Today, creating a business or increasing its growth can become an uphill task due to the constant new offers on the market. However, regardless of the stage your project is in, you should know the 30 questions for an entrepreneur that will motivate you to grow.
In the world, many people are willing to promote projects. However, to facilitate decision-making for investors, you must prepare well and polish your idea to the maximum, so that the capital you need is approved. For this reason, we have compiled for you a series of thoughtful questions that will determine when, how, and why to invest in your business project.
30 questions that an entrepreneur who wants to grow must know how to answer
Getting an investor who is willing to bet on your idea is a challenge that you must face if you plan to grow your business. If you are starting to shape your business, this is the time to ask questions that will help you understand if you are ready to receive financial support. These questions will be useful for you and you will likely find more answers than you imagine.
1. What is the purpose of the company?
To start with the list of questions for an entrepreneur looking for an investor, it is essential to explain and define what your company does for a certain customer segment. Now, the idea of solving this unknown is for your business to meet a collective need or to awaken what customers did not know they needed.
2. How viable is your idea?
When launching a business proposal, the entrepreneur enters into a dispute with his personal and professional aspirations. For this reason, one of the questions to ask an entrepreneur is whether he considers the project viable enough to launch it on the market. We recommend that you make a business plan to present to your investor so that they know the scope of your idea.
3. Does it solve a problem? As?
Knowing what needs your proposal meets is one of the main questions for an entrepreneur that you must know how to answer. Clearly describe what your product or service does for customers so that they prefer it over the competition. For example, in this case, you can focus on highlighting the benefits of acquiring your product and the channels you will use to increase consumption.
4. Who is your client?
In an interview with an entrepreneur, you cannot miss the question about which audience you are targeting. In general, a common mistake is to indicate that the product is aimed at the general public. So to avoid this, make sure you do a market study in which you define which market niche you would focus on and what your buyer persona profile is like.
5. How do you expect to earn money?
To correctly answer this question, it is essential that you evaluate the potential of your idea, since this is the starting point to have a defined income model. For example, your investor needs to know from how many units you receive profits or what percentage is obtained by sale in different channels.
6. Do you know your competition?
Today, there are thousands of ideas on the market that may be similar to yours. Therefore, before launching your offer on the market, you should analyze the competitors that are close to you and that have the greatest impact on your target audience. In addition, this is an option to show the investor the chances of success that this idea has.
7. Why is your idea a winner?
Being clear about the purpose for which your project has been created is essential to demonstrate that there is real interest. Your product/service must represent a novelty or an innovative milestone in the industry, especially when we focus on awakening new needs. In this part, it is convenient to define what is the added value that your business brings.
8. What are the characteristics of your product or service?
Following the same line of questions for a business entrepreneur, this is responsible for promoting the benefits of your project. At this point, you must persuade your investor with the details, advantages, and contributions of your product or service. For example, if your idea has to do with pet products, talk a bit about how easy it will be for pet owners.
9. Do you have an online presence?
Whatever your business model, you can take advantage of digital tools. The digital world is quite vast. Therefore, when presenting it within your expansion strategy, be sure to choose the one that best suits your objectives. A trick to choosing your social network is to analyze if the largest volume of your customers is there to create a community.
10. What is the current situation of your company?
An investor expects your honesty when conducting an interview. In this way, one of the questions for an entrepreneur that you must know how to answer is related to the logistics and operation of your company. Define if your company is already established if it has a commercial registry if there are already people who have tried it and more.
11. What resources do you need?
This is one of the questions for an entrepreneur that you have to answer both to your investor and yourself. Especially, because it is not just about analyzing economic resources but also human ones. Make a list where you can identify the materials and supplies required by the different processes of your organization: machinery, stationery, human resources, and funds.
12. Do you have a work plan with steps to follow?
Creating a work plan helps you organize your ideas, identify possible improvements, and prioritize important tasks in the different phases of your venture. In addition, you must highlight that the good practices of this work plan increase the chances of success and the achievement of the objectives.
13. What are your goals?
Precise objectives are the key to achieving success in a given project. For this reason, this is one of the questions for an entrepreneur that every investor asks in an interview. Prepare a strategic plan where you define your goals in the short, medium, and long term. Remember that objectives can be classified according to their nature, how long they can last, and growth metrics.
14. How can you grow more?
In the mentality of an entrepreneur, the desire for growth must remain, since this is what will help you maintain your business despite the circumstances. So think of expansion strategies that might win over your investor. However, keep in mind that these activities should not affect the fulfillment of the objectives in the different areas of the company.
15. Do you have enough equipment?
If your idea is starting, it is normal that you can carry out the activities without support; however, for growth, you have to plan the human team you need. In companies, it is crucial to learn to delegate functions, both to assess the potential of staff and to take advantage of leaders in priority tasks.
16. How much does it cost you to get a client?
This is one of the questions an entrepreneur that every investor can ask. In some cases, organizations acquire customers through online forms or digital advertising, which requires a large and one-time budget.
