When it comes to starting your own business, it’s important to ask the right questions before you do anything else.
Taking the time to answer these questions—and mapping out your business’s direction—is the difference between the successful business owners and the ones that struggle to grow their businesses or even struggle to break even.
Plus, your business will go nowhere without a vision, which is exactly what you will create by answering these three questions.
Sure, there are all kinds of little details you need to take care of as you open and operate a business, but these questions get down to the essential decisions that separate all-star, industry dominating businesses from the businesses that are doomed to frustration and failure.
What Is Your Unique Selling Purpose?
You may have heard of a Unique Selling Point before, but I believe in the Unique Selling Purpose.
All the low-hanging fruit, all the dead simple business ideas that print automatic money for you? Those are already taken.
To create a successful business these days, you need to build your product or service around something that ignites your passion, because that’s what will pull you through the boring or difficult parts of starting a business.
And frankly, I don’t even think there are any boring parts of business when it’s something you care about. Putting your true passion into the world has a way of activating your primal warrior instincts: you’ll do whatever it takes to get it right.
I’m not talking about making money. Everyone’s in business to make money!
What gets you up bright and early in the morning to improve your business?
Unless you know why you’re trying to accomplish something, you’re not going to have the drive to actually get it done.
And if you don’t have the drive to get it done, it’s going to show in the quality of your service…
What made you want to get in business? Why are you spending countless hours trying to provide a service or product to others?
People look for something beyond the product you’re offering. People don’t just want a product or service anymore, they want a story they can identify with.
And if you really do care about your industry, having that story is the easiest part. You just need to organize it and explain it in a way that makes sense to your market.
What Audience Am I Targeting?
Your business won’t go anywhere if it’s not aimed at a specific type of person.
It’s always important to remember that your business’s sole purpose of existence is to satisfy a specific need or desire for a specific group of people.
So if you look at it this way, you’ll notice that you first need to take a hard look at what you’re selling. Who benefits the most from your product or service? Who will appreciate what you’re selling the most? And most importantly: why?
Prime example: if you’re selling heavy jackets, would you want to set up shop in humid Miami or freezing Minnesota? Of course, Minnesota! People there would actually benefit from, need, AND appreciate your product.
Now, you need to target as specific of an audience as possible. That’s where developing an avatar comes in handy.
An avatar is just a fancy name for your ideal client. This would be your most enthusiastic and passionate client. This is the person that would purchase every possible product you can offer them because they love what you do so much.
This is the person that’s going to net you referrals because they can’t wait to tell their friends and family about your product or service.
It’s time to do some research, then. You could offer free “trial runs” for your product or service and see who has the strongest reaction to it
In my experience, the best way to test your market’s desire for your product or service is to put it right in front of them. Surveys don’t really show how people think and behave—they show how people guess their own behaviors (and usually their guesses are wrong).
Where Should I Start My Business?
As real estate agents love to say: “location, location, LOCATION!”
Seriously though, once you know your target audience, you’ll want to scout out the areas they often frequent or the areas nearby where they live.
If you’re clients are women in their twenties with an affinity for shopping, then why not try to sell inside the hottest shopping mall in your area? If your avatar is the 10-year old boy who loves baseball, wouldn’t it make sense to establish your bat store across the way from a baseball diamond?
And by the way, this applies just as much to online business as it does brick and mortars. Just replace “location” with “social media site” and it’s the same idea. Find out where your market spends the most time online, whether it’s Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or wherever, and use that platform to build a following.
It all goes back to understanding the interests of the people you’re selling to.
There’s all kinds of debate out there about how “all business is going online” and “no it’s not–Amazon is opening brick and mortars!”
My response to both sides of that debate is “Who cares?”
The only question that matters—the only question you need to ask yourself as you start your business—is “Where does my ideal client spend the most of their time, attention, and money?”
Whatever the answer to that question is—whether it’s online, at the mall, mail order, wherever—that is where you set up shop.
I’ve spent most of my career selling through email and Facebook, and you know why? It’s because my clients are on Facebook and they use email! It’s that simple!
Now I suggest you write down each of these questions, and then write down your answers to each one. Don’t keep it all in your head—write it down. As you do that, your next steps will become incredibly obvious to you and you can start building the income you want for yourself.
