The Best Entrepreneur Questions for Business Growth with Craig Campbell

James Dooley: Questions to ask entrepreneurs. So, there's a lot of people that kind of attend entrepreneurship kind of conferences or networking events and stuff like that. And if someone is starting out and they're a business owner or they're wanting to thrive to kind of become an entrepreneur, what questions do you think that people should be coming up to you and trying to ask to get the most out of yourself?

Craig Campbell: Um, one question we always always get is why did you start that business in that niche? We we spoke about it in a previous podcast. Why that niche? You know, that that's the biggest thing that people ask me all the time. Like what niche do I go into? What do I do? Like I get I can do marketing. I can do this. That that part's the easy part for me anyway. But what business are you going to start? And obviously you I'm going to throw the question back to you first, right? You you've got more companies than me. Um and I'm not going to say what your companies are so I don't know if you want me to say it publicly, but the company where I've been in your office and obviously you've got promo SEO on the top floor and the other company that's there. What made you start that particular one? Was it other people's skills and you using your marketing ability or or whatever? I'm curious to flip that on to you and go why did you start that business?

James Dooley: So that was to do with the the who, not the the what. So the who was um the business partner's dad had chopped up truck tires and um invented doing that and it was just so happened to be used on safety surfaces for kids. Um and it was a very profitable market. There wasn't that many people doing it within the UK. So I seen there was demand and then I seen there wasn't many people doing it. So I knew that the profit margin was in there and then it just so happened to be from that then the domino effect that you started to realize you do a lot of work within schools and colleges and it just led on to other them products and services of what you can then start to do but that was more the I landed lucky and finding the business partner like you've got some great um new ventures now with AI coming along and you've met some amazing people over the years and now they've come to you with an idea and they're absolute technical geniuses and you've managed to leverage their skills.

Craig Campbell: Yeah.

James Dooley: For you now to take AI on to another level and do the AI growth partnerships and stuff like that.

Craig Campbell: You've done it from the networking part, if you get what I mean, of being able to leverage these. And that was the same with me. So, at times it's just I think people when they're asking a question to an entrepreneur, they think they're going to get this magic answer.

James Dooley: Yeah.

Craig Campbell: To find the next niche. And the honest answer is the um the red car theory. So I looked at the red car for everywhere where you ask a member of staff to say how many red cars did you see on your way into work today and they go I don't know you go right okay tomorrow when you walking into the office I want you to look out for every red car and I want you to count how many red cars that you seen and then tell me so they come in the next day and they go I've seen 17 red cars and you go right okay now them red cars you got to treat that as opportunities that you missed yesterday that now you've seen today so replace the red cars with opportunities and wherever you go in this opportunity. So it could be a billboard that you see. It could be a bus advertisement that you see. It could be there someone's walking past or you're in a bar or you're in a networking event and you've not spoke to someone and that person who's quiet in the corner could be your next business partner, could be your next your next investor and stuff like that. So I think asking the questions to entrepreneurs at these events is the most important part. having sometimes there's a lot of people that are like they don't like and they're scared of going over asking those questions. What would you say to them that these people that I just haven't got the confidence to come over to you and ask a question?

James Dooley: Like what do they need to do? Go to the bar, buy you a drink, and then ask you the question or like what what do they need to do to get in with an entrepreneur like yourself? Just don't ask basic questions like I like what niche should I go into? I go sell whatever. I don't give a damn what you sell. Like

Craig Campbell: you could literally sell anything out there. You know, you can market anything whether it be whatever or water or chairs or furniture or whatever it might be or surfaces or whatever. You know, that's the easy part. Who can you leverage and and you know, how can you monetize this stuff. And obviously you've seen uh with your business partners, these guys know what they're doing. There's not a lot of people doing it and there's massive amount of profits in it and you like marketing. So you've went, you know, I can do that. And those conversations are much better than going, what niche should I get into? I don't know what I'm doing. But I want you, Craig, to think up what I like, what I know, and and and and and all that stuff. And you're like, I'm not prepared to do that for you. I don't know you. I don't know what you know. I don't know what you don't know. So, you're going to have to come and have a better conversation with me. And I can obviously tell you stories of uh niches I went into, why I went into them, uh who have stumbled across it, networking or you know, opportunities like like the AI thing or whatever. I can tell you how those came about. And I never sat there going I want to do this growth AI thing. it it the opportunity came to me where like we want you and that's obviously through network and putting yourself out there and all that stuff. So

James Dooley: I can't really tell another person you're just going to have to wait until someone approaches you. Obviously I've been out there for years networking and traveling the world and you know doing all of that kind of stuff. So, it's easier for me, but you uh are a blank canvas. So, you're going to have to create, like you say, create those opportunities or see those opportunities. And, you know, uh I I'm not going to mention names here, but when people are looking for expired domains and stuff, they're seeing an opportunity going, I could leverage this and I could turn that into an affiliate website and do that. I know I can turn this into that or or whatever way they're going to do it, whether it's to power up their own website or they go and create another website or whatever it's going to be. And and that for me is the way you need to think. You're going to have to spot opportunities.