Explain to your potential investor how digital platforms manage the cost per click of each lead. While if you want to carry out traditional advertising, you only have to take into account the investment cost for flyers, billboards, or flyers
17. What are your limitations?
At any stage of the project, the entrepreneur needs to stay motivated, so your life must be aligned with your organizational purpose. In a business, you must accept when it is feasible to change your perspective so that the changes do not become limiting. An investor, by asking these questions for an entrepreneur, plans to find out if the entrepreneur is limited by money, people, or skills and if he is capable of overcoming them.
18. How long will it take to recover the investment?
Don’t ask for help if you don’t have a realistic financial plan! Before you face an interview with an investor, analyze the market you plan to enter, as this is the basis for your financial projections. It is clear that in a single day, you will not double your investment, but, conveniently, you define if in 3 months or more the costs and the income will be equal.
19. Does the business have risks?
Problems appear in any type of project, they can be small or escalate and cause a collapse. Do you know the risks of your company? How do you deal with them? This is another question for an entrepreneur that you should know how to answer. A company must evaluate its sources of conflict to minimize the impact of this exposure and reduce the losses that may occur.
20. What is the utility of your product or service?
This question translates into the viability that your idea projects. This is the way to evaluate if your proposal is having good results in the market. When you know and master the profit margin of your product, you can make strategic decisions to make the business operation more effective.
For example, if your billing is $30,000 and production expenses are $17,000, your percentage profit margin is 56.6%.
21. What have you achieved so far?
For an investor, it is essential to know the trajectory of your company or project. Among the objectives of these questions for an entrepreneur we find the expansion and multiplication of achievements. Therefore, mention the most relevant milestones you have reached, such as agreements with other investors, bank loans, certifications, client recommendations, and more.
22. What is your expansion strategy?
For each customer segment, you must have a different action plan. If you’ve chosen an audience with diverse geographic locations, think about channels that reach all areas, or split your reach. In this step, other questions arise for an entrepreneur that is related to the management and execution of tasks, including which channel has been chosen and why.
23. Who are the founders?
This is another of the most valuable questions for an entrepreneur during an investment process since your profile and that of your allies are fundamental. Make a count of your jobs, studies, and occupations. Following this same line, talk about the companies in which you worked, and other projects that you have launched or participated in.
24. What are your sales channels?
Today, the offer to reach customers is quite wide. One of the challenges for companies is to find the ideal channel to promote their services and reach customers correctly. To choose correctly, execute a marketing strategy to find out where your customers are, among the channel options we have: direct sales, distributors, telemarketing, e-commerce, affiliates, social networks, and ADS.
25. What can you achieve with the investment money?
As an investor, this is one of the questions for an entrepreneur that you must prioritize. The funds invested have a purpose that goes far beyond just getting an idea off the ground. For this reason, it is necessary to break down where these contributions will be allocated: marketing, human resources, infrastructure, equipment, raw materials, and positioning, among other departments.
26. Did you create a financial path?
Visualizing everything we want to achieve is possible if we execute a visual guide of our resources. Create a financial map to present to your investor, taking into account factors such as income, expenses, saving capacity, profitability, liquidity, inflation, and taxes. Remember that you cannot ask for an amount of money if you have not evaluated your company very well.
27. What is the income structure for the shareholder?
Yes, or yes, this is one of the questions for an entrepreneur that will be part of your interview. Without a doubt, it is the key to gaining investor confidence. The shareholders of a company have a series of rights, including receiving a percentage for several sales. Study your profitability and define with a stock market the dividends that the investor will be able to claim throughout his investment.
28. What methods are you going to use?
In your market analysis, consider mentioning the type of methodologies you will use to move your project forward. At this point, investors raise questions about an entrepreneur who can take the direction of his company without relying on shares or financing. So if you want to be part of the digital revolution, include agile methodologies in your growth strategy.
These types of methods help reduce productivity and operating costs since they have a proactive approach that allows proposals to be managed flexibly.
29. How much time are you willing to invest?
Growing up in an industry full of offers and competition can be a challenge that takes days, months, and years, so as an entrepreneur, you must be prepared. Large companies have not reached where they are with a job by halves. For this reason, it is essential that for an idea to be successful, it is important to take into account the time necessary to begin to harvest its fruits. Set achievable goals!
30. If your business fails, do you have alternatives?
The fear of failure is evident in every business process. No matter how big or small the idea is, it is always convenient to have a contingency plan with alternatives that prevent you from running out. We recommend that you create a savings fund that can be used to pay your employees and to cover investment expenses for your partners.
Driving a project is not an easy task, in case you fail, don’t give up and try as many times as necessary!
Final words
Go ahead and shape your business idea, somewhere in the world, an investor is thinking of supporting you. All you have to do is propose a strategy that summarizes your business objectives and strategies. Without a doubt, these questions will be your guide to understanding how ready you are to launch your project on the market.
Do you have other questions? Leave them in the comments!
