Before you even begin, you need to understand your company. What makes you unique? Why do customers buy from you?

Call it your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Your USP is your number one attribute that causes people to buy from you rather than the other guy.

Common USPs include:

• a fantastic network that results in work of mouth business
• exceptional customer service
• strong technical capabilities
• an excellent portfolio
• a unique business process that helps you do things better, faster or cheaper
• ability to make complicated things simple
• for self-employed workers: strong charisma
• excellent sales ability (sometime the mediocre business gets the sale for this reason)

Common mistakes new business owners make with their USPs include:

• focusing on the lowest price, making it hard to make a profit
• targeting other small businesses thinking that because it's a big business they can get lots of customers
• projecting themselves as a small business, so that their image contradicts what they are telling prospects.

Group Exercise: brainstorm USP for selected businesses (focus on adjectives, no more than 7 words)