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96 • The 100 Greatest Ideas for Building the Business of Your Dreams

cannot be right. Make sure that invoices happen as soon as possible, that your collection
terms are known by and agreed by your clients and put someone in charge of keeping
the system up to date and chasing debt. Lots of companies simply do not pay their
bills until someone chases for payment. Get payment up front whenever you can.

Idea 55 - KISS and TICK

You will have heard the expression KISS - '&eep it simple, stupid' - and it is without
doubt good advice. In the end, trading is about two people representing two
organisations offering a deal - 'If you do this, I will do that.' Try to keep your
business focused on that simple concept.

TICK is the other key acronym for the person with his or her own business. It
stands for 'mink m cash, foiucklehead'. Remember the mantra, 'Profit is opinion, cash
is reality' and make sure that you have a firm grip on that reality. Companies do not
actually go out of business because they run out of profits; Eurotunnel and many
high-technology businesses have not made a profit yet, but are still very much in
business. No, companies go out of business because they run out of cash. So when
you are starting, keep your projected cashflow up to date on at least a weekly basis.

What you are trying very hard to avoid with your bank manager is giving him or
her a surprise of any sort. There are two reasons for this. Firstly if you suddenly pitch
up for the third time in a year needing more borrowings immediately because you will
run out of cash when you pay this week's wages bill, the bank may very well call it a
day. Their grounds for calling in the loans at that point could be that they simply do
not believe that you have what it takes to control a business, and they want out while
the assets can still be sold or your house still covers the outstanding borrowings.

The other reason for never giving them a surprise is that they are basically free
at that point to charge you whatever they like. Think of them this way. If someone
offered to lend you £10 for a week, but asked you to agree to pay back twice that
amount at the time of repayment, you would not need to have read this book to