25 Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Be Asking Themselves

Some more great entrepreneurial advice from our old friend David Siteman Garland, of Rise To The Top fame here in St. Louis. These are questions you need to be asking yourself as you contemplate or begin your own business, some good stuff here.


1. Can I remove myself from this business or will I always be a part of it?

2. Can I work “non normal hours” including nights and weekends if necessary?

3. Do I have 6 months extra cash reserves?

4. Do I have a list of trusted professionals (lawyer, accountant, etc.) or do I need a referral?

5. Can I take criticism?

6. Who are my mentors and go-to people when I need help?

7. How will my business make money and what are the alternative revenue streams? (*Seems obvious of course but many have made this mistake, have you?)

8. Do I work better alone or in groups?

9. What things do I LOVE to do on a daily basis?

10. What things do I HATE to do on a daily basis?

11. Who is doing the books and keeping finance in order?

12. How far in advance am I planning? 6 hours? 6 days? 6 years?

13. How much time will my business require of ME?

14. Do I plan on on selling your business?

15. What is your web strategy?

16. Am I also marketing my business, product or service or soliciting help?

17. Do I have a plan for hiring your first employee?

18. How am I going to generate buzz for your business?

19. Where is the start up capital coming from?

20. Will I be investing my own money?

21. Am I prepared to deal with the emotional toll of the ups and downs of businesses?

22. Where am I getting answers to my entrepreneurial questions?

23. Who are my favorite entrepreneurs and why were they successful?

24. Why is my business unique?

25. WHY am I starting my own business?

Great Email Marketing Subject Lines

At Hat Trick Associates, we're always being asked things like, "What is the best day to send email?", "What are the real email marketing secrets?" and "What are great subject lines?". I decided to focus this post on that last one, and offer some really great and proven-to-work subject lines that you can test out for your email marketing campaigns.

First of all, I'm assuming at this point that your recipients will recognize you from your "From Label". I've written why your From Label is very important in your email marketing campaigns. If they are familiar with who the email is coming from, you'll have better luck getting your email opened with a catchy subject line.

As a retailer your email marketing campaigns are probably all about selling. If you sell your own products or products from other manufacturers, you'll be trying to announce new products, new seasons or discounts and sales. You'll want your recipients to act fast, so you may want to try expiration dates in your subject line. We even see businesses using hours in the day in their expiration time periods.

You'll see that some of these subject lines are a bit vague like "An Exclusive Offer for You", however sometimes that might get more opens than if you talk about a specific product. That's something that we often test for clients to determine what specific subject lines have the most impact.

Here are some sample offers:

Enjoy this Special Offer at Our New Location

25-40% off - Email-Only Offer – Today Only

Invitation-Only 2 Hour Event Starts 11:30 AM CT

Ends Today! 20% Off Friends & Family

Top 10 under $10

Free shipping - offer ends in 3 days

Free product with purchase of [product name]

[New Product] has arrived. Order now before we run out.

Earn double points for [insert product or action].

Last Chance: Get up to $25 now

Save 10% on your next order

Enjoy [season] with rates from $65

Service Notice: Exciting new changes at [your company]

An Exclusive Offer for You

[Your company] October Specials

Last minute deals, special offers, and new [product name]

Act Now to renew your [subscription name]

Online only: 25% off friends and family

Introducing our latest…[product/feature here]

[Product name] Promotion week. Save 25%

Extended for a day! Get Free shipping through Friday

Stock up and save 15%

Limited Supply: Limit 2 [product name] per customer

Ho-ho-ho: The [your company] holiday catalog is here!

Email subscriber exclusive: [Product name] sale is here

Ends Today: Take 20% off your entire order

Private Sale Ends Today

Your choice of amazing items $50 + under

Great gifts for [Dad, Mom, etc]

Best Sellers every [girl, boy, man, woman, dog, etc.]

