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What are the best QUESTIONS to ask to help formulate business strategy and activities?
Starting, operating and growing a 'not yet large' business requires a broad base of business skills. Asking the right questions opens the mind to consider multiple options and possibilities. For a small business, time and resources most frequently drive activities, and asking better questions may help clarify the best opportunities. In your opinion, what are the best questions to ask to help formulate business strategy and activities?
Best Answer
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- Tom Murphy
Stay focused, and constantly remind yourself- why is my business different and why would potential prospects need me.
Thanks Paul. Good advice. When focusing on your customers, product differentiation and defining the value proposition become easy.
I work with high-tech startups and use positioning and messaging as described in "Crossing the Chasm" (the technology marketing "Bible") to be an essential element in developing marketing strategy and tactics. There's a short article on P&M in the "Free Tools" section of my website at: http://www.addisonmarketing.com/pages/marektingcommunications/positioningandm...
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Related Activity
In my many years of business experience, I think the most useful thing to do while running a small business that wants to grow is to gather accurate data, from financial performance in the aggregate to what products sell, what are the gross margins, who are the customers that buy them and what's up with the competition. With good data, it is then possible to ask strategic questions and have the data from which to seek the answers.
I have listed ten questions that will be useful to the small business in evaluation of strategic options:
1. Is my overall market growing, stagnant or declining and what are the implications of this?
2. Do I have adequate financing to accomplish my objectives for growth?
3. What forms of financing might be available for a firm such as mine?
4. Who are my main competitors and how do I compare with them as seen by the customer?
5. Are there segments of the market not well served by competitors that offer opportunity to my company?
6. If the market trend is not favorable, where can I employ my business assets to produce or sell other products and services?
7. Are my employees capable of stepping up to helping the business grow?
8. What is the capacity of my facilities and equipment and what will I do if the business outgrows them?
9. As a manager of my own business, am I able to delegate to others in a way that will allow the business to grow? Or will I be the barrier to growth?
10. If there are other owners and managers in my business, how much in agreement are we in the overall strategies for growth?
There is much more that can be done in this area to flesh out questions that will apply to an individual business. Many business owners are action oriented, and do not have strategic planning skills. It is usually best to avoid "shooting from the hip," that is gather the data, then assess the alternatives based on the best facts available.