look at what happened with QUIBI in the US. They raised almost $2 billion dollars for their venture and shut down within 6 months!
Is my business scalable? The long-term advantages of building a scalable business are greater profitability and growth opportunities.
How can I increase conversion rates? The main step for increasing conversions is to figure out where your users drop off in the conversion funnel--is it on your product description pages, in the check-out process, or somewhere else?
These are all valuable areas of introspection and being able to answer them can certainly help you gain some clarity on your entrepreneurial journey. However, in my experience, there are only three main questions every entrepreneur should be able to answer.
Do I have a product that people want to buy?
Can I create a marketing message that attracts people to my brand?
Are there people who can vouch for me?
If you can’t answer these three fundamental questions, then you are going to have a really hard time building a business.
DO I HAVE A PRODUCT THAT PEOPLE WANT TO BUY?
This has to be the starting point for any business venture. As I had talked about in the 4 Ps of Marketing, if you don’t have a product people are willing to pay you money for, there is no business. FULL STOP.
If you do not have a definitive answer to this question, the reason could be due to either of these two things:
Your product idea hasn’t been validated. Many successful products are born out of necessity. Someone sees a need for something that doesn’t currently exist and aims to fill that need. If nobody needs or wants the product you’ve created, then you’ve got nothing to sell, which means you have no business.
You haven’t identified your ideal client. You have to take the time to figure out WHO would benefit the most from your product or service. What value can you provide for them? For example, if you created a product that helps people who ski or snowboard, targeting people who don’t do either would be a wasted marketing opportunity. To maximize your sales potential, you must get your marketing messages in front of people who need to see it. I can’t say this enough… people can’t buy your stuff if they don’t know you exist.
CAN I CREATE A MARKETING MESSAGE THAT ATTRACTS PEOPLE TO MY BRAND?
When we work with clients on their marketing messaging, one of the first questions we ask is what’s their Value Proposition? Why? Because a company’s value proposition should be the foundation that is used to create any kind of marketing messaging. It helps frame the conversation that you are having with your customers.
Your Value Proposition describes your overarching, big-picture view of what your company does, who it benefits, and what value you bring to the table. From that, you can create your positioning statements that include things like your target audience, product features and benefits, and what differentiates you from your competitors. Then you take all of that and create messaging that speaks specifically to the audience you’re targeting and use that in your content marketing strategy. Anywhere that you’re talking about your product like your website, blog, social media etc., it should be centered around the theme of your messaging. If your messaging doesn’t resonate with your audience, you might as well be screaming into a void!
ARE THERE PEOPLE WHO CAN VOUCH FOR ME?
These days, when you want to buy something what’s the first thing that you do? There’s a reason that Google has now become a verb! Most people are going to do an online search for information, and they are going to find your website, your social media accounts, perhaps your Google MyBusiness page, maybe a review of your product or service on a review site. What do these things have in common? They represent an opportunity for potential customers to see what you have to offer and what others are saying about their experience with your product and doing business with you. It helps them determine whether they should trust you with their hard-earned money. Obviously the more positive reviews or testimonials you have the better but sometimes negative reviews can be helpful as well. If you can establish that you have a genuine interest in addressing that customer’s issues and working to resolve them, you will earn the trust of your customers. Trust is an essential ingredient in the sales process. You need to gain your customer’s trust before they will buy from you.
At the end of the day, while your entrepreneurial journey more than likely started as a labour of love and a vision you had for your business, it’s still a business. And the sole purpose of any business is to get your marketing message in front of as many people as possible so that you can make sales. If you cannot do that, then you won’t have much of a business to speak of.
Wondering how to get started? Book a FREE 20-minute consultation with us so we can help point you in the right direction!