Rule Number One
It is a privilege to serve your customers. This guiding principle (and some start-up money) has helped my old manufacturing and marketing firm - The Merion Station Mail Order Company - grow with one of the most loyal followings in the pet industry, where we marketed our products. Be honest and fair in all your dealings.

Along with this in today’s marketplace, remember to let people know you appreciate their business. Thank your customers, it comes back to you in repeat business and referrals. An example: One day I was approached by the owner of one of the larger magazine groups serving the pet industry. He asked me what I thought about his firm, where I placed about $6,000 a year in advertising. I told him they were ugly to do business with, and if my ads ever stopped drawing I would withdraw them in a second.

Horrified, he asked why. I told him: in seven years of placing ads in his magazines, and seven years of receiving bills every month for those ads, I never, ever received a single thank you.

As fate would have it, a competitor started running ad space, which severely cut into my ad revenue. Instead of working out a new test schedule, I withdrew my ads, never called him, and have subsequently never run again despite his phone calls and requests.

When I look at my old company’s old shipping form, in a 3 ½" x 8" form we said "Thank you!" to the customer SEVEN times. (Then just to be sure we get more business, we give the customer a free gift that he or she will glue on their front door - so they always have our name and phone number handy for re-orders.) For a sample of the graphics of this form (I don’t have any actual forms left), just drop a note. Thank you.

Rule 2
Make money. You only need two things to be in a successful business: sales and profits. No Sales = nobody eats. No Profits = nobody eats for long.

Remember, your numero uno reason for being in business is to make a profit. This is the reason for business, and in fact the heart of business. The owner of a pharmacy is not in business to cure you, he is in the business to make money. The airlines are not in business to take you from point A to point B, they are in business to make money; the way they do it is, incidentally, by flying you from point A to point B. It is not the goal of restaurants to feed you, it is to make money. If they do this correctly - with good food served properly, you pay them – and come back to further their goal, and send them referrals.

If you don’t make a profit, you won’t be in business long. I’ve seen way too many inventors - and normal people, too - who are starting-out saying, "I won’t make any money on this one, I’ll just do this till the product gets off the ground." Nope. The reason to go into business is not to market your product successfully, that goal just strokes your ego. That is a hobby, not a business. You goal in business is to make money on your product, so you can stay in business and can grow and expand.

Rule 3
Don’t worry about your mistakes - everybody makes them. Everybody. And that crap about learning from them – don’t worry, you won’t. From most of them, you won’t learn a thing except ouch, that hurts. You’ll do it again. Maybe not the exact same thing, but it’ll be pretty close. And don’t worry about realizing your mistakes - others will be quick to point them out.

You’re in good company. Henry Ford went bankrupt 3 times before coming out with the model T. John Wanamakers just went belly-up. Macy’s went bankrupt, and came back. New Coke, wow – whatta’ screw up. Euro Disney - how many re-fi’s till they turned the corner? The Edsel - (geez, am I that old already?) all these were losing propositions. Well financed, well thought-out, big big errors. Errors in judgments, in predictions, in execution - by people with plenty research teams and focus groups’ and experience. You can predict anything but the future. This goes for everyone, every company - small and big firms too.

If these executive giants can screw-up, you can too. Even the pros hit into the sand traps once in a while. Big companies have the money to power through their marketing blunders - and I mean big expensive, marketing blunders; hopefully you’ve got a little on the side so you can survive too. If not, well – I’ll tell you a little story.

About ten years ago I decided I wasn’t happy with what I was doing. Being a one person advertising and marketing consultant had its limitations - I made good money, but if I didn’t work on any particular day, then somewhere down the road I missed a payday for the day I took off. I wanted a company that would earn money even if I took a day off.

So I mortgaged my house to the hilt, and took a shot. And I felt – and still feel this way: I could live with failure, and even with a failed business. Yep. Others have failed and regrouped to try again. Sure, it’s heavy, but you survive.

But I decided I couldn’t live with this: I didn’t want to wake up ten years from now and know I had a chance to start a new company, should have taken the chance and didn’t have the courage. I couldn’t live with that. So win or lose, I took my best shot, and feel you should, too. And if you fail, it’s not the end of the world. No one said you had to stay in the same business you started for the rest of your life. If that particular business doesn’t work out, maybe the next one will maybe it’ll be the one where you’ll employ 5,000 people.

By the way, when you start up, it’s a wild ride, and things go up and down in a radical fashion. I don’t know of any business that started off on an even keel and much less stayed there. Here’s something to go with that: If you find yourself cash short, with excellent long range probabilities, sacrifice some of your vendors to stay in business, but stay in business at all costs. Pay them what you can, when you can. When my company had hard times - and I had plenty of hard times - I sent the people I owed money to whatever I could – every week. I called them to let them know I wasn’t running from them, told them times were tough and I was paying them off as fast as I could. Every week. $50 bucks. $100 bucks. $500 or $1,000 dollars - whatever I could. It showed them I was trying and making an honest effort. They respected that. Only two vendors dropped off, and they were paid eventually, too - just like everyone else- but they got paid last.

And you know - the ones that stuck it out, they have my undying gratitude, and my continued business. I don’t even get quotations from other companies on those parts they supply - whatever they charge me is just fine. They saved me when I needed it. Vendor credit is one of the most valuable parts of any business, and learn to appreciated when need it and get it. Sacrifice a vendor if you have to, but stay in business. Declaring bankruptcy is just the beginning of a migraine.

My priorities when paying bills: Employees are #1. They earn it every day, just for putting up with me. I have missed many paychecks myself, but never missed an employee payday. #2, rent. #3, phone. Even after ten years of prompt payments every month, those bastards will cut you off after a couple of months. You need a phone to be in business - or you could fail the Jeff Dobkin 75¢ credit check: I call information and ask for your business number.

Rule 4
Read books and magazines. (Especially the book I wrote on low cost marketing!) You can get any information you need at the library. And now on the web. Bookstores are a lot of help, too. And magazines present valuable trade information, along with precisely targeted market-specific educational material. Trade associations are filled with educational material you can usually borrow. Learn everything about your primary industry, your markets, your competition, and all the secondary and tertiary industries you hope to serve. Gather information.

I receive over 125 magazines a month. More than that number of catalogs. I always have a dozen business books on my coffee table that I am reading or skimming. I am entirely self taught, and learned everything through independent reading, you can too.

Rule 5
Just start. Don’t know about payroll? When you have a staff, you’ll figure out how to pay them. Don’t know about taxes? There’s no income tax if there’s no income. Just start. Jump in. Don’t worry - if you are successful, and you make a lot of money, all the questions you have now will have been answered. Money solves a lot of problems, and answers a lot of questions.

I’ve seen too many people not start because of one reason or another. You’re never going to know everything you need to know, so if you’re waiting for that day, hell will freeze over first. Remember: the two things to be successful in business: Sales and profits. I wasn’t kidding. Everything else will fall into place. So, don’t wait, just start. There are millions of excuses, but no real reasons not to start right now. Let me know if you come up with a valid excuse – ain’t never seen one yet. See you at the library.

© 1999 rerelease

Jeffrey Dobkin, author of the powerful marketing books How To Market A Product For Under $500! and Uncommon Marketing Techniques, is a direct response and web content writer and a marketing consultant.  He can be reached at 610-642-1000 or  www.dobkin.com.