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My friend Gary Chandler from Earth News Media wrote up some questions we should all address in our business ventures. Also, on the topic of surveys I found this open source survey tool we’re going to implement for one of our clients. You should also check out SurveyMonkey as well. I look forward to reading your comments. OK, here are the questions to ask yourself…

1. Do you have a business plan or a marketing plan? If you have a marketing plan, how would you augment it and refine it with a variety of public relations strategies and tactics; including media relations, customer relations, vendor relations, strategic alliances, and others? If you don’t have a marketing plan, get one.

2. Have you conducted any formal market research to help identify your place in the market, customer insights/preferences/awareness/actions, opportunities, threats, etc…?

3. Who is your target market? How else can you segment that audience? Single, married, by country, by city, by lifestyle preferences, etc…

4. What charities do your prospective customers support?

5. Who is your top competitor and why? What is their appeal and market niche? Why is your product line or service superior/preferable?

6. What publications/mediums are your competitors using the most to market their products or services?

7. If you were to model your business and product strategy after another company (same or another industry), who would it be and why?

8. Sales so far have come from who and where? Have you had repeat buyers? Are you surveying past and future buyers?

9. Of your customers to date, what do they have in common? (geographic, demographic, psychograhics, etc…)

10. What products or services do you expect to be your top sellers?

11. Define your potential revenue streams – wholesale, retail, Internet, affiliates, etc… What percentage of total sales do you expect to come from each revenue stream?

12. In your business are there any human interest stories about the people who are involved with the products and services? Personal experiences, the jobs created, environmental benefits, etc…

13. Is there a seasonality to your product or service? Is there a time of year that it slows drastically?

14. What are the industry trends that you should understand?

15. Do you have any business plans/activities that are newsworthy?

16. Where is your hometown? Where did you go to college? Are you a member of social or professional organizations?

17. Define success? Where do you want to be in one year?

18. You just opened the New York Times or some business magazine and you see a story in there about your company and products. What is the headline?

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