What Should be in Your Business Survival Kit

1. Lunatics Like You. Businesses ideas are meaningless. It’s all in the execution which means that it’s only about people. Find the people that you want to work with a stick with them. Build a personal and professional support structure- you will need it.

2. Learn how to read monthly financial statements. This means profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow statements. This is not something you leave up to your CFO, bookkeeper or accountant. You need to know what every number means. If you don’t, learn it.

3. Build a Sales Culture that seeks Revenue. Show me the Money! In business, everyone sells. Get use to it. Seek only prospects that are in enough pain and have the money to solve the pain. Get them to tell you yes or no and move on to the next prospect.

4. CRM. You need a way to track all the customer information in your business. It can’t be in the heads of your employees in case they quit or get run over by a bus. It also forms the basis of your marketing system by telling customers who you are so they will call you when they have great pain. See #3.

5. Customers that Pay on Time. If they don’t, they are not customers, they are collection problems. Cash is king and the life blood of all business. You can’t pay your bills with Accounts Receivables.

6. Crazy Customer Service. Unlike most people, I have bad customer service dreams. Outstanding customer service, unless you are a utility company, is the only sustainable competitive advantage.

7. High Gross Margins. You can make more money if you have an 80% gross margin than a 20% one. We can all do that arithmetic.

8. Low Fixed Costs. Find resources that are variable and available. Be cheap. It is your money. Spend no dollar before its time. Don’t grow yourself broke by increasing your fixed overhead costs.

9. Humor. In this world, if we do not laugh in business, we will end up crying. Learn that lesson now and business will be a blast.

10. What’s yours? Forget the first 9. Strive for “minimal achievement” by making one of these your New Year’s resolution.