This one is so widely accepted that I almost didn’t include it on the list. But you know what happens when you “assume,” right? Plus it’s quite possible to fulfill most or all of the other natural laws as they’re laid out here and still not have a sustainable business from a financial standpoint. Granted, it’s way more likely that your finances will be good if you live up to all the other laws on the list, but there are still absolutely no guarantees. Many businesses that are doing special things fail every year because they don’t manage their money well.

I’ll be brief here because there are a million places for you to learn about business finance. (You may want to start with Karen Berman and Joe Knight’s book, Financial Intelligence, or come to ZingTrain’s Fun, Flavorful Finance seminar.) The bottom line (pun intended) is that you can have all the good intentions and good ideas in the world, but you still have to be profitable in order for the business to survive; you do have to have cash on hand in order to pay the bills; and if you don’t pay your taxes properly and on time you’ll get in a lot of trouble.

Twelve Natural Laws of Business:
There are organizational principles that consistently work and, in the big scheme of things, follow a natural order. We call these “Natural Laws of Business.” Our experience here is that the natural laws are applicable for any business regardless of size, scale, age or product offering. Exceptions exist, but I’ll say up front I wouldn’t recommend expending much energy trying to prove these rules to be wrong.