Everything you need when the temperatures [rise, fall]

Free Shipping--Limited Time Offer

Catchy & Creative

Sometimes all you need is a little vase lift (retailer selling vase's)

We've got you covered from head to toe (retailer selling hats, shirts, pants and boots)

How La Perla got its name (retailer selling lingerie, telling a story inside the email)

Temperatures Fall, Style Rises (retailer selling coats)

Celebrity Favorites (selling accessories that Hollywood is wearing)

Did you remember to get a gift? It's ok, we did. (retailer wanting to get people to register for gift reminders)

10 Gift Ideas for your little ones (retailer listing top 10 suggestions for kids)

Manhattan View for a Song in the Shower (retailer selling shower curtain with Manhattan skyline on it)

Take your pick: Our 9 Favorite Dresses (retailer suggesting by popularity)

Coolest modern desk on the job...for $149 (retailer including price in the subject line)

Score Great Savings on Game-Time Gear: HDTVs, Furniture & More (retailer selling TV's with a sports slant)

Party Like it's 1999 Aged Cabernet Special (wine retailer)

In our store: Last minute Mother's Day combo ready to go (retailer getting the last minute shoppers with a catch "combo to go".)

Adorn Your Home Now & Through the Holidays (Home decor retailer)

Mind-Blowing Grenache (wine retailer)

Bring this email to a Gap store and win! (retailer trying to get store traffic)

Getting Responses With Email Marketing - Part Five

5) Let A Picture Tell The Story...

So we've all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. What does that mean for your E-Newsletter?

Your graphics can be the difference between someone paying enough attention to your email marketing to click a link or read an opening paragraph, or moving on. Always make sure that whatever you use is directly or obviously connected to your feature, story or promotion. Don't make people have to "work" or guess what they are viewing and how it relates to the content...unless of course this is part of a well-thought out marketing plan! And simpler is typically better.

Finding good photos or illustrations online certainly isn't hard these days. (With almost 100% broadband coverage now, video and audio are now a component of some E-Newsletters too, but more on these topics another day.) One of the top and fairly inexpensive options is iStockPhoto.com, although many other libraries exist. And don't forget the multitude of royalty-free images available on Google, Flickr or Yahoo Images.

Following our theme of trying different options until you find one that works best for you and your E-Newsletter, maybe you could try removing all images for one issue...and see if a text-only version gets better results? How 90's of you!

And that brings me to the final point...which is really the one I've tried to make with every tip. DO NOT BE AFRAID to experiment! As long as the information you are presenting is factual and relevant, every other aspect of presentation should be up for review and testing. That is really the most important take-away....Test, test and test again, and you can create the type of email newsletter that gets results for YOUR company!

Getting Responses With Email Marketing - Part Four

4) Your Links Are Important!

So you've gotten your recipient to open and view your E-newsletter with your subject line, offer and formatting. But are they clicking your links? That's the real purpose of course!

You know by now that your E-news needs to be rich in links. It doesn't cost you anything to include links within your content, and you have much to gain. Make sure your links are relevant to what you are trying to communicate, of course, but unless the article becomes difficult to read due to an extreme overabundance of links, you should be including them.

So if your E-newsletter has 5 links to your offer, why not try including 5 more - and see if your response increases? And also be mindful of the previous tip, and make sure that many of your links are happening above the fold and not below!

You can then look and compare how many more times the links higher up in your copy are being visited as opposed to the ones that are lower on the page. Then ask yourself a question: Are these the links that matter most to your business? If not, here is another great opportunity to make adjustments to your newsletter, and swap positions for these links!

NEXT TIP: Images

Getting Responses With Email Marketing - Part Two

2) Change Up Your Offer!

So, you've followed our first tip, and have gotten the reader to Open your email campaign. Good first step! But what if they don't respond to what they see and read? Try changing up your offer.

Why not send different offers along with your various subject lines we mentioned earlier? Maybe try a % off with half of your email list, and a flat dollar-amount savings with the other half? Once again, it's all about apples-to-apples COMPARISONS...finding out what your readership will respond to best.

Or maybe you run a test with free shipping vs. no free shipping, or one campaign with an expiration date vs. one without?

You can even send to smaller samplings of your list first; review your Open rates in real time; and then roll out the "winning" offer to the rest of your addresses.

