1. Share with shareholders
- Keep your investors well informed of your progress.
- Good news can wait; tell bad news quickly.
- Don't spend any time thinking about exit.
2. Focus
- ‘Stick to your knitting’.
- Only diversify if it is driven by customer need.
- Do not undertake product development for its own sake.
3. Love your staff
- Tell them everything – good and bad.
- Avoid office politics.
- Celebrate success, no matter how small.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate!
4. Cash is king
- Make one person responsible for invoicing and cash collection.
- Treat account payable departments as a customer.
- Chase cash – hard.
5. Take baby steps
- Don't build processes too soon.
- Only put a process in place as it is needed and when it is driven by growth.
- Don't try to act like a big company – it will stifle innovation.
6. Manage with a light touch
- Give people room to experiment.
- Everyone is a hero.
- Be informal.
7. Only count what matters
- Clearly define success.
- Establish simple ways of measuring success.
- Reward staff for achieving success.
8. Love your customers
- Never over-promise.
- Price to win.
- Be flexible in everything.
- Don't throw your weight around when you have none.
9. Don't spend too much money
- On cars, fancy offices, fancy PCs or expensive lunches.
- Have a culture where no one likes to spend money frivolously.
- Make cash everyone's preoccupation.
10. Use other people’s brains
- Park your ego.
- Employ the best.
- Use non-executive directors.
- Network.
By Bill Kirkwood, CEO of Site Confidence, a website performance monitoring company.
