Bill Wishon's News and Views

10 business fundamentals I believe, but I can't necessarily prove.

1. Long-term business success is rooted in value. Businesses that offer value to customers and respect value for employees are more likely to survive. Business ethics are good business; they are like a long-term insurance policy.
2. Strategy is focus. A great quote: "I don't know the secret to success, but I do know that the secret to failure is trying to please everybody."  --Bill Cosby
3. One of the most dangerous confusions in business is about business planning. Every company, large, small, and not-yet-started, can benefit from business planning. Way too many people confuse business planning with a big formal business plan document. You can have planning without the formal plan and you can have the formal plan without the planning. A great quote: "The plan is useless, but planning is essential." --Dwight D. Eisenhower
4. The more priorities in a plan, the less likelihood of implementing that plan.
5. Passion and persistence don't guarantee business success. There are a lot of other factors.
6. Bootstrapping is underrated. A great quote: "God bless the child that's got its own."  --lyrics  by Billie Holiday/Arthur Herzog, Jr.
7. Cash flow is vital but not intuitive. Profits don't guarantee cash flow. Many profitable companies die for lack of cash.
8. Investors don't invest in business plans. They invest in businesses they believe will make them money. They invest in the people and the market. But people without business plans are far less likely to get investment than people who plan. It's about getting your story straight, and reducing uncertainty. 
9. There are very few good reasons to spend more than you bring in for more than a very short time. A long-term company-building effort is one of them.
10. Everything you do in a business rules out something else that you can't do. That's the principal of displacement. It's really important.