Business Rules 101

Business Rules to Live By...

In 32 years of owning, advising, and rescuing businesses, I have come to a few conclusions.

Debt and balance sheet issues pale in comparison to the importance of actual liquidity in a crisis.

Never fall into the trap of buying unnecessary equipment just to keep taxes lower.

The law of supply and demand has not been repealed.

If a 1% change in the rate on your bank debt is going to make or break the project, you are doing the wrong project.

The guy who says "always use the other guy's money" probably does not have any himself.

Family businesses are often really special. Family businesses are also ungodly complicated.

Anyone who is not wary of debt has not taken their business through a deep recession.

All industries eventually cycle up and down.

When you are hustling for money for a project and have reached government money to complete the financing, you are overstretched.

Nothing is free. Absolutely nothing. Someone pays or will be paying in the future.

New construction is awesome. It is also incredibly expensive.

Expansions are always more than budget. Always.

I have worked with prominent people who have secret children out of wedlock. I have also worked with a guy worth $100 million who drove a rusted F-150 and took us to McDonalds for lunch. America remains a meritocracy for the time being.

A bank funded your project. That does not mean they are agreeing with it or endorsing the project. It means they think you can pay the money back.

I have a Bachelor's in Economics and a Master's in Finance. The best education I ever received was the United States Army. That instructor smoking the cigarette in the helicopter prior to all of us jumping out knew how to keep people calm and focused.