By Peter L. Getman, Principal Brand Director

I suspect these lessons are viable to any business and not exclusive to branding and Internet marketing agencies.

Lesson 1: Selecting the right clients is equally as important to your success as hiring the right teammates.

Lesson 2: “Going above and beyond” to create customer loyalty doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does have to be thoughtful, unexpected, and ideally surprising. Just yesterday, GSC, our pest control company, came to… well you know… control pests. My six year old (she’s 1 of 6) follows him around as she usually does and is inquisitive as per usual, but then proceeds to talk about her birthday party on Friday. Today, the pest control gentleman had to come back to finish up the treatment. Zoe runs out to say hello and is presented with a birthday card, from her friend, the pest man. Wow.

Lesson 3: “Walls” are running at you everyday, all day. It’s business. Some days you side step them, some days hurdle them, other times you tunnel under, smash through, mini-tramp over, claw over them and some days the walls run you over… and then toss you (and everything else) in reverse. In the end, walls are good; they keep the weak from catching you.

Lesson 4: You can make endless mistakes in business and still ultimately succeed, except for one mistake – running out of money. I did this one time 21 years ago, never again.

Lesson 5: If you have a tumor in any area of your company – be a surgeon. Being a shrink, cheerleader, coach or friend will not work. If it’s not a cancer, then be one of the four, just not the surgeon.

Oh, and perhaps most importantly, “What’s worth doing, is worth doing passionately.” Achieve this, and work is not work, it’s simply what’s “in you” – it is what you do.

For me, that’s branding and marketing…

Let’s build this list of business lessons learned, I’d love to learn from you!