questions to ask on business plan

135 Business Plan Questions

Embarking on the business journey of your dreams begins with a robust business plan. This plan is not just a document—it’s the roadmap to your success, painting a clear picture of where you’re headed and how you plan to get there.

Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or a hopeful startup pioneer, the questions I’ve compiled are designed as your compass, guiding you through the intricate landscape of business strategy.

From your executive summary to the details of your financial projections, each question serves to dig deep into the essence of your vision, solidifying your plan with precision and care.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

What is the core mission of your business?
How would you describe your company’s business model in simple terms?
What unique problem does your business solve for its customers?
What are the short-term and long-term goals of the company?
Who are the intended clients or customers of your business?
What is the vision statement for your business?
Who are the founders and key team members, and what are their roles?
How does your company set itself apart from the competition?
What are the main achievements or milestones of your business to date?
What key opportunities do you see in the market?
How much funding are you seeking, and how will it be used?
What are the main products or services your company offers?
What is the current stage of your business (concept, start-up, growth)?
How do you see your company evolving in the next five years?
Can you summarize the financial outlook and projections for your company?

Company Description Considerations

What is the legal structure of your business (e.g., sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation)?
How did the idea for the business originate, and how has it been developed?
Who are the target customers, and why will they choose your business?
What are the key elements of your business’s operations?
What are the specific advantages of your location or facilities, if any?
How does your company’s history and background set it up for success?
What business sector or industry does your company fall under?
How does your company contribute to the economy and community?
What partnerships or collaborations are essential to your business?
What are the core values and culture of your company?
How does your business respond to changes in the market?
What relevant certifications, licenses, or permits does your business hold?
What are the main risks and challenges your business faces?
What role does sustainability play in your company’s operations?
How does diversity and inclusion manifest in your company?

Market Analysis

Who is your primary target market, and what are their defining characteristics?
How large is the target market, and what is its projected growth?
What are the trends and themes currently shaping your target market?
Who are your top competitors, and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
What is your market share, or what market share do you project to capture?
How do your target customers make their purchasing decisions?
What factors influence the demand for your products or services?
What barriers to entry exist in your market, and how can they be overcome?
How does pricing play a role in your market position?
What is your value proposition to customers in comparison to competitors?
How might technology impact your market in the future?
What are the legal or regulatory factors affecting your market?
How have external factors like the economy affected your market historically?
How does geography affect your market and business model?
What are the risks associated with your target market?

Organization and Management Structure

Who comprises the leadership team, and what are their backgrounds?
What is the organizational structure of your business?
How will your management team help achieve the business’s goals?
What gaps exist in your current team, and how do you plan to fill them?
What are the roles and responsibilities of your management team members?
How does the management structure align with your business strategy?
How does your team make decisions and communicate internally?
What systems are in place for performance management and accountability?
What is your plan for recruiting and retaining skilled employees?
How do you approach leadership development and training?
How does the current team’s expertise align with the business goals?
What are the board of directors’ roles, if applicable?
How do you plan to create a productive company culture?
What external advisors or consultants does the business use, and why?
How have you planned for succession in key management roles?

Service or Product Line Inquiry

What are the main products or services your business offers?
How do these products or services fulfill customer needs?
What is unique about your products or services?
How does product/service quality compare to competitors?
What is the lifecycle of your products or services?
How is your product or service produced or delivered?
Are there any patents, copyrights, or trademarks involved?
What research and development activities are you pursuing?
How do you plan to expand your product or service range?
What customer feedback have you received about your product or service?
How does your product or service adapt to changes in the market?
What is the pricing strategy for your products or services?
How does your product or service contribute to your brand image?
What are the future plans for developing your product or service?
How do warranty or guarantee terms play into your offering?

Marketing and Sales Strategies

What marketing channels will you use to reach your target audience?
How will you position your company within the market?
What promotional strategies will you utilize to attract customers?
What is your sales forecast for the first year and beyond?
How will you set sales targets and measure success?
What sales tactics will you employ to enhance customer acquisition?
How will your marketing and sales strategies evolve as the business grows?
What is your approach to online and social media marketing?
What customer relationship management processes will you put in place?
How do you plan to establish your brand identity?
What partnerships or sponsorships will you leverage to enhance marketing?
What are your strategies for repeat business and customer loyalty?
What is your process for tracking marketing ROI?
How do customer service and support fit into your sales strategy?
How does your marketing strategy cater to different customer segments?

Funding Request Fundamentals

How much total funding is required to reach your business objectives?
What specific purposes will the funding be used for?
What is your proposed timeline for the utilization of funds?
What types of funding (e.g., equity, loan) are you pursuing?
How will investors or lenders get a return on their investment?
What is the current financial position of the business?
How much equity are you willing to exchange for investment?
What are the key financial milestones that the funding will help achieve?
What are the terms you’re seeking for any loans?
How do you plan to manage cash flow and ensure financial stability?
What collateral, if any, are you offering to back up your funding request?
How does the funding impact your business’s financial projections?
What is the exit strategy for investors?
How will additional funding influence your strategic business decisions?
What contingencies do you have in place if you don’t secure the expected funding?

Financial Projections and Feasibility

What are your financial forecasts for the next three to five years?
How did you arrive at your revenue and expense estimates?
What are the key assumptions underlying your financial projections?
What are the projected cash flow statements for the next few years?
What is your break-even analysis showing?
What are your strategies for maintaining a healthy profit margin?
How do you plan to monitor and manage financial risks?
What is your approach to pricing and cost control?
How will you balance reinvestment in the business with profitability?
What financial metrics will you use to gauge business performance?
How will you handle unexpected financial shortfalls or emergencies?
What is your strategy for financial record-keeping and accounting?
How do customer payment terms and cycles affect your cash flow?
What financial software or tools do you use for projections?
How will financial trends and economic conditions potentially impact your projections?

Appendix and Supporting Documents

What supporting documents will you include in the appendix?
How will these documents reinforce your business plan’s credibility?
What resumes or biographies of your team members will you present?
What legal documents are relevant to include (e.g., licenses, permits)?
How can we access extensive market studies mentioned in the plan?
What are your key technical product specifications or service descriptions?
How do your financial statements and accounting documents get audited?
What testimonials or case studies from customers can you showcase?
What press coverage or media mentions has your business received?
Can you provide industry endorsements or expert opinions?
How will technology prototypes or demos be made available for review?
What are your policies and procedures manuals like?
How do your charts, graphs, and tables support your plan’s data?
What correspondence or contracts with suppliers/partners are appropriate to include?
How does your intellectual property documentation reflect on your business’s value?

Frequently Asked Questions

Can i write a business plan myself, or should i hire a professional.

Writing a business plan yourself is possible, especially with the aid of specific questions that cover all business aspects. However, hiring a professional can provide expertise and a polished result, particularly if you seek significant funding.

How often should I update my business plan?

Regular updates are crucial—annually at minimum or more often if your business is rapidly changing. This keeps your business plan relevant and useful as a dynamic, guiding document.

What’s the most critical part of a business plan?

While all sections are important, the Executive Summary is critical as it’s often the first (and sometimes only) part read by potential investors or partners. Clear and compelling financial projections are also vital for potential funders.

Final Thoughts

As your blueprint comes together, remember that the strength of your business plan lies in its details and its ability to represent the vision and practicalities of your enterprise honestly.

The questions outlined will challenge you to think critically, anticipate future hurdles, and prepare for success. With these comprehensive inquiries as your cornerstone, you can turn your business from a dream into an actionable, thriving reality.

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30+ Business Plan Questions & Step-By-Step Business Plan Guide

Last Updated:

30 May 2024

Table Of Contents

30+ Business Plan Question s

8 Steps to Creating a Full-Proof Business Plan

SurveySparrow: The Best Business Plan Tool

Whether in business, marketing, or sales, you know how crucial a solid business plan is to your success. It’s not just about getting started—it’s about setting a clear direction for growth and innovation. This blog is your first step toward clarity and strategy.

Creating a comprehensive business plan is critical for entrepreneurs and business owners. It serves as a roadmap for your business and helps secure funding from investors and banks.

A well-crafted business plan should address key areas of your business, providing a detailed overview of its objectives, strategies, and financial projections.

Here’s a guide structured around crucial categories, each followed by pertinent business plan questions that will help in developing a robust business plan

30 Critical Business Plan Questions to Ask

Whether you’re steering a startup toward uncharted territories, aiming to elevate an established brand, or driving relentless sales growth, your business plan is the compass that guides your strategy, operations, and financial foresight.

Understanding this, we’ve compiled 30 questions designed to ignite your planning process and refine your business strategy.

Here we go.

Executive Summary

What is your business’s mission statement?
What products or services does your business offer?
Who are the founders, and what is their background?
What is the current stage of the business (concept, start-up, expansion)?
What are the key financial highlights?

Market Analysis

6. Who is your target market, and how large is it? 7. What are the current trends and growth in your industry? 8. Who are your competitors, and what are their strengths and weaknesses? 9. How does your business fit into the market? 10. What is your unique value proposition?

Wait, wouldn’t you need a survey to run these questions and gather feedback? What if I told you that you can do that easily with Surveysparrow .

If you’re ready to chart your business path, grab our Free Business Plan Questionnaire Template . Begin your journey to success now.

Marketing and Sales Strategy

11. How will you reach your target market (marketing channels)? 12. What is your pricing strategy? 13. How do you plan to sell your product or service? 14. What is your sales forecast for the first year? 15. How will you measure the success of your marketing efforts?

Operations Plan

16. What is the location of your business, and why? 17. What facilities and equipment do you need? 18. Who are your suppliers, and what are your supply chain logistics? 19. What is the production process? 20. How will you ensure quality control and customer service?

Management and Organization

21. Who makes up the management team, and what are their roles? 22. How does your organizational structure look? 23. What are the backgrounds of your team members? 24. What gaps in expertise or knowledge exist in your team? 25. How will you fill these gaps (hiring, advisors, etc.)?

Financial Plan

26. What are your startup costs? 27. What is your break-even analysis? 28. What are your projected profit and loss statements for the first 1-3 years? 29. What are your cash flow projections? 30. What are the assumptions underlying your financial projections?

By carefully answering these questions, you can construct a thorough business plan that addresses all the critical components needed for your business’s success. Remember, a business plan is not a static document; it should evolve as your business grows and adapts to market changes.

A Journey Begins: Identifying the Problem
The Voyage of Discovery: Defining Your Customers
The Battle Plan: Reaching Your Customers
Understanding the Landscape: Identifying Your Competitors
The Strategy Map: Outlining Your Operational Plan
Charting the Course: Defining Your Business Structure
The Guardian of Your Venture: Creating a Risk Management Plan
Calculating the Costs: Budgeting and Financial Projections

1. Identify the Problem

Just as any memorable journey starts with a step, every successful business starts with identifying a problem.

The burning question to answer here is: what problem is your business attempting to solve? Remember, the more specific the issue, the better your chances of designing a unique solution that customers will flock to.

2. Define Your Customers

Identifying your target customer is crucial in the business planning process. This involves understanding and defining your potential customers’ specific demographics, psychographics, behaviors, and needs.

By doing this, you can tailor your products, services, and marketing strategies to meet their specific needs. The more precisely you can define your target audience , the more effectively you can serve them and set your business up for success.

3. Reach Your Customers

Now that You’ve discovered your target customers. Now comes the next challenge: How do you reach them?

Consider all possible marketing channels. Will it be social media? Email newsletters? Influencer partnerships? The choice is yours, but ensure it aligns with where your customers spend their time. After all, there’s no point in sending smoke signals if your customers are tuned into the radio.

4. Identify Your Competitors

Now you have your bearings; it’s time to study the lay of the land. This means understanding your competition. The question is: Who are they, and how do they solve the same problem?

Understanding your competitors will help you differentiate your business and position it uniquely in the market. After all, in the quest for customer loyalty, your unique selling proposition (USP) is your Excalibur.

5. Outline Your Operational Plan

So, you’ve identified the problem, defined your customers, planned your marketing, and sized up the competition. You’re almost ready to set sail. But first, there’s another significant piece of the business puzzle to put in place: your operational plan.

Your operational plan should include a detailed plan for sourcing deals. Using the Grata data deal sourcing platform can further help streamline this process and ensure you have access to the most relevant and up-to-date information.

How will your business function day-to-day? What resources will you need? Answering these business plan questions will help you create a clear blueprint of your business operations, ensuring your venture runs as smoothly as a well-oiled machine.

6. Define Your Business Structure

One question that’s often overlooked in the excitement of crafting business plans is this: What is your business structure? Sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or LLC ?

Your business structure will significantly affect taxation, liability, and other legalities. It’s like choosing the right ship for your journey – you need one that will safely weather the storms of your entrepreneurial voyage.

7. Create a Risk Management Plan

In the entrepreneurship journey, bumps and detours are part of the course. Having a risk management plan is essential. The business plan question is: What potential obstacles might you face, and how will you mitigate them?

A well-thought-out risk management plan ensures you’re prepared for the challenges ahead.

8. Create Budget and Financial Projections

Now, onto the numbers. What will be the cost of starting and running your business? How soon before you break even? Financial forecasts might seem as daunting as navigating uncharted waters, but they’re vital in answering the essential business-related question : Will your venture be financially viable?

How Can SurveySparrow Help You in Critical Business Planning

With SurveySparrow by your side, you’re never alone in your business planning journey. Its extensive suite of customer and employee experience tools offers invaluable insights to help answer all these key questions in your business plan.

Use SurveySparrow to conduct comprehensive market research, understand customer behavior, and even keep tabs on employee satisfaction. With this trusty tool, you’re well-equipped to answer all your business plan questions, ensuring your entrepreneurial journey is successful.

Here’s how you can do it.

Market Research : SurveySparrow allows you to design and distribute surveys to gather insights about your market. You can explore potential customer needs, preferences, and pain points and evaluate market trends and size, all of which are critical inputs for your business plan.

Customer Segmentation and Profiling : Using SurveySparrow, you can categorize your potential customers based on their preferences, behavior, demographics, and more. This can help you define your target market, tailor your offerings, and devise effective marketing strategies.

Competitor Analysis : By surveying consumers, you can gain insights about your competitors – their strengths, weaknesses, and what customers think of them. This data can be vital in positioning your business uniquely in the market.

Pricing Strategy : You can use surveys to understand what customers are willing to pay for your product or service, helping you devise a suitable pricing strategy.

Risk Assessment : Use surveys to gather feedback about potential risks or barriers to your business. Understanding these risks in advance can help you form strategies to mitigate them.

Employee Engagement : If you plan to have employees, understanding their needs and expectations is crucial for crafting your operations plan and culture. SurveySparrow can assist with gathering employee feedback and gauging engagement .

Product Testing : Before launching, you can use SurveySparrow to get feedback on your product or service. This can help you fine-tune it according to your target market’s needs and preferences.

Financial Projections : The data you gather from customer and market surveys can help inform your sales forecasts and financial projections, key business plan components .

In short, SurveySparrow can offer a wealth of information, helping you answer the critical questions in your business plan. You’re better equipped to create a robust, data-driven business plan by leveraging these tools.

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That’s All of It.

Remember, every successful business starts with a comprehensive business plan. And every comprehensive business plan starts with answering the right questions. So, go ahead and take the plunge. Your entrepreneurial journey awaits, and with SurveySparrow as your co-pilot, you’re set for an exciting voyage.

After all, the sky’s the limit regarding what you can achieve in the business world. Onwards and upwards, future tycoons!

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Business Plan Questions: How To Set Yourself up for Success

articles--table-of-contents#moveToHeadline" data-target="articles--table-of-contents.section">Why Having a Business Plan Is Critical
articles--table-of-contents#moveToHeadline" data-target="articles--table-of-contents.section">What Are the Four Basic Business Questions?
articles--table-of-contents#moveToHeadline" data-target="articles--table-of-contents.section">Additional Questions To Ask When Starting a Business Plan
articles--table-of-contents#moveToHeadline" data-target="articles--table-of-contents.section">Business Plan Questions Checklist Help You Turn Your Idea Into Reality

“Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.” This is Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs and business school students. But between an idea and its execution is planning. That’s why it’s essential to have an effective business plan. How do you do that? With clear answers to business plan questions. Here we’ve put together an all-in-one roadmap to those planning questions.

