10 Questions to Ask Before You Start a Business

Categories Business Startup, Company FormationsPosted on
Business man with checkboxes

10 Questions to Ask Before You Start a Business

Before you start a business, it’s vital to know whether you have a scalable and sustainable business idea. Answer the following 10 questions to help you decide whether your current business idea is worth launching.

It goes without saying, but issues such as obtaining a domain name, registering a business and determining marketing budgets should not be considered until you’ve confirmed the nature of your business. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to be objective about your “baby” (the idea you’re passionate about), especially when you’re caught up in the excitement of launching your business. That’s why we’ve put together these critical, honest questions to ask yourself before you start a business.

1) Is There a Demand for My Business Idea?

According to Investopedia, demand is defined as “a measurement of consumer desire and consumer spending on a particular good or service at a specific price.” If there’s no actual demand for your business, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to “manufacture” that demand. Your product supply will be resigned to the shelves if consumers don’t need your product. If your business idea is not an entirely new phenomenon, a little market research can help you better understand the trends in the market and determine whether there’s a demand for your product or service.

2) Will My Product Be Unique?

Often, the best markets to enter are those brimming with competition — it’s a clear sign that there’s demand in abundance. However, this doesn’t mean you can simply offer more of the same — you need to stand out, and to do that effectively, you need to be unique. Before you start a business, ensure that you’re offering something different to the tried-and-tested products already available. Again, some thorough industry research will help you to improve on existing products and offer customers a new, better, solution. Consider your USP — your Unique Selling Proposition — but try not to compromise solely on price.

3) Is There a Clear Way to Market My Service?

No matter how hard you try, it’s unlikely you’ll find a clear path to market meat products in a strictly vegan cafe. If you’re struggling to find a clear channel to market your services, you might need to return to the drawing board. When introducing a new product to an established market, you should leverage existing marketing channels to get you up and running.

4) Can I Automate Many of the Business Operations?

If you can’t foresee a cost-effective way of running your business, it’s probably time to think of another business venture. You cannot afford to have an exponential increase in operating costs, especially before your brand has even gained traction. If you can automate some of your work processes — in marketing, for example, social media schedulers and email marketing tools exist to automate the entire process — you’ll not only save money, but you’ll also increase productivity.

5) Will My Business Become a Sellable Asset?

It’s not easy to contemplate giving up your passion project before you start a business, but if your business does not stand the test of time and hold value in years to come, it may not be worth your time. After all, your business is an asset and you must take all possible eventualities into account if the need to sell your company arises. Having a solid business plan in place will help you plan for these contingencies.

6) Will This Business Be Appealing?

This question is not about how much your business appeals to customers, which is imperative, but the appeal of your brand as a whole. Will your brand and business be interesting enough to appeal to new employees, sponsors and investors? When answering this question, invest time into considering your company culture. What would it look like? What are your values, and would people happily align themselves with them?

7) Will I Want to Run This Business In Years to Come?

If your business is appealing to investors and sponsors, it should be appealing enough to you. However, if you think your business may become unattractive to run and sell in the future, you may want to wait and launch a business idea with a healthier outlook. When running any business, it won’t all be rosy, and you may have days when you hate going to work. These will pass, but if you can imagine your overall enjoyment and passion for your business dwindling, you may want to reconsider.
Notably, if your business is based around a model of selling time-sensitive products that will only bolster your margins during their respective “fad” phases, you’re setting yourself up for dramatic disappointment.
Take, for example, HD-DVD. Mainly sponsored by Toshiba, when HD-DVD launched in 2006, it was set to be the definitive hi-definition successor to DVD. However, when Warner Bros. announced it was replacing HD-DVD with the Sony-led Blu-ray format in 2008, it was game over. Blu-ray remains the standalone format winner even today.

8) Do You Doubt Your Company’s Profitability?

If you have little faith that your business will have gross margins of at least 50 per cent or net margins of at least 20 per cent within a reasonable timeframe, you need to seriously consider the necessity of launching your business. After all, businesses exist to make a profit.

9) Can I Easily Find Someone to Run This Business?

Prominent chefs aren’t cooking every meal in each of their restaurant chains. They have head chefs in each kitchen to “serve the brand”. Sooner or later, you’ll need to realise you can’t do it all and have to hand over the reins. If you don’t think you can delegate the running of your business to another person, it may be difficult for you to exit the company amicably and lucratively if the need arises. It helps to think of your business as a franchise model — if you do expand, your business ideas and values need to be easily transferable.

10) Will This Business Give Me The Lifestyle I Want?

Essentially, becoming an entrepreneur is a lifestyle choice. Your business needs to provide youwith the freedom and opportunity to live a content life. If it consumes you and hinders your personal life drastically, you might be taking on more than you should. If you’re looking for a very specific, highly successful, lifestyle, your business’s financial predictions need to match those ambitions.

Whatever your business idea, you need to be able to answer these questions clearly and ensure that each answer is in your favour. If you’re returning negative answers for over half of the above, you’re likely in the wrong industry. Before you start a business, ask yourself the above questions as often as possible. If you continue to answer in the affirmative, it’s time to press ahead!

Are you looking to start a business? Mint Formations can help you register your venture and take the steps to make your business idea a reality!

Want to register your UK limited company today?


Raj co-founded Mint Formations with business partner Andy Tree in 2017. Mint formations is established to nurture small UK businesses and enable exciting new opportunities for quick growth. As a successful entrepreneur, Raj knows how to start and run a business. He currently resides as a board member of seven successful companies across the world. He is best known for founding Integra Global Solutions, specialists in robotics, automation, and business process optimisation.