Questions to Ask an Entrepreneur
I try to always find experienced business owners/entrepreneurs to interview. I figure the more business owners that I talk to, the more that I can learn from them. I know that a lot of things need to be learned first hand, but sometimes it's best to learn from other people's mistakes and triumphs.
Questions:
- Tell me about yourself
- What do you feel made you a success?
- What was your best and then worst decision?
- What would you do differently?
- What 1-3 things really helped you?
- What recommendations do you have for me?
- What one question do you think I should ask other business owners and could you answer that question, too?
- What 1-3 books do you really, really recommend other than scripture?
- Network questions like LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
- Who was your business mentor?
Additional questions if you haven't started a business yet:
- What made you finally decide to take the first step?
- Where did you try to and eventually get funding?
- How did you find investors?
- How do you find distributors?
- Did you have lots of ideas? And how did you choose just one?
One of the best things to do while interviewing is to take notes in a little notebook. Notes of what the person said, questions that you think of that you want to ask so you don't forget, and thoughts/ideas that are sparked from what they say that may help you.
When you are done with the interview, please make sure to thank them a LOT. So, what questions would you ask or not ask?
Please share this with others.
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