101 Questions You Must Ask Before You Start Your Business

Philip A. Grisolia, CBC
Wise Words (2009)
ISBN 9781607433958
Reviewed by Leslie Granier for Reader Views (6/09)


Anyone considering running a business should read “101 Questions You Must Ask Before You Start Your Business.”  Author Philip Grisolia, a marketing professional and professor, offers his advice and experiences in starting up new businesses and openly admits many of his ventures failed miserably.  This gives him added credibility because he had to determine the reasons for failure and recognize what aspects he needed to improve.  In this book, he points out many of the common pitfalls new businesses encounter and ways to bypass or prevent them.

The questions presented for the reader to consider range from what is motivating him to want to start a business to identifying what makes his product or service unique to choosing the right name for the company.  He stresses the importance of writing a business plan and then having other people look over its feasibility.  The author does a good job of discussing the pros and cons of starting a new business versus buying into a franchise.  Starting a new business gives the owner complete control of marketing and pricing, but he must build his own customer base.  Buying into a franchise provides a ready-made customer base, but the owner is limited in the prices he can charge and products he can sell.

This is a good starting book for someone thinking about opening a business, but he will need a lot more information to proceed.  The questions are relevant and thought-provoking, but some of the answers seem inadequate.  The author strongly encourages the prospective business owner to form a professional support team comprised of an attorney, an accountant, a banker, and an insurance broker.  Several of the answers to the questions are to check with the appropriate member of the support team.  While I realize the author can not provide specific answers to certain questions because they are dependent on the type of business involved, he could have presented different scenarios that would lead the reader to research more specific answers in other sources.

“101 Questions You Must Ask Before You Start Your Business” by Philip A. Grisolia is appropriate for anyone who is even remotely considering starting his own business.  It will help the prospective business owner decide if he wants to assume the many responsibilities and sacrifices involved or if working for someone else may not be so bad after all.

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