Why Having a Business Plan Is Critical

Before we jump into questions a solid business plan should answer, let’s explain why you need business plans anyway.

Your business plan is your company’s foundation and backbone. It’s your business model and should inform every aspect of your company’s operations.
It’s your vision statement. Your business plan lays out your short and long-term objectives and guides you from one milestone to the next. It keeps you focused on what’s relevant, especially when establishing your presence in your industry.
It proves you mean serious business, pun intended. This is important not only if you’re looking for investors or funding but also when hiring the right people. A good business plan gives you credibility and inspires confidence in your ability to implement business success.
It helps you understand the competition. Crafting your business plan involves studying and understanding other players in the marketplace. This will put you in a better position within the competitive landscape.
Whether you own small businesses or large corporations, business planning questions and business plans identify your target market. It points your market analysis in the right direction to cater to your target customer.
It clarifies your financial needs. It lays out the complex numbers. How much capital do you need? How much does everything cost? When can you expect a return on your investment?
It determines your brand’s position in the market. A successful plan shows what niche your company can occupy and how.

What Are the Four Basic Business Questions?

What are the four basic business questions your business plan should answer? They are:

What do you do?
What gap in the market do you fill?
How will you make a profit?
Who is your target customer?

Keep scrolling and see how we dive deeper into each of these inquiries. If you can answer these four, your growing company has the competitive advantage to attract potential customers.

1. Business Plan Questions: What Do You Do?

“What does your business do?”

This is a simple enough question, right? Anyone who wants to start a company has a product or service they want to sell.

But if you want to own a successful business, you need to go further than that. It’s not enough to just know what you want to provide; you need details. For example, say you want to own a restaurant. What kind of restaurant? What food do you serve, what is your service style, and why?

The “why” behind what your business does is crucial. It has to motivate you when presenting to financing partners. It has to keep you going when you’re struggling to attract clients. It has to push you to have a competitive advantage over your neighbors.

Do you need some help getting the juices flowing? Grab a pen and paper and start writing all details about your business and what it does.

2. What Gap in the Market Are You Filling?

What is your niche? How does your brand-new company differ from your competitors? In short, what gap in the market do you fill?

However great your idea is, someone else probably thought of it too. In this fast-paced world, it takes time to develop a new way of delivering a unique product or service.

Successful business plans and models create new ways to solve old problems. You need to find which part of the market other folks overlook and figure out how to fill it. Do that, and you’ll increase your chances of getting more money and funding.

No matter your industry, you’ll face competition that’s been in the game longer than you. They’ll already have a loyal following. You need to offer something different, so customers take notice.

So how do you find your niche? Do tons of research — this time, on the competition. See what others do and identify how to set yourself apart from the crowd.

This could be by presenting your product/service differently or adding something small but special. Or mastering new technology and online marketing tools. Whatever you choose, create a distinct identity for your business and emphasize it from the get-go.

In your plan, describe what makes you different and how you will assert this advantage.

3. Business Plan Questions: How Will You Earn Money?

Money, finance, costs. These (sometimes scary) words are a big part of any effective business plan. That’s why one of the most crucial business plan questions you must answer is: how will you earn money?

And your answer needs to go further than “By selling this product/service, of course.” How your business makes money involves multiple approaches.

How are you going to sell your products/services? Where are you going to sell them? How much do your products and services cost? What unexpected expenses might you have to pay for? Do you need additional funding to cover these costs? How will you pay your workers?

Your business plan should answer all of these questions.

That way, you’ll know if your business is sustainable in terms of your financial projections. Plus, you’ll see how and where you can adjust to achieve your goals in a realistic period. Next, you’ll better understand the necessary financial risks to get your business off the ground.

Lastly, you’ll understand what funding you need to secure and what research you need to do to get there. That way, working out the maximum profitability of your venue or business won’t be such a mystery.

4. Who Is Your Target Customer?

Last on our list of the four essential business planning questions: who is your target customer?

We can talk about sales, financial projections, bright ideas, and marketing all day. But there’s only a point if you know who you’re selling to.

Apart from understanding your goal client’s purchasing decisions, you need to know as much as possible about their demographic. You need to identify their age, gender status, geographic location, education, employment status, marital status, etc.

First, identify your initial demographic. Start-up businesses and businesses that have been in the game for years have different audiences. In general, you want to begin with a specific demographic.

Get as detailed as you can. This way, you set your company up for success with folks who are the most interested in what you’re selling. As time passes, you can expand that radius to reach more people.

The best way to conduct this market analysis is through (you guessed it) research. For example, look at your competitors and see who shops at their establishment or buys their services.

Additional Questions To Ask When Starting a Business Plan

With those four business planning questions, you’ve got the start of a solid business plan. Of course, you can’t just leave it at that. Successful businesses know they must go above and beyond the bare minimum.

With that in mind, we’ve come up with more critical things to focus on if you want to succeed. Here are our top additional questions to ask when starting a business plan.

Business Planning Questions: What Is Your Marketing Strategy?

However tremendous or unique your business model, if you don’t know how to market it effectively, it will fail. Even if you add your business to Google Maps , you won’t rank high on local searches without solid marketing.

That’s why we recommend creating a firm marketing strategy outline addressing your goals and challenges. Base your strategy on your product or service, your niche, your budget, and what your competitors do.

Why do we emphasize competitor research so much? Because it shows you what works and what doesn’t.

Of course, you want to avoid copying whatever they do. (Honest business practices are the best practices.) But you should use them as inspiration for your objectives.

What Do You Need To Turn Your Dreams Into Action?

How do you turn your dreams into reality? In short, how do you go from brainstorming to doing? Say you’re a restaurateur. It’s one thing to figure out how to open a restaurant versus how to win a Michelin star .

Answering this fundamental question for a business plan should give your potential investors a clear picture of the bottom line. That way, they can decide if your business is feasible.

You need initial capital and resources to start. You should identify your starting line and understand that it varies from industry to industry. (For example, the profit that successful bars make is different than what a hotel makes.) Then, provide the details of what you need to spend from this starting line when you craft your business plan.

How much revolving capital will you need for the initial run of your business? Do you need to hire people or purchase/rent equipment? What’s the price of the equipment?

How many costs can you cover out of pocket, and which require additional support? How long will it take before you can circulate your initial capital? Include all these questions and answers in your business outline, and you’ll succeed.

What Are Your Short and Long-term Goals?

Last but not least, for our business plan questions, let’s talk about your goals. No matter your services or products, you need a timeline for short and long-term goals.

Short-term goals are ideally achieved within a startup’s first two years. Long-term goals go beyond the first two years after your business is finally experiencing its initial ROI. (Return on Investment.) Make you have realistic goals and timelines. Here are critical business goals you may want to manage:

Reduce business overhead
Increase productivity
Reach a specific number of followers on social media through organic growth.
Reach a specific number of social media followers through paid advertising
Develop a new product or services
Launch your new product
Open another store

Business Plan Questions Checklist Help You Turn Your Idea Into Reality

We hope this business plan questions checklist and article help you manage your company successfully.

With this, you can craft an impressive plan for potential investors and guide your business from point to point. Remember: your first business plan will evolve as you adapt to new opportunities, challenges, and trends.

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10 Questions to Ask if You Want to Create a Winning Business Plan Throw out everything you know about a business plan. These are the questions you need to ask to sell your idea to investors.

By Arlene Weintraub Aug 12, 2013

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The stodgy business plan--that multipage printed document that entrepreneurs used to hand out at meetings with venture capitalists--has gone the way of the typewriter and Rolodex. These days, entrepreneurs are expected to lay out their strategies in slick Power Point presentations, complete with colorful pictures and informative charts.

But while it's true that the format of the business plan has changed, the substance most certainly hasn't. If you're headed out to raise capital for your company, you'll still need to address key issues about the size of your market, the experience of your team, and your long-term financial goals. In the wake of the financial crisis, persuading potential financiers that your plan has legs will be especially challenging.

Here are the key questions you should ask yourself before you fire up Power Point and start preparing your slides.

1. Have I proven that I'm filling an unmet need in the market? As the economy still struggles to turn around, entrepreneurs are under pressure to gauge the strength of their market--in detail--before they go out and raise capital. Try test marketing your product on a small scale so you can realistically forecast how much you can sell in the future, suggests Edward Hess, professor and Batten Executive-in-Residence at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

"Entrepreneurial funding is moving away from formal business plans to having to prove that customers are actually going to buy what you're trying to sell," Hess says.

2. How will I acquire and retain customers? You'll also need to prove that your idea isn't a fad.

"Understanding how customers are going to be found, acquired and retained is critical," says Alison Berkley Wagonfeld, operating partner for Emergence Capital Markets in San Mateo, Calif. "Some companies might say, "We're going to buy search words,' but once they get somebody to their website, how are they going to sell them a product?"

3. Why am I better than the competition, both current and future? If you have direct competitors, you'll need to devote several slides to depicting exactly how you plan to differentiate yourself. If you have no competitors, you need to explain that, too, Wagonfeld says.

"It's always great to think you have no competitors, but the flipside to that is why has no one else found this opportunity?" Wagonfeld says. "You may have a different expertise or a unique technology," but you have to explain why you think you can retain that competitive advantage.

4. What's the story behind my financial forecasts? One common mistake entrepreneurs make in their business plans is to project that they will capture a certain percentage of the overall market for their product without fully explaining how they intend to do that, says Mark Steranka, director of planning and policy for Moss Adams' Consulting Group in Seattle.

"You can't just play a numbers game," Steranka says. "What will the key decisions be along the way? What will the key strategies be? You need to do a stellar job of really explaining how you're going to get from point A to point B."

5. What elements of this plan can I depict visually? The rise of Power Point as the format of choice is forcing entrepreneurs to make their pitches with fewer words and more pictures. Some parts of your business easily lend themselves to graphic presentations, such as financial forecasts that can be shown in bar charts. But you might also consider using graphics, photos, and illustrations to demonstrate how your product works or how it differs from the competition.

6. Should I recruit a few key advisors? Bryan Pearce, venture capital advisory group leader for Ernst & Young in Boston, says every startup should assemble an advisory board--a small group of industry leaders who can complement your skill sets and help you formulate your plan.

"An advisory board doesn't carry the legal weight of a formal board of directors, but it can be very helpful to the founding team in advising them on how to get the company going," Pearce says. The makeup of your advisory board should be included in your business plan, too. "If good people are willing to lend their names and help to get you going that speaks volumes about the potential of the business idea."

7. How am I going to spend my investors' money? With the economy still sputtering, potential investors are going to want details about how you plan to stretch their dollars, Pearce says. Emphasize your strategy for holding down your cash-burn rate, and spell out exactly what you expect your costs to be for the first year or two.

8. Does my staffing fit the current state of my business? Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking they need to have all the key managers in place before they go out and raise funding, but that's not necessarily true. If your product is in the prototype phase, for example, you don't need a director of sales and a full sales force just yet. You should describe your plans for hiring those people, and include them in your cost estimates, but you'll want to show that you're taking a conservative approach with your funding and not over-staffing your company beyond your current operating needs.

9. What's the exit plan for the business? Potential buyers will want to know how they're going to earn a return on their investment. If you hope to take your company public someday, your business plan should point to examples of other companies in your industry that have done so successfully.

If you think your company is a good candidate for an acquisition, try to strike up partnerships with potential acquirers, and include those names in your business plan, Pearce advises. "It's always good to have an understanding of who potential buyers might be, and to show that you're starting to create relationships with them," he says.

10. What is my personal exit plan? If you're a 45-year-old founder with a dream of retiring at 55, don't be embarrassed to reveal that in your business plan. Potential investors will want to know that you've defined your personal goals and aligned your company with them, Steranka says. For example, if you don't plan to stay with the business for the long haul, your business plan should include a succession strategy--a specific strategy for developing talent within your organization, so the transition to a new leader is seamless.

"Investors want to know the truth," Steranka says. "While transparency up-front could turn away a potential investor, it's going to attract the right investor."

Arlene Weintraub has over fifteen years of experience writing about health care, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology and the author of a book on the anti-aging industry, Selling the Fountain of Youth (Basic Books, 2010).She has been published in USA Today, US News & World Report, Technology Review , and other media outlets. She was previously a senior health writer for BusinessWeek .

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3. Why is a business plan important and who should write it?

A business plan is important because it summarizes both your vision for the company and your blueprint for the company’s operating success. The business plan is a written guide that details the startup and the future direction of your company.Who should write the plan? You, the entrepreneur. No one else knows your business idea and goals better. Yes, there are services that can do the work for you, however, you are the one who must present this business idea to bankers or other investors. Therefore, it is best if you are very familiar and comfortable with the plan.

Although there’s no set format, a good business plan typically includes:

Cover page— Identifies your business
Table of contents— Organizes information for the reader
Executive summary— Provides a “big picture” view of the plan, highlighting the factors that will lead to success
Business background— If it is a brand-new business, include your background and skills
Marketing plan— Relates the business’s marketing strategy
Action plan— Summarizes how you will create and deliver your product or service
Financial statements and projections— Illustrates how the business will perform financially based on the plan’s assumptions
Appendix— Includes statistical analyses, marketing materials, and résumés.
4. If I am not planning to apply for a bank loan, why do I need a business plan?

The fact that a bank or lending institution requires a well-executed business plan is a secondary consideration. The primary purpose of the business plan is to guide the owner or manager in successfully operating the business. Preparing the plan forces the writer to consider all aspects of the business and to confront any problems the plan highlights. For example, a monthly compilation of all known costs, over time, will indicate the revenue necessary to support these costs, plus a profit. This leads to the question of whether or not this revenue number is reasonable. If not, it may cast doubt on the viability of the venture itself. The business plan is a vital management tool that enables the manager to anticipate situations before they become problems — or worse yet, emergencies.

5. How do I determine my startup costs and other expenses?

It is wise to find out what startup costs you will incur before starting the business. Many a budding entrepreneur takes his or her life savings, or will borrow on the equity on their home before figuring these financial factors, only to find that they don’t have enough money. There are many web sites and other resources (including SCORE offices and Business Information Centers) that provide guidelines and worksheets to help determine costs for your business. Each item on your proposed budget sheet should be researched. Closely estimated costs can be obtained from utility companies, trade associations, and networking with other business people who may have already gone through this experience. Do not start buying until the investigation shows this venture is viable and you have all the information needed.

6. What do I need to know about financial statements?

First, you need to know which financial statements are important. They are:

Balance Sheet—shows the financial conditions of your business at a point in time
Statement of Operations (Profit and Loss Statement)—shows whether you made a profit during a specific period of time
Cash Flow Statement—shows what happened to your cash position during a specific period of time

You should have a basic understanding of each of these statements. When compared with statements from prior periods, you can determine whether something is happening in your business that needs your special attention.

Your accountant can prepare these statements for you from the business data that you supply. There are also a number of computer software programs that will help you generate these statements from your input of regular transactions—such as sales, collections, purchases, payments and payroll.

A SCORE counselor can help you understand these statements and may be able to direct you to a workshop on this subject. In addition, most community and business colleges teach courses in financial statement analysis.

7. Why is it important to do a monthly cash flow analysis?

Your businesses cash-flow cycle may differ substantially from the income statement projections. Even if the projected income statement shows a profit, it is possible that the cash flow for the same period is actually negative.The analysis of monthly cash flow can indicate whether your business will collect sufficient cash to pay operating expenses. It will point out specific months during the year when the business may experience operating cash shortfalls and, therefore, either require additional capital or excess cash reserves for payment of expenses. It will also show when you may be able to make debt reductions and when there is excess cash to make major purchases or expand operations. By developing a monthly cash flow projection, you can time cash needs and quantify the amount needed. The cash flow projection is an important management tool and must be developed with very realistic expectations. Sufficient cash is critical for a business to pay its expenses and to enable it to expand. If your monthly cash flow projections indicate frequent cash shortfalls, you should review the type of products and services that you offer, the mix of sales, the pricing and terms of the sale, and your short-term borrowing needs.

