Guy Kawasaki is an entrepreneur, blogger, columnist, author, and venture capitalist.  For entrepreneurs looking for a great source of information, Guy’s blog, How to Change the World, is a worthwhile read.  Having funded a number of startups and started some of his own, including Truemors and Alltop, Guy certainly has the credentials to discuss important lessons for entrepreneurs, and he has done just that.

 

Besides his personal blog, Guy also blogs for Sun Microsystems and he has recently published a post called The Five Most Important Lessons I’ve Learned as an Entrepreneur.  This is a great article that every aspiring or current entrepreneur should pay close attention to.  Here are the fundamentals of successful entrepreneurship:

 

Cash is King

 

When it comes to the day-to-day operations of a business, cash is king.  You may have the greatest product and sales team in the world, but if your business is not well capitalized or is not generating enough cash to keep it afloat you can kiss it good-buy.  At the end of the month when it is time to cut payroll you have to have enough cash in the bank, and if you don’t, everything else becomes irrelevant.  Understanding how to manage cash and having a very good handle on payables and receivables is a key business skill that you cannot do without.  The best businesses out there are able to get paid by their customers before they have to pay their suppliers.  Dell is a great example of a company that does this very well.

 

Take Baby Steps

 

In the world of startups, making a little bit of progress everyday is key to success.  You can start very small.  You can even make your venture a part-time pursuit.  Success will come by adding a new feature to your product at a time, by gaining a new customer at a time, by reaching a new milestone at a time, no matter how small it may seem.  As Guy puts it himself:

 

“The reason the press writes about 'overnight successes' is that they seldom happen–not because that's how all businesses work.”

 

Experiment

 

Entrepreneurs cannot be afraid of failing.  They must enjoy the thrill of experimenting different ideas and trying different things.  Guy started Truemors with a very small investment.  He wasn’t worried about the fact that the idea might not work, despite of the many public criticisms he endured for being brave enough to try.  With today’s cheap technology and offshore resources, experimenting different ideas is the best way to strike gold as an entrepreneur.  You can read more about this topic in the article Web Entrepreneurs Change the Rules of the Game.

 

Don’t Listen to Nay Sayers

 

As an entrepreneur you will probably have a lot of people tell you that your idea is stupid.  This will likely to come from the so called “experts”.  Ignore them.  Completely ignore them.

 

It’s All About the People

 

Guy puts it differently by saying that you should not ask others to do something you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself.  But what he is really getting at is that it is all about the people. It’s about treating customers right.  It’s about having a healthy relationship with your suppliers.  And last but not least, it’s about having a great team.  Hire the absolute best people you can possibly find, even if it costs you more money.  Build a high performance team.  How do you do that?  Read the article The 7 Traits of Highly Effective Teams.

 

Follow these rules and you will likely be successful as an entrepreneur.