The bottom line -- especially at the beginning of your journey into email marketing -- don't be afraid to try new things!

If it works, great. And if not, now you know yet "another way to NOT invent the lightbulb" with your readership, as our old friend Thomas Edison would say.

NEXT TIP: Formatting

Getting Responses With Email Marketing - Part One

So, you've sent out your E-Newsletter to your email list, and now you're sitting back waiting to review your Open and Click rates...and the response comes back, and it's not quite what you were hoping for.

While every campaign and organization is different, and there is no "magical" Open rate, the industry standard often quoted is between 20 - 30%. Anything greater than 30% is often reserved for organizations with smaller lists or recipients who are deeply invested with the organization sending the E-Newsletter.

So, how do you improve those numbers and get readers to Open your campaign? This is part one of a five-part series on variables you can experiment with to increase your readership - and results - from email marketing campaigns.

1) Your Subject Line is Vital!

If no one opens your email in the first place, then it doesn't matter how valuable, timely, or eye appealing your E-Newsletter is on the inside.

So with your next issue, why not try a different style of subject line than what you have used before, and see which type of subject works the best with your recipients? That way, when you look at the analytical reports provided by most vendors for previous campaigns, you can see what type of subject lines your recipients are responding to, and use a similar offer or call to action in the subject line of future E-Newsletters.

Another angle is to break down your list into smaller pieces and try different subject lines for the same issue, and compare them head-to-head. This provides an even better comparison, since Click rates for different subject lines will be based on the exact same copy and design once the E-Newsletter has been opened by the recipient.

Did a question compare favorably to a statement? Did including a special offer or discount work better than a more general or broad subject line?

And once you figure out what works best with your readership, you can continue to tweak subject titles in ongoing issues...to continue incremental increases and overall success going forward.

For more information on email marketing, E-Newsletters and other online communication tips visit www.hattrickassociates.com.

NEXT TIP: Your Offer

The Delicate Balance Between Selling...and Providing Information

Clients often ask just how “salesy” their E-Newsletter should be. Or, how much emphasis should there be on selling their product or service?
First, let me say that there are times when it is completely appropriate to just sell.
What most people are actually discussing in this situation is what I will call “E-promos”, or something very similar to online coupons. A great example would be the neighborhood auto repair shop, offering a $ discount on your next service stop or oil change. In this situation, the email content can focus entirely on the promotion. But the purpose of this type of communication is far different than that of an actual newsletter.
But when I hear or use the term “E-News”, what that means to me is really “value-added”. In other words, unbiased content or information. Literally, news.
This concept can seem foreign to some clients. They want (quite understandably) to SELL SELL SELL most of the time! They don’t ever want to shift focus away from directly on their company, their service or product.
But the best way I can explain it is this: Most people, regardless which industry or field you are talking about, prefer to deal with those that they perceive to be the experts. Sure, other variables like location or cost are also considerations. But if people think that you really know what you’re talking about, and they like dealing with you, they will find a way to justify doing business or associating with you.
The problem is that these days – after years of countless media exposures – most individuals have very sophisticated radar when it comes to sales pitches or advertising.
Of course, readers expect you have a motivation for contacting them. And most will realize it’s probably more than a simple desire to educate. But once they label your incoming E-News as “just another piece of marketing”, you’re efforts are suddenly a lot less valuable in their mind. The DELETE or SPAM button usually isn’t very far behind.
This fate can be avoided by providing your customers or clients, prospects, members, vendors or business partners with some of the intimate knowledge you have of your industry, field or organization.
Explain an interesting trend, create a list of ways that the reader can improve a process or outcome (people always love lists!), or provide interesting analysis or commentary. Linking to other unique, valuable information elsewhere on the web is another option.
The bottom line is this: share information WITHOUT trying to sell them at every turn. And don’t worry, if your topics and insights are interesting to your audience you won’t have to do much selling, your clientele will come to you.

Joel Converse is an expert in the fields of E-Newsletters and online marketing. He is a founding member of Hat Trick Associates (http://wwwhatttrickassociates.com), a firm specializing in the design, writing and distribution of E-News and promotions.