Have you dreamt of starting your own business but you doubt yourself? Perhaps your salary keeps you comfortable and you’re worried the timing isn’t right or your idea isn’t good enough. Well that was me back in 2019 I was working in a sales job that was lucrative but I couldn’t stop thinking that I was trapped trading my time for money. I looked into the future in this career and couldn’t see how I could become truly wealthy. This was the year I silenced my imposter syndrome and I started my first business, Co-founded with my brother.

I have learnt a lot of lessons along the way and here are three questions that I wish I had asked myself before starting. If I had asked these initially the successes in our business would have come much earlier. 

• Who are you creating this for and how will you continuously learn from their feedback?
• What is the wealth creation ladder for my business idea? 
• What will my average day look like? 

If this sounds like you and you’ve been debating the validity of your business idea, let me save you some pain and give you the questions to ask so you can avoid my mistakes and start  smarter.

Who are you creating this for and how will you continuously learn from their feedback?

When we started our business we did this because we saw tried to buy a guided journal for ourselves and there was nothing available to offer what we wanted. So our logic was if it doesn’t exist we will make it. Our thoughts were to design products for ourselves and then we assumed this would naturally appeal to everyone and success would come easy.

Boy were we wrong. 

In assuming our products would speak to ourselves and therefore everyone they actually ended up speaking to no one. 

This is ironic because in designing our first product and launching it we took way longer than we should have to speak to customers and learn from how they were using the product, things that didn’t make sense to them and other opportunities for improvement. 

If I could start again I would begin with a clear audience in mind, I would speak with them as much as possible to continuously learn and improve my offering. (If you’re reading this as an Evolve Journey customer we’d love to hear from you)

What is the wealth creation ladder for my business idea? 

Credit Nathan Barry. Source https://www.stevanpopovic.com/wealth-ladder-lens/

I didn’t know it at the time but I was trying to jump from one of the ladders of wealth creation with the lowest ceiling of wealth, trading my time for money, to one of the highest. Selling products. 

I wish I had considered this question before starting so I was clear on the skills gap in between and whether this was indeed the game I wanted to play. Asking this question would make sure I design the business from the offset with the highest potential for wealth creation.

With your business idea, it's a good idea to think about how you can make it the highest leverage version of the idea possible. 

For example, the initial idea may be to learn how to become a yoga instructor and then set up a business as an independent yoga instructor. 

This gives you a bit more freedom than full-time employment but is still trading time for money. Instead, how could you make this more leveraged and increase the potential wealth creation? 

The answer could be instead of teaching in person create an online course and sell to students digitally so you can invest time upfront but then after with a little marketing you make money when you sleep. 

Any wealth creation limit is fine, it's your business, after all, it's just important to know upfront so you can make sure you are happy with the sacrifices needed given the maximum potential.

What will my average day look like? 

One constant outside of death and taxes is problems. No matter your income, rank or station life will always give you problems. 

It's helpful to look into the future and predict which potential problems your aspirations will bring you. If starting this business means eventually scaling to over 100 employees and you know you dislike managing people then you might want to rethink the business direction.

Getting clear on what you want your average day to look like if the business is successful can help you to get clear on the direction you want to take things. Making key decisions earlier will set you up for success. 

If you picture yourself doing not a lot and just relaxing on a beach then you likely want to avoid building a business that relies on your personal brand as a content machine and instead look for something with strong exit potential. 

If you want to be able to reallocate or pursue a nomadic lifestyle then the systems and the type of business you build should reflect this. 

Move forward.

It seems simple but it's easy to get wrapped up in the passion of your idea and ignore these things, before you know it you’ve steamrolled yourself into golden handcuffs with a business that you didn’t want but didn’t know how to avoid. 

These three questions will avoid a lot of pain and give you a shortcut to the future life you want for yourself.