Most of my days are spent with clients who have been doing what they do in business for a while now. Clients with “newer” businesses have met their 5-year anniversaries, and my most experienced clients have 40-plus years running their business. As my team pilots a new program we are launching, we have accepted a number of new entrepreneurs into the beta. They are at an exciting point in their business evolution. Some have a year or two under their belts and are looking to grow, while a few are looking over the edge of the proverbial mountain that is launching a new business for the first time and asking, “Can I do this? Will I do this? Is it worth it?”

Asking questions is a great skill, and it’s necessary when undertaking something new. That said, the questions you ask really do matter. The questions above? They aren’t great. Why? They don’t lead anywhere except to more rumination, more worry and more what-ifs.

What would be better? Effective questions clarify what needs to happen and point you and your team to the things that are important and/or provide you with answers that create a platform for better decisions. When contemplating a new venture, product or direction, we have found the following questions useful:

1. What do we know? This is not what we think, but what we really know. For example, for someone considering getting into the cigarette industry, the data shows that this industry is dying and has been for 40 years. This space is not where most of us would decide to start a business today. Data about new businesses launches is rarely this compelling. It’s good to start with what you know.

2. What can we know? Let’s use my business in this example. When I considered starting my own firm, there was no guarantee that it would succeed. An 18-plus year track record of success in larger business was not guaranteed to translate to a small startup. In addition, I had an entirely new industry to learn. Once I was clear that owner/founder peer groups were what I desired as the first offering for my business, I asked the following:

• What percentage of new leaders launched?

• Of the group leaders who formed a group, what percentage was still leading groups 12 months later?

• How long did it take the average new group to start?