Is Your Business
A ‘Star Principle’ Business?

A Star Business is one with an overwhelmingly high chance of success, based on the ingenious formula in Richard Koch’s book The Star Principle. Richard used the Star Principle formula to grow his fortune from $500,000 to over $1.6 Billion in 40 years. His 50% batting average is unheard of in a world where Venture Capitalists are thrilled to bat 15%. Answer these twelve questions and discover your score:

  1. How much has your business grown in the last 12 months?
    Pre-revenue
    Business is down
    0-10%
    11-20%
    21-99%
    100-300%
    over 300%
  2. Are you THE leader in your niche?
    No
    Hard to tell
    Arguably
    Definitely
  3. Does your Unique Selling Proposition sharply differentiate you from all others?
    No
    To a degree
    Definitely
  4. Is your product or service MUCH simpler and/or clearly more useful & elegant than any competitor?
    No
    Somewhat
    Yes
  5. How fast is your niche growing per year?
    Under 10%
    11-20%
    Faster
  6. How do your profit margins compare to the competition?
    Lower
    Same
    Higher
  7. Have you built an enthusiastic customer fan base that is identifiably different from the main market?
    No
    Possibly
    Yes
  8. Compared to your closest competition, your product costs?
    0-20% less
    21-30% less
    31-40% less
    40-49% less
    Over 50% less
  9. Your Market is:
    Very finite - no matter how good or affordable the products get, demand is inherently limited
    Expandable - the better & cheaper products get, the more people consume
  10. Demand in your niche is:
    Level
    Increasing
    So strong, even mediocre players are flourishing
  11. Ease with which you can mass-produce your product:
    There is an absolute fixed supply of what you sell (famous heart surgeon or old cathedral)
    My product can be replicated instantly (software, media content)
    My product can be replicated with expense and difficulty (automobile, skilled technicians, live events)
  12. Ease with which others can replicate your product:
    Others can copy easily (MP3 file)
    Others can copy with some difficulty (phone charger)
    Others can copy with significant difficulty (automobile)
    Almost impossible to replicate (Google, Amazon, old cathedral)