A friend of mine recently shared with me a list called Gil Maurer's Rules by the Former President of the Hearst Magazine Division. Although Maurer's rules were intended for magazine publishers, several have to be faced by most start-ups.

Maurer's Four Cardinal Don'ts:
1. Don't fall in love with your own idea. It won't fall in love with you! People who want to start magazines are almost always too enthusiastic about their idea. It's great to be enthusiastic, but don't extrapolate beyond realistic limits.

2. Don't think you can succeed with a me-too idea. The marketplace is massively indifferent. Try to say something entirely new; failing that you will say something old, but say it in an entirely new way. If you can't pass that test, save your money and your effort.

3. Don't focus on too small an audience. You'll never get more than a small percentage of the people you go after. A small percentage of a small universe is really small - and seldom viable.

4. Don't let Hope triumph over Experience. Nine out of ten - no, make that 99 out of 100- startups are undercapitalized. Would-be publishers unrealistically project financial independence faster than it possibly can arrive. That's not all bad. It places an automatic governor on when to quit. Deep pockets often mean staying with a losing project too long. It's tough to pull the plug. But give yourself a fair chance. It will cost twice what you projected.

In reflecting on the above rules, the first one is the most difficult for a business owner, particularly a new one, to accept for a couple of reasons. 1) Many would argue that if you can't be enthusiastic about your own business, then who else is going to be. 2) While on the other hand, many, if not most, people are not objective judges of their own ideas, so they have difficulty seeing the "bounds of realistic limits". But if you've done the research and know you have a winning idea, then by all means, be enthusiatic. Be wildly enthusiastic!

The second part of the second rule is the real message. Many businesses are me-too businesses, but how an owner distinguishes his or her business from the competition is what really counts. And, if you're not doing that, Maurer's advice to "save your money and your effort" is probably sound advice.

His third rule: don't focus on too small an audience is perhaps the best of the four rules. It's a rule that even large businesses can be guilty of ignoring. Your business may market to only one target because it is what you've always done. But in today's global economy there's no reason not to look for other markets and widen you audience. And the best reason is this: your market today may not be your market tomorrow.

The cost of doing business is usually more than you planned on. It really is amazing how many businesses open their doors and think customers will come pouring in. For a fortunate few it does happen, but everyone else has to go beyond simply offering a selection of merchandise or a service. You have to tell other people about what you're selling and what you do. You have to make your phone ring. You have to bring people to your website. That's where business communication in all of its many forms comes into play.

I was lucky to have started my career with a small AAAA advertising and public relations agency. I had the opportunity to work on ad campaigns and press releases and to get an excellent feel for how they both worked together for clients in local, regional, national and international markets. As someone who has applied my journalism degree and creativity to the world of public relations and advertising, I still respect my roots and the value of news as well as the engaging feature story that captures reader interest. Media offers great opportunities to "tell your story" for free, but it's not in the business of building your brand. And that is something that many businesses sooner or later have to face.