Important business principles
Over the last four years I’ve been pretty consumed with growing my startup on-line marketing company, AvantLink.com. I think we’ve made incredible progress in the industry so far. We’ve set new standards for ad tools, support and ethics in the industry and we’ve made some great progress branding ourselves on-line.
Here are a few business principles that have served us well.
1. Think long term. In today’s instant gratification society people tend to forget that it can take time to build a successful, sustainable company. We regularly hear about these seemingly overnight Internet sensations and sometimes it makes you wonder why it’s taking you so long to build your company. If you’ve got that next overnight sensation idea, great, go for it. For the rest of us, I would recommend that you concentrate on the things that make any good company successful. A great product that is better then what the competition has to offer and exceptional customer support. If you focus on those two items, chances are that you will create some level of success over the long term.
2. Stay focused on your core strengths and business model. If you have a better product and exceptional customer support, then the next important thing is to stay focused on your core business model. You can always consider expanding outside your core business model once your business is a big success. Until then, be careful about chasing ideas outside your core business model that you think might make you a little extra money. Usually these rabbit trails will end up costing you time and money with little ROI.There is plenty of room for innovative thinking within your core business model. So always think in terms of whether your ideas stay true to, improve on, and build the bottom line of your core business model.
3. Make business ethics a top priority. Working in an on-line industry, I see a lot of shady business practices. Right from the beginning we knew that business ethics needed to be a top priority in this company. I know it sounds like common sense, but in this industry, many of our competitors are more then happy to look the other way and allow shady affiliates to practice techniques that make them a lot of money in the short term but are actually cheating their clients in many ways. While the short term money probably seems like the way to go for these companies, over the long term they will suffer serious harm to their brands as their good customers get burned by these practices.
Thinking long term, focusing on your core business model and being as ethical as possible will always serve your business well and help put you on the path to long term success.
Scott Kalbach
