Ten great Business Tips from Breaking Bad

Yes Breaking Bad was a hit show on AMC; it is also a fascinating show to watch. After all how often to you see a high school chemistry teacher with cancer trade in  his second job at a car wash to become a crystal meth fabricator and dealer. Not only does our hero Walter White become a meth producer he becomes a darn good one. The king pin in fact. So how did he do it? How did he go from being a raw naïve rookie in the meth business afraid of danger to the point where he is the main man and now as he tells his wife come accomplice, he is the danger?

Here are ten tips that we can all learn from Mr. White.

1. Find the right partner: When Walt realizes that young Jessie his former student is the local meth producer he approaches him about doing business together. Jessie knows the ropes of doing business and Walt knows how to produce the very best product on the market. He doesn’t have a PhD in chemistry for nothing. Operating out of an old RV he sets up a professional lab and “cooks” the best meth anyone has ever experienced.
2. Fund your business properly: knowing it takes a lot of capital to do things right and wanting to get out of their rolling lab on wheels, Walt and Jessie go to work for Gus Fring the local fast food chicken restaurant owner and drug lord.  Gus funds the operation and Walter buys all of the right equipment to build a world class laboratory where they proceed to mass produce the  best meth the world has ever seen and start blowing away the competition
3. Have the best product: Walt’s proprietary formula for producing his special blue meth is so superior to anything else on the market that it commands premium pricing. His product is so good that people will pay top dollar for it.
4. Hire the right consultants: Much to his surprise the biggest problem Walt faces in his new endeavor is what to do with all of that cash? He finds out that it is just not that easy to wash (legitimize) that cash so he can use it. So he hooks up with shady Saul Goodman who handles that little chore for him. Along the way Walt finds other ways to use attorney Goodman’s special skills.
5. Develop the best distribution network: As Walt has learned the hard way; you have to rely on your sales force, your distributors. It doesn’t matter how good your product is, if it doesn’t get to out to your customers in the most efficient way possible you are not going to succeed. You’re nowhere without customers.
6. Find the best supply chain; In danger of running out of a key ingredient for producing their special blue meth, Walt and Jessie go to Laura a special agent gone bad who supplies them with a railroad car full of what they need. It pays to have the right connections.
7. Watch those receivables: No matter what, you have to get paid for what you do. If you don’t watch those receivables, if you let them slide, if you let your customers get away with not paying you what they owe, then there’s no sense of being in business. Knowing this Walt hooks up with Mike who is an excellent and efficient accounts receivable manager.
8. Demand loyalty: Or else, in Walt’s business you have to make sure you are all on the same page. You have to make sure that you are all working for the same common goal. Everyone on the team must understand and support the organization’s strategies, tactics and goals. If not well then it could cost you your life.
9. Blow away the competition: And I guess you could say the opposition, any opposition. The less competition there is the more successful your business will. Walt understands this implicitly and by last season’s finale he is pretty much the only game in town. His competitors are gone, his opposition is gone and now he is the man… or as he says he is the danger.
10. Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well: Whether you’re cooking meth in Albuquerque or fabricating boards in Fraser, Michigan the game is still the same. You have to be the best you can possibly be to succeed. You have to make sure that you have the right strategy and follow it. You have to make sure that you have the right distribution network and the right supply chain and you have to make sure that you are making a product so superior that it will blow away your competition and get you those high profit premium dollars.

It’s only common sense