8. How can I obtain cash to maintain and grow my business?

Develop a positive business relationship with your bank. Seek your banker’s advice even at times where you are not seeking funds. You may find that every time you go to your bank you speak to a different loan officer, so you should know them all.When the loan officer gets a promotion, you must start all over again with another person. If you want the bank to take an interest in your business, then you have to take an interest in theirs. How?

Know your banker— Take an interest in your banker as a person. Ask your banker to hold on to your account if he or she is promoted. When you go to see your banker, have your business plan and financial papers ready. Make it easy for your banker to see what you want and why. The bank wants to minimize its risk with regard to you and your business. This is where you have to sell yourself.
Know your bank— Know and understand your bank’s annual report. Know your bank’s business direction and plan. Know the bank’s lines of authority. Get on the bank’s mailing list. It’s an easy way to keep up with bank news.
Go to a bank-sponsored seminar— Go to your bank’s seminars on commercial lending. This will teach you how your bank operates in terms of lending policies. By doing this, you also prove that you have an interest in what the bank is doing. Finally, it affords you the opportunity to meet and make an impression on the loan committee.
9. Why is location the most important aspect of my business?

A good location can make the difference between a profitable and a bankrupt business. There are many questions to consider when choosing a business site. Use the questions below as a checklist for potential locations and then compare several sites.

Are there parking facilities?
Is transportation available and convenient?
Is the quality of police and fire service adequate?
Will it be a quality site for the future—not just five years from now, but in 10, or 25 years?
Is nearby housing readily available for management and employees?
Is there nearby competition? Are those sites better or worse than yours?
What is the general business climate in the area? Is this a prosperous market?
Are merchandise and raw materials available? Are your suppliers easily accessible?
How is the traffic flow—can your customers reach you quickly and inexpensively?
Is your building suitable to your kind of business—will it need any major renovations?
Is there an adequate community infrastructure for utilities (sewer, water, power, gas, etc.)?
What is the tax burden—town, city, county, state? Will this impede your business and growth?
What are the costs of operation in this location—will it be too high to offer you an adequate profit?
10. Why is competition important?

No business operates without direct competition. There also may be indirect competition, which has a significant impact on customer’s buying decisions in your market. Direct and non-direct competitors try to convince customers to buy their products or services instead of yours. It is in your best interest to learn more about the companies that are trying to reduce your take-home pay. List the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor. Talk with friends, visit your competition, call for information about their products and analyze how they advertise. Next, take a sheet of paper and list the major competitors. Give each a rating, on a scale of one to 10, for product quality, process, advertising, price and customer satisfaction. You can add other ratings that you feel are important.Your business can become more profitable by adopting practices you admire in competitor operations and by avoiding their mistakes. Some of your competitors have been in business successfully for many years. Certainly, as a new or relatively new business, you can learn a lot from them.

11. How can I better market my business?

To market your business, you must define your customer. To maintain consistent sales growth, you must become knowledgeable about your market. Develop an outline of your “typical” consumer:

What exactly is your market?
Where do the consumers come from (i.e. city centers, suburbs, tourists, international)?
What are customers buying patterns?
Why should they buy from you? Factors could include convenience, price, quality, service, etc.
Should you try to appeal to a niche market segment or the entire market?
Have you missed a new customer segment or special market?
How large is the potential target market (in units or dollars)? Is it growing, stable or decreasing? What percentage of the market do you have?

Research will provide answers that are not available from your business records and a financial analysis. Conduct research through trade associations, your local chamber of commerce, libraries or even ask for the help of a SCORE counselor. Pay attention to how competitors market to their customers. Perhaps, some of their marketing strategies can be adopted for your business, or you may find examples of what not to do.

12. What makes a successful marketing strategy?

When creating a marketing strategy, keep in mind the four P’s of marketing:

Product— What good or service will your business offer? How is that product better than those offered by competitors? Why will people buy/want it?
Price— How much can you charge? How do you find the balance between sales volume and price to maximize income?
Promotion— How will your product or service be positioned in the marketplace? Will your product carry a premium image with a price to match? Will it be an inexpensive, no-frills alternative to similar offerings from other businesses? What kinds of advertising and packaging will you use?
Place— Which sales channels will you use? Will you sell by telephone, or will your product be carried in retail outlets? Which channel will economically reach your market?

The marketing strategy should summarize your findings about the key target buyer description, market segments the company will compete in, the unique positioning of the company and its products compared to the competition, the reasons why it is unique or compelling to buyers, etc.

13. What do I need to know before creating a marketing brochure?

A marketing brochure can be long-lasting or short-term. It can represent your business to potential customers and it can be a referral piece for existing customers. Decide the purpose of and goals for the marketing brochure before you begin to design and write. Remember, this brochure represents you and your business, so be sure its look and feel complements your business.

Here are few tips for when you are ready to begin:

State your message up front—T he selling message should appear on the cover of the brochure. For instance, “The XYZ Company—Consultants on Doing Business Overseas.”
Include artwork— If you have space limitations, one large photograph or graphic is better than several small images that might not clearly portray your services or products.
Photo captions— Photo captions are read twice as often as the main copy.
Create a keeper— Make your brochure worth keeping. Include a calendar of events in your specific industry or some data that will be useful to potential clients in the future.
Quality is key— Your publications reflect you and your business. Using one to four colors in the brochure will make it stand out over one that is black and white. A good quality paper stock is also important (and comes in many colors and shades if you choose to use black ink). Remember to consider the weight of the paper stock in relationship to mailing costs.

It is wise to have your brochure professionally designed. Even if you have computer graphic skills, design is best left to professionals.

14. How can I improve customer service in my business?

Develop a strategy that puts the customer first. Customers will receive the best possible service when employees are empowered to make this happen. This is not to say that you should be lenient with your policies, but have a degree of flexibility. Just remember, a lost customer could spread the word of their discontent, resulting in more lost customers.Review the most common reasons for poor customer service. Use these insights as a way to improve your customer service:

Too many rules— Employees lack creativity in problem solving. Rules are followed and good solutions are not developed because employees do not want to jeopardize their jobs.
Lip service, not customer service— Customer service is really only a name for customer complaints. Time is spent trying to fix problems rather than preventing them from occurring in the first place.
Unempowered employees— Approval is needed by a manager for small problems that can easily be solved by a good employee. This problem leads to long lines and time-consuming waits by the customer, who then refuses to come back-business operations turns a small problem into a large one.
Unmotivated employees— Personnel are not encouraged to please the customer because there is no merit in it for them.
Bad communication— Coordination of functions does not exist-one person may write an order while another picks it off a warehouse shelf and someone else delivers it to the customer. This can result in miscommunication, incorrect goods or services, and time delays.
Arbitrary policies— Policies that are followed blindly without room for situational allowances may result in angry customers. For example, a store’s return policy of 30 days prevents a customer who, with good reason, could not get back to the store in time from receiving a refund. That customer will refuse to do business there anymore.
15. Is there anyone who can answer questions specific to my business?

SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” provides free and confidential business advice and mentoring services to entrepreneurs nationwide. SCORE is a nonprofit association consisting of 10,500 business counselors who donate their time and business expertise to guide small businesses via face-to-face mentoring or online counseling.SCORE, a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), has assisted millions of start-up and growing businesses since 1964.

SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" is America's premier source of free and confidential small business advice for entrepreneurs. Formed in 1964, SCORE provides a public service to America by offering small business advice and training.

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50 Questions to Ask Before Starting a New Business

Starting a business is an inherently risky venture. Getting your business off the ground requires a plan, capital, and a whole lot of hard work. From coming up with a great business idea to creating the proper business structure to execute this idea; from raising the money to fund startup costs to conducting the market research to justify your company’s raison d’etre, there are tons of steps before you can even think about opening the doors (physical or virtual) to your customers.

If you’re looking for a quick pathway from idea to implementation, we strongly recommend jumping from here to our article highlighting the 10 Steps to Starting a Business.

On the other hand, if you’re still in the early planning stages, you’ve come to the right place. The best way to really get the ball rolling is to start by asking yourself all the tough questions first. While you may not have an exact answer for each of these questions, this collection of inquiries is a great way to get you thinking about everything–big and small–that goes into launching your own business.

50 Questions To Help You Start a Successful Business

There’s obviously a lot that goes into getting a business off the ground. So how can you be sure you’ve thought of everything first? Well, you can’t. Rule number one–be prepared for the unexpected as a business owner. That said, you can take every possible step to reduce the risk of the unexpected. We’ve devised 50 critical questions to help you do exactly that. Because there’s a lot here, we’ve divided these questions into specific areas. Read on to find out which questions you should be asking about your Business Idea and Structure, the Competition and Customers shaping the marketplace, the Financial and Organizational components you’ll need to address to build your business, and finally, the Brand that you’ll be working to establish.

The Business Idea

1. What problem are you solving?

This is the very first question you need to ask yourself, because it will ultimately tell you whether or not there’s an actual need for the product or service you plan to market. Where did your business idea come from? Have you observed an unsatisfied demand for a certain product or service, or the need for innovation or improvement in the way a product or service is delivered? Perhaps you’ve found a way to offer quality with greater affordability, or a faster delivery system, or simply with a more customer friendly approach than the industry standard. Whatever it is that roots your business idea, be sure it’s something that addresses an actual problem with a viable solution. Moreover, be sure that the solution you’re offering is also profitable. Indeed, your goal here is to identify the need for your idea as well as the ability of this idea to generate profit.

2. Do you have a business plan?

Of course, it’s one thing to say that you have a great idea that can render a profit. It’s another thing to show it. That’s what your business plan is for. This is your chance to explain your idea in its entirety–to conduct a SWOT (Strengths; Weaknesses; Opportunities; Threats) analysis; to elaborate on the key features of the broader marketplace including the competition and the customers; to present financial forecasts that demonstrate the idea’s profitability; and more. That said, there aren’t necessarily any formal rules on what must be in a business plan. As an article from the Small Business Administration (SBA) notes, “A business plan is a written tool about your business that projects 3-5 years ahead and outlines the path your business intends to take to make money and grow revenue. Think of it as a living project for your business, and not as a one-time document. Break it down into mini-plans – one for sales and marketing, one for pricing, one for operations, and so on.” Ultimately, this will be a valuable document for securing bank loans, investor funding, or just for giving yourself a set of meaningful benchmarks to pursue. Developed properly, your business plan should give you the chance to think objectively about the various moving pieces that must ultimately come together to transform your idea into a reality.

3. What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

What is the value that you will offer your customers? Is there really a demand for this value, and can you actually deliver it? And can you deliver that value in a way that betters the current offerings in the marketplace? The key behind a great idea is that it will likely resonate with prospective customers either because it provides something heretofore unseen in the marketplace, because it significantly improves upon something in the marketplace, because it improves the accessibility of something in the marketplace for which there is great demand, or because it otherwise represents a distinct value to the customer that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Make sure you fully understand what makes your product or service offering unique, and just as importantly, why these unique properties represent a chance for profitability.

4. Is there a proof of concept for your idea?

So you’ve established the unique value proposition implied by your idea. But how can you be sure that it’s something people will actually pay for? That’s where proof of concept comes in. According to the definition provided by the Gartner Glossary of business terms, a proof of concept “is a demonstration of a product, service or solution in a sales context. A POC should demonstrate that the product or concept will fulfill customer requirements while also providing a compelling business case for adoption.” In other words, is there some precedent to prove that people will pay for what you’re offering? While your offering may be a unique proposition, is there a track record of success for similar product or service offerings? Have you yourself experienced even anecdotal success selling others on your product or service? And is that anecdotal success compelling enough to justify the launching of an entire business? In short, you’re looking to find the perfect balance between something that is at once novel and proven–a unique value spin on a product or service with a proven track record.

5. Have you thought of a good business name?

Believe it or not, this is one of the toughest parts of the process. Coming up with the perfect name can be genuinely challenging. And that makes sense. After all, a lot rests on a business name. The right name effectively describes what your business does, conveys the identity of your business, and gives your target customers something memorable to latch onto. While an imperfect name may not doom your business idea to failure, the perfect name could be a real game changer in your pursuit of success. Don’t rush this stage. Take the time to brainstorm ideas, run them by people you know and trust, and don’t settle for something that doesn’t feel right. Once you come up with the right business name, you can move on to the clerical steps like registration, licensing, and tax filing.

6. Can you explain your business idea in just a few words?

There’s an old adage that says, “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” The quote is sometimes attributed to Albert Einstein, though historians have generally disputed this, especially in light of the actual complexity of his scientific theories. To wit, it may well have been coined by an unknown business magnate, because it applies brilliantly to the notion of a business startup. You need to be able to explain your business idea in as little as 30 seconds–the length of the so-called elevator pitch. This is important, because that’s about how long the attention span is of the average person. The attention span may be even shorter for the average venture capitalist. If you’re looking to excite others about your idea, perhaps even enough to net a few worthy investors, you need to be able to convey your business idea in a way that is at once compelling, clear and concise.

The Business Structure

7. What will be the legal structure of your business?

Now is the time to determine the best legal structure for your business based on the scale of your operation, the legal liabilities specific to your sector, and the nature of your product or service. Will your business be a sole proprietorship, a limited liability company, a partnership, or a corporation? Is your business intended as a non-profit entity, a religious organization seeking tax exempt status, or a traditional brick and mortar business in the retail space? Each of these entity types will come with its own specific rules for registration, licensing, tax status, operational regulations, and more. It’s up to you to determine which of these models makes the most sense for your product or service. If you’re not sure, this is a great time to consult a business attorney. You’ll want to be sure you get this step right as so many subsequent steps will hinge on making the right call here.

8. Do you need to register your business?

The answer to this question may be different for every aspiring business owner and will depend on factors like your locality, the nature of your business, and the intended scale of your operation. In most cases, registration will be pretty straightforward, but it may not always be necessary. As an article from the Small Business Administration (SBA) notes, “For most small businesses, registering your business is as simple as registering your business name with state and local governments. In some cases, you don’t need to register at all. If you conduct business as yourself using your legal name, you won’t need to register anywhere. But remember, if you don’t register your business, you could miss out on personal liability protection, legal benefits, and tax benefits.” As long as you’re speaking with a lawyer about the structure of your business, you’ll probably want to inquire about these protections and benefits. Determine whether or not it makes sense to register your business. But bear in mind that you’ll probably need to register your business in order to respond in the affirmative to the next question.

9. Do you have an Employer Identification Number (EIN)?

This is important because you’ll need this number for just about everything else that comes with starting a business. Your EIN is kind of like a social security number, but for your business. This is what the U.S. government uses to identify your business as an official taxpaying entity. As an article from the Small Business Administration notes, “Your Employer Identification Number (EIN) is your federal tax ID. You need it to pay federal taxes, hire employees, open a bank account, and apply for business licenses and permits. It’s free to apply for an EIN, and you should do it right after you register your business.” The SBA explains that you’ll need an EIN to do everything from operating as a corporation to establishing a partnership; from paying employees to filing tax returns for employment; from withholding income tax from employees to overseeing certain tax-deferred pension plans. In other words, getting an EIN should be among your first steps. The good news is that it’s pretty easy to get an EIN directly through the IRS EIN assistance portal .

10. Do you have a general business license? No matter what kind of business you plan to operate, you are required to have a business license. In the vast majority of cases, a General Business License will suffice, and this will usually be issued by your locality. According to an article from Investopedia, “ Any business, including home-based businesses, must obtain a local city or county business license. This is a basic license that allows the holder to engage in business activities within the local jurisdiction. If your city or county doesn’t have a specific business licensing department, you can obtain information on obtaining a basic business license at your local tax office.”

11. Does your business model require a special sales tax license?

Depending on where you plan to operate, this license may already be included as part of the general business license. But this is not always the case. And where it isn’t the case, you are legally liable for ensuring that you do carry this additional licensing. According to the article from Investopedia “A sales tax license may be part of the general business license in some areas. But a separate sales tax license is required in other areas in addition to a local business license. Not sure if you need a separate tax license? The local department from which you obtain a business license can tell you if you must obtain a separate sales tax license and where to get it at either the state or local level. Make sure that you have this covered before you open your business.” Indeed, failure to do so could actually make you criminally liable.

