{"id":1106,"date":"2008-09-08T11:21:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-08T11:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/?p=1106"},"modified":"2014-08-27T07:47:43","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T12:47:43","slug":"how-to-figure-out-your-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2008\/09\/how-to-figure-out-your-business.html","title":{"rendered":"How to figure out your business"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/bjmccray\/2838226890\/\" imageanchor=\"1\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3117\/2838226890_6005d09eb4_m.jpg\"><\/a>Have you taken time to really figure out your business? Most of us tend to spend our time working in our business, rolling with what is thrown at us.\u00a0But you can radically improve your business by spending time working <span>on<\/span> it. The first step is to really define the business you are building.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s take a cue from the traditional business plan by writing a business summary.<\/p>\n<p><span>1. Describe your basic business.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Explain your products and services.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><span>What makes you unique?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><span>2. Identify the market(s).<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Describe the market for each revenue stream.<\/li>\n<li><span>How will you reach that market?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>3. Set your financial strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Explain your pricing structure.<\/li>\n<li><span>What are your financial goals?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;ll actually put in the effort to write this out, you&#8217;ll be a huge step ahead of most small business startups. Really.\u00a0It helps to focus your attention on areas you might be ignoring. <a href=\"http:\/\/zanesafrit.typepad.com\/zane_safrit\/\">Zane Safrit<\/a> put it this way: <span>What is the question you aren&#8217;t asking yourself?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Next time, we&#8217;ll talk about <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2008\/09\/how-to-figure-out-your-revenue-goals.html\">converting those financial goals into real world activities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span><span>[Photo of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/bjmccray\/2838226890\/\">my desk, from my Flickr<\/a>.]\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>This article is part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/search\/label\/Small%20Biz%20100\">Small Biz 100<\/a>, a series of 100 practical hands-on posts for small business people and solo entrepreneurs, whether in a small town, the big city, or in between. If you have questions you&#8217;d like us to address in this series, leave a comment or send us an email at <a href=\"mailto:becky@smallbizsurvival.com\">becky@smallbizsurvival.com<\/a>. This is a community project!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Get the whole series by subscribing to <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/get-updates.html\">Small Biz Survival<\/a>. New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2006\/05\/tour-of-small-biz-survival_29.html\">Guided Tour<\/a>.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you taken time to really figure out your business? Most of us tend to spend our time working in our business, rolling with what is thrown at us.\u00a0But you can radically improve your business by spending time working on it. The first step is to really define the business you are building. Let&#8217;s take [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1106"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7895,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions\/7895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}