Start small
Start as small as possible. In other words, establish what your minimum viable product (MVP) is. This refers to the most basic version of your product or service that you can offer. It gives you the opportunity to understand what your market wants and improve from there.
Move fast and break things
This simply means, “don’t be afraid to try new ideas and be disruptive”. Try new ideas and fail fast. If you fail, learn the right lessons and move on fast. In fact, it is one of the advantages to being small – you can implement new ideas quickly.
Secure cash flow quickly
Contrary to belief, profits aren’t the key to sustaining a business. It is cash flow. How consistent is your revenue? If you are able to achieve consistent cash flow, profits are not far off.
Treat your customers like king
This is more than just a cliché. It is very important that you offer the best customer service possible. Doing this will make them more than just customers; it will make them your ambassadors.
Fine-tune your company culture and leadership skills
Your company culture means how you do things as a company, your processes, and your interactions among you, your staff and suppliers, among others. If you are unable to get it right when the company is small, it will even be harder as the business grows.
Learn as much as possible about every aspect of the business at this stage
The times will come when the business will be too big for you to micromanage like this, and if there are aspects of it you do not understand, you will have a management crisis waiting to happen.