Two Rules for New Entrepreneurs

Rule Number One: You Are In Sales. Sell.

It doesn’t matter what your entrepreneurial endeavor is, your primary job at the beginning of your adventure is client acquisition, i.e. SELLING. You started your business because you recognized a need in the market. You developed a plan to meet the market’s need. Now you have to go and sell your idea—your product, your service, or your solution—to the market.

If you start a manufacturing company, you need clients to give you orders. If you start an accounting firm, you need clients to give you bookkeeping and other accounting work. If you started a web design company, you need clients to hire you to do their design work.

You want to be a little Mom & Pop shop? You need clients. You want to scale your idea and blow it up? You need clients.

As an entrepreneur, you’re in sales. The game is client acquisition.

Rule Number Two: Don’t Run Out of Cash.

If you run out of cash, you run out of time. You can’t make good decisions when you’re desperate. You take unprofitable clients. You take clients that don’t really appreciate the value you create. You make bad business decisions because you’re trying to stay alive.

If you run out of cash completely, the game is over. That chapter of your entrepreneurial adventure is finished.

So how do you keep from running out of cash? See rule number 1.