1. A simple strategy is better than a complex strategy.
2. A starting business plan (and an annual plan for most businesses or business units) should be written on one to two pages, not 80 to 100 pages.
3. Great people who do their jobs are everything in a business.
4. While you can measure anything, cash flow remains a very top thing to measure.
5. You can’t underestimate the importance of a great leader in a business.
6. A team that is terrific on collections and billing is an underappreciated, important asset of any company.
7. When the sales and marketing of a business gets ahead of the execution of the business, the business is in trouble.
8. A business, particularly in its core areas, must constantly keep getting better.
9. Overcommunication internally and to customers and suppliers is very important.
10. A leader who sets direction and goals and keeps the team focused on those goals is critically important.
11. The failure to start and take shots at initiatives damns most businesses and ideas.
12. Debt, while it can help increase returns on investment and help leverage a good investment, can be very dangerous and demoralizing.
13. Perfection, in most endeavors, is the enemy of good.
14. Constant effort with bright, hard-working people sooner or later leads to good results.
15. There is rarely need to take a crazy amount of risk.
16. Seek outside advice and counsel, but don’t overload on outside advice and counsel. Business leaders need to make decisions and know their business better than anyone else.
17. Focus a great percent of your energies on what's working — where profits and revenues are coming from and people who are high performing.
18. Don’t buy technology unless it will be heavily used.
19. Don’t buy “custom” technology.
20. Understand and try to limit single points of failure.
21. Easy-to-use technology is great technology.
22. In people, the combination of drive, intelligence and personal skills is a great business asset. Similarly, people who are both smart and get things done are a great advantage to any business.
23. Sustaining a business requires a balance of fun, passion and energy.
24. Businesses must bunch resources around core goals, projects and efforts. When a goal is near, a business should place a large percentage of focus and resources on completing that goal.
25. A business almost cannot focus enough on its core competencies.