1719: Questions To Never Stop Asking As A Business Owner by Brian Tracy on Entrepreneurship Strategies
Optimal Work DailyJune 15, 2025
1719
00:10:35

1719: Questions To Never Stop Asking As A Business Owner by Brian Tracy on Entrepreneurship Strategies

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com.

Episode 1719:

Brian Tracy shares eight critical questions every business owner should continually ask to drive long-term growth and success. These thought-provoking prompts help sharpen your focus, align your strategy, and ensure you're constantly improving how you serve customers and manage resources.

Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.briantracy.com/blog/business-success/business-development-8-questions-you-should-never-stop-asking-as-a-business-owner-strategic-plan/

Quotes to ponder:

"Clarity is the starting point of success."

"Your weakest key result area sets the height of your income and your success."

"The more clearly you can define your ideal customer, the more effective your marketing efforts will be."

Episode references:

The E-Myth Revisited: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280

Think and Grow Rich: https://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Landmark-Bestseller/dp/1585424331

The Lean Startup: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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[00:01:00] Das ist Optimal Work Daily. Questions to Never Stop Asking as a Business Owner By Brian Tracy of briantracy.com As a business owner, here are some questions that you need to ask over and over as the market evolves and your strategic plan changes. Very often, the answers to these business development questions will change in response to evolving conditions. It is important that you change as well when it is necessary. 1. What business are you in?

[00:01:30] What business are you really in? A typical business owner will answer this question by explaining the product or service that they sell, but this is not the business that you're in. The business that you're in is customer satisfaction. As a business owner, you must always define your business in terms of what your product or service does to improve the life or work of your customers. You don't sell life insurance. You sell peace of mind. You don't sell cars. You sell safe, dependable transportation. You don't sell houses.

[00:02:00] You sell safe, comfortable homes for families. In order to implement successful business development for your company, you must realize that customers' wants, needs, desires, hopes, and expectations are constantly changing, and you must change with them or your sales, cash flow, and profitability will suffer. 2. What business will you be in the future based on current trends? In business, the trends are everything.

[00:02:28] Which way is the market going for you today, and what changes do you need to make in your strategic plan to move with the market? What business could you be in if you were to change your product or service offerings in some way? What business should you be in if you want to be among the most successful and profitable businesses in your industry? Imagine that you could wave a magic wand and make your business perfect in every way. What would it look like? Especially, how would it be different from today?

[00:02:55] These are questions that you must answer over and over again as a business owner. If you're wrong in any of these answers, your business can go sideways and your plan for business development could fail. 3. Who is your customer? Your ideal customer. Your perfect customer for what you sell. You can't hit a target that you can't see. As the market changes, your ideal customer profile changes as well. You can tell if you have properly identified the ideal customer for what you sell,

[00:03:24] if you have high sales, cash flow, and profitability. If you do not, for any reason, you need to revisit this question. Who is my ideal customer? 4. What does your customer consider as value? What does your customer want to enjoy or receive from your product or service more than anything else? What must your customer be convinced of in order to buy your product or service rather than that of someone else?

[00:03:51] The answer to this question is the core of your strategic plan for business development. It is the core of all of your marketing, advertising, and selling activities. 5. What do you do especially well? In what areas do you excel? What is your competitive advantage? What makes your product or service superior to that of any other competitive product being offered in your marketplace? As Jack Welch said, If you don't have competitive advantage, don't compete. End quote.

[00:04:21] As a business owner, your first responsibility when you start your business, and throughout your business life, is to develop and maintain a competitive advantage, an area of excellence in comparison with your competitors, that your ideal customers want, need, and will pay for. What's yours? 6. What are your goals? You know the importance of detailed business development planning 12, 18, 24 months ahead.

[00:04:46] Before you create a strategic plan of action, you must know the answers to the following questions. What are your sales goals for the next year, broken down by month or even week and day? What are your goals for profitability? How much do you need or want to earn from your business activities? What are your growth goals? What percentage of market do you want to capture? The more specific and clear you are about your goals, the more likely it is that you will achieve them.

[00:05:13] Most of all, does everyone in your business who is responsible for achieving those goals know exactly what those goals are? 7. What are the constraints on your business today? What is holding you back from achieving your goals of sales, cash flow, and profitability? Of all the factors that are holding you back from achieving successful business development, what is the single biggest factor? And what could you do to alleviate this constraint?

[00:05:39] In every business, there are limiting factors that determine the speed at which you achieve your goals. You must be absolutely clear about these constraints or limiting factors and work continually to remove them. Sometimes the constraint can be a lack of sales. Sometimes it's the lack of skilled, qualified people. Sometimes it is the lack of capital for growth or expansion or even operations. Here is one of those brutal questions that Jim Collins talks about.

[00:06:06] Why isn't your business already as profitable as you want it to be? What's the reason? Of all the reasons, what is the biggest single reason? Sometimes asking and answering this question can be the push you need to trigger business development success. 8. What are the 20% of your activities that can account for 80% of your results? What are the 20% of your prospects that can account for 80% of your sales? What are the 20% of your customers that account for 80% of your business?

[00:06:36] What are the 20% of things that you can do personally that account for 80% of your results? You will always have limited resources of time, money, and people. You must therefore allocate these resources carefully in order to get the greatest return on your investment. And 9. Based on your answers to the previously mentioned questions, what strategic plan of action should you take immediately? What should you do now? What should you stop doing?

[00:07:04] What should you discontinue altogether so that you can have more time to work on those few things that can make an enormous difference in your business? You just listened to the post titled, Questions to Never Stop Asking as a Business Owner, by Brian Tracy of briantracy.com. What does it take to lead like a superhero? Find out on the Superhero Leadership Podcast,

[00:07:30] hosted by Marvel's former CEO and legendary turnaround expert, Peter Cuneo. Each week, Peter is joined by top performers from business, media, and beyond. Leaders who have mastered the art of impact, resilience, and vision. Together, they explore Peter's 32 leadership essentials, revealing what it really takes to rise, inspire, and lead with purpose. Check out the episode with Michael Fabiano, president of ESG News,

[00:07:59] who offers candid insights on how leaders can run towards challenges and drive innovation in resistant cultures, embrace lifelong learning to stay ahead of disruption, and create environments where bold ideas thrive. If you want to level up your leadership, this is your blueprint. Search Superhero Leadership wherever you get podcasts. Hey Sandra, we have us for a long time not seen. Hello, Nadine. You look great.

[00:08:29] Thank you. I have found my plus for the健康 I. What? Come, I show you. The Bewegungskurs of AOK Plus. For free for AOK Plus-Sichers. Find your plus for the健康 I. And start with our self-check. Just simply online on AOK. AOK. AOK. AOK plus. And big thanks to Brian, who is chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International.

[00:08:56] Brian helps people achieve personal and business goals quickly and easily. He has studied, researched, written, and spoken for 30 years in various fields, including economics, history, business, philosophy, and psychology, and is the top-selling author of over 70 books. His talks and seminars on leadership, selling, self-esteem, goals, strategy, creativity,

[00:09:20] and success psychology are super effective in creating immediate changes as well as long-term results. Brian is also active in community and national affairs and is the president of three companies headquartered in Solana Beach, California. Come by his site, which again is briantracey.com. And Brian is actually narrated across all of our podcasts. So if you like his style, check out those other shows by searching for Optimal Living Daily wherever you're hearing this show. OK, I think that does it for today.

[00:09:50] I thank you so much for being a subscriber and for joining us each and every day. Hope you had a great weekend if you're listening in real time. And I'll see you back here tomorrow for the Monday show, where your optimal life awaits.