5 Questions Every Business Owner Should Answer

April 5, 2011 - PRLog -- There are hundreds of thousands of small businesses out there offering services and/or products in every industry imaginable.  As diverse as that may seem there are 5 common questions that EVERY business owner MUST be able to answer.   Can you answer them all?

1.   Who is my target market?  What are the common attributes of my ideal customer or client?  You must know who to sell to in order to successfully target your marketing and sales efforts.

2.   What do my clients need?  You must be able to answer this so you can tailor your product or service to fix that need (sometimes the need is not as obvious as you first think).  People buy on what benefit it has to them.  If it fulfills a need it has a benefit otherwise it is superfluous (no matter how cool the technology you have used to create it).

3.   Why is my product/service better than the rest?  You need to believe in it to sell it. If you can´t answer this then improve your product or service (just saying cheaper is not necessarily a good enough reason and you could be losing out on revenue).

4.   How many X must I sell in order to break even?  You don´t need to be a whizz with numbers but you do need to make sure that your business makes sense and you will not lose money.

5.   What is your exit strategy for your business? Every business needs to have a sense of what the end game will look like. It drives growth and helps focus business decisions.
And here is one more for anyone looking to grow their business this year.
6.   How are you going to grow your profitability by at least XX% this year?  If you want to hit your growth targets you first need a realistic goal and a strategic plan to implement to get there.  Unfortunately, consistent growth doesn´t just happen it is achieved methodically with a plan.

How did you do? I hope you answered them easily.  If not, then perhaps you could benefit from a Business Coach.  If you have answered them easily then you are ready for the next five questions to improve your business success…  Contact us for a free complimentary chat about your business and direction or sign up to our Emini Series Road Map to Business Success to learn more.  

Good luck and enjoy the freedom of owning your small business.  

GreenBean Business Coaching http://freegreenbeans.com

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