Here are some simple, basic rules of entrepreneurship:

SimpleRules June 20, 2003

A Few Simple Rules to Start with

Here are some simple, basic rules of entrepreneurship to start with. If you don’t have time to read the 25 Steps to Entrepreneurial Success, start with these four ‘rules’ and go from there:

1. Don’t take 'no' for an answer (e.g., find a way to overcome any problems you run into along the way).

Steve Case didn’t take ‘No’ for an Answer at AOL

2. Check, check, check (you need to get almost everything right in a SME (Small and Medium sized Enterprises)-- people who tell you if you get 51% right and 49% wrong, you're OK, don’t know what they are talking about. SMEs don't have the luxury of making many mistakes-- the margin of error is too small. So you need to get your marketing exactly right, for example.)

Get Things Right the First Time

3. The three most important things in entrepreneurship are sales, sales, sales (you need to differentiate between marketing and sales and the main focus is always on the latter-- you exist for the benefit of your stakeholders-- your staff, your suppliers, your customers and yourself. Entrepreneurs constantly forget that your customers or clients WANT you to be successful so you can stick around; so, sometimes, the best place to find more sales is from your existing customer base. The reason you want to make a profit is not so you can go on cool trips to Palm Springs but so you can constantly improve your business and provide a better, richer experience for your customers and clients, have the best technology, be a great place to work and, coincidentally, make more money for ownership too. Ever worked for a company that is losing money? It isn’t fun. So profitability is good for all stakeholders.)

Profitability Allows you to do more Interesting Things

4. You need to set weekly or monthly sales GOALS (and then you need to post them in a visible part of your office and next to your bed at home and everyday you get up and go to the office, you visualize reaching that goal and your staff does too-- people are incredibly good at setting goals and self-actualizing to reach them. For example, if you are a downhill skier, you always want to race a bit later in the pack after the other top competitors have gone-- then you know the time to beat, their splits and then you program yourself to beat them; you know what it takes to win and then you go out and do it.)

Visualization is a big part of Winning

That's it for now.