Fourteen questions.
No wrong answers.
Answer them the way you'd say them out loud to another owner.
Nobody has asked you most of these in a long time. Take as long as you want. Everything saves as you go.
Start
Movement One
Past
Where this came from, and what it took out of you to get it here.
Question 01
What did you do before this business was yours?
Question 02
When you started, what did you promise yourself this business would give you?
Question 03
What's it cost you to get here — the part nobody sees?
Movement Two
Present
The business as it actually runs today — not as the website describes it.
Question 04
Walk us through a normal Tuesday, hour to hour.
Question 05
What's the one thing in the business that's breaking that you keep meaning to fix?
Question 06
When something goes wrong on a job today — who catches it, the system or you?
Question 07
What's your trade, and where do you run?
The ground you've claimed. Name it the way your customers would.
Question 08
Roughly how big is the team, and what did last year look like top-line?
Round is fine. We're taking the measure of what you've built, not auditing it.
Movement Three
Future
What you'd build if the ground under you could hold it.
Question 09
If the business ran without you for ninety days — what would you do with the time?
Question 10
Who are you really building this for?
Question 11
What does enough look like — the day you'd feel you made it?
Question 12
When you're done, what happens to this thing you built? Does someone carry it, or does it end with you?
Question 13
Five years out, if this worked exactly how you hoped — describe it.
One last thing
The trusted person
Question 14
A decision this big shouldn't be made alone. Who's the one person you trust to think it through with you?
That's all of it. Now we go and look at the ground.
A few quiet minutes. No pitch on the other side — we hate pitches, and this isn't one.
It's the first step in your climb with us.