Questions Regarding the Five Facets of Your Business

The following are a few examples of the types of questions we consider in the five facets of any business. With each of our clients, we focus on additional questions in each of these areas, as well as additional "facets," based on your specific type of business and its unique circumstances.

Your Products/Services

1. What is it that we offer?

a. What is strong? Why?
b. What is weak, unfocused, incomplete? Why?

2. What are the possible delivery methods in which to offer each product/service?

3. What services are related to each of the products we offer, and vice versa? What do our customers want, and of those,

which do we choose to offer, and will we help them find those we choose not to offer?

4. Costing - What does it cost to produce and deliver each product, including all ancillary costs and apportioned overhead?

5. Pricing - What are possible pricing strategies?

The Customer Universe

1. Who are our customers?
2. What customer "segments" do we address, and with which are we most successful?
3. What are our customers' buying strategies? On what basis do they make purchasing decisions? What factors can we

address?

4. What "delights" our customers? What most dissatisfies them?
5. HOW DO WE KNOW? What methods have we used to get this information, and are they adequate? Are there other

methods we should consider, even simple and cost-effective tools like asking customers for feedback on a regular basis?

6. How close are we to our customers? Are we satisfied? Could we be closer?

The Market Landscape

1. What is our "market" or "market niches." How do we describe them, and how are our products/services positioned in

relationship to them?

2. What is the overall market, and our position and share? What data can we gather cost effectively, and what can we learn

from it?

3. How do we define our "competition?" What competitors are in each of the concentric circles of our competitive

environment?

4. What do we know about our competition? What methods do we use to gather market intelligence? Should we consider

using additional methods?

5. What do our competitors offer? How does it compare to us?
6. What are their strengths and weaknesses, in the eyes of their customers?
7. What can we learn form our competition? Is there some way that someone else is being successful that we could

emulate, that would fit us and our products?

Your Financial Position

1. What is your current financial position? What is the financial health of your business, based on a number of indicators?

2. What are the financial goals of the owner(s) of the business?

3. What are the options for achieving those goals?

4. What will need to change, and what remain the same, in the current financial management of the business-e.g. income

and expense projections, investment in research and/or capital purchases (e.g. equipment, facilities), debt and financing,

and return on investment-to meet those goals?

Your Organization

1. What are the major strengths and weaknesses of your organization?

2. Do you have the people in place that you need in order to make your business successful? What management skills and

positions will be needed as the business grows?

3. How do those people perceive the business, and their role in it? Do they have ideas, issues, or upcoming changes in their

circumstances that should be taken into consideration in business planning?

4. What structures, systems, and resources will be needed to support the growth of the business? What efficiencies or

economies of scale are possible now, and will be possible in the future?

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