Age six was when I started spending the occasional summer vacation on my Great-Grandfather’s (Papa Arthur) farm in Alabama.

My first full day started with the sun coming up and going out to do chores while Ma Rachel made breakfast.  My one and only chore was to take a bucket of corn out in the front yard and throw handfuls around so the chickens could eat.  I listened with as much seriousness as was possible in my six year old body to Papa Arthur explaining why it was important to throw the corn around so the chickens wouldn’t fight over the bucket.

I fully intended to throw that corn around, but as a youngster who had only known the slums of New York, everything was new and fascinating.  So of course I forgot all about feeding the chickens.  Luckily for those chickens Papa Arthur made sure that the corn was spread out properly.

After getting cleaned up for breakfast and sitting down at the kitchen table, I noticed that there was no place set for me.  I asked where mine was and was told “this is a farm and if you don’t work, you don’t eat.”  After getting over my initial shock, I asked to be excused and was told that the family always sits down together for meals; (and with a hint of a smile) even if one of them isn’t actually eating.  Pretty harsh you say?  I guess it was, but if you look under the well kept façade, it was and still is a harsh world for those who are unprepared.

Fast forward to the present and as a small business owner, that lesson is just as important today as it was 41 years ago.  If I don’t work, it will soon catch up with me and I won’t be able to eat.

During my 20 years in the Navy, I continued to be no stranger to hard work, but nothing I had done in my former life prepared me for the amount of effort needed to ramp up a new business.  Particularly the amounts of mental and emotional energy you expend.  You have to worry about everything, because everything that happens in your business is either the result of your genius or your incompetence.  Kind of like running the family farm.

To hopefully ease your way, I add my voice to the cacophony of all the others with good business advice.  I suspect that someone will yell at me and call me dirty names for what I’m about to suggest, or bring up all the things that I don’t mention, but here goes.

First of all, if you don’t like hard work, then owning a business is not for you.  I of course am the exception.  My wife will tell you if you ask her that I am extremely lazy and you’ll get no argument from me.  I would like nothing better than to relax and do only those things I want to do.  But it is hard to relax when you’re cold, wet, and hungry.  And because I want that beach house while there is still some interest in seeing me in swimwear, I continue to work hard.

If you’re one of those who believes that being a leader means using all of the stick and none of the carrot, be advised that it doesn’t work as well outside of the military.  Your employees can walk out the door and there isn’t anything you can do about it.  The ones that can’t afford to leave will do only what they must to keep from getting fired.  Need an example?  I once watched a Navy Recruiter yell at a 17 year old young man to “get off the <expletive> phone and get your <expletive> skinny <expletive> in here right now.”  The guy never showed.  The recruiter had to be reminded that the kid wasn’t in the Navy and didn’t have to take orders.

Work on your business, not in your business.  To put it another way, if you’re in there doing the work, it is hard to see the big picture.  It isn’t the job of the Senior NCO to turn the wrench.  The NCO has to ensure that the person he selects to turn the wrench knows what they are doing.  The President/CEO/Managing Partner should be doing all those things necessary to running a successful business.  One of the most important being the hiring of the right people and putting them in the right places.  Also if one of your goals is to build a successful company and then sell it, the value to the prospective buyer drops if they think things will fall apart when you leave because everything revolves around you and not well documented processes.

OK!  You’re ready for hard work and you plan on treating your carefully selected employees fairly.  Now you need to decide what business entity you should choose.  At this point I would recommend you find a good attorney and CPA.  There will be legal and tax ramifications to whichever entity you choose.  You might not want to incur the expense of Professional Services when you’re trying to figure out how to divide up limited resources, but the cost of not having the advice of an attorney can be catastrophic.  Litigation can very easily put you out of business. You need an accountant for similar reasons.  Tax codes are changing all the time and you shouldn’t be spending your time trying to keep up with all the changes.  All that will do is reduce the amount of time available for working on your business. 

Because the IRS really frowns on the co-mingling of funds, you’re going to need at least a business checking account.  I suggest you spend some time picking the right bank.  You need one where you can cultivate a relationship, not just someplace you drop off deposit slips.  Sooner or later you’re going to need more money than you have available.  You already have two strikes against you just for being a small newly established business.  One way to overcome that is to start a relationship with your banker before you need them.  Send them your end of year Profit & Loss Statements and Balance Sheet.  You can even send quarterly reports to show how you’re meeting your projections.  This will make it easier for the bank to take a chance on you; assuming of course that things are going well.  Will that guarantee a loan?  No.  But since you’re going to have to provide that stuff anyway, why not do it in a way that give you the most mileage.

You might want to take the additional step of putting together a Board of Advisors.  This is different from a Board of Directors, because the Advisory Board has no authority to make decisions for the business and is usually an unpaid position.  But they can advise you in matters great and small.  In a perfect world your Advisory Board would consist of Subject Matter Experts in each area that you need help with.  I have been fortunate to have on my Board, my attorney, my accountant, another banker (to prevent any real or perceived conflict of interest), someone with 25 years of experience in Marketing and Business Development, someone with 30 years of experience with the federal procurement process, and someone with 20 years of experience in Human Resources.  Unfortunately some of the people who would be a perfect fit for your Board are usually too busy doing their own thing.  Remember to use your Board’s time wisely and it should work out fine.

In closing I’d like to strongly suggest a few things you should and should not do.

1. Don’t use your home address for your business address and don’t use a P.O. Box.  You will have a hard time establishing a credit history for your company, because Dun & Bradstreet will not give you a credit rating if you don’t have a valid shipping address.  A Post Office Box doesn’t qualify as a valid shipping address because the major carriers, i.e. UPS, FedEx don’t deliver to them (unless you’re on a rural route).   Dun & Bradstreet will also try to ascertain whether you’re working out of your garage by asking if your office is on a major thoroughfare, how many floors in your building, your square footage, what type of building, i.e. brick, cinder block, cement, etc. 
2. Do get your Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) from Dun & Bradstreet, because you need one to register in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR), and you need to be in CCR if you plan on doing work for the federal government.  Some commercial entities will also ask for it.
3. Don’t use an AOL, yahoo, msn, or any other free email account for your business email.  Depending on your target market, potential clients might not take you seriously. 
4. Do have your marketing materials designed by a professional.  See the last sentence in Number 3.
5. Don’t print your marketing materials on your $39.99 inkjet printer.  See the last sentence in Number 3.
6. Do figure out who you Target Market is.  The needs, wants, and desires of your Target Market will dictate many of the things you do.

The things I’ve left out could easily fill an encyclopedia but they won’t give me that much space.  And just in case you’re wondering, I didn’t miss any more meals.