Craig Campbell: I think you're spot on with the the red car theory there. And it's I I think I'm quite good at spotting opportunities because you might say something of something you've done and somehow my brain starts going but I'm not interested in your niche like whatever you do. But I can go, I like what done here. I'm like, so he's found a guy that does this. I need to find a guy and and the guy that I find might do something completely different. But again, you're going that that's and it's all about return of investment or what I what can I bring to the table and what can you bring to the table. If there's two things we can bring to the table, we can make money on it. We can make a business from it. It doesn't work where I'm going around going, can someone tell me who this great guy is that I can do business with? everyone's just going to take you to the cleaners. So that is where you need to understand what you bring to the table as an entrepreneur as well. What have you got and a lot of these entrepreneurs don't even know what they've got. They don't even know marketing. They don't know how to do stuff.

James Dooley: So I've I've got a great question to ask an entrepreneur on exactly what you're on about there. For anyone who's watching this, I strongly recommend checking the link out. We do a whole episode on entrepreneurship versus entrepreneurship. And that's the question that I would ask. I would I if someone's uncertain and they want to go over to an entrepreneur and ask them a question, I would go over to them and say, how would you know whether it's right for me to be an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur? And when they ask that question, you then are probably going to retaliate and ask them several questions about them as a person.

Craig Campbell: And I think it's good for them then to understand your answer of what it's going to be. So they might say like, do you want security? Do you want to take risks? Do you want this? Do you want that? and they can ask him certain questions, the entrepreneur, and straight away they'll be able to understand you're an entrepreneur. Yeah, you're not an entrepreneur. You're not willing to take the risk. You want security. You're an entrepreneur. You want to have that security within a job and you want somebody else to take the risks for you. Therefore, you are not a risk taker and you're not an entrepreneur. Yeah.

James Dooley: But I think asking that question to an entrepreneur, am I an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur? Opens up lots of other questions to get talking to that person. And I think it's quite an intriguing question for you. If someone came over to you, so I'm going to come over to you now and I'm going to say, am I an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur? You've never met me before.

Craig Campbell: That might spark your attention to be like, that's quite a good question. I think it's quite a good question.

James Dooley: It is. We've actually got a solution for that. So with the AI thing. So what we can do is we can literally build you a website, social media, everything else, email, texting, stuff, virtual receptions, the whole works. I can build you a business like that. But are you prepared to put the marketing spend behind it?

Craig Campbell: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

James Dooley: And and you know if someone's a lazy person like you said or they you know there's just a big risk taker there. I we can literally make you any business and we can automate 99% of it as long as you put the marketing spend behind it. We can go sell whatever tomorrow. We can go stuff sell whatever and we can automate that. Do all the stuff, you know, uh everything uh that you could do as well. and and so we can be a grow that's why we wanted to go down this growth partner route we can do it you put the money up if you've got bollocks and you're a real entrepreneur put the stuff marketing spend up we'll build the stuff thing for you and take a percentage for obviously for doing it and that's where you're going to weed out the you know the stuff bags from the the you know the entrepreneurs from the the entrepreneurs and I would say you know for me I don't want to be doing a lot of work. I would rather invest money to make more money and that's where the entrepreneur comes from. I get it. You know, years ago, I didn't want to take risk and I wanted everything to land in my lap. I'm I'm still waiting, you know, 25 years into business for something to land in my lap. Everyone's got their hands in my stuff pocket at times. H So, it doesn't really happen. You've got to to decide what you are. Um, and for me, that's now what we go to people and say, see if you have got big bucks and or or you're an investor, an entrepreneur, we can literally build you whatever you like. Um, and the rest on you. So,

Craig Campbell: yeah, for sure. I think on there with regards to anyone who's watching this, um, make sure you check out the links with regards to the advantages of entrepreneurship. We also do one on the disadvantages of entrepreneurship. But also, if you are an entrepreneur who's watching this, what's the best question that you've ever been asked yourself when it might have put you in an uncomfortable position? I'd love to know in the comments section, what are the best questions you can ask to an entrepreneur? Craig, it's been an absolute pleasure.

James Dooley: Cheers, mate. Just