Principles #5&6 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business

5. Cash Flow.

Cash flow is, by far, the #1 reason small businesses are getting out of business. Yet, so many entrepreneurs, especially those in the early stages of their business, choose to ignore their cash flow, altogether.

Investments, tax deductions, fixed costs, delayed payments, tax liabilities, amortization, and deals in progress – they are all important, but cash flow is a lifeblood of your business.

It doesn’t matter if your business looks solid on the PNL sheet, if your cash flow is suffering. It doesn’t matter if you have strong muscles, a healthy liver and kidneys, if your heart is not pumping blood through your veins.

Stop ignoring your cash flow, start tracking it. That’s a small discipline, which creates success.

6. Sales and Marketing.

In one of the recent interviews on Brian Buffini’s “It’s a Good Life” show, his guest, Kyle Wilson spilled that Brian’s company is around the billion-dollar mark. Yet, Brian is still the central hub when it comes to sales and marketing of his company.

Of course, he doesn’t do even 5% of the work done by sales and marketing departments (I doubt he does 1%), but he holds the ownership of those activities. He has the final say, but also his personal brand still brings a huge chunk of the new business for his company.
Dave Ramsey said the same about his company, Ramsey Solutions, which approaches half a billion in yearly revenue.

You cannot abandon the responsibility for sales and marketing in your business. If such tycoons of business, who employ thousands of people, are still in charge of those activities (because it works, it’s profitable!), what makes you think you could outsource sales and marketing and forget about them?

Nine Universal Business Principles
Principle #1 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business
Principle #2 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business
Principles #3&4 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business
Principles #5&6 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business
Principles #7&8 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business
Principle #9 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business
 

Originally published in Medium.