1. Customer base
Ask yourself: If I just bought this company, how would I sell more/expand what I sell to this customer base?
2. Cash
Ask yourself: If I could invest this cash in any one part of this business/niche/product line for the biggest cumulative return/profit over the next 5 years, where would I invest it all?
3. Market Leadership
Ask yourself: To remain the market leader for the next 25 years, where should I invest my time and company’s resources right now?
4. Reputation
Ask yourself: What can I do to double the strength of our current reputation, within the next 6 months?
5. Momentum
Ask yourself: What’s working well right now and how can I keep it working well?
6. Key Staff
Ask yourself: Who are the 5 key people in my organization and what game/plan can I create with them so they’ll stick around for a long time?
7. Systems
Ask yourself: What systems work so well that we take them for granted? How could we improve them?
8. Responsiveness
Ask yourself: How quickly and completely do we respond to changes in our customers, market, technology, staff needs or economic conditions?
9. Intellectual Property
Ask yourself: What do we have, IP-wise, that just isn’t being as leveraged as it could be?
10. The X Factor
Ask yourself: What do we have that’s very, very special and that we could really maximize, just for the pleasure of it?