Category Archives for Networking

60 Questions For Valuable JV Interviews

You’ve found a great product or service. You’ve had a conversation with the owner, and you’ve agreed to be JV partners. You’re really excited because you know it will benefit your community, but how do you introduce the JV partner to your community successfully?

Interview them!

Of course, JV Partner interviews are a great way of creating content quickly, and even monetising it as their affiliate, but what do you ask them? What questions make great interviews? And what questions give incredible value to your monthly club? Good news! Here are 60 questions that will help you create valuable content with your JV partners. Leave a comment on the post with the questions you’d ask.

General

Why did you choose to build your business around this niche?
How did you get started in the business?
What skills did you already have that helped you develop your business?
Why did you choose to build your business around this niche?
Did you have a mentor or go-to people to guide you in the early days?
What were the 3 most difficult personal obstacles you had to overcome?
To what 3 things do you attribute your in-depth understanding of the “problem?”
If you could only recommend one book to your audience (not your own), what would it be?
You stay pretty busy; how do you make time for yourself?
When you feel stressed, how to you find peace again?

Funding

How did you obtain funding to get your business started?
If you were re-starting today, with zero money, would you seek funding from lenders and investors, or would you bootstrap your way through?

Management and Motivation

What is the top way in which employees/contractors make you look good? What do you attribute that to?
Do you use checklists, guided training, and problem-resolution templates, or do you allow them to work together to creatively solve issues with sales, customer service, logistics, etc.?
[For managers or CEOs] When you come into a company with a lot of problems, what do you do to change the culture? How do you motivate employees and encourage them to contribute to the culture change?
Do you require your staff to read books, attend seminars, or otherwise continue their education?
What are 3 of your favorite [books/videos/seminars] to recommend to your sales team?
What kind of ROI have you witnessed in response to your staff’s continuing education efforts?
When your business is in a slump, or you’re personally feeling burned out, what are some things you do to re-set your system and kick-start your motivation again?

Sales Management

Unfortunately, many small business owners have to deal with lead-flow and sales staff stealing and selling leads. Do you have any systems in place to monitor these problems?
What’s the biggest hurdle your sales staff has to overcome when selling to [Millennials, ages 30 – 50, Baby Boomers, Minorities, the Affluent, etc.?]

Growth

When you were just starting out, did you do the marketing yourself or hire a firm? If you outsourced your marketing, do you feel it was a good investment?
Think back to when your business advanced passed the beginning stages. You knew you were poised to grow. Were you afraid of expansion?
What fears did you have about growing your business? Hiring more employees? Doing more complicated bookwork? Training new employees?
When hiring new employees, do you focus on education, experience, or something else?
What is the single biggest problem you encounter when trying to hire new employees?
Do you find that hiring employees with an entrepreneurial mindset helps or hurts your business?
As your business grows, how do you ensure that the small details of customer service; order fulfillment, and job completion, etc. stay on point?

Mindset

What’s the one thing that you’ve found to be true in maintaining your business success that others commonly believe to be false?
You come up with a great idea for a new product or service. What do you do to push past those moments of doubt before you launch? Is there a book, movie, or song that you return to consistently to put yourself in the right mindset? Do you seek out a mentor’s advice?
You’re given a time machine that can only take you back to the day before you started your business. What is the one thing you’d tell yourself that would save you time, effort, and a ton of headaches?
What jobs were you doing as a teenager? Did you work for others or did you have the entrepreneur mindset early?
In the business classic Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiosaki details the lessons he learned while working for others, the training he received, and the mistakes he saw employers make. If you’ve worked for others, what did you learn?
Did you learn more from your employers’ successes or failures?
What did your parents do for work? Were they encouraging of you going into business, or did they prefer that you play it safe and work for others?
[For Solo Entrepreneurs] Did you have to overcome any personal hurdles when starting your business? Was your spouse or family supportive?
[For Solo Entrepreneurs] When you started your business, were you still working your “day job?” Or, did you decide to strike out on your own without a safety net?
Running a business, especially a start-up, can be an emotional roller coaster. It can also eat up endless amounts of time. What are 3 things you do to keep your work-life balance in check?
How often do you take a complete vacation from all things business?
Is there one specific moment, or incident, that you look back on and realize that it was the turning point for your business? Or, was it a longer process?
What are three ways you invest in yourself on a monthly basis? What percentage of your personal budget goes toward continuing education and self-improvement?

PR and Marketing

Studies show that just one negative review on a site like Yelp can cost a small business tens of thousands of dollars in revenue per year. How do you deal with negative reviews?
Do you have a team dedicated to finding negative reviews, evaluating them, and then responding?
On the other hand, positive reviews have been shown to increase revenue. In fact, for every added “Star” in your business’ rating, it’s estimated that revenue increases by up to 5%. What are some of the ways your business actively recruits positive reviews?
[For young businesses] You’re a new business. What are some things you’ve done to build credibility quickly with your potential customers?
How do you find content marketing is working for your business?
How do you measure a piece of content’s success – by the number of leads, sales, sign-ups, or some other criteria?
Do you structure your content marketing for different demographics? For example, do you find that customers who are under 30 respond better to video while older customers prefer a mix of text and pictures?
When did you first begin using Pay Per Click advertising? What impact has it had on your business?
What are the biggest mistakes you’ve made with PPC ads?
Do you run your own PPC ads or do you use a digital ad agency for this?
Have you had any problems with ad agencies or SEO firms that promised you big results, but delivered nothing?

Social Media

Which social media platforms perform best for your business?
Do you use Facebook ads? How have the performed for your business?
Connecting with your customers on a social level is more important than ever. But, measuring ROI can be difficult on sites like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. How do you measure a social media campaign’s success?
Wendy’s made waves on Twitter recently by humorously attacking McDonald’s mistakes publicly. What’s the biggest mistake you see your competitors making on Social Media? What tactics do you use to use their mistakes to your advantage?
Have you ever used social media to reverse the damages of a negative online review? How did you do manage to flip the negative into a positive?
Studies show that Facebook is quickly becoming the most trusted source of customer reviews (Google currently has a slim lead as the most credible). What steps do you take to cultivate Facebook reviews?
How do you handle negative comments or reviews on Facebook?
Have you noticed an increase in sales or leads following positive Facebook reviews?

What questions would you ask in an interview that will add amazing value for the listener? Leave me a comment and let me know

To your success

Kevin