A good 25 percent of the entrepreneurs I talk to don’t bother validating their ideas. They build products without talking to prospective customers in their target market. If you engage seriously with your customers, there’s no way a business can fail. And if the business idea is not right, you would realize very early that you should give up.

The rest of the interview with Patterson is infinitely readable, entertaining and worth a glance for the quotes alone:

Read the full piece here, and be sure to visit our own Sunshine NY Managing Partner Joe Raby’s top 5 small business mistakes.

1) Say “Thank You.” – It is really important to understand that saying “thank you” to people you work with will leave a lasting impact. A lot of times people don’t ignore saying “thank you” out of spite, but more because they forget or believe the person does not need to be thanked for doing their jobs. Again, showing them that you are willing to go out of your way to acknowledge their efforts is always appreciated.

2) Communicate – People often fear explaining a problem to someone they’re working with out of fear of being rejected or put down. Never be afraid to communicate a problem to your clients or a colleague. Open communication with these people will result in a lot more trust than if you ever attempt to cover up a problem.

3) Ask for Clarification – At any point during an interaction with a client or colleague if you believe something was not made clear, be sure to politely ask for clarification. While many people fear that this may indicate that they are not understanding, On the contrary, this shows that you are making a tremendous effort to meet their needs and specifications to the best of your ability.

Let’s face it. Regardless what industry you work in, creating and maintaining relationships are key to a lucrative ongoing business. Keeping these three very simple concepts in mind when you are doing business will help keep your relationships strong from day one.

I see a lot of presentations. Every month at the NY Tech Meetup I see at least 7 or 8 presentations, in the other community events I attend I see more, and as a VC, first at Rose Tech Ventures and now at Flybridge Capital Partners, I see even more.

Last month, while I was attending another meetup, I saw almost every “demo sin” imaginable… so I took notes.

Let me say, I’ve been guilty of most of these sins at one point or another. I present this list less to make fun of people, but more to remind everyone — including myself — what breaks an otherwise great demo. (Feel free to add to this list in the comments!)
Powerpoint.

Seriously, you have an web company. Need a few slides? No you don’t. Demo your effing product. Really, really, really need a few slides? Put them on a website somewhere. You’re an effing web company.
Winging it.

Oh you’re sooo comfortable with your product and that crowd, to you, that crowd was born naked — who needs to imagine them so?! Well, no matter how comfortable and confident you are, you should still practice and plan your demo. It’s not about your confidence, it’s about a good show for your audience. (Disclaimer: I am most guilty of this sin. Correcting this is my resolution of 2010.)
Using your time on stage to try and save a buggy demo.

Bugs happen. If you use your time well and explain what you do, roll with it because people trust you it works. If you spend 4 of your 5 minutes trying to “save” your demo, people don’t trust you actually know what to do in time of crisis.
Out of all of your clients or content, demoing the scantily clad cheerleaders.

That’s just lame. Maybe that was okay with your colleagues in the Mad Men era, but today we just think you’re a anachronistic asshole.

Going over allotted time.

There are two main reasons this is bad: 1) it pisses off the organizer, who is your best friend for putting you on stage; 2) it pisses off your fellow demoers, who are your potential evangelists and business partners.
Turning down the opportunity to use a microphone because you think you have a loud enough voice.

You don’t — and especially not to that person sitting anywhere but directly in front of you.

Keeping video volume up while you’re talking about your product.

Everyone knows video has sound in 2009. Nobody heard you say what your company does.

At Sunshine Suites we’re in the business of small businesses. Over the past eight years we’ve had hundreds if not thousands of startup companies come through our doors. Having met so many first-time entrepreneurs, and as a small business owner myself, I’ve observed almost identical mistakes made by all of them. Falling into one or two of these traps doesn’t automatically mean your business is doomed, but make enough of them and your business might become a statistic.

Joe’s Top 5 Mistakes Small Business Owners Make

1. Not keeping accurate books.
Without this information, business owners can’t tell what their biggest expense is, how much money they made last month, if sales are growing, if their marketing is working, etc. It is absolutely crucial. If you can’t do the books yourself, hire a good bookkeeper to come in biweekly and make sure your books are up-to-date and that you know how to look at a basic financial statement.

2. Not marketing your business, or using the same marketing techniques over and over.

Marketing is the lifeline of a small business. Without marketing, your business will grow much slower than it has the potential to, if it survives at all. The key to marketing is to continually test several different ideas, then use the best results, and then continue testing. But while doing this is important, it is even more important to quantitatively look at the average value of a new sale, and to make sure your marketing is bringing in more business than it costs. For example, let’s say you run a hair salon. Through good surveys and record-keeping, you know that the average customer will stay for 18 months and gets a haircut every month and a half. You charge $100 per haircut, and give an average of twelve per customer, which means that your average customer is worth $1,200 (not including referrals, which we’ll consider a bonus). Therefore, you should make sure you’re never spending more than that (or even some percentage of that amount, like 25%) on a new customer.

3. Trying to do everything yourself.
This is a common mistake, and is not necessarily the worst thing in the world, at first. It’s great to get your feet wet in Quickbooks,to clean the bathrooms, to work with advertising companies, etc. There comes a point, though, as the business owner, where you can’t do everything effectively. If you are doing everything, you are not using your time well. Other people can do various tasks much more effectively than you – find those people and hire them. That leaves you time to do the jobs you are good at and what you enjoy.

4. Going at it alone.

A lot of people start businesses on their couch and their laptop, and end up spending a tremendous amount of time by themselves or with one or two business partners. While I’m all for saving money, particularly as a startup, generally if you surround yourself with other business owners and entrepreneurs you’ll get ideas and new business out of it that vastly offset any costs. For example, a lot of people will pay $500 to go to a conference for a weekend to network, while you can put yourself in an office environment like Sunshine’s for $275/month and network every single day, making very valuable relationships. There are a lot of free or really inexpensive options, such as meetup groups (meetup.com) or networking groups like BNI (bni.com) that are really inexpensive but can be tremendously helpful. The last thing you want is to be working from home all day, with barely a reason to put your pants on in the morning. Hook up with some connectors and let them show you the ropes. Entering into a small circle (like the one at the office) is guaranteed to beget larger ones so long as you make yourself available and keep an open mind.

5. Overextending yourself (with credit).
While credit is the lifeline of a small business or startup, its tempting to continue to grow using credit. While this may be an effective strategy at first, it really adds an exponential amount of risk to the success and survival of your company-one that you won’t notice until times get tough…and then it’s too late. As Warren Buffett once said, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” Splurging on top-of-the-line equipment or an executive office with a view is really tempting when you’ve got money to burn, but just remember eventually you’ll have to pay that money back. You’ll want more to show for it than just some nice toys.