Most of us that have been in business for a while already know these, but for anyone that's newer and just getting started, there's a few business fundamentals that aren't sexy, but are necessary that you should make sure you have... and some suggestions on where to start if you don't have them... DISCLAIMER: I am NOT an expert in things like business entities or other parts I'm sharing below, I just have a LOT of years of experience and seeking advice from professionals that I used to compile this list. If you are unsure, seek professional advice, and if you are a professional and I'm saying something wrong - please comment and correct me! ("iron sharpens iron" as @Kasim Aslam says). - Business Phone Number: You do NOT want your personal phone number getting picked up and listed on the internet, make sure you have a dedicated number you can use on all business-related things. If you have HighLevel (or my SaaS built on HighLevel) you can pick up a number for just a few dollars a month and forward it to your cell phone. - Business Mailing Address: DO NOT get your home address listed on the web - I have so many horror stories I can share about this. You can get a PO Box - and check with your local post office, many of them will let you use their street address so even things that don't allow a PO will accept it. For example, my PO Box is 4685 Happy Valley Rd, Unit 349, Flintstone, GA 30725 - Professional Domain Name: This is where you host your website/funnels, like I have one for my personal consulting at https://christinahooper.com and one for each of my businesses. If you don't have one yet, I recommend PorkBun because they have a very versitle DNS editor and allow free email forwarding. So if you're keeping costs down and can't afford professional email like Google Workspace yet, you can set up email to forward from something like [email protected] to [email protected]

The best business advice you ever received will now DESTROY your business. … In case you missed it… I’m writing a series about what happens when the rules of business change faster than businesses can adapt. AI has destabilized the environment and I’m trying to figure out what survives. I’ll drop the previous articles in the comments if you want to catch up. … In my last post, I argued that most of us are still building businesses optimized for stability while AI has pushed us into an increasingly unstable world. Here’s the best business advice any of us ever received, pre-AI: Focus. Niche down. Specialize. Choose “The One Thing”. Ignore distractions. Don’t succumb to “shiny object syndrome”. Go deep. Build the moat. Etc. etc. etc. It’s all the same thesis, just stated differently. And, in a pre-AI world, this was the greatest lesson an entrepreneur could possibly learn. For most of us, it was a lesson we learned the hard way and had to re-learn at regular intervals. The traditional entrepreneurial playbook looks something like this: Pick a market. Find your niche. Develop deep expertise. Build one great company. Hire specialists. Optimize operations. Increase margins. Build defensibility. Scale. Then spend years making that machine increasingly efficient. This is an extraordinarily effective strategy when the environment remains stable long enough for optimization to compound. You spend ten years learning an industry nobody else understands. You develop proprietary processes. You recruit highly specialized talent. You build distribution. You accumulate institutional knowledge. Every year the organism becomes more perfectly adapted to its environment. That sounds wonderful. Until the environment changes. Then something strange happens. The thing that made you great can become the thing that kills you. Your expertise becomes legacy knowledge. Your specialization becomes rigidity. Your optimized processes become expensive baggage.

In my last post, I wrote about the realization that changed how I do business. The closest economic analogy for AI (according to AI) isn’t a technological revolution. It’s a mass extinction. No. AI doesn’t wipe out humanity. But it does wipe out most businesses (like 75%+). And it does so in a very short timeframe. My last post was about the extinction event. (If you missed it you can read the whole thing [HERE]) Today is about the survivors. The 25%. Who are the 25%? The answer changed my outlook on business entirely. There have been five mass extinction events in earth’s history (that we know of). In every instance, the living things that survived all had one thing in common… In ecology, there’s an old framework for how species survive: K-selection vs. R-selection. K-selected species reproduce later, produce much fewer offspring, and invest way more into each one. Examples: elephants, whales, gorillas, bears, you. They tend to be larger, live longer, mature slower, and far more invested in learning, development, and parental care. They evolve primarily in relatively stable environments where resources are limited and competition is fierce. Their advantage isn’t speed. It’s optimization. They make fewer bets and invest more heavily in each one. They develop deeper capabilities. They become extremely good at competing within the environment they inhabit. Think of them as nature’s specialists. They pick a game and get very, very good at playing it. Now, compare them to… R-selected species reproduce earlier, produce way more offspring, and invest way less into each one. Examples: mice, rabbits, flies, mosquitoes, frogs, fish that lay lots of eggs. They tend to mature earlier, reproduce faster, have shorter lifespans, and invest far less in parental care. They evolved primarily in unstable, unpredictable, rapidly changing environments. Their advantage isn’t optimization.

A website isn’t just something that makes your business look professional. It should help a visitor quickly understand: ✅ What you offer ✅ Who you help ✅ Why they should trust you ✅ What they should do next If someone lands on your website and has to figure all of that out themselves, there’s a good chance they’ll leave. Quick check: Open your website on your phone and ask yourself: - Can I understand the business in 5 seconds? - Is the main offer easy to find? - Is there a clear button to contact, book, or buy? - Does the website build enough trust? - Does it look good and work properly on mobile? Small changes to these areas can make a big difference in how people experience your business online. I’m currently taking on a few portfolio website projects, so I’m offering the website build for free in exchange for honest feedback and a review. You’d only need to cover your domain, hosting, and any premium tools you choose to use. If you're already thinking about improving your website, feel free to reach out.

Tomorrow, September 10th, I'm running a live workshop on how I use AI across 7 companies without writing code or building the workflows myself: The Non-Technical Founder Workshop The biggest thing I've learned: AI isn't really a skills problem for founders. It's a delegation problem. I'll show you the real workflows we use, what works, what doesn't, and the framework I use to decide what gets built: Eliminate. Automate. Delegate. We'll also spend 30 minutes working through real problems from people in the room. Thursday, September 10, at 10 AM Arizona / 1 PM Eastern Live on Zoom · 2.5 hours · $95 If you attend live and don't think it was worth it, email us within 24 hours for a full refund. You'll keep the recording either way. This is for founders with an existing business. If you're pre-revenue or looking for a technical automation tutorial, this probably isn't the right fit. Bring one task you know you shouldn't still be doing. 👉 Reserve your seat here - Kasim