The first step in putting together the story of your small business is to discover what elements to include in it. I call this the discovery phase. It’s all about gather information about where you’ve come from, what differentiates you from your competition and your aspirations as a company.
Here are 25 questions to help you start thinking through the possibilities.
1. What is your product or service?
2. Who is it meant for? Who is your ideal customer?
3. How do you make their lives better or easier?
4. What challenges do you help people overcome?
5. How would you want your customers to finish this sentence: After I bought (or hired) _____, I was able to ______?
6. Do you have any success stories of customers who have done this? Are they willing to be quoted? If not, can you change the identifying details to still be able to share the general journey and outcome?
7. How do your competitors do this?
8. How are you different from your competitors?
9. Do you have any usual training, hobbies or education that allows you to approach the problem differently from your competitors?
10. What are the two or three objections (e.g., price, complexity, etc.) you hear from potential customers?
11. How can you get them around those objections?
12. What is your vision or aspiration for your company?
13. What is your company’s mission?
14. Why are you passionate about this topic?
15. Why did you start your business?
16. How long did it take you to launch?
17. What were the big challenges you faced along the way?
18. How did you overcome these challenges?
19. What were the big successes or highlights along the way?
20. If you have employees, what is your company culture? Company values?
21. Anything interesting about your employees? For example, is it a true family run business with your parents, brothers and sisters all involved? Or, is a group of people who met in college and decided to start their own company a few years after graduation?
22. Do you do anything to promote good corporate responsibility? For example, does the company donate a percentage of profits to charity? Or donate products? Or do pro bono work? Or encourage employee volunteerism in their communities?
23. What is your company’s personality? Funny? Compassionate? Energetic? Responsible?
24. How much of your business is from repeat customers?
25. Are there any data or stats on the industry, the big challenge(s) you solve, etc. that would help describe what you do or why you do it?
The next step is to narrow down which of these answers you want to include in your story. This starts by identifying who your target audience is and the main message you want to share with them. Then, determine which details from your answers above will be most compelling to illustrate the main message you want to convey.
If you want to learn more about how to do this, I just published a class on Skillshare called Storytelling for Small Business: Create a Killer Business Description that Sticks with People. If you’re not familiar, Skillshare is an online learning platform with thousands of great classes available on business, design, photography and more. If you like what you see, consider signing up for a premium membership. If you use my referral link, your first two months are free.
Please know if you use my referral link to sign up for a Skillshare membership, I receive a small fee at no extra cost to you. I’ve been a member of Skillshare for several years and highly recommend it whether you use my referral link or not!
Photo courtesy of Alessio Lin on Unsplash.
