20 Questions for Entrepreneurs

If you are in business for yourself or thinking about going into business for yourself, these 20 questions need to be answered before you go any further. You can't get where you want to go if you don't have a map or at least have it plotted on Google Earth

The 20 Most Important Questions In Business
Christopher Steiner and Brett Nelson

Entrepreneurs can't completely inoculate their businesses from the vagaries of the market. What they can do is wrestle with the fundamental questions that govern the fate of any enterprise. We've done our best to compile the 20 most important ones.

Digging for those answers is a grueling exercise--one that takes serious intellectual and emotional honesty. With any hope, the process begins long before money's been spent, products are built and customers are lost.

The real challenge, though, is to keep digging. As businesses grow, new opportunities and threats emerge, and yesterday's answers probably won't suffice. Relentlessly asking the tough questions is how

With that essential struggle in mind, we present the 20 most important questions entrepreneurs need to answer--and keep answering--to build thriving businesses. Some highlights:

1. What is your value proposition?
2. Does your product address a viable market?
3. What differentiates your product from the competition?
4. Does the business scale?
5. How committed are you to making this happen?
6. What are your strengths?
7. What are your weaknesses?
8. What price will your customers pay?
9. How much power do your buyers have?
10. How much power do your suppliers have?
11. How should you sell your product?
12. How should you market your product?
13. How big is the threat of new entrants:
14. How do you protect your intellectual property?
15. How much start-up capital do you need?
16. How will you finance the business?
17. How much cash do you need to survive the early years?
18. What are your financial projections?
19. How do you keep the help happy?
20. What is your end game?