47 rules of entrepreneurship

Hey Hustla, here are my 47 rules of entrepreneurship:

The person writing the check makes the rules.  You will be at their mercy to get paid.

When you have to eat shit, and you will, best to get it over quickly. Don't nibble.

The right customer is always right: you should move heaven and earth for the customer who treats you, your staff and your equipment with respect, pays on time and refers you new clients. The rest can be politely sent away.

Don't skimp on professional services like attorneys and accountants. Good ones are worth their weight in gold.

Bookkeepers and office managers of successful businesses will be very tempted to embezzle. Don't give them the means to do so. Never let go of the checkbook, and know where every dime in your company comes and goes.

A good bookkeeper should be one of your first hires, but it is YOUR responsibility to know and understand your company's financials. You're not outsourcing your company's profitability, that's your job.

When you're starting out, getting customers, delivering incredible work, and getting paid are your top priorities. Everything else can wait.   

There are three ways to grow profits: get more customers, get customers to spend more on each visit, get customers to visit more often. Everyone focuses on #1, but the real profit is in #2 and #3.

The best entrepreneurs are really good at hiring, leading and delegation. Develop these skills and you will grow.

Learn to sell and you can accomplish almost anything.

The best way to learn what your customers want to is to STFU and listen to them. Ask questions, listen, repeat.

Selling is 100x easier if you have a product you believe in and customers you care about.

No one is coming to save you.  This is what you signed up for. Strap in and figure it out.

Business is problem-solving. Period. Solving your customers', solving yours, solving your teams'. Don't shy away from problems. Attack them like it's your job - because it is.

The most successful people in the world have a relentless focus on high-leverage tasks.

There are loads of people who are dumber than you but far richer because they work hard and smart, have strong self-belief, and never give up. 

Get used to making decisions with incomplete information. 

Speed is your ally when you're small.  You can outmaneuver far larger competitors by moving fast.

Your reputation is worth far more than any short term monetary gain.

Doing the right thing will always be the more painful choice. Do it anyway.

Your employees are not family, they are teammates. You can't fire family.

Do a criminal background check on major partners and anyone handling your money.

You'll sleep a lot better at night with a bank account full of cash. So forego the fancy car and the big house until those things are cheap by comparison to your wealth.

Having said that, celebrate your wins.  

When faced with legal battles, bad actors, and tough negotiations, remember: you can be right, you can be rich, but you can rarely be both.

Collect the data, narrow your choices, ruminate, then DECIDE. Just do all that as quickly as possible. 

Fighting legal battles is a terrible waste of your time and energy. Call a lawyer or cut a check - or both - and get back to making more money. 

The pursuit of perfection will cost you millions. It's better to iterate, make things a little better over time and realize it will NEVER be perfect. 

If you hire happy people who have brains, adaptability, and reliability - you'll do just fine. 

Have a plan for when your business revenue will be cut in half. It's probably going to happen at some point.

You can delay every expense but payroll, plan accordingly.

Redirect the energy you spend on your competitors on your customers instead and see what happens.

Negotiating is easy if you have a killer back up plan if the negotiations fail.

Many vendors, consultants, and advisors are incentivized to lie to you about why you need them. Caveat emptor.

Chasing revenue growth for growth's sake is dumb.  The only thing that matters is profit.  Make sure that growth plan is accounting for the true costs of growth - and that its actually going to make you money.

The old adage 'If you're not growing you're dying' has driven entrepreneurs mad for centuries. There are many ways to 'grow' a business without growing revenue. 

Bolt-on acquisitions sound profitable and easy but are rarely either. With established companies, it's usually easier to generate that growth internally.

Having a mentor or peer group is invaluable. It will take time to find the right one, but it's worth it. Keep looking. 

It doesn't matter how long the contract is or how airtight the clauses are, if you get in bed with a scumbag none of those words will matter. It's the person not the paper. 

As you get older the money will matter less and the positive societal impact will matter more. 

Emotions and intellect work inversely. Take a breath, think, then act.

You need quiet time to just think. If you are constantly reacting and acting you'll never make the big moves that really blow up your business. 

The faster you find people to take admin, bookkeeping, low-level customer service, and lead generation off your plate the faster your business will grow.

You're far more likely to get rich delivering extraordinary results in an ordinary industry than vice versa. 

Consistent effort wins in the long run.

When addressing an underperforming employee, start with "Are you ok?" instead of "WTF are you doing?"

The culture of your business is more important than you think. Spend some time thinking about what you want it to be and implement it every day.

Kriss Berg