Business rules are not the rigid things that tie you up and rob life of excitement and fun. May it never be... No, what business rules are or do is define the treacherous path of business so you don't kill yourself and therefore take you completely out of business. You must pay attention to the rules in business or you will die a slow and sometimes agonizing death.
These rules are as basic as gravity or inertia or entropy. If, like the laws of physics, you pay attention to them, you will not fall to your death and you may even learn to use those laws to fly. You will be able to make it over the tough times that WILL come and you will keep going for the long haul or until YOU decide that it's time to stop. So, okay, enough with the metaphors or similes or what ever they are, here is my shot at the basic rules as we’ve experienced them and seen them work in our client’s lives everyday.
In business you must:
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Find your motivation for the business- It’s your fuel
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Have a plan even if it changes later (and it will)
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You must write that plan down, You MUST
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You must clearly answer the big marketing questions
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You must keep the marketing chain throughout your entire company
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Learn to Manage finances… You don't have to do them, but someone does
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You must eventually make more than you spend
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Until then you must have a plan for cash flow
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Working and making money is not enough, you must have cash flow
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Pay yourself first
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You must set measurable goals
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You must regularly check whether you made your goals and adjust
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Systematize where ever possible
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Get good help because you can't do it all forever
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Use consultants. Good counsel is much cheaper than hard knocks… and faster.
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Do what you're good at and delegate what you aren't
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Innovate
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Schedule innovation
These are the main ones I can think of. I may have missed a few and some of these rules imply a lot. What I never really found early on in business was anyone that explained what these rules were in a clear concise way and helped me understand the relevance of them. I needed to know why they mattered and how they would help me do what I wanted faster and better. I needed to believe that the time it took to learn them was worth it. Some people told me it would be faster to do certain things but they couldn’t really tell me how.
I hope I can help you understand what is needed to do, why it’s important and illustrate the significance enough that you will take the time and change your behavior to follow these rules.
I promise you, if you stick with the rules your success will be greater and more frequent and your failures will be fewer and less painful. How can that be a bad idea.
