STEP #1 - IDENTIFY YOUR OPPORTUNITY

The Brandshrink TM

Buckle up and prove you’ve got GUTS by answering all the questions in this Brandshrink. Not
every question will necessarily relate to you, and yet I encourage you to try to write something
down for every question. You might feel like some questions and answers are redundant, but
that is by design. The places you are redundant tend to be the places where your strengths
are and your focus should be! And they are different for everyone. Let’s do this!

1. Why did you start this company in the first place?

2. If you could have your company be anything you wanted, what would it look like? Get as detailed as possible:

3. What would you do if money were no object? Would you still do this business if you didn’t need to make a living?

4. If so, how would it look different?

5. If not, what would you be doing? How would you spend your days?

6. What tasks are you doing for your business right now that you hate?

7. What would an ideal day look like for you working at your company? What are the tasks you are doing each day?

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8. What services do you sell? List anything and everything that comes to mind.

9. What is your favorite thing to do for clients? You can list more than one if you like them equally.

10. What are you against?

11. What’s your biggest complaint about your industry or clients?

12. If you could change the way others in your industry provide their services, how would you?

13. What do you dislike about your industry?

14. What’s wrong with the way your industry currently operates that you would love to fix?

15. What do you think could be improved on?

16. Do you think you can improve on it? How?

17. What’s “typical” in your industry that you think could be better?

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18. What is the most confusing thing about your industry to you? To customers?

19. What’s your biggest challenge?

20. What tasks do you spend a lot of time doing that you know could be done more efficiently?

21. What’s your least favorite part of working with clients?

22. What would you do with the extra time if you were able to find it?

23. What is the most profitable thing you sell?

24. List all the typical service engagements you sell and their prices. Then put an estimate of how many hours you
spend working on each of them. Then divide the total in each column to find your hourly rate for each. We’ll call the
service with the highest hourly rate your most profitable.

25. What is the most valuable thing you sell?

26. In other words, which piece(s) of your service provide the most value for your clients?

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27. Does the most profitable thing you sell overlap with your favorite things to do?

28. If not, how can you increase the value of your favorite things so you can increase the price and make it more
profitable? Can you do that by either tightening up your process, packaging it and/or adding deliverables or
additional custom work to make it a premium product?

29. Do you have a clear process written out for working with clients?

30. If not, write out the steps every client typically goes through.

31. Why you? What makes you better than anyone else at providing your service?

32. What have you done, seen, or thought that makes you better than your competitors at delivering?

33. What are you best at: (you can only pick one) quality, speed/efficiency or price?

34. What is the benefit of working with you?

35. What do clients “get” at the end of an engagement with you?

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36. How do they feel at the end?

37. Think back to your favorite clients. (If you are new to your business and don’t have clients yet, picture your ideal
clients. They should look a lot like you and share your values, principles and aspirations. They probably approach
business a lot like you do. Ideal clients are usually people you wouldn’t mind spending some social time with.)

38. For each, describe why they came to you. What problem did they have that you needed to solve?

39. For each, describe what you like about working with them. Everything from “they respect what I have to say” to
“they pay me on time” to “they are an interesting client” is fair game.

40. Which characteristics above are the same for all of your favorite clients?

41. Which characteristics above are different for all of your favorite clients? Are any of the clients outliers?

42. Do you see a pattern in your favorite clients?

43. Who are your target customers?

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44. Are your target customers male or female?

45. How old are they?

46. Where do they live? Is geography a limiting factor for any reason?

47. What do they do for a living?

48. How much money do they make?

49. What other aspects of their lives matter? Interests? Career? Family? Hobbies?

50. Do your favorite clients fall into your target market? If not, can they?

51. What might a happy client say to others about their experience working with you and why they loved it so much?

52. How do you currently reach your customers?

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53. Be specific- how have the last 10 clients come to you?

54. How do others in your industry find clients? List all the ways you know.

55. What ideas do you have for how you could reach clients in the future?Is there anything you’ve been dying
to do or try but haven’t had the time?

56. How do you want to be perceived by your potential customers?

57. What is your target client’s pain point?

58. What problem do they want you to solve?

59. What is the main emotion or feeling that your audience feels? What words are going through their head?

60. How often do they feel it?

61. What is your unique process that helps solve this problem?

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62. What parts of your process are the same for each client?

63. Which steps are “customized” for a client?

64. Which, if any, steps are the hardest or most frustrating?

65. List competitors who you think are doing it “right.”

66. In what ways are they successful to you?

67. What do you think about the way they present themselves?
Do you see yourself in their brand, or do you respect their brand but feel in contrast to it?

68. What is your price point and how does it compare to your competitors?

69. How do you differentiate from your competitors?

70. Why think about investing time into your business now? (Why not 6 months ago or 6 months from now?)

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71. What are your potential barriers to success?

72. What are the trends and changes that affect your industry?

73. How will shifts in the industry affect you?

74. What can you do to be on the cutting edge of those changes?

75. Are you prepared to do that?

76. What are the 3 most important things that you want visitors of your website to think?

77. Name 3 things do you definitely NOT want your visitors to think.

78. Are you ready to build a badass business that attracts tons of ideal clients?

79. Are you ready to say “no” to everyone that doesn’t further your mission to build said badass busines?

80. Are you scared? ARE YOU GOING TO DO IT ANYWAY?!

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