“Being willing to ask “dumb” questions is, ironically, one of the smartest things you can do. Learning the basics of a field or craft is often where people get stuck, but being willing to ask the basics helps you build a foundation for the advanced parts of a skill…” Allen Gannett, author of The Creative Curve.

In this article, we will talk about five questions that every entrepreneur needs to answer before they start their business. These questions will help you become more aware of your mission, your ideal customer, your weaknesses, and what it takes to build a successful halal online business in 2022.

Let’s explore these questions.

1. What Is Your Mission?

The first and the most important question is, what is your mission. But before we dive in, let’s first explore the difference between solution and mission.

A lot of entrepreneurs confuse a solution with a mission. When they’re asked what your business mission is, they reply, well, I want to help people learn about fitness or mindest. 

Actually, this is not a mission. It’s a solution or process that you want to walk your clients through.

Then what is a business mission?

A business mission is essentially the purpose of your organization. Why does your business exist in the first place? Based on that mission, you use it to create your products, services, and offers.

For example, our mission at Ummahpreneur is to nurture Muslim entrepreneurship. So this allows us to then think of different ways to help nurture Muslim entrepreneurship. We can come up with programs, training, services, and products that not only change the lives of our students but also bring us closer to achieving our mission.

Remember, your solutions must always relate to the mission you have.

Here is how you can decide your mission…

Suppose you thought of a business idea to start with, even if it’s something small like an online store selling beard oils and grooming products for men. 

Your mission can be something like: “we want to help men feel good in their skin and look better”.

Based on that mission, you might start with beard oils but you can then graduate to opening up barbershops and other products/services that all cater to the same mission.

Ask these important questions to clear your mission:

1. What is the purpose of your business?
2. Why are you doing what you’re doing?
3. When you do this, what is the consequence?

So in this way, if anyone buys your product or services, you get closer to the mission of your business.

2. What Is The Solution That You Can Provide Right Now

The second question that every Muslim entrepreneur can ask is what is the solution that you can provide right now.

Many people have these fantastic business ideas to start a grand organization, products, services, or firms.

But they’re stuck in the idea phase. However, they have a big vision to build an app or a software company, but they don’t dare to start as questions like, I need a team, capital, investments, or funding stops them from taking action. This is the trap on which many entrepreneurs fall into. 

So as an entrepreneur, once you have figured out your mission, the next question you need to ask yourself is what solution you can provide right now that is within your capacity.

For example, if your mission is to help people be healthy and get fit, then in the beginning you should not think about owning a gym to achieve your goal because now, that’s not within your capacity. You should focus on with what resources you have now.

Ask yourself, can I provide online fitness coaching to my clients? How much does it cost to start it? Zero dollars, right! 

Having sessions over zoom, maybe create online training that provides different ways to work out, or you can give nutrition tips to your clients with your online fitness coaching business and earn halal income from the comfort of your home.

This could be the first step in owning your gym center, as you can use the revenue of the online coaching to accomplish your goal.

3. Who Is Your Customer

The third question you need to answer once you get clear on your mission and the solution you can provide is who your customer is.

Who is your customer is such an essential question that many businesses don’t really take the time to understand and ask themselves.

Many people think that if we just create a product or service and put it out, people will buy it right away. In reality, that’s actually not true. 

There are tons of products and services that people are constantly flooded with through ads, emails, or messages. Everyone is trying to sell their solution to their customers.

So how can you break through the noise and really reach people in a way where you know they see and feel it’s the right products and services for them.

The key is by knowing your ideal customer. When they align with your mission and believe that this is the right solution for them, then they buy and become your happy clients. So your job should be to find your ideal customers and create products & services that align with your mission. Eventually, this will help you attract the right clients.

Having a buyer persona helps you build a solid customer base for your business. A buyer persona is a representation of your target customer’s preferences and behavior as they shop and interact with your online business.

It’s important to know your ideal customer because when you know them, you know: 

1. What is it that they want?
2. What are their goals?
3. What are their challenges? 
4. How can you help them overcome these challenges?

Finally, how can you really reach them in your marketing and your messaging to spread your message to generate sales to grow your business?

4. What Are Your Weaknesses

We’re down to question number four, and this one’s an important one, what are your weaknesses.

Many Muslim entrepreneurs don’t take time to really understand what their weaknesses are when they’re starting their business. They start with building their business through trial and error processes.

They never took the time to realize their weaknesses and get help within those areas. Then five or six months pass, and they still aren’t getting any results. They wonder why I am not getting results, why I am not generating any income, and why my business is not growing?

So we need to understand what our weaknesses are because when you understand what your weaknesses are, you can go ahead and take the necessary action steps to compensate for those weaknesses.

For example, if you’re someone who’s starting a business from scratch, you want to be a coach or a service provider. But you have never done this before, and you’re not very good with social media, understanding how to generate sales, and creating your coaching program.

If you reflect on these things, you will realize these are your current weaknesses. To compensate for these weaknesses, you need to go and get some mentorship or buy a course where they teach you how to overcome your weakness.

This is what we’re actually doing in our Muslim Business Academy. We’re helping Muslim entrepreneurs to overcome their weaknesses and build successful halal online businesses. Our students are crushing in their business and creating a positive impact through our mentorship program.

If you want our help with that, we can talk to you on the phone and understand if this is something that we can help you with. You can book a free call with our team here.

On the call, we’ll find out with you what your weaknesses are? What your challenges are? What do you need help with? And if we can fill that gap and offer you mentorship and guidance, then we’ll make sure to let you know what that looks like. 

This way, you can take the necessary steps to compensate for those weaknesses. See you on the other side of the call.

5. What Are You Willing To Sacrifice

The fifth and the final most important question every single entrepreneur needs to ask themselves before they start a business is what are you willing to sacrifice. 

What are you willing to sacrifice? A question that many don’t ask themselves. However, this is one of the most critical questions you need to ask when starting your business because it takes great sacrifices to build a successful business.

Many people will tell you that you can start a business by just putting in a few hours a day, and you don’t really need to invest yourself fully and do all those things.

That’s true. We completely believe in that. You can really start a business part-time as we have started many businesses part-time, and many of our students have done it too.

But the question is…

What are you willing to sacrifice on those nights when you come back from work and you have a choice between working and putting effort into building your business or relaxing on your couch drinking coffee and watching Netflix.

So are you willing to put in those extra hours to start a business & build your business when your body wants to rest? Are you ready to give your 100% to work and generate an income up to a point where your business is now successful enough that you can quit your job and just focus full-time on your business?

Are you gonna put in those one or two or three hours every single evening instead of saying, you know I’m going to spend that time watching Netflix?

It’s important to understand and ask yourself what are you willing to sacrifice because if you’re not ready to sacrifice anything, we’re sorry to say, please don’t waste your time. Don’t even bother trying because it’s going to take some sacrifice.

Business takes sacrifice, commitment, and dedication.

What are you willing to commit? How dedicated are you to this vision of building your business? If you’re successful in all areas of your business, but you don’t have the willingness to scarfies, you will stop taking action one day. So ask yourself what am I willing to sacrifice to make this business a success.

For Professional Muslim

If you’re a professional Muslim who wants to build a 6-figure halal online business that gives you freedom, income, & impact, then watch this free masterclass 👇.