There are some important questions to ask yourself in order to determine your angle: What is your story idea, and how will you pitch it to writers?

When you started your business and tried to explain it to your spouse, your banker, or your parents, you probably told them a story about how your great idea came about. Those stories–whatever you were saying to them to convince them about your great idea–consisted of three or four angles that make your business stand out.

·      “I’m going to be successful because I’m a female entrepreneur.”

·      “I’m married and I run this company with my spouse.”

·      “I’m going to become successful because I quit my job to do this.”

·      “I dropped out of school to pursue this business idea.”

Any of those explanations is a potential story.  When you read through newspapers and magazines from now on, be certain to read with two different “lenses”: one that reads for enjoyment, and one that identifies potential angles that reporters use to create interesting stories. By engaging yourself in this way, you’ll start to see potential angles everywhere.

Potential angles could include:

·      Your sales approach or strategy

·      Your advertising and marketing methods

·      The systems you use to run your business

·      Your product’s features

·      How you use IT to run your business

·      Your personal entrepreneur story

·      Lessons from the edge when you almost lost your company

·      Charity projects or efforts to give back to your community

·      Stories about how you created your signature corporate culture

·      Strategic alliances you’ve established

·      Stories about specific employees

I‘ll be posting a worksheet with more specifics soon. Subscribe to my RSS feed or follow me on Twitter to get notified when I do.