My three most important “rules of thumb” for running a business
Maybe they're useful. Maybe not.
I’m all about “rule of thumbs”. Easy to remember ideas that guide you through life. But often they can be a bit “pseudowisdomy” - they feel useful and seem profound, but they don’t really help you do anything.
These pseudowisdomy rules of thumbs seem to come to me when I notice them in action (like the 80/20 rule, or “99% of everything is shit”, or “you move a mountain one pebble at a time!”).
But here’s the annoying thing… the most important rules of thumb I need don’t come to me when I need them. I need a reminder!
And funnily enough, today I found an old Trello board from the first year of running Pip Decks. Pinned to the top of each column of to-do items was a rule of thumb that I had completely forgotten about.
I was so annoyed for forgetting and not porting them over to my new workspace, that I want to immortalise their importance by sharing them with you now.
So here we go.
Rule of Thumb #1:
Don’t ignore your dreams; don’t work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy.
This one is fairly self-evident. It’s a reminder that no one ever said on their deathbed:
“I wish I worked harder”
“I wish I had been less honest with people and myself”
“I’m glad I have/had no meaningful friendships”
“I’m glad that I didn’t attempt to pursue my dreams”.
Rule of Thumb #2:
“What’s the best use of my time right now?”
This is the ultimate productivity tactic. Because the answer could be “go to sleep” or “go for a walk”. And it can also stop you from doing bullshit tasks that are procrastination in disguise. Like writing a newsletter.
Rule of Thumb #3
“How can we solve our customer’s problems and make them more successful?”
This is just good business advice. If you keep coming back to this question, everything else seems to fall into place.
Remember: no customers, no business. Or more usefully put: no successful customers, no successful business.
You want to have such a profound effect on people with what you’re offering that you literally get them promoted, or have such a revolutionary change in their life that they tell others about it.
BONUS: Rule of Thumb #4:
“DON’T SEND AN EMAIL WITHOUT A STORY”.
When I was doing all of the Pip Decks email marketing before my incredibly talented friend Jacob Welby took the reins, I had developed this rule of thumb to avoid ever sending a bland or ineffective email. No matter what, I always hooked the reader in with a story. In doing so, your reader will stick around to see “how you land it”.
And because they’ve invested their time with your email, a kind of goodwill builds up. Enough that your ask at the end (a call to action) is more likely to be taken.
It also sets an expectation for your next email, so your open rates increase too. There’s too many things to say about why this is such a useful rule of thumb - maybe I’ll write a separate post about it (leave me a comment if you think it might be useful).
That’s all for now I hope some of these are useful. Maybe not. Let me know what resonated with you the most. I probably have a bunch more, but let’s keep things snappy. If I was going to pick one to really sear into your brain, it would be “What’s the best use of my time right now?”
And for me, that’s definitely hitting send on this and going to sleep!
Cheerio,
Charles Burdett.