The 3 Questions Every Entrepreneur Needs to Be Able to Answer What's your competitive edge? Leaders should continually ask what goals they want to achieve.
By Aytekin Tank Edited by Jessica Thomas
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
"Find a co-founder."
"Focus on productivity and outcomes."
"Seek investors."
When I first founded my form-building startup more than 16 years ago, I received the above counsel from other entrepreneurs more times than I can count. There was such a range of options and directions to choose from.
It was mind-boggling, to say the least.
I felt nervous about making a wrong move from the get-go. For newbie founders, there's an array of decisions to make, as well as barriers to face.
But to make the wisest choices possible, young and seasoned entrepreneurs alike should follow advice from experts like Harvard Business Review contributor Amar Bhidé, who recommends the following: "Entrepreneurs must continually ask themselves what business they want to be in and what capabilities they would like to develop."
Three questions entrepreneurs should answer
These might seem like simple questions to pose, but in reality, they're more complex and should be analyzed with an ample dose of scrutiny and self-awareness. Below are three specific strategies for digging deeper and finding what works best for your enterprise.
1. How can you set meaningful goals?
According to Bhidé, before setting goals for your business, you should be explicit about your personal goals, and you have to periodically revisit them to see if they've changed or evolved. "Many entrepreneurs say that they are launching their businesses to achieve independence and control their destiny, but those goals are too vague," he writes.
One of my own personal (and meaningful) goals when starting out was knowing that I wanted full autonomy over my business. This meant forgoing investors and bootstrapping my company from the beginning.
This particular goal hasn't changed even as I've revisited it over the years. But I had to be very specific about what autonomy and independence looked like for me. It couldn't remain some super vague concept — I had to explicitly decide on being a bootstrapper and move forward in that direction.
Related: This Is the Simple 5-Question Template You Need to Make Better Decisions
2. What kind of lifestyle do you want?
It's easy to say you want to be able to run your business from a beach in Maui, but that's not necessarily what you should be asking (though working next to the ocean isn't out of the cards).
But thinking about the kind of lifestyle you want as an entrepreneur has a lot more to do with work/life balance and wellness than where you work
The point, however, is to not buy into the 24/7 hustle culture and spend all of your energy trying to be productive so that you burn out and lose your passion altogether. For instance, you can be on the most gorgeous beach and still be "on" all the time — answering emails and doing Zoom meetings for stretches of 12 hours or more.
At Jotform, it's been important for me to foster a culture that promotes a "middle path." This means holistically incorporating both our mental and physical well-being — a path where you don't have to choose between your work, home or social life.
When I ask myself what kind of lifestyle I want, these are the answers that come up: Spending device-free suppers with my family, enjoying weekends away from the computer and knowing that when I log out for the day, I am truly giving myself enough time to rest and recharge.
Even more specifically, it was essential for me to set up a lifestyle that gave me opportunities to step back and do absolutely nothing at all. For example, my family and I travel to my hometown in Turkey each year for the olive harvest. There, I spend my time simply existing in the moment — without the pressures of the daily grind. It both grounds and calms me and is something I'd rather do than be glued to a computer on even the most beautiful of beaches.
Related: Struggling to Come Up With Creative Ideas? Try Doing This.
3. What is your competitive edge?
"No amount of hard work can turn a kitten into a lion," writes Bhidé.
I couldn't agree more.
I've seen too many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of wanting to scale quickly and taking on ventures that aren't profitable. Or they'll take on so many projects that their ideas and finances fizzle out.
In short: They're trying to be a lion right out of the gate.
At Jotform, I knew from the start that I wanted my team to place their attention on one thing and one thing only — to create the best product possible and make people's lives easier as a result. I knew that this laser-like focus would guarantee a competitive edge because we weren't getting sidetracked by multiple projects. We also weren't determined to grow fast. Slow and steady has been our motto until this day — despite currently reaching millions of users.
The above strategy is what makes our business sustainable.
In not thinking about growing our company rapidly, I can plan for long-term success.
So, the question for you here is: What gives you an edge over your competitors?
I strongly believe in excelling at what you do before embarking on a new and exciting venture.
There are also other ways to have a competitive edge that seem less straightforward but should equally take center stage:
- Creating a culture that empowers your employees
- Maintaining agile processes
- Encouraging and facilitating collaboration
- Being self-aware to attract more insights
Related: Listen Closely to What People Ask You. That's Where to Find Your Hidden Power.
The bottom line
As leaders, we have to continually evaluate our roles as a measure of if we're growing or remaining stuck. "Founders who simply spend more hours performing the same tasks and making the same decisions as the business grows end up hindering growth," writes HBR contributor Bhidé.
Instead, he proposes we ask ourselves if we've acquired any new skills recently. "If founders can't point to new skills, they are probably in a rut and their roles aren't evolving."
I've been in the form-building business for nearly two decades and can't say that I have all the answers. But I do know this: The entrepreneurs I most want to emulate are the ones who do more than act on ego or impulse—they're capable of true self-reflection that helps them continually move the needle forward.
Related: The World's Top Brain Coach Says Knowing 'Your Dominant Question' Changes Your Life
