The 10 Communications Commandments I Always Try To Live By.

One of the key things I have learned from talking to people in communications business over the years is that they believed that hardest thing to do is develop a methodology or personal business philosophy to help guide them on the long and winding road.
A lot of these people tend to run mainly on inspiration. But the fact of the matter is that there needs to be much more than that if you are going to be a truly effective communicator. And I'm not just talking about 'creative' people. This applies right across the board.
What follows here is a list of items I carry around in my head, kind of like a GPS system, that guides me through the process of creating whatever it is I need to create for my clients, and myself.
These 'criteria', so to speak, also help me make sure that, if nothing else, the work I create is aligned with a strategy and whatever I feel creatively will be well received by whoever the communication is designed to reach.
If you have had trouble defining your own business philosophy, hopefully this will provide, at the very least, some food for thought.
1. Every client, no matter how big or how small, deserves your best effort 100% of the time.
2. Advising clients to put all their eggs in one basket is dangerous. We have all have seen baskets come and baskets go. And we have seen baskets shrink and baskets grow. It's never about one basket, but the right combination of baskets and how many eggs you put in each.
3. Always look for and pursue clients who are truly committed to making the world a better place. They tend to be easier to help. And their commitment to their goal can, more often than not, add considerable heft to their USP.
4. Understand that people ie consumers, still go through the same thought processes that they always have when it comes to making purchasing decisions, be they for themselves or for their businesses. They simply want to be told the truth in a persuasive way,
5. Know that the art of communicating effectively means making a business look and feel appealing without resorting to hyperbole and exaggeration or any other form of aggrandizement that would artificially inflate the importance of that business.
6. In order to do the best job possible, always learn how your client’s business works, from the perspectives of product or service, sales, marketing and target audiences. This is an absolute necessity.
7. Understand that clients come to you because they feel they are too close to their business to be objective about their communications, so it’s up to you to provide objectivity and perspective.
8.  A solid understanding of the entire marketplace your client operates in is the only way to figure out where your client's business fits and how to position them accurately.
9. Know that with smart thinking, solid positioning and honest communication, you can keep your clients in the preferred 20% of their market, and out of the 80% of less than successful businesses.
10. Never forget, no matter what, that developing great communication is much simpler process than a lot of people would have you believe it is.

PS: Thanks to Nick Drachis for suggesting that, with a little tweaking, this list could apply across the board, as opposed to its original intent, which was having it only apply to myself.