34 rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs

Few days back, I received an email from one of my LinkedIn contact's Mr. Wayne Mansfield.The email was about an article, in which his friend Yanik Silver has shared his experience about a meeting with the great Mr. Richard Branson has shared his mantra for Entrepreneurs called "34 Rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs".

Note:
This article was earlier titled "Richard Branson's rules for Entrepreneurs" which is now changed to "34 rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs". It was due to a minor error from my side

Out of the 34 rules, below are my favorite ones:

1. It's got to be a BIG idea that you, your team and your customers can "get" in seconds.
2. Strive to create 10x - 100x in value for any price you charge. Your rewards are always proportionate to the value you provide.
3. Provide a 'Reason Why' customers should do business with you and pay you a premium.
4. You get to make the rules for your business. Don't let industry norms dictate how you'll work or who you'll work with.
5. Create your business around your life instead of settling for your life around your business.
6. Consistently and constantly force yourself to focus on the 'critically few' proactive activities that produce exponential results.
7. Find partners and team members who are strong where you are weak and appreciate being paid on results.
8. Bootstrap. Having too much capital leads to incredible waste and doing things using conventional means.
9. Keep asking the right questions to come up with innovative solutions. “How?”, “What?”, “Where?”, “Who Else?” & “Why?” open up possibilities.
10. Focus most of your time on your core strengths and less time working in areas you suck at.
11. Always have something else to sell (via up-sell, cross-sell, follow-up offer, etc) whenever a transaction takes place. The hottest buyer in the world is one who just gave you money.
12. Always go back to your existing customers with exceptional offers and reasons they should give you more money. It’s 5x less expensive to sell to happy customers than go find new ones.
13. However the flip side is - fire your most annoying customers. They’ll be replaced with the right ones.
14. Develop and build your business’s personality that stands out. People want to buy from people.
15. Mastermind and collaborate with other smart entrepreneurs if they have futures that are even bigger than their present.
16. Make your business AND doing business with you FUN!
17. Do the unexpected before and after anything goes wrong so customers are compelled to ‘share your story’
18. Get a life! Business and making money are important but your life is the sum total of your experiences. Go out and create experiences & adventures so you can come back renewed and inspired for your next big thing.

You can read all the 34 rules here. Thanks Wayne for sharing the same with us