4 Secret Questions to Ask Before Starting Any Business

A friend of mine runs a side business besides his day job. It is a jewelry business that he has built up over the last three years.

The business is profitable and simple to run. It was a dream to build this business to supplement his income. Yet he is miserable most of the time.

I was asking him what is the reason for this misery. He said he has difficult customers. They are making his life miserable.

This hit me like a train. I have read this in Russell Brunson’s book. But I did not internalize it at the time.

He attracted these customers to his businesses. And they keep coming back to him because he is providing value to them.

When he started his business, he started with products in mind, not customers. So customers followed the products. It is not their fault that he has attracted them to his business.

In Russell’s book, he discussed four questions that we need to ask and answer before starting any business.

Question #1: Who Is Your Dream Client/customer?

The first question you have to ask yourself is, who do you want to work with? Entrepreneurs usually start with a product idea.

They don’t think about who they want as clients, customers, vendors, and associates.

But these are the people you will be interacting with day in and day out. You’ll spend more time with these people than your family.

This does not seem important in the beginning phase of a business.

But your life may become miserable down the road if you don’t think this through.

Question #2: Where Can You Find Them?

The next question is WHERE can you find your dream customer? Where do they hang out online?

Are they on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or Pinterest? What groups are they part of? What emails do they subscribe to?

What blogs do they read? Are they reading The Wall Street Journal or The Economist?

What interests do they have? Do they like sports or traveling? How about hiking or designer brands?

If you don’t know who your dream customer is, it will be hard to find out where they can be found.

So you must know exactly who you’re trying to attract. Then note a few places you think the prospect might hang out online.

Question #3: How to Attract Them?

When we know where the dream customers are, we have to create the right bait to attract them.

Your bait could be a free info product, samples, a physical book/pdf, a CD, DVD, or an audio recording.

This could be anything that your dream customer would pay attention to and want.

As I want to attract beginner level entrepreneurs or people who are thinking of dipping their toes into business world, I am writing beginner level business articles.

If I wanted to attract experienced and seasoned entrepreneurs, I would go much deeper into business strategy.

Question #4: What Result Do You Want To Give Them?

Once you’ve hooked your dream customers with the right bait, the last question is what RESULT do you want to give them?

I’m not talking about what product or service you want to sell them.

A business is NOT about products and services. A business is about what your clients become using your products or services.

Once your customers understand that, then price is no longer a barrier.

For my friend’s jewelry business, he is selling a product and he is marketing the product online.

But he could market his business as a service to make women look attractive and confident. And he has a product to do that.

The customers looking at the ad have to think do they want the product or not. They have to use their thinking process. When we browse online, we don’t have time to do that.

But if the ad was about giving you an attractive and confident look, they would not have to think about it because everyone wants to be attractive.

The thinking and decision making process would be much easier.

That strategy would attract a lot more customers.

Conclusion:

These questions don’t automatically come into our minds. It takes a fair amount of failure and brainstorming with your team or friends.

I strongly suggest anyone thinking about product or service businesses to think about these questions.

Please write down your answers and come back to them to rewrite several times until the answer is clear in your mind and on the paper.

This can save a lot of frustration down the road and set you up for success and happiness.