4 Questions You Must Be Able To Answer As A Business Owner

Talking to a business owner this week I was amazed that they couldn’t clearly articulate the answers to the following 4 questions…

1. What are your businesses values?
2. Who are your businesses ideal customers?
3. What is the exact value that you provide to your customers?
4. 5 years from now what does your business look like?

It’s essential to have a clear understanding of these 4 things if you’re going to succeed and build a great and sustainable business.

Sure, you might get along just fine for awhile without defining the answers to these 4 questions, but your competitors who do will have a significant competitive advantage and you’ll fail to realise your businesses potential. Over time you’ll lose market share, be more susceptible to environmental turbulence and your results will suffer. You probably wont even realise this is happening until the situation is critical.

Taking the time to define the answers to these 4 questions will set the strategic direction of your business, establish a framework for decision making and planning, position you to lead better, make you more efficient and help you communicate better with prospects, customers, employees, partners and other stakeholders… This all leads to better results!

Most business owners are short on resources, especially time, particularly in the early days when scrambling to get a business off the ground. As a result the pressing needs of the day to day tend to take priority over strategic planning. In some cases business owners don’t see the value of the strategic planning process, believing this to be akin to corporate mumbo jumbo, a dog and pony show or a process designed to line the pockets of management consultants.

The reality is this process is essential and there’s a reason why all the world’s best businesses and brands have taken the time to understand and determine the answers to these questions and if you haven’t you need to get clear on your businesses values, ideal customers, the exact value that your business provides and what your business will look like 5 years from now.

Can you clearly articulate the answer to these 4 questions?

IMAGE > Mark Rothko, No. 36 (Black Stripe), 1958.