1. What do I want my life to look like?

Don't start with revenue.

Start with Tuesday.

What time do you want to wake up? How much do you want to work? Where do you want to live? How much stability do you need? How much pressure are you comfortable carrying?

Build backward from the life you actually want.

2. Why do I want to start a business?

There's a big difference between:

I see a problem I desperately want to solve.

and:

I hate my boss.

Both can motivate change, but only one necessarily points toward entrepreneurship.

If you're trying to escape your current job, first figure out whether you're burned out or actually ready for a different path.

3. Am I comfortable with uncertainty?

Entrepreneurship rarely gives you clean answers.

There will be months when you're confident and weeks when you wonder what you're doing.

Can you make decisions without having all the information?

Can you tolerate inconsistent results?

Can you keep moving when nobody can guarantee that the decision you're making is right?

4. What am I willing to risk?

Be specific.

Money? Time? Career progression? Evenings? Weekends? Reputation?

Every business requires something.

Decide what you're willing to invest before excitement makes the decision for you.

5. Does anyone actually want what I'm selling?

Liking an idea isn't the same as having a business.

Before spending months building something, talk to potential customers.

Would they buy it?

What are they doing today instead?

How painful is the problem?

I've learned far more from real conversations than from sitting alone trying to perfect an idea.

6. Do I want to run a business—or do I just want to do the work?

This one matters.

Being great at marketing doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy running a marketing agency.

Being a great coach doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy building a coaching business.

Business ownership includes sales, hiring, operations, finance, customer problems, and decisions you didn't know existed.

Make sure you want enough of that too.

7. If it doesn't work, will I still be glad I tried?

There's no way to remove all the risk.

At some point, entrepreneurship becomes one of those difficult decisions where there isn't an obvious right answer.

So I like this final question.

If you tried seriously and it didn't become what you hoped, would the experience still have been worth something to you?

If the answer is yes, that tells you a lot.

After building three companies, one of my biggest lessons is that entrepreneurship isn't automatically better than working for someone else.

It's simply a different set of tradeoffs.

Choose the tradeoffs you actually want.