12. Do you require special permits to conduct your business?

However you slice it, you will need to get this license. However, there is also specialized permitting that you may need to get. This will largely depend on the nature of your business. Permits, as per their name, give you permission to engage in specific business activities within your locality, and will usually be granted by a professional association specific to your sector. For instance, say the article from Investopedia, “ Environmental licenses or health department permits are less common for home-based businesses. These documents are most generally required for businesses that engage in the wholesale or retail sale of food and beverage products. In any event, it’s easy enough to check with state environmental protection agencies or local health departments to find out if your business requires any type of environmental inspection or permit.”

13. Do you need specialized insurance?

The answer to this question will depend on the nature of your business, as well as the organization, resources, and personnel involved in this business. If you are a sole proprietorship selling a creative service like web design or digital marketing, you won’t likely require any special insurance coverage to operate out of your home office space. On the other hand, if you plan to rent or purchase property for the operation of your business, you plan to hire employees, you expect to operate vehicles or machinery in the production or delivery of your products or services, or you are manufacturing a retail item that will find its way into the homes of consumers, you may need to carry certain specialized insurance policies. This may include commercial property insurance, professional liability insurance, or general liability insurance. Some small business owners will choose to carry a generalized business insurance simply in order to mitigate unforeseen risks and legal entanglements. If you’re not sure which types of insurance are recommended or required in your sector, consult a business attorney.

14. Are there zoning requirements you need to be aware of?

Before you start a business in your locality, make sure you’re aware of any practical legal limitations on what you can and can’t do. If you’re planning to rent or purchase a property, be sure you understand all the zoning rules in your municipality and county. Will your business objectives be in compliance with these rules? Are there additional steps you’ll need to take, and expenses you’ll need to sustain, in order to achieve compliance? You may need to ask these same questions if you plan to run your business out of your own home. Be sure that you are aware of any rules or regulations imposed by your township or country regarding the operation of certain business types from spaces that are zoned as residential properties.

15. Does your Home Owners Association (HOA) have any rules about operating a home business?`

Speaking of operating a business out of your own home, many communities and developments are overseen by organizations called Home Owners Associations (HOA). HOAs often have pretty far reaching rules about how you can and can’t use your residential space. Some may even have restrictions on operating a business out of your home. This is something you’ll want to be aware of before you attempt to launch a business from your home office or backyard workshop. If your HOA forbids this type of commercial activity, you may be required to rent or purchase an alternative space for the operation of your business. Naturally, this means you’ll need to factor this cost into your operating expenses.

The Competition

16. Who are the leading competitors in the space you’re entering?

Find out everything you can about the businesses that are leading in your space. Which companies are dominating in sales and market share? Which companies have succeeded in establishing a sturdy reputation in the space, and which entrants have made the biggest splash as innovators? In addition to finding out who these competitors are, you should know how each one has built a successful business in the space you plan to enter. An article from Business News Daily advises exploring all aspects of your competitors’ business to achieve a comprehensive understanding of what has allowed them to succeed. According to Business News Daily, “these aspects could be pricing, distribution and delivery strategies, market share, new products or services coming to market, who their long-standing, highest-spending customers are, the quality of after-sales support, and which sales and marketing channels they use.”

17. Is there room for a new entrant?

Now that you understand a bit more about the competition, you should be in a better position to honestly assess this question. How much space is there in the market for a new entrant? Are you facing down a field in which the competition is endowed with billions of dollars in operating capital? Is the field saturated with other startup businesses looking to build their own reputations as trailblazers? (Cryptocurrency industry–I’m looking in your direction.) As you prepare to make your own splash in a selected marketplace, do some honest soul searching about how much space there really is for your idea in this sector. If you find a marketplace that is deeply tilted toward just a few monopolistic entities, or one that is absolutely teeming with would-be innovators, you may want to turn your attention elsewhere.

18. Are you looking to innovate in your field?

Speaking of innovators, are you among them? This ties directly into the question of your Unique Sales Proposition (USP). Are you preparing to offer a product that significantly enhances what has previously been available in the marketplace? Is your service offering a meaningful step forward from previous service offerings in the same space? If you are offering customers something that is truly a distinctive, first-of-its-kind purchasing opportunity, you may be in a position to transform the marketplace, and place yourself at the forefront of this transformation. Before you enter the field, determine whether you plan to work within the parameters already established by those who came before you or whether you plan to disrupt the industry with exciting new innovations.

19. How will you differentiate your business offering from the competition?

Of course, innovation isn’t the only way to differentiate your offering from others in the marketplace. You can find ways to make your products and services more affordable, more accessible, more efficient, or more functional. Even incremental improvements in what’s available could set your company apart. An article from Business News Daily asks, “Could you improve the quality of your products or services by adding or amending a feature, lowering the price to be more affordable or improving after-sales support? Could you achieve a better ROI on your marketing budget by investing in a more capable CRM for better lead management?” Determine how you will set yourself apart, both from those who have established themselves as leaders in the space, and from those who are going head to head with you at the startup tier.

20. Is there anybody else who can do what you plan to do?

Do you have an ace in the hole–something that your business will do or offer that nobody else can replicate? Have you invented an exciting proprietary technology, or created an unparalleled synergy with another business partner, or is your team simply loaded with the type of intellect and talent that other companies can’t match? Identify the greatest strengths that your business has to offer, whether these are features embodied in your personnel, your products, your structure, or all of the above. Once you know what these strengths are, do everything you can to magnify them. These strengths will be your greatest selling point when it comes to beating the competition.

21. How has this industry or space changed in the last several years? Where is it going in the future?

Beyond just studying the current players in your business, you should have a strong sense of the history of your space. What are the trends and innovations that have helped to shape your area of the market? Are there technological or conceptual developments that have been inflection points in this field? And how has the field evolved since these inflection points? Try to gain a full understanding of the leading trends in the marketplace, as well as the path that led to this point. The better you understand what came before, the more readily you will be able to anticipate future developments in your field. Naturally, this anticipation could be the key to tremendous success.

22. What do the success stories in your industry look like?

Speaking of success, it’s not a bad idea to get a firsthand glimpse at exactly what this looks like. You’ve already identified the leading competitors in the field. Now find out what got them to where they are today? What was the unique value proposition that each of these successful businesses offered? What innovations did these businesses bring to the market? In short, what were the keys to their success? Whether you hope to replicate, build on, or surpass that success, the first step is to fully understand how your competitors achieved it. Every company has a story. Explore these stories and think about how they can inform your success.

23. What do the failures in your industry look like?

Not to be negative, but you can also learn a lot from the failures in your midst. Just as the sector you plan to enter is populated with winners, the world of business must also have losers. Find out more about the also-rans, the companies that tried, failed, and folded. These are cautionary tales with tremendous value to you, as a new entrant into the field. What were the causes of their failure–a failure to differentiate themselves, a lack of capital, poor organization, or just bad luck? All are possibilities, and more. Before you launch your business, use these stories of disappointment and poor fortune to identify, anticipate and sidestep your own pitfalls.

The Customers

24. Who are your customers?

Now that you know the competition, it’s absolutely critical that you also identity your customer base. Which demographics do you expect to serve, and more importantly, how well do you know the real people who make up these demographics. You need to understand your target if you are to effectively market to these populations. One helpful exercise here is to actually create target customer personas as hypothetical use cases for your products or services. To clarify, we mean that you should literally write out 300 word descriptions of imaginary customers–who they are, what their needs are, and why they are likely to find your product or service offering to be the ideal solution to that need. Beyond identifying customers by what you perceive to be key demographics, this exercise should allow you to hone in on individual customer types. Create characters around these customers and do your best to put yourself in their shoes. The better you understand exactly who your customers are, the easier it will be for you to identify their needs and provide products and services that effectively meet these needs.

25. Is there a large enough market for your product or service to fuel a profitable business?

Identifying your target customers should naturally lend an answer to this subsequent question. Does the customer base that you’ve identified constitute a large enough population to support your product or service? In the section below, we’ll discuss some of the financial components of starting a business. These will make it a bit easier to address a question like this. But on its own, the purpose of this question is to determine whether there is realistically a large enough market for your offering to fuel a profitable business. Without enough prospective buyers, it won’t matter how innovative your idea is. It will still be unlikely to generate a profit.

26. How will you market yourself to your target customers?

Now that you know who your customers are, and how many of them are out there, you have to figure out how you’ll reach them. This means determining where your prospective customers hang out. Are they online, browsing store aisles, or doing a bit of both? Are they reading print ads, clicking onto products from various social media accounts, or making their purchasing decisions based on word of mouth? This offers further motivation for getting to know your intended target market on a deeper and more personal level. As an article from The Score explains, “Knowing your target audience will also help you know how to market your business. For example, younger audiences may be attracted to social media channels, such as Snapchat or Instagram, while B2B audiences may respond better to webinars and white papers. Do you want to focus on SEO and content marketing or do you want to spend time gaining reviews and word-of-mouth referrals? Before you start a business, it’s important to understand where and how you are going to market that company. The best brands in the world have figured out how to communicate their value proposition effectively.” You need to be able to draw the triangulating lines that connect your marketing strategy, your value proposition, and your customer.

27. What is your marketing budget?

On the one hand, there’s the strategy you plan to implement in order to reach your prospective customer base. On the other hand, there’s the actual amount of money that you have with which to do so. Again, we’ll address some of the financial components of your startup business in the section below. But the purpose of the question in this section is to incline you to think realistically about what it costs to reach your targets through the various channels where you are most likely to find them. Will you be budgeted for a robust marketing campaign right out of the gate, or will you opt for a soft launch while you raise additional funding? The latter option may even be preferable if you are still in the process of working out the kinks in your product or process. In other words, you’ll want to develop an initial marketing budget based both on your available resources and your readiness for an influx of new customers.

28. Are your customers local, online or both?

Speaking of new customers, where are you expecting to find them, and where are you most likely to complete transactions with these customers? Is your business a strictly online business with a national or even global customer demographic? Is your business a strictly local operation like a landscaping business, a wedding cake baker, or a dentist? If it’s the latter, your strategy for reaching customers will likely be quite different from the strategy of those in the former category. Geography matters when marketing to your customer base for a variety of reasons, including its impact on the channels you will use to reach them, the language and tone you will use to engage them, and the nature of the products and services you will make available to them. Make sure your product or service offerings, and your marketing strategy, match the practical geographical expectations of your target.

29. Are there underserved groups in this space, or gaps in the marketplace?

Have you identified a unique subset of your chosen marketplace that is not currently being reached by your anticipated competitors? This could represent the opportunity to fill a need in your space. Remember those target personas that you developed? Now let’s think of some personas that are not having their needs met in the current marketplace. Are there prospective customers who are being priced out by the cost of products and services in your industry? Are there customers who require a more specialized type of service that simply isn’t available? Is there a geographic or cultural enclave that isn’t being reached by the messaging and marketing of current competitors? Try to find gaps in the way the marketplace is being served. These gaps could represent a substantial opportunity both to address unmet customer needs and to facilitate the growth of your business. Depending on the nature of your business, carving out a specialized niche could be just as profitable as taking a lead position in the industry, writ large.

The Financial Components

30. What are the startup costs for your business idea?

Once you’re certain that there is both space for your ideas in the industry and customers to help make your idea marketable, it’s time to get down to dollars and cents. How much money do you need to get your ideas off the ground? Startup costs will usually include a variety of administrative fees for licensing, registration, permitting, zoning, etc. These costs will also include property rental or purchase, any necessary insurance coverage, contract labor, employment costs, production costs, marketing costs and more. Clearly, there’s a lot of expense that comes with the start of a new business. Make sure you have a full sense of what those costs are. Refer back to your business plan for specifics. Hopefully, those specifics will also help you pin down sources for funding, whether these startup costs come from angel investors, venture capitalists, bank lenders, or from your own pocket.

31. What does it cost to make your products or deliver your services?

In addition to start up costs, you’ll need to know the operational costs of your business before you start paying the bills. If you’re manufacturing a product, you’ll need to calculate the costs of materials, labor, and delivery on the supply chain. If you’re delivering a service, you’ll need to calculate the costs of personnel, transportation, and actual labor. Do some research on your competitors to find out what they’re spending on these line items. Before you can determine what to charge for your goods and services, you need to know what it will cost you to deliver them.

32. Are there commodities that you’ll require that come with fluctuating costs?

Of course, that is easier said than done. That’s because many of the key commodities that businesses rely upon for production or for the delivery of services can fluctuate dramatically in price. The most obvious example is gas. Countless factors can impact the price of gas from inflation and supply chain disruption to natural disasters and political unrest. Of course, these occurrences can be highly difficult to predict, which means the price of this essential commodity can be difficult to anticipate. This directly impacts businesses that rely upon gas-powered vehicles for delivery or gas powered machinery for manufacturing. And of course, this is just one example. Shifts in the cost of lumber can have rippling effects on costs for builders and contractors. Changes in the availability of corn, rice, wheat, or soy can impact prices across the food distribution and service industries. These pricing fluctuations can impact profit margins and ultimately shape the price that you pass along to consumers. These fluctuations can be quite unpredictable. As you initiate your business, take into consideration your reliance on commodities that tend to fluctuate in value. To the extent that is possible, you’ll want to prepare for these possibilities in both your budgeting and pricing structure.

33. How will you price your products or services?

Speaking of pricing structure, it’s important to establish a price point for your products and services that makes sense within the scope of your industry and the broader economy. An article from Forbes notes that pricing is a delicate balance. Forbes points out that “You don’t want to over priced, but you don’t want to price your products too low. This is where research comes in handy as you want to look at what your competitors’ price their products at. Are your items the same, more luxurious or more simple? You also want to take into consideration the packaging and postage costing as well as maintaining the business overall. Where do you fit in the market for your target consumers?” Make sure you establish a price that consumers are likely to accept, but one that also ensures the profitability of your business regardless of your operational costs and potential fluctuations in the cost of commodities.

34. What is the product life-cycle for the goods or services you plan to deliver?

Obviously, you want to provide high quality products and services. This is a great way to ensure customer loyalty. On the other hand, nothing lasts forever. Do your products have a relative expiration date? Does the impact of your services have a diminishing benefit over time? In other words, will your customers ultimately need to update or upgrade the products they’ve purchased from you? Will they need regular service visits to ensure the continued effectiveness of the services rendered? This is important to know, because the timeline from initial purchase to subsequent purchase or service visit may tell you a great deal about your company’s profitability. If the goods and services you offer do indeed have a finite lifespan, be sure you have positioned your company to provide the appropriate replacements or repairs when the time is right.

35. How will you define financial success?

We recognize that this is a fairly broad question, but it is worthwhile to identify some financial benchmarks by which to log your own successes. Before you launch your business, you should have a clear sense of the milestones that you will use to mark your progress. Will you be targeting a specific amount of annual revenue; a break even point based on your initial investment; or a certain degree of profitability? What financial achievements will you use to track your company’s progress? Identify these measures in advance so that you have some concrete financial goals to shoot for.

36. Will you be opening a separate business bank account?

This is a good idea even if you operate as a sole proprietorship. A designated business account can make it a great deal easier to conduct effective accounting, to keep your personal finances separate, and to process customer payments. Indeed, you can set your business account to feed inputs into your accounting software, to accept credit card payments, to make payments on your business credit card, and more. In the simplest terms, you really should have a separate business bank account even for the smallest and most independent of operations. It helps to keep things clear and organized while reducing your personal financial risk.

