As a woman entrepreneur, you know that you question everything in your business. Sometimes the questions are out loud, but more times than not they are in your head.

You question who to trust; you question how you make decisions; you question the people you employ, and the vendors and other professionals who claim to be working on your behalf; you question your sales ability, your marketing ability, your technological skills; your leadership aptitude and even, from time to time, your drive and passion for your business.

Ask anyone who has done business with a woman entrepreneur or wants to do business with a woman entrepreneur, or the entrepreneur herself, and you'll hear: women question everything!

Questions generally mean there is a need for confirmation or verification of some kind. For example, if I am purchasing a new computer for my business I not only want to know how it works and when it will start working, but who will fix it if it stops working. I make my decision by verifying and trusting that the person I am doing business with has the answers that I need for today, tomorrow and the long term.

So, why are women in business apologetic for asking questions when it may be one of our greatest reasons for success?

The answer often lies in how our curiosity was valued before we launched a business.

Women in corporate America are often like the children of yesteryear -meant to be seen not heard. Over the years, I have heard one client after another tell me that any time she ask for a reason for what she was being asked to do she was told, "the reason is not your concern - getting the job done is." Is there any wonder that first, this woman can't wait to go out on her own and, second, that once she is out there she fears the rejection to asking too many questions.

As a business coach, I encourage my clients to ask questions - start with the how, why, when where, and what and move onto the how much, how many, to whom, to what. There are no stupid questions only impatient people who don't take the time to explain what a savvy business person has a right to know before making a decision.

I learned early on as an entrepreneur that, at the end of the day, I had only myself to rely on and if I did not have the answers to all the questions I needed before making a decision I was left feeling isolated and mad at myself for not doing, what I call, my due diligence.

One of the great strengths women have is what I call our "need to know" gene. I truly have a need to know how things work, why someone launched their business concept in the first place, where they want to their business (revenue) and what they are looking for to see their dreams materialize.

I ask a lot of questions as I know that I don't have all the answers. It's my job to probe and keeping digging until my client discovers her own answers. It's critical to our success to trust that if we keep exploring every detail we will discover that our intuition will bring us to the answer we need.

Keep the questions coming - challenge those who surround you in your business and encourage them to see that the interrogation leads to a better understanding. We all benefit from clarity.