For years we’ve lived by a number of standard business rules, but as the landscape of business changes, so to do the rules.

Here’s the top 5 rules you knew and lived by, but that you should now be breaking:

Growth is Good. Not all new business is good business.  After a period of fast growth in one of our businesses, I analyzed our $6 million client base and realized 60% of our clients weren’t profitable and, incidentally, it was the same 60% of our clients that we didn’t like, respect or trust. We brought the clients on too quickly and as a result, they were a poor cultural fit for the business.

Cash is king. Cash is not king. Cash FLOW is king. It’s easy to chew up money that you have by not watching the money you don’t have. For example, you might think you have the cash to grow, but do you have the cash flow to fund the impact of that growth. Your investment in resources, product, marketing, etc. will always be ahead of your cash receivables curve.

Plan to succeed. In a world of faster, better, now, we need to be more agile in business to compete. Open the doors to your business, and print the business cards later. Call the client with the offer, refine the pitch on the feedback. Failure to launch is guaranteed failure.

The customer is always right. With access to the internet, the customer now perceives they are informed, but the information they bring to the table may not always be right. Our challenge is to not be subservient to them, nor to correct them, but more to guide them to the right solutions.

Social media is the way of the future. Contrary to popular belief, social media is not the game changer, it’s just another tool you need to be mindful of, like radio was in the 20’s, television was in the 40’s, color television in the 60’s the internet in the 90’s. The key to understanding the ‘way of the future’, is to be aware of all of the elements that impact it.