The Organization

37. What skills do you bring to the table? What skills will you need to source from others?

You’ve decided to launch your own business, so obviously you are enterprising and ambitious. But what other virtues do you bring to the table? Are you good at delegating responsibilities and communicating ideas to others? Or are you better at wheeling and dealing with other business leaders? Do you have a gift for understanding and connecting with clients or are your skill sets more technical? It’s important to identify the talents you bring to the table for a few reasons. First and foremost, you’ll want to channel your greatest strengths into helping get this company off the ground. But secondly, and just as importantly, you’ll want to identify the areas where you may not be as strong. These are areas where you might want to enlist engagement from others. If you excel at business planning but are less skilled at engaging personnel, you may wish to partner with somebody who has managerial skills. If you bring a ton of technical expertise to the table but you don’t really know how to crunch the numbers in order to turn a profit, bring in somebody with financial management experience. In short, identify the areas where you excel, and partner with those who excel in areas where you don’t.

38. Are you still planning to work your day job?

This is worth asking if only because it underscores just how much time you’ll be able to invest in launching your own company. It’s understandable that you wish (or need) to retain your paying income even as you work to get a new company off the ground. But if this is the case, you simply need to be realistic about how much time you have to invest in your new venture. Divided attention may delay or even stand in the way of establishing a successful business. Taking the leap from full time work into full startup mode can be scary, but it may also be the only way to make it really work. If you have a day job with flexibility, you may be able to do both. But if your daily work responsibilities are standing in the way of your ability to launch a new company, you may want to think very seriously about taking the full leap into your new venture, and if possible, paying yourself a salary from the startup funding or revenue generated by this business.

39. How many employees will be needed to make this business work?

Speaking of taking a salary, you may not be the only one that your new company must pay. If you are a sole proprietorship, this probably isn’t a concern for you. But most business enterprises require other people to succeed. How many people you need to succeed will depend entirely on the initial scale of your organization. To the point, an article from Forbes notes the importance of anticipating the startup scale of your organization. Realistically speaking, what are the labor requirements for making your idea into a reality? Forbes notes that you may be “starting this business solo or with a business partner, but you also want to consider how many employees you will need as the time goes on. This is important to consider if you are beginning a business with the idea that it will scale up in the future, and require a team for growth.”

40. Is your business idea scalable? Can your company grow, and if so, what will that mean?

Speaking of growth, what do you envision for the future of your company? Are you providing a product that can be manufactured and distributed en masse? Are you offering a service that can be made widely accessible? How realistic is it that your company could expand regionally, nationally, or even globally? And if it did, what would that mean for your overhead costs, the size of your labor pool, and the potential for profitability? While all of these ambitions may be well in the future, you’ll want to anticipate these possibilities even now, at the outset of your business venture. Are these ambitions possible? Does your business model allow for this level of growth? And if not, what must you do to make this type of growth possible? Take steps now to analyze and recognize the potential scalability of your business model. This consideration may prevent you from suddenly realizing at some future date that you’ve reached the limits of your company’s ability to grow.

41. What logistical challenges will you have to address?

While there is a lot that you can control as a business entrepreneur, you must also rely on the competence of others to carry out your work. This may include mail sorters, parcel delivery services, truck driving fleets, port workers and countless others in the supply chain who will contribute to the timeliness of your shipments. Whether you’re waiting for incoming supplies or banking on the expedient shipment of outgoing products, there are logistical factors that will contribute directly to your costs of operation and your organizational efficiency. Make sure you have a full understanding of these logistical factors, and that you’re prepared to manage the challenges that these factors can sometimes impose on your ability to serve customers effectively.

42. Are there political externalities to consider?

In addition to logistical concerns, there are some businesses that are directly at the mercy of external political factors. Are you entering into the type of business that relies on government funding, that requires the efforts of lobbyists, or that touches upon an area that is considered divisive in American politics? Some products and services may even fluctuate in popularity based on their political and cultural appeal. Does your business idea depend on the political dominance of one party or another? Is your business model vulnerable to fluctuations in prevailing political ideals? If this is the case, you should be aware of the potential ebbs and flows this could create in your company’s popularity and relevance. These factors could consequently cause ongoing volatility in your company’s bottom line.

43. Will it be possible to delegate leadership responsibilities to others?

What role do you see for yourself in this company? Will you be a hands-on, day-to-day business manager? Or are you more likely to delegate responsibilities and take a hands off approach? The answer to this question should depend on your skill sets. Some business managers prefer to oversee every detail of their company’s operations. But speaking with candor, the most successful business owners are those that can effectively hand business leadership responsibilities over to trusted employees. In an ideal world, you would be able to delegate most daily management tasks to trusted personnel in your organization.

44. Do you plan to exit your business at any time?

This may seem like kind of a funny question to ask when you’re literally at the very start of running your own business. But it may be valuable to consider this question before you get your business off the ground. Do you envision this as a family company, one that you will ultimately pass on to the next generation? Or is it merely a profitable idea that you would ultimately sell to the highest bidder? In short, do you see yourself running this company for the rest of your working life, or would you be just as happy (if not happier) to create a valuable enterprise that ultimately sells to a bigger company for a big price tag? If you chose the latter, we can’t say we blame you.

45. What is your company’s identity, and how does this connect to your target market?

Your brand refers to the way you present yourself. So how do you intend to present your company? This should be a function of your target market. If you’re pursuing a younger demographic, you’ll want to establish an identity that is at once informal and authentic. If you’re pursuing a demographic of business professionals, you’ll want to establish an identity that is polished and articulate. Such is to say that your intended audience will play a big role in defining your brand. Make sure you establish an identity–in your imagery, marketing material, and personnel–that reflects the desires of your target demographic.

46. What are your company values?

Your brand is more than just an abstract vibe. It’s also the foundation underlying your company’s values–the things that your organization stands for. Identify those values from the start and it can help you to better understand your own brand. Is your company focused on affordability, accessibility and inclusion? Do your values emphasize activism in the face of global climate change? Or are your company’s values simply focused on creating profits for your shareholders? Whatever demographics and priorities you serve, take time to articulate your company values now. This may help to create a brand that truly resonates with your target audience over the long haul.

47. Does your company have a mission and vision?

Your values are an indication of what your company stands for. By contrast, your mission and vision speak to what your company actually intends to do. What do you hope to accomplish as an organization? Is it innovation, equality, environmental justice, social progress, or technological advancement, just to name a few of the infinite possible answers to that question? Part of establishing your brand is articulating the mission that your company will actively pursue and the vision that your company will hold as its grandest ambition.

48. How will you convey this brand?

Now that you’ve pinned down your brand, how can you be sure that others will perceive the image that you’re putting out there? Do you have plans to build a website that captures your company’s identity, tone and vibe? Do you have a way to source a logo, color palette, and iconography that match your organization’s culture, energy, and intent? In most cases, these are tasks that you will want to outsource to qualified third-party providers. But you’ll need to establish your own clear sense of these things first. Take time to think about the aesthetic that you believe will best convey your company’s identity and find artists, copywriters and web designers who will work closely with you to capture this aesthetic

49. Do you need any special patents or trademark copyrights?

In addition to working with artists and web designers to create your company’s iconography, you’ll want to work with lawyers to ensure that this ephemera is protected from intellectual property theft. That’s why, according to our own Ultimate Guide to Starting a Business, “Many companies apply for trademarks to protect the unique components of their company. Trademarks can cover a specific brand, a logo, a catchphrase, or product design. Or anything else that sets your business apart from your competitors.” Make sure you apply for these protections in the early going. When your company achieves massive success, you’ll be glad that you secured your images and icons against misuse.

50. Does your company have a story to tell?

Part of your brand identity is your personal history, the history of your idea, and the history of the organization you’ve built to deliver that idea to your customers. Find a compelling way to tell this story in your company’s literature, on your website, and through your marketing materials. Your company’s story can help to personalize the purchasing experience for your customers, to make your brand more relatable, and to ultimately help you establish an identity with lasting commercial impact.

Looking for even more detail on how to succeed at business? Our Ultimate Guide to Starting a Business includes step by step details on how to create a business plan, a rundown of special business permits and licenses, and tons of other actionable tips on getting your business venture off the ground.

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The Business Plan: Seven Questions You Need to Ask When Starting a Business

Any company, from one plotting world domination to one selling jam at the local farmers’ market, can benefit from writing a business plan. But even if you don’t anticipate needing to seek financing, permits, or legal counsel, the process of writing a business plan will help you focus and will be a valuable reference as your business grows.

The level of detail will vary accordingly, but all business plans address at least the following questions:

What is the product or service?
Who are your customers? Describe the demographics. Research their purchasing habits. Know how your product or service meets their needs or wants.
What is your marketing strategy? How will you make your customers aware of your product?
Who are your competitors? How is your product different and better than that of the competition?
What will it take to operate your business—in a physical sense—on a day-to-day basis?
Who is the management team? Include short bios of who’s running the show and their qualifications.
What is your financial situation? How much do you need to get started? How much do you expect to earn, and when?

Be sure to include an “executive summary.” It should appear at the beginning of the document, but you may want to write it last, since it’s exactly what it’s called—a summary. It should boil down all the information in your business plan to no more than two pages.

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17 questions you should ask yourself before starting a business.

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Starting a business sounds appealing doesn’t it? You get to be your own boss, do what you love and work your own hours (which really means choosing which 10-18 hours to work). But there are things you need to ask yourself before you start a business which you may not think about in the moment.

Entrepreneur, starting new business, leadership concept.

1. Why do I want to start a business?

This may seem obvious, but sometimes we want to start a business without even thinking about the why. What sparked your business idea and is it something you are extremely passionate about doing?

2. Can this business idea make me money now and in the future?

If the answer is no, then you may want to reconsider. You don’t want to pursue a business idea for it to cost you more than what you make. Yes, money isn't the most important factor, it is the outcome but it is your responsibility to ensure the business has financial viability.

3. Who is my target audience for my business?

You need to tailor your business to a specific target audience. This will be helpful when you are advertising and marketing your business to the niche audience and producing products that they would consume. You need to remember your business cannot be for anyone and everyone, find a niche market and focus on them as this will lead to financial rewards later on.

4. Who are my competitors?

Usually the business idea you have come up with exists somewhere out there, there may even be several variations of your business already. So, it is important to research other businesses similar to yours and see what yours can offer that makes you stand out. Analyse competitors, see how they interact with customers online, how they present their products and how strong their brand is.

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5. What is your USP?

By identifying your competitors this allows you to identify your unique selling point. Ask yourself what makes your business more special? How is it different to the other competitors out there?

6. How will I market my business?

You need to market to your niche audience. By having the best marketing strategy, it is more likely your business website and social media will be seen by the desired target audience which will increase traffic and sales!

7. How will I price my products?

You don’t want to over priced, but you don’t want to price your products too low. This is where research comes in handy as you want to look at what your competitors’ price their products at. Are your items the same, more luxurious or more simple? You also want to take into consideration the packaging and postage costing as well as maintaining the business overall. Where do you fit in the market for your target consumers?

8. Do I have the funds to start this business?

Before you begin making money, you need to put money into your business to start it up. So before beginning, the best thing to do is produce a list of all the things you’ll have to buy before you can officially launch your business .

These may include:

- Registering your company name

- A website

- The product itself / service creation

- Packaging

- Labels

- Money towards advertising and marketing

These are only a few things to consider, but only buy what you absolutely need , not what you’d ideally want. These will follow as your business grows.

9. Am I extremely motivated and passionate?

It is easy to say you want to have your own business, but do you see yourself doing this for a while? Are you extremely passionate about this business idea and motivated that you will work on it consistently until it grows?

10. Can I do this alone?

You need to reflect on the team you need, will you be able to manage this business completely by yourself, or do you need others that you would be able to rely on to help you throughout your journey. Maintaining a business by yourself is not easy and so you may want to consider having someone by your side that is as motivated and passionate about the business. Or joining a community of like minded entrepreneurs.

11. How many employees will I need?

So, you’ll be starting this business solo or with a business partner, but you also want to consider how many employees you will need as the time goes on. This is important to consider if you are beginning a business with the idea that it will scale up in the future, and require a team for growth. Or if you have chosen a 'company of one' how many people do you need to make it efficient.

12. What resources do I already have?

You might get ahead of yourself and think about what you don’t have, but ask yourself what do you already have? Make sure to utilise the resources already available that may you can save money and time.

13. Are you ready to invest your time into this business?

Managing a business takes a lot of time, money and energy in order for it to be successful. So, you want to make sure you are in a good place in your life to begin a business. You also need to be prepared to take a lot of risks and sacrifices to make the business work!

14. How will I set up the legal structure of my business?

It is important to research the legal structure of your business, depending on the product or service you will be selling. Make sure you have chosen the legal structure that secures your business and protects you.

15. What kind of taxes do I have to pay?

These are also the type of questions you will need to be thinking about when you begin your business. As it will be considered your job, it is a legal requirement that you state how much you earn and therefore be taxed by the government. So, this is an important part of research when you are starting a business.

16. What are my goals?

Yes, you want to start your business but what are your goals with it? Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years time? These are some thoughts to have before you begin, it is important you see your business as a long-term goal where one day you will make your income from your business alone.

17. When will I be ready to start?

Make a plan of an ideal date you want to launch your business and work towards it! Create a to-do list and tick off the tasks as you go along in preparing to launch your business. Be realistic about your launch date and plan accordingly.

There are so many questions you need to ask yourself as you get started, the 17 above will get you started and your mentor would be able to help you with the initial questions.

Remember, starting a business isn’t easy and will require a lot of time, patience and energy! Fall in love with your business idea and watch it grow as well as making sure to plan ahead! Good luck on your journey!

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10 Questions Your Business Plan Should Answer

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One reason people are sometimes intimidated by the prospect of writing a business plan is simple: They don't have a clue what a plan should contain. The good news is that there are no hard and fast rules. In fact, no two plans look exactly alike. For a sole proprietor, a business plan may run a couple of pages. A business plan for a large company plotting a turnaround can take up a hundred or more pages, with plenty of appendices. But to be useful and effective, all business plans should provide answers to these ten questions.

What business are you in?

The question sounds easy enough. But for some businesses, the answer isn't as straightforward as you may think. The best way to zero in on exactly what business you're in is by taking time to craft a mission and vision statement.

Consider Amazon. It began as an online bookstore. Then it morphed into a vast online discount retailer, selling everything from food to clothing. A few years ago Amazon turned into a publisher. Now, with the advent of cloud storage, it also provides a place for people to store their books and music.

Even small companies often have to give some thought to defining what their business is. Take the example of a garden maintenance company that found itself gaining a reputation for turning bland yards into showpieces. More and more people began to turn to the company not just to maintain their gardens but also to design them. The company began to realize that it could be much more successful — and charge a whole lot more — if it marketed itself as a garden design company.

How will the business make money?

You may think this would be the most elementary of all questions. But in reality, many start-up enterprises fail to formulate a business model — a fancy term that means how they'll make money. There was even a time, in the early days of the online world, when people dismissed the very notion of a business model as something from the old economy. If you build a website that's cool enough, the thinking went, success will follow. Well, it didn't always. A lot of clever websites found themselves scrambling for a way to pay the bills.

Even many conventional businesses need to think about their business model to ensure success. A hair salon may make some of its money from cutting, shampooing, and styling hair, for example, but it may also find that it can substantially boost the bottom line by selling hair care products. Thinking through all the different ways that your business can make money is crucial to success.

What does your business need to get off the ground?

Start-ups require a lot of enthusiasm and hard work, and often plenty of cold cash. One of the biggest blunders new companies make is not thinking ahead about how much money they'll need to get up and running. When the money runs out before the doors open, the best business idea in the world isn't going to spell success.

A good business plan must take into account everything that is required to start — and how much it's likely to cost. Building a little cushion into those estimates is always wise.

What is the operating budget?

The financial section of your business plan also must address how much it will cost you to run your business, month by month, and how much you need to earn to meet your expenses and make a profit. Chances are you'll need to make a bunch of decision up-front before you come up with a reliable number — decisions about where you'll do business, what kinds of equipment and staff you'll need, a marketing budget, and so on.

You'll then need to think about how much you'll charge for your product and service and how much you can expect to take in month by month. Needless to say, the more carefully you think through all these questions in advance, the better prepared you'll be.

Who are your customers?

