The BRO Code for Business Owners

Pay your people on time, every time.

Payday is a promise. Keep it before you pay yourself.

Answer the phone.

Half your competitors do not. That is a head start you did not even have to earn.

Keep your books clean.

A shoebox of receipts is not an accounting system, whatever your uncle says.

Do what you said, when you said, for what you said.

That is the whole business plan for most successful tradesmen.

Thank your customers by name.

They could have gone anywhere. Tell them you noticed.

Set aside tax money every week.

April is not a surprise. It comes every year, like hay fever.

Fix your mistakes on your own dime.

A free redo turns an angry customer into your best salesman.

Hire slow, and treat people fairly.

Take your time picking. Once they are in, treat them like family, not furniture.

Keep a cash cushion.

Three months of expenses in the bank is the difference between a bad month and a closing sign.

Show up looking professional.

Clean truck, clean shirt, a smile. Half the sale happens before you say a word.

Train someone to do your job.

You cannot grow if you are the only one who knows where anything is.

Ask happy customers for a review.

They will say yes. They just never think of it on their own.

Take a day off.

The business will survive. You might not, if you never do.

Don't mix business and personal accounts.

Somewhere, your accountant just felt a chill and does not know why.

Don't lowball to win the job.

Cheap work attracts cheap customers, and then you are stuck with both.

Don't bad-mouth your competitors.

Let your work do the talking. It has a better voice.

Don't promise what you can't deliver.

One missed deadline is remembered longer than ten early ones.

Don't ignore a bad review.

Answer it calmly, fix what you can, and let the next customer see how you handle trouble.

Don't hire a friend you couldn't let go.

Otherwise you have just adopted an expensive roommate.

Don't sign a contract you haven't read.

Every line is protecting somebody. Find out who.

Don't let one customer be half your revenue.

That is not a customer. That is your boss.

Don't skip the paperwork.

Insurance, permits, licenses. Boring, right up until the day it is the only thing that matters.

Don't run payroll on a credit card.

That is a warning light, not a strategy.

Don't forget who got you here.

Your first ten customers deserve a thank-you forever.

Don't cut corners where the customer can't see.

You can see it. That is enough.

Don't try to do everything yourself forever.