If you bake cakes, create custom designer eyewear, or help people be better plant parents do it, do it real good. Your first priority is to be awesome at what you do. 

The customer is always right and when they aren’t, it’s still incumbent upon you to deliver excellent customer service. You’re in the people business. And people want to patronize places where they are treated with respect and dignity. 

Find the time, find the money (or learn the ropes) and tell the world who you are, what you do, and why they should work with you. 

Make time to know what’s going on in your industry, understand the trends and pay attention to how they may affect your brand. Talk to your customers and learn what they want and need and how you can deliver it to them. 

Starting a business is a huge endeavor, chances are you aren’t great at the business of what you do. For example, you may be great at baking cakes but when it comes to time to manage personnel, operations, marketing and budgets can you bake and balance the other tasks.