Build a better mousetrap, the saying goes, and the world will beat a path to your door. Maybe. But to build a better mousetrap, you need to know what customers want and how much they're willing to spend.

The more you know about your prospective customers, the more successful you're likely to be. Take the time to look at what your customers like and don't like. The Internet has made it easier to understand customers. All you have to do is read through reviews on Amazon or Yelp to know what people are raving about and what they're dissing, covering a wide range of products and services. But old-fashioned tools are also effective, including customer surveys, focus groups, and simply observing customer behavior.

How will you reach your customers?

You can reach your customers these days in more ways than ever before, ranging from billboards, shop signs, newspaper ads, websites, e-newsletters, tweets, mass mailings, Facebook posts, and more. Your business plan should spell out how you intend to reach your customers and maintain an ongoing relationship with them.

Social media has created brand new ways to engage in two-way exchanges with your customers. Digital communications have greatly improved customer service for many businesses. But be advised that the Internet has also raised expectations about what great service should be. Customers are savvier than ever, and more demanding.

What sets you apart from the competition?

If you've invented something unlike anything the world has ever seen before, congratulations. You're in rare company. If you're like most businesses, you compete in a marketplace with other players. To succeed, you have to give customers good reasons to choose you over your competitors. An effective business plan should spell out those reasons and develop strategies to make the most of them.

To get started, find out all you can about your competitors and their strengths and weaknesses. Then consider how the business you're planning stacks up. Typically, businesses compete on the basis of price, quality, service, and features. But a company's image can also be part of its competitive advantage. For example, people buy Newman's Own foods not only because the quality is good and the price is right but also because of the company's image of doing good by donating a chunk of its profits to good causes. In a similar way, other companies attract customers by promoting their products or services on the basis of environmental protection.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

This question may well be the most important one you ponder as you develop your business plan. Most people have a vague sense of what they do well and what they could do better. If you're part of an organization, you can recognize some of its strengths and weaknesses. But there's a lot that people don't face up to. The process of writing a business plan gives you an opportunity to be far more honest and thorough in your assessment. A formal SWOT analysis grid can allow you to measure your strengths and weaknesses against the opportunities and threats in your business environment.

This question is so important because business success really depends on leveraging your strengths and addressing your weaknesses. For instance, when an orthopedic institute in southern California noticed that its patient satisfaction scores were slipping, the doctors were puzzled. The institute's complication rates were very low. The length of time patients spent in the hospital was below the national average. The medical staff, it seemed, were doing a great job. But in surveys, many patients complained that the care felt impersonal and rushed. To remedy the situation, the institute hired social workers who met with patients when they were admitted and again before discharge to talk over their concerns. The institute also scheduled a follow-up call between surgeon and patient a month after discharge. A year later, patient satisfaction scores were back on top.

What are the biggest challenges you face?

Every business faces challenges, especially in competitive markets or with technological change. Your business plan should describe in detail the particular challenges you face and how you plan to overcome them. The challenges can be part of the business environment you compete in — a crowded field of competitors or regulatory uncertainties, for example. But some of the challenges you face are also likely to be related specifically to your company, such as hiring and holding on to skilled employees, for instance, or responding quickly to changes in the marketplace.

How will you measure success?

The simple answer to this question is money. Make enough money, and any business is a success. But in fact, for most enterprises, the answer is more complex. The most obvious example is a not-for-profit company. Consider a nonprofit community orchestra. Its success is measured in terms of filling seats for its concerts and providing local musicians a chance to play. Or consider a food bank. It spells success in terms of reaching as many people in need and giving them nutritious food as possible.

Your business plan should acknowledge all the ways you plan to measure your success. Your financial section will look at dollars and cents. Your goals and objectives will mark off specific mileposts that will help you chart your progress. Your mission and value statements will serve as a guide to the less tangible items that spell success for you.

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Who’s Joe?

THE POWER OF QUESTIONS

“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”

― Anthony Robbins, Motivation Guru

This is one of those strategies you might question a bit why it’s important, no pun intended. In terms of applicability and importance, questions are probably the most important tool for problem solving .

What is the Power of Questions?

Asking simple questions is one of the most underutilized and powerful diagnostic tools. Think about going to an emergency room. They have a set of questions that allow them to diagnose your symptoms and narrow down potential ailments quickly. Strategic leaders have a similar purpose and should use questions more often to understand the context, root causes, and potential solutions to a situation.

When you talk there are only two ways to communicate ; assert or ask a question. Asserting is stating your opinions or facts. Asking questions allows you to get more facts and opinions about a situation. Asking the right questions can open your mind and organization to new potential improvements, innovations, and often the next big product idea. Strategic leaders are magicians in quickly diagnosing a situation simply through the questions they formulate and ask.

The simplest and often most powerful strategy framework is also the oldest. Asking or answering the Who, What, Why, When, Where, and How can provide the context people need to better understand a situation. It is the go-to framework, whenever you are trying to better understand a new situation or explain a path forward.

How do you ask the right questions?

As a strategic leader, the right questions are your best and most often used strategy tool. Questions serve as your guide on your journey to better understanding situations. Choosing your questions wisely often determines the fruitfulness of your journey. Here are some tips for asking the best questions:

Use Open-Ended Quest ions

Open-ended questions don’t have simple yes or no answers. Open-ended questions allow conversations and problem solving to build and grow, whereas yes or no questions can quickly shut down a conversation.

Shut Up and Listen

Always be aware and mindful of how much time you are talking versus asking questions and listening . We’ve all been through the “being talked at” disease that some people have, and it is such a turn-off. And, as you listen to someone’s answer to your question, process it, and think about other hypotheses you may have or any other questions you need to be answered.

Use the Five Ws and One H for just about anything

The Five Ws and One H are the Who, What, Why, When, Where, and How questions. You can use the Five Ws and One H in almost any situation, including:

• Creating a company strategy – Who is our target customer ? – What is our differentiated value proposition for our target customer? – Why would target customers choose us versus the competition ? – Where should we expand geographically ? – What is our marketing , distribution, and pricing strategy to drive profitable growth ? – How can we drive the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization in developing and delivering the value proposition and journey? – When should we execute and stage our different growth initiatives?

• Understanding a past situation – What happened? – Who did it affect? – Why was it important? – When did it happen? – Where did it happen? – How did it happen?

• Understanding a potential product – What is the product? – How will it be used? – Who will use it? – Why will they buy it? – Where will they buy it? – When will it be launched? – Where will customers buy it?

• Communicating a new program or process – What is the program? – Who does it affect? – Why is it important? – How does the program work? – Where do I learn more about the program? – When does the program start?

Use the Inverse of the Five Ws and One H

Invert the Five Ws and One H, when you face a particularly tricky issue or are struggling to get everyone’s head around the problem. Ask who is involved, and also who is not involved. Ask what it is, and also ask what it is not. Ask where does the problem occur, and also ask where the problem does not occur. Ask when does the problem exist, and when does the problem not exist. This line of questioning will set boundaries around the Who, What, Where, and When. Once you have established these bounds, the next question(s) should be around what is different or has changed. This line of questioning will lead you to the How. Once, you have established the How, the Why will follow. And, the How and Why will then lead you to possible solutions.

Go back to the Basic Question

If you don’t get any worthwhile responses, ask “Why are we trying to solve this issue?” or “Why are we spending our time trying to solve this issue?” These questions can help focus the team and elevate the sense of urgency.

EXERCISES TO IMPROVE YOUR ABILITY TO ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

Exercise 1 – Build Your Awareness

How often do you or others ask questions? In your next conversation or meeting, tally up how many questions people ask and who is asking the questions. What types of questions are you asking; open-ended, rhetorical, prioritization , why, when, how, etc.? What do you notice when people ask different types of questions? Do you think you should ask more or fewer questions?

Exercise 2 – Create a Question Guide

Before your next important meeting, write down the questions you need to be answered, and then be sure to ask them during the meeting. Even more powerful, if you are one of the leaders of the meeting, prioritize and post the questions on the whiteboard and start the meeting by saying “These are the questions we need to answer during this meeting. Are there any others and are they in the right order?” Then structure the meeting around answering the questions.

Exercise 3 – Determine the Most Powerful Questions for You

As you incorporate more questions into your conversations and interactions with people, start playing around with different types of questions in different situations to see which ones are the most powerful. Open-ended questions are really useful when you want to understand the context. Forced prioritization questions ( What are the top 3 most important…? ) are great to help prioritize thinking. Wrap-up questions ( What are the next steps? ) help drive to the next steps and actions. The 5 Ws and 1 H are perfect when you are planning an initiative, working on an idea, or problem solving.

Exercise 4 – Read a Room

The world is made up of introverts and extroverts and most meetings or conversations are dominated by extroverts, often at the expense of the quality of interaction and insights. Next time you are in a meeting, read the room and see who is dominating the conversation, and then reroute the conversation by asking someone that has been fairly quiet, “What are your thoughts on the topic?”

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30 Questions to Ask Entrepreneurs (So You Can Become One)

By Hannah Donor • Mar 9, 2023

an entrepreneur being asked questions in an interview

The beginning stages of entrepreneurship can feel overwhelming. It’s hard to know exactly what you don’t know about starting a business. Although internet research can be immensely helpful, it cannot speak to personal experience. By connecting with a successful entrepreneur, you can benefit from their wisdom and gain knowledge that may not be commonly available online, preparing you to start your own business in a completely different way.

Why You Should Interview an Entrepreneur

When starting a small business, it’s important to remember that you’re not alone. Running a business as a solo act is isolating by nature, so forming a network of support from the start can bolster your confidence and help you strategize for more effective growth and sustainable success.

Whether you’ve been in business for a while and are looking for advice on scaling (growing), or are brand new to entrepreneurship and need to know what things to do before starting a business, interviewing someone with real entrepreneurial experience will go a long way in preparing you to enter the field.

Best Interview Questions to Ask an Entrepreneur

1. why did you decide to start your own business.

Every business owner has a “why” – the reason they chose the unconventional route of entrepreneurship as opposed to a corporate career. Understanding their reason for choosing the business owner path can help you to understand what motivated their success and discover your own reason (or reasons).

2. What advice would you give to someone just starting their own business?

This is the most obvious question you should ask, but also one of the most important! Every business owner has gone through the trying and risky experience of being a new business owner, and every one of them will have direct experience with what worked and what didn’t. You’re meeting with this entrepreneur to get their advice, so don’t be afraid to ask for it!

3. How do you deal with fear and doubt?

Even someone as prolific as Maya Angelou experienced the phenomenon known as imposter’s syndrome , once confessing, “I have written 11 books, but each time I think, ‘Uh-oh, they’re going to find out now.’ I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out.” By asking your interviewee how they deal with self-doubt as an entrepreneur, you’ll gain strategies for conquering fears that will inevitably come up throughout your own venture into business ownership.

4. What routines do you follow each day?

Success is in the details, and most accomplished people follow strict routines and daily habits to keep their busy days running smoothly. This can be as simple as setting an alarm and always getting up when it goes off, eating the same breakfast each morning, or even having multiples of the same outfit so they don’t have to think about what to wear each day.

5. Where do you see your business in five years? Ten?

No entrepreneur is ever done growing their business – it’s an ongoing journey with ever-changing goals and aspirations. Asking the entrepreneur you’re interviewing what their vision for the future is will inspire you to dream big and never stop pursuing success. It will also give you an idea of future milestones you can pursue in your own business.

6. How does your business look different now vs. when you first started?

Similar to asking for advice on just starting out, ask your interviewee to reflect on how their business has grown and shifted over the years. Are they where they expected to be? Did they pivot a completely different direction than originally planned? How does where they are now compare to where they expected to be at this time in their business?

7. How do you set your business apart from others in your industry?

Small businesses require a special twist that makes them different. This may be a unique spin on their product or service, or it may come down to well-crafted branding . Find out how your fellow entrepreneur has distinguished themself from the competition and brainstorm how you can do the same.

8. How did you market your business when it was brand new?

Without the reputation or booming revenue of a larger business, you’ll need to develop strategies for marketing your business and building a loyal audience from scratch. Every business owner has to tackle this at the start, so you’ll definitely want to find out how the person you’re interviewing did this. How did they leverage networking or advertising or social media to start connecting with potential investors or customers?

9. What is the hardest part of being an entrepreneur?

Running your own business won’t always be easy. Like any job, no one loves it all the time. Starting your own business is going to be difficult. It’s going to take a lot of time and determination to make it a success, but knowing what hurdles you may encounter will make it easier to overcome them.

10. What is your favorite part of being an entrepreneur?

Follow up preparing for the worst by hoping for the best! Find out what your interviewee truly loves about the entrepreneurial path. Why are they glad they chose to start their own business? What makes it fun or exciting? These joys are what you will cling to when times get tough.

11. What qualities do you think every entrepreneur should possess?

Ask them what makes a good entrepreneur, but don’t be downhearted if you don’t possess those qualities! Everyone is different and thus approaches entrepreneurship differently, so you may just not fit the mold they would expect. Nevertheless, this is an important question to ask. It can affirm the qualities you do possess and give you ideas of how you can form new habits and cultivate the qualities of a successful entrepreneur.

12. How have you grown personally from becoming an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship is extremely personal. Your business is completely your own, so it’s impossible to separate it from yourself as you might be able to with a standard employment situation. As such, starting a business will inevitably result in growth and change in you personally. By asking for stories of personal growth from a successful entrepreneur, you can get the inside scoop on how you should seek to grow personally.

13. What have been some of your biggest learning experiences in running a business?

Failures are opportunities to learn and do better next time, and no business is without their fair share of mistakes and failures. Although you will likely find your own mistakes to make, you can avoid some of them by asking an entrepreneur what failures they’ve learned from over the years.

14. What do you look for when outsourcing or hiring?

When your business outgrows what you can accomplish as a solopreneur, you’ll need to consider hiring employees or outsourcing work to contractors and freelancers . Ask an entrepreneur who has done this before what qualities they look for in potential hires to prepare you for when it’s time to find the right person to further your business’s success.

15. What will you never compromise on with your business?

Whether it be your personal values or your business ethics, you will face situations as a business owner that may require compromise. Decide what your non-negotiables are so you will not compromise yourself or your business from the get-go. Learning what other entrepreneurs won’t compromise on can help you figure out what matters most to you.

Fun Questions to Ask an Entrepreneur:

Who is your biggest role model?
How do you define success ?
What makes a good leader?
At what point did you look at your business and consider it a success?
What would you change about your business journey if you could go back?

Financial Questions to Ask an Entrepreneur

How did you raise funding or financially prepare for your business?
Any advice about setting up a business in terms of legal/accounting?
Should I get an LLC before starting a business?
How do you plan financially for your business’s future?
Have you ever taken out a business loan ? Would you recommend it?

Bad Questions to Ask an Entrepreneur

What do you think of my business?
Do you think my business will fail?
May I pick your brain on something?
Mind if I copy your idea?
How can I make money as fast as possible with my business?

How to Find an Entrepreneur to Interview

Finding a local business owner to interview is the ideal scenario so you can connect in person and form an ongoing relationship. Talk to your local small business development center to inquire about any business owners they would recommend in your area. They’ll also have a lot of resources for helping you get started and to make sure your business is legally above board.

Once you connect with an entrepreneur who has enough experience under their belt to mentor and support your business journey, set up a time to meet, and print a copy of these entrepreneur interview questions to take with you.

Hannah Donor is a freelance copywriter and social media strategist with 5+ years of experience helping small businesses authentically curate the written word to reach and inspire their target market.

By Hannah Donor • Apr 4, 2023

By Hannah Donor • Feb 26, 2023

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Six questions to ask when you’re reviewing your Business Plan

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Business Plans , Evaluation , Review

If like lots of business owners, you wrote a business plan in January, it’s scary to think that we’re already 4 weeks into the year. How are you getting on with your plan? Did you break it down into manageable chunks or did you put it away in your drawer?

Well, it’s time to take it out of your drawer and review the last 4 weeks to see where you are.

I’m a massive fan of reviewing plans:

reviews keep you on track

no plan should ever be set in stone, so if your business is going in a different direction already (a client may have new needs, etc.) then you can adjust your plan accordingly.

