You’ve looked ahead to see what the trends in your market are and you’ve come up with a business idea. It may be a massively disruptive idea that seems crazy to others and could earn you a billion, or it could be a simple idea that earns you some extra income to pay for a family holiday.

You know what problem you solve, what business you’re in, who you’re competing with and who your target market is. You know you need to create something for the market to look at (an MVP) that will enable you to test your idea and get valuable customer feedback.

But now you need to ramp things up, build that MVP, your website or app, gather a team of like-minded collaborators to work with and get into the nitty-gritty of making it all work.

This chapter is all about moving forward. It’s about giving you the momentum to take your business to the next level using the tools and technologies that the best and brightest entrepreneurs use.

But before we go too far, we need to address some basic questions that you may have at this stage — questions that may be hindering you from moving forward. For most people, those questions are:

• How will I build my website or app?
• How will I find the right people to help me build it?
• How will I scale it all and make it grow big on a budget?
• How will I make enough money from my online business to keep it going?
• How will I find the time for this ‘side hustle’ while I work my first job and look after my family?

Notice what all those questions start with? That’s right: ‘How’. And as we established in chapter 9, ‘how’ questions are the least helpful, especially in the early stages of getting your business started.

We’ve also established that great online entrepreneurs don’t always know what to do next, but they do know what questions to ask that will help them gain momentum. So what questions should you be asking at this stage of the game? What questions will help you move forward?

Here’s seven critical questions you must ask before taking any further steps or investing any further dollars.