Regardless of what niche you operate in, what product you sell and your method of selling, there are some universal truths to all businesses. If you are an entrepreneur, these 5 truths can make or break your business, so read them, know them and implement them wisely.

1. Sales, Sales, Sales

As Alec Baldwin says in Glengarry Glenross,  “Always Be Closing”. Sales are the lifeblood of any business. Everything else – the new phone system, business cards and other fun things, are minor issues that can be taken care of later. Sales is why your business exist, and it’s the only thing that keeps you afloat, which leads us to #2:

2. Cash is King

Even if you’re doing enough sales, you might not be getting paid right away. Monitor your cash flow on a daily basis to make sure you have enough money to make it until you get paid on more sales.

3. Execution Over Planning

Great ideas are nice, but proper execution is better. If you take a decent idea and execute on it well, you will have much better results then an excellent idea that is not executed at all!

4. Know your numbers

Numbers are the lifeblood of any business. What happens if you sell each widget for $30 but it costs $40 to make? Bankruptcy! You need to know how much it costs to acquire a customer, how much profit you make on the customer, what your overhead is, and a lot of other numbers. Study up on these numbers, because they will make or break your business.

5. The Customer is Always Right

Sounds Cheesy, right? It’s a shame so many companies have forgotten this mantra. Your customers are the people who pay you and recommend you to their colleagues. Piss them off and you’ll lose money, future customers – more then that, you’ll spend most of your budget on putting out fires that could have been prevented.

This guest post comes from Maya Richard, who writes about http://www.cablemodemhelp.com high speed internet for Cable Modem Help. She can be reached at mayarichard [at] gmail with feedback.