Reviewing your plan doesn’t need to be a time-consuming exercise but you do need to set time aside to do it without interruptions. Give the process the time it deserves so that you can be fully aware of what you’ve achieved, how and why – and what you haven’t achieved, how, and why.

So, make yourself a nice cup of tea or coffee, grab a biscuit and your plan and then answer these six questions to review what you’ve achieved to date.

What has gone well in my business over the past 4 weeks?

This is a review of what has gone really well so far. Have you achieved because you’re doing things the same way as you always have, or have you made some changes? If so, what are the changes and how have they helped? What will you continue to do?

What hasn’t been going too well?

Are there areas that you’ve been working on that haven’t gone to plan? If so, then this is exactly why a review at this stage is crucial! Changes can be made early on without too much loss or time being wasted.

So, ask yourself, what do you need to change? If you’re not sure right now, then that’s ok. Make a note of this area of concern so that you can do some research into how to turn it around.

Where are my leads coming from?

What works well in terms of lead generation for you?

It might be social media, traditional press, word of mouth, referrals, etc.

Note down your numbers on your plan so that you can refer to them and analyse them again on your next review.

How well am I converting my leads?

Do you know what ratio of leads are turning into paying clients? If you’re unsure, make a note to set up a simple system where you can record this data. I use a spreadsheet that tells me who’s interested, where they found me, the date, their query, the outcome and if I’ve followed up.

Are you following up? Marketers will tell you that the results are in the follow-ups. Don’t ever be afraid to go back to someone who’s expressed an interest in your service. Set yourself a number (usually 3 or 4) times to go back to someone to see if they’re still interested. Don’t be pushy – just ask nicely. I’ve gained clients from following up – simply because the person was busy in the beginning, life happened, and they forgot to come back to me.

What am I doing that doesn’t bring results?

It’s really easy to get into a habit of doing a certain ‘thing’ or ‘task’ within your business that doesn’t actually generate anything for you. If this is you, then you won’t be the only one! We get comfortable doing certain things – and whilst we may know we should be focussing on other things, they may be totally out of our comfort zone. So we procrastinate by carrying on as usual. It’s perfectly reasonable – we’re only human, but it won’t help your business.

Consider what it is that you’re doing or where you’re spending a lot of time without generating results, and then think about what you can do to change things here.

Do I need help?

Sometimes we can feel like we just hit a wall in business, and we don’t know where to turn next. We may encounter a stumbling block or a problem and literally not know how to solve it.

Sometimes we need to be kept accountable to get the tasks we least want to do, done.

Being a business owner is lovely in terms of being free to set the rules, run the business our own way and do the things you want to do. But it can also be lonely, frustrating and require a lot of hard effort and resilience.

There will always be a time in your business when you’ll need help. Help can come in various forms:

Google – let’s face it, where would we be without it! It’s our go-to research tool.
Books – a fantastic learning resource.
A listening ear – we know that a problem shared is a problem halved. It’s not always easy to talk to friends and family about our business though – it’s important to find someone likeminded, another business owner perhaps, who understands the stresses, strains, issues and various business problems that we all face. There are plenty of social media groups set up to do just this. Find a group that suits your industry and get connecting. Sometimes you can splinter off a Mastermind group which is a small group of 4 or 5 business owners, you each have time to talk about your business issues and you help each other overcome them.
Professional help – a business coach; accountability coach/mentor – a professional who can offer advice, training or ask the right questions of you so that you can move your business forward.

Consider what would work best for you.

So now you’ve reviewed your plan, do you need to make any tweaks or changes. Are you happy with your results? Consider what you need to do next and how – and change your plan accordingly. Now you’re set in the right direction again to achieve your goals. Don’t forget to communicate to anyone who works with you – you don’t want to be going off in your new direction and leaving employees or outsourced support behind!

I do hope these questions will be helpful to you if you don’t currently have a system to review your plan. And don’t forget – a review isn’t something you do just once! Good business practice would see you reviewing your plans regularly, so why not diarise the time at the end of each month – then you’ll really keep on track. It’s also good practice to involve anyone else who works with you in your business.

If you’d like to let me know your thoughts, please just click here .

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30 Questions to Ask Business Owners About their Business

Questions to ask business owners, it is important to get as much information as possible when starting a business. This can help you make better decisions and avoid common mistakes. This blog post will list 30 questions that you can ask business owners to understand their company better. If you are thinking about starting your own business, read this post.

Table of Contents

Questions to Ask Business Owners About Their Business

What led you to start your own business.

The owner’s story can often be an interesting one to hear. You might pick up some useful tips by hearing about the owner’s history.

Regardless of the type of business you’re learning about, it helps to know how the owner ended up in that line of work and where they came from.

If a business has been around for a while, ask what led the owner to start their own business rather than going and working for someone else or continuing with another company they were working for.

What do you love about running a business?

This will help you understand what the owner is passionate about and why they continue to do what they do.

Are there any parts of the business that you don’t enjoy or are not as skilled at? How do you manage those tasks?

This is an incredibly important question because it will give you a good idea of how in tune an entrepreneur is with themselves and their business. We all have things that we don’t enjoy or aren’t skilled at. A business owner likely has some, too, so make sure you ask about them!

How do you measure success?

When you’re starting a business, it’s crucial to know how you’ll measure success. How do you know if you’re doing well? If something’s not working, is there any data that can help you figure out it? Do the numbers indicate that your plan is working and the business is going in the right direction? Are there any hard numbers you can use to measure success? Every entrepreneur needs to have answers to these questions before starting a business.

General questions to ask a business owners

Do you have any advice for me about starting a new business?
What have you done well with your business?
What would you do differently if you did it again?
Do you enjoy running a business, or is it just a means to an end?
What are the biggest challenges you face as a business owner daily? (This may help give you an idea of the problems ahead.)
Where do you get funding to start the company?

Fun questions to ask business owners

What is your favorite thing about running a business?
What was your biggest business mistake?
What do you wish you knew before starting your business?
What do you wish you had done differently?
What has been your most challenging business decision?
What was the last business book you read?
If you could go back and start your business again, what would you do differently?
Is there anything about running a business that you find enjoyable?
What do you look for in an employee?
Do you work locally or nationally?
What is your social media strategy?

Open-ended questions to ask business owners

What do you see as the most important thing in your industry right now?
What is most important to you about your business?
What does success look like for you?
Do you have any goals for the future of your business?
Is there anything else you can tell me about your business?

Financial questions to ask a business owner

You should ask business owners these five questions about their finances:

What is the most important financial metric for your business?
What is your budgeting process?
How do you make financial decisions?
How do you fund your business?
What are the most common financial mistakes you see people make?

Marketing questions to ask a business owners

What marketing channels do you use?
What has worked and what has not worked?
What is your favorite marketing campaign you have run? Why?
What is your customer acquisition process?
How do you measure the success of your marketing campaigns?
What is your client retention rate?

Product questions to ask a business owners

What was the process of designing and developing your product?
How did you come up with the idea for your product?
What are your manufacturing and production processes?
How do you market and sell your product?
What are the biggest challenges you face with selling your product?

Service-based questions to ask a business owners

What services do you offer?
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
What are your processes for delivering your services?
How do you market and sell your services?
What are the biggest challenges you face with selling your services?

Banking questions to ask business owners

What bank do you use?
How do you feel about your relationship with your bank?
What products and services does your bank offer?
Do you feel like you get good customer service from your bank?
Do you feel like your banker understands your business?
What are the fees associated with your account?
Do you feel like you get good value for the fees you pay?
What are the interest rates on your account?

In Conclusion

It’s always good to get advice from people who have been where you want to go. Business owners can be a great source of knowledge and advice. It’s always good to get advice from people who have been where you want to go.

This can be the fastest, easiest way for you to learn all about running a business: ask someone who does it!

There is so much information that business owners have that took them years and years to acquire, but you don’t have to spend those years, and you can start your business with confidence knowing what works and what doesn’t work.

We hope you get to know some questions to ask business owners and that this article will help you get started on your business journey.

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4 big questions couples who want to live together should ask each other, especially if they’re over 50

Taking your romantic relationship to the next level — sharing a home — is a big deal in so many ways.

If you opt to live together instead of marrying, you may think you’re saving money (e.g., no wedding!) and keeping your financial and legal independence from each other.

In some ways you may be. But there are a lot of financial and legal considerations that you both should hash out before calling the movers.

That is especially the case for couples over 50 — for whom living together may seem the easier option if they have already had long-term marriages. “My research has shown that following a gray divorce, women and men are more likely to form a cohabitation than a remarriage, signaling that cohabitation is gaining ground among older adults these days,” said sociology professor Susan Brown, director of the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University.

An analysis of federal data by the Pew Research Center found that in 2016, couples over 50 represented roughly a quarter of adults living together.

Those in this age group — far more than couples in their 20s and 30s — have already lived complex lives, raised families and saved for and envisioned retirement. They also, much to their chagrin, are more likely to develop health problems during their relationships from hereon out.

But while some concerns may be more urgent for older couples, here are some key questions couples of any age should consider when deciding to live together:

1. What are the numbers we’re working with?

Mari Adam, a certified financial planner and founder of the educational consultancy Mari Talks Money, recommends partners know the financial basics about each other.

This includes your income, assets, debts and credit scores. It also includes what kind of health, disability and long-term care insurance you have. And don’t forget to share with your partner whether and how much you owe in alimony and child support. Surprises and secrets are never welcome in this regard.

If you’re the person receiving alimony or child support, figure out the potential consequences of living together on your eligibility for those payments. Every state has its own rulebook. So check in with a divorce attorney.

“There can be all sorts of gotchas,” Adam said.

In terms of Social Security benefits, if you are divorced or widowed, you may be entitled to benefits based on your former spouse’s earnings records. But the rules may change if you remarry, based on your age .

If, however, you are just cohabitating, that isn’t likely to interfere with your getting those benefits if you’re otherwise eligible, said Steven Rubin, a certified elder care attorney at the firm Drazen Rubin Law.

2. Who pays for what?

Figuring out how much each of you will pay for joint living expenses is a conversation worth having, if only to ward off potential resentments in the future.

Adam has counseled people to find “fair and equitable” solutions. For some, that may mean splitting expenses 50/50. But for others that may not make sense.

For example, if you make three times as much as your partner, you might decide to pay on a proportional basis, with each contributing the same percentage of your incomes for common expenses. Here’s what that can look like: 10% of a $75,000 income ($7,500) is three times less than 10% of $225,000 ($22,500).

Beyond dollars and cents, you also might consider what each partner brings to the table in terms of living together — whether it’s cooking, cleaning, home repairs or taking charge of your social life as a couple.

“I’ve seen friends and clients where the woman has money and [her male partner] doesn’t. She pays all the house expenses and he is the handyman,” Adam said.

If your partner owns their home and you move in to that house, consider that the financial benefits of anything that improves the home’s value — such as a new roof or a kitchen renovation — will only accrue to your partner, since you are not a co-owner, even though you will both enjoy the day-to-day benefits of living in an improved space.

“You can solve anything. But you have to be willing to talk about it and be fair-minded about it,” Adam said. “There is no one right answer.”

She also recommends a “yours, mine and ours” approach to bank accounts. “It is important to keep money separate — especially when you have kids. But have a joint account that both parties put money into [for joint living, traveling and entertaining expenses].”

3. What happens if one of us gets sick?

No one wants to contemplate this question. (Even writing about it is unpleasant.)

But discussing it ahead of time can lessen some of the stress, should a situation arise when a partner gets sick and requires chronic care or becomes terminally ill, Rubin said.

Discuss whom each of you wants to legally give a durable power of attorney to — that is the person you designate to manage your finances if you become incapacitated.

Also discuss who you want to be your health care proxies. A medical proxy is the person who will make medical care decisions for you if you become unable to do so for yourself.

And make clear how much and what types of medical intervention you want if you become terminally ill — that is something a proxy will be charged with respecting, even if the person’s family is pushing for something different.

All these wishes should be executed through a durable power of attorney form and what is sometimes called an advance health directive or living will.

And if your partner is not your chosen health care proxy, include a medical release form in your health care directive naming them as someone who you, essentially, want by your side during a health crisis.

“[T]hat will allow doctors and hospitals to communicate with your partner, even if the partner is not the decision maker,” Rubin said. “I also list this in the advance directive that they want the person to have full visitation rights and the decision maker has a fiduciary responsibility to ensure your wishes are met.”

4. What do you want to happen to your assets when you die?

While everyone should have a will spelling out how they want their assets to be distributed, it’s especially important for unmarried couples to do so since the law typically confers a lot of automatic benefits to marital spouses and a person’s children than to one’s live-in partner.

If one or both of you have kids, both partners need to be clear about how the children and the surviving partner will (or won’t) be provided for in the estate.

One concern, for example, may be what happens to the home you share when one of you dies? If you own it jointly, who will inherit the deceased partner’s share? If the person who dies is the sole owner, who will inherit the property? If it’s not the live-in partner, then do you want to have a provision where the partner can stay in the home for a given period of time?

All that can be addressed by setting up a trust for the asset, Rubin said.

One area where things can get tricky with the home, Rubin said, is if the person who owns the house needs expensive long-term care and tries to qualify for Medicaid, which requires them to have very few assets. Even if the home is jointly owned with one’s live-in partner, the state may or may not require that the home be sold before the sick partner can qualify and if it’s sold then their significant other has to move out. If you were married, Rubin said, the property would be treated as exempt for benefit purposes.

That’s why he always counsels couples moving in together to contemplate these kinds of scenarios ahead of time.

“The best thing you can do is plan,” Rubin said.

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The new Individual Assistance updates only apply to disasters declared on or after March 22, 2024. Read about the updates.

How to Apply for FEMA Assistance in Texas After Hurricane Beryl

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AUSTIN – Texas homeowners and renters in 15 counties who had uninsured damage or losses caused by Hurricane Beryl may be eligible for FEMA disaster assistance.

FEMA may be able to help with serious needs, displacement, temporary lodging, basic home repair costs, personal property loss or other disaster-caused needs. Financial assistance is available to eligible homeowners and renters in Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston, Harris, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Orange, Polk, San Jacinto, Walker and Wharton counties.

Texans who applied for FEMA assistance after the April 26-June 5 storms and flooding, and who had additional damage or losses from Hurricane Beryl, can make a separate application for Hurricane Beryl assistance.

FEMA’s disaster assistance offers new benefits that provide flexible funding directly to survivors. In addition, a simplified process and expanded eligibility allows Texans access to a wider range of assistance and immediate funds for serious needs.

New Benefits Available

How to Apply to FEMA

Homeowners and renters can apply in several ways:

Serious Needs Assistance: A one-time $750 payment per household to help pay for essential items, including water, food, first aid, prescriptions, infant formula, breastfeeding supplies, diapers, consumable medical supplies, durable medical equipment, personal hygiene items and fuel for transportation.
Displacement Assistance: Money to help with immediate housing needs if you cannot return to your home because of the disaster. The money can be used to stay in a hotel, with family and friends or for other options while you look for temporary housing.
Go online to disasterassistance.gov .
Download the FEMA App for mobile devices.
Call the FEMA helpline at 800-621-3362 between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. CT. Help is available in most languages. If you use a relay service, such as video relay (VRS), captioned telephone or other service, give FEMA your number for that service.
Visit a Disaster Recovery Center. For locations, visit fema.gov/drc . These centers can help with both Hurricane Beryl and the April 26-June 5 storms and flooding.

What You’ll Need When You Apply

A current phone number where you can be contacted
Your address at the time of the disaster and the address where you are now staying
Your Social Security number
A general list of damage and losses
Banking information if you choose direct deposit
If insured, the policy number or the agent and/or the company name

Additional Assistance

Streamlined application process so people can apply to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and FEMA at the same.
Support for underinsured people to help cover some home repair costs that insurance companies won’t pay for but which the homeowner can’t afford.
Help for self-employed people to replace disaster-damaged tools and equipment.
Expanded help to make homes safer after a disaster.
Help making a home more accessible for people with disabilities.
Streamlined process for people who need to extend temporary housing assistance.
Simplified process for appeal of FEMA’s decision, eliminating the need for a signed letter.
Help for people who need to repair or replace a disaster-damaged computer.

Rooftop where gunman shot at Trump was identified as a security vulnerability before rally: sources

The rooftop where a gunman shot at former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally was identified by the Secret Service as a potential vulnerability in the days before the event, two sources familiar with the agency’s operations told NBC News.

The building, owned by a glass research company, is adjacent to the Butler Farm Show, an outdoor venue in Butler, Pennsylvania. The Secret Service was aware of the risks associated with it, the sources said.

“Someone should have been on the roof or securing the building so no one could get on the roof,” said one of the sources, a former senior Secret Service agent who was familiar with the planning.

Understanding how the gunman got onto the roof — despite those concerns — is a central question for investigators scrutinizing how a lone attacker managed to shoot at Trump during Saturday’s campaign event.

The Secret Service worked with local law enforcement to maintain event security, including sniper teams poised on rooftops to identify and eliminate threats, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. But no officers were posted on the building used by the would-be assassin, outside the event’s security perimeter but only about 148 yards from the stage — within range of a semiautomatic rifle like the one the gunman was carrying.

The Secret Service had designated that rooftop as being under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement, a common practice in securing outdoor rallies, Guglielmi said.Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said his office maintains an Emergency Services Unit team, which deployed four sniper teams and four “quick response teams” at the rally. But he said the Secret Service agents were in charge of security outside the venue.

“They had meetings in the week prior. The Secret Service ran the show. They were the ones who designated who did what,” Goldinger said. “In the command hierarchy, they were top, they were No. 1.”

Goldinger said the commander of the Emergency Services Unit told him it was not responsible for securing areas outside the venue. “To me, the whole thing is under the jurisdiction of the Secret Service. And they will delineate from there,” he said.

The former senior Secret Service agent also said that even if local law enforcement “did drop the ball,” it’s still the agency’s responsibility “to ensure that they are following through either beforehand or in the moment.”

“Just because it is outside of the perimeter, it doesn’t take it out of play for a vulnerability, and you’ve got to mitigate it in some fashion,” the source added.

A volley of shots rang out minutes into Trump’s speech. He reached for his right ear — he said later it was pierced by a bullet — then dropped to the ground as Secret Service agents rushed to shield him. Trump emerged with blood on his ear and his face. One attendee was killed , and two others were injured.Witnesses listening to Trump’s speech from outside the event’s security perimeter recalled pointing out the gunman to law enforcement a couple of minutes before the shooting began. After the gunfire started, Secret Service personnel shot and killed the 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks .

The clamor over the Secret Service’s biggest failure since the shooting of President Ronald Reagan in 1981 is coming from both political parties, from former agents and from security experts.

“My question is: How did he get onto that roof undetected?” said Anthony Cangelosi, a former Secret Service agent who worked on protective details for presidential candidates, including John Kerry in 2004.

The Secret Service’s work on campaign events like Saturday’s begins with advance planning, setting up a security perimeter and positioning teams on the ground and on rooftops — often in partnership with local law enforcement. The ground deployments include a counterassault team, and the rooftop personnel include counter-sniper teams.

Guglielmi, the Secret Service spokesman, said the agency had two of its counterassault agents at the event and filled out the rest of the platoon with at least six officers from Butler County tactical units. The Secret Service also deployed two counter-sniper teams. Two other security units needed for the event were staffed by local law enforcement agencies, Guglielmi said. Those details were first reported by The Washington Post.Investigators will want to examine the Secret Service’s site security plan for the rally, said Cangelosi, the former Secret Service agent. He expects they’ll discover one of two things: Either officials failed to make an effective plan for keeping potential shooters off the building Crooks fired from, or officers on the ground failed to execute the plan.

“I don’t like making any assumptions, but it does look like some mistakes were made, that this was preventable,” said Cangelosi, now a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Although it’s common to task local law enforcement agencies with patrolling outside an event’s security perimeter, Cangelosi said, the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that all vulnerabilities are covered rests with the Secret Service.

If officials had placed an officer on the building where the gunman fired from, Cangelosi said, chances are he “wouldn’t even attempt what he attempted.”

“You don’t surrender the discretion of what’s supposed to be done to the local police,” he said. “In other words, you guys have the outer perimeter, but you would want to say, ‘We need an officer on that roof.’ Not ‘that’s your responsibility; do what you see fit.’”

Jim Cavanaugh, a retired special agent in charge with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who has worked on Secret Service details, told NBC News that while the Secret Service did a good job taking out the gunman after shots began, the failure to post officers on the building he scaled was “a tremendous lapse.”

“The only way to stop that is you have a lot of people, you get there first, and you command the high ground,” Cavanaugh said. “This is basic, and the Secret Service has done it for years successfully, so I’m really surprised that they did not have that high ground covered.”

The questions extended to Congress, where members demanded answers from the Secret Service and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.“This raises serious concerns regarding how a shooter was able to access a rooftop within range and direct line of sight of where President Trump was speaking,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Green asked Mayorkas to provide documentation relating to the event’s security plan, the screening of attendees and the level of resources provided to Trump’s Secret Service detail. A committee spokesperson told NBC News that Republican members would hold a briefing with Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday “to voice their concerns and ask pressing questions.”

Another lawmaker, Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., wrote Cheatle asking who approved the security plan, whether a proper threat assessment was conducted, whether attendees raised alarms and whether there were failures in following protocols that allowed the attack to happen.

“I call on all those responsible for the planning, approving, and executing of this failed security plan to be held accountable and to testify before Congress immediately,” Gallego wrote in a letter to Cheatle .

Robert McDonald, a former Secret Service agent who ran protection for Joe Biden when he was vice president, told NBC News that he believes the assassination attempt will prompt soul-searching and procedural changes at the agency.

“The Secret Service is going to need to ask some hard questions of itself here and be prepared to stand up and represent why, what happened,” McDonald said.

Cangelosi, the former Secret Service agent, said investigators are also likely to ask when agents identified Crooks as a potential threat, how they reacted and whether it’s possible they could have taken him down before he fired at Trump.Secret Service snipers are trained to make rapid decisions, he said. But it’s possible that if they noticed Crooks on the roof but couldn’t tell whether he had a rifle, agents might have waited to fire on him.

“If the sniper can’t tell whether he has a gun, he or she is not going to take the shot,” Cangelosi said. “Because God forbid it’s a child who’s just excited to see a political candidate, right? So you want to make sure that there’s actually a threat.”

If there was uncertainty, Cangelosi said, it’s possible the sniper team would have dispatched officers to investigate and confirm. But investigating a potential threat can take minutes, he said, while a gunman with a semiautomatic rifle can fire several shots in a matter of seconds.

That’s why, Cangelosi said, the best defense would have been to plan ahead to keep the shooter off the roof in the first place.

“Who wants to be in that position?” he said of the snipers protecting Trump on Saturday. “You’ve got to make a split-second call. And imagine if you’re wrong.”

Sarah Fitzpatrick is a senior investigative producer and story editor for NBC News. She previously worked for CBS News and "60 Minutes."

Julia Ainsley is the homeland security correspondent for NBC News and covers the Department of Homeland Security for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Mike Hixenbaugh is a senior investigative reporter for NBC News, based in Maryland, and author of "They Came for the Schools."

Andrea Mitchell is chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News.

Jon Schuppe is an enterprise reporter for NBC News, based in New York.

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Saving for retirement can feel intimidating and overwhelming. How much do you really need to retire? How do you know when you've saved enough?

Business Insider's free retirement calculator shows you whether or not you're on track for retirement. Find out how much money you need to save for your future retirement, including how inflation may affect your retirement funds.

Here's how to use Business Insider's free retirement calculator.

Retirement Calculator

Use insider’s calculator to see if you’re on your way to a comfortable retirement by answering a few questions about yourself, your savings, and how long you expect to keep working..

70% of pre-retirement income

*Need is based on covering 70% of your annual pre-retirement income and a life expectancy of 100 years.

Keep in mind that the retirement calculator is only a rough estimate of how much you will have in retirement savings/how much you will need to retire comfortably. Retirement planning requires consistent tweaks and adjustments to best match your lifestyle and needs over the long term.

How a retirement calculator works

The best retirement calculators provide rough estimates of how much you need to save for future retirees based on personal and financial information. The last thing you want to do is deplete all your savings.

By providing basic information — such as your age, income, savings rate, retirement balances, expected retirement spending, and how long you plan to work — the retirement savings calculator estimates the overall value of your retirement savings. The more detail you can provide, the better the retirement calculator can estimate the value of your future savings.

When it comes to retirement savings, a general rule of thumb is that the earlier you start saving, the better. The best way to grow long-term wealth is by investing your savings and accumulating compound interest. If you're not already contributing to a retirement savings plan like a 401(k) or IRA , now is the time to get started.

"If you start investing in your retirement plans in your early 20s, the more likely you'll have a larger pool of money to support you in retirement than if you start saving and contributing to retirement accounts later in life," says Chloe Wolhforth, CFP and partner at Angeles Wealth Management .

Inflation is taken into consideration when calculating retirement savings. But remember a retirement calculator can't predict the future and the actual rates of inflation may vary.

For the retirement calculator, we define a comfortable retirement as being able to live on 70% of your pre-retirement income. However, the retirement calculator is customizable. If you're able, incorporate as many specific details as possible.

Here's what you'll need to input:

Personal information: Current age and the age at which you expect to retire.
Current retirement balance: The total amount of retirement savings you have across all your accounts, including 401(k)s and IRAs.
Current household income: Your annual gross income (the amount you earn before taxes).
Rate of savings: How much money you save toward retirement each month. You can enter this as a dollar amount or a percentage of your income.

The following inputs are pre-filled, but you can change some to customize your retirement calculation further.

Expected annual salary increases: How much do you expect your salary to increase by each year? The calculator's default is 2%.
Anticipated monthly spending in retirement: We assume you'll spend 70% of your pre-retirement income (the amount you're projected to be earning right before you retire), but you can change that number if you expect to spend more or less.
Life expectancy: How long do you expect to live? The default calculation uses a life expectancy of 100 years.
Investment returns: We assume your savings are invested and earn a 5% annual rate of return. If your retirement savings are invested, you may be missing out on earning capitalizing on compound interest.

Benefits of using a retirement calculator

Our retirement calculator is designed to track your progress toward retirement. It's based on the idea that Americans generally spend less as they age and can therefore sustain a 30- to 40-year retirement on 70% of their pre-retirement income.

The calculator generates two important numbers:

The amount you will have by your desired retirement age. By providing your current savings rate and retirement account balances, we're able to estimate how much money you'll have in savings or investments by retirement.
The amount you will need by your desired retirement age. Using your current income and expected salary increases, we're able to estimate how much money you'll need in savings or investments by retirement.

Using a retirement calculator to see where you stand provides several benefits.

Snapshot of your future: A rough estimate of how much money you'll need to retire by a certain age is better than having no estimate at all.
Identify shortfalls: The calculator shows if you might fall short of your financial goal, allowing you to plan for a higher savings rate or find sources of supplementary income.
See your options: By adjusting the calculator's inputs — such as changing your savings rate or your planned retirement age — you can see how your overall plan is affected.

"Depending on when you want to retire, your employment, your tax status and other considerations, a blend of multiple accounts may be suitable," says Jordan Gilberti, CFP and senior lead planner at Facet.

Check out the best online financial advisors>>

How to catch up on your retirement savings

If the retirement calculator shows you are falling short of your financial target, don't be discouraged. There's still time to make adjustments to your savings rate or investment strategy to get closer to meeting your goal.

One of the most effective ways to catch up on retirement savings is to increase your income. A nationwide labor shortage has given workers some negotiating power. If you're unable to score a raise in your current position, consider switching jobs for a higher salary or better benefits, such as a more generous 401(k) match or investing in stocks and similar assets.

Also consider maxing out your 401(k) , contributing to an IRA, or working with a financial advisor to further boost your savings.

"Investing is a critical part of growing wealth. It is important to invest savings that you have identified as long-term so your assets can grow over time," says Wolhforth.

Above all, be flexible. As you approach retirement, consider taking a part-time job, waiting to claim Social Security benefits, downsizing your home, or relocating to a more affordable city.

Retirement calculator — Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

If you're saving 20% of your paychecks each month with a $80,000 annual income, you can have over $2 million in retirement savings by age 65. But depending on your current age, estimated age of retirement, 401(k) match, and annual average pay increase you may have more or less.

The $1000-per-month rule for retirement is an investment strategy created by Wes Moss that states that you need at least $240,000 saved for every $1,000 per month you want to have in income during retirement. So if you withdraw 5% of $240,000 in savings, you'll have $1,000 every month for that year.

Fidelity estimates that you need between 8x to 10x your preretirement income in order to retire at age 65. For example, if your preretirement income is $100,000 per year, you'll need to save between $800,000 and $1,000,000 to retire at age 65. However, how much you need to retire also depends on your estimated life expectancy and lifestyle.

You may be able to retire with $500,000 in retirement savings at age 62. Depending on your lifestyle and estimated life expectancy, you may need to save more or less. For a better idea of what you'll need, use a retirement calculator for a rough estimate of how much you'll need.

Find a financial advisor in your area

You can find financial advisors in your area by searching online. The best way to be matched with an advisor is by utilizing platforms that offer matching services across a wide network of advisors, planners, and more.

Some sites to check out for advisors are:

Association of African American Financial Advisors (AAAA),
Association of Asian American Investment Managers (AAIM)
Garret Planning Network

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5 Unanswered Questions for the Secret Service

Here are some of the key questions about the Secret Service response to the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump.

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By Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Eileen Sullivan

Reporting from Washington

July 15, 2024

The Secret Service, the agency tasked with protecting current and former U.S. presidents, is facing renewed scrutiny after a gunman fired at Donald J. Trump from the top of a building during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. Mr. Trump was grazed by a bullet, a rallygoer was killed and two others were severely injured.

Here are some of the questions facing the agency:

Why didn’t the Secret Service secure the building where the gunman fired from the roof?

The agency made the decision to exclude the building from the “inner perimeter” area it was in charge of protecting after agency personnel visited the rally site ahead of Mr. Trump’s appearance on Saturday. Such advance visits are standard procedure.

A supervisor later approved the decision about the perimeter, despite the fact that the building was about 500 feet from the stage and a relatively easy shot for a sniper.

The Secret Service has not identified the supervisor or explained why the decision was made.

Who was responsible for securing the building?

The local police. It is unclear whether they were prepared for this kind of high-stakes assignment, or how much they understood the building was their responsibility.

The Secret Service often relies on local law enforcement agencies to help provide security at events.

Was there a breakdown in communication between local law enforcement and the Secret Service?

The Secret Service has said that local law enforcement was told of a “suspicious” person by rally attendees but could not find him. It is unclear whether or when this was relayed to the Secret Service.

People at the rally pointed out the suspect on the roof to local law enforcement. How did they react?

People at the rally say they tried to point out a gunman on the roof to local police. There have been varying reports on whether and how the police responded. Video taken by a bystander and analyzed by The New York Times shows people pointing to the suspected shooter and warning law enforcement two minutes before the first burst of gunfire rang out.

Investigations will likely raise questions about how much warning time the Secret Service had before its agents shot and killed the gunman.

Did the Secret Service respond appropriately after the shooting started?

The Secret Service killed the gunman soon after the first bullets were fired from his gun. Mr. Trump, who was grazed, grabbed his ear, which was spurting blood, then dove to the ground beside the podium. Secret Service agents quickly covered him.

Once Mr. Trump was back on his feet, he called for his shoes and raised a fist in a show of defiance to his supporters.

Former federal law enforcement officials have questioned the Secret Service’s decision to allow Mr. Trump to pause and raise his fist, exposing his head, rather than immediately moving him to his vehicle.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Zolan Kanno-Youngs

Eileen Sullivan covers breaking news, the Justice Department, the trials against Donald J. Trump and the Biden administration. More about Eileen Sullivan

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