What really goes through your mind when you come across business principles? For me, it’s a fundamental truth that serves as the foundation and guide to our everyday business decisions and operations.

In business, you don’t make decisions without careful consideration since every decision has it consequences. It’s very simple, as Forbes recently explained: You need to follow basic business principles to succeed.

Entrepreneurs start a business with the hope of succeeding. But in the ever turbulent and unpredictable business environment, a lot of distractions can cloud your sense of reasoning. However, remember to observe these five business principles

1. Every Business Data Point Counts

Successful business owners have always relied on data points to help them make crucial business decisions. Thanks to digital technology, it’s easier to gather data points from phone, mail and the social media which have proven to save financial cost and time.

Every business generates data from its customers, employees, clients and partners. This information is great business resource that can be used for quality decision making, performance evaluation, solve problems, improve customer service, performance management and predict sales trends.

Effective data and analytics leaders see data points as a company’s richest and growing asset. Since every data point counts, don’t overlook the importance of data collection, analysis, interpretation and utilization.

2. Build a Positive Corporate Culture

Corporate culture is an important part of a business because it has significant effect on employees’ morale, work performance, task management and overall work productivity. As a business owner, you should have a clear picture of how your business should operate and what is expected from team members.

It’s your responsibility to clearly communicate and adhere to corporate culture. Spell out the values, abide by it and ensure your employees do too.

3. Don’t Abandon Strategic Planning

A lot of things in life require planning. For instance, you don’t just wake up one morning and embark on an important task without planning. That’s why it’s common to see people make plans for setting up a business.

In business, strategic planning is very important because most often, you may discover that team members are no longer on the same page with set goals or business resources are not efficiently utilized or there’s need to adjust task management to keep pace with changing business dynamics.

Strategic planning however serves as a guide for team members and put them on track on where the business is going and their roles in reaching that goal.

4. Effectively Communicate Your Vision

We all know that an effective business owner should have a vision from which core values, goals and strategies will be derived. As important as vision is to a business, so equally is the ability to clearly communicate that vision to team members.

Ensure your employees are always updated on the relevant information to effectively understand the vision and their roles in achieving it. Business dashboards can allow you share relevant metrics and insights with your team. By keeping everyone in the loop, it’ll be easy to watch and interact with the business data which enhance collaboration and goal accomplishment.

Employees have different motives for working with you. Some actually need to be given assurance of flexibility, trust and sense of belonging. Then you’ll be surprised on the quality business ideas and strategies they’ll bring to the table for quicker accomplishment of set goals and objectives.

5. Don’t Surrender to Assumptions

Sometimes, business owners make the mistake of relying on outdated assumptions that used to be true in order to avoid putting their money into business research. This can pose a serious threat to your business growth.

Assumptions like ‘our customers will like this or that, this business idea is brilliant, this marketing strategy will attract more sales or our expansion plan will increase our market share’ should be thoroughly validated.

You have to engage in some market research to validate the assumptions before dispensing limited business resources. Don’t resort to guesswork. Be very sure of the facts.

Richard Agu is a researcher, entrepreneur and freelancer, passionate about entrepreneurship and self-development. Currently, Richard writes for Entrepreneur.com, Goodmenproject.com, among others. Follow him on Linkedin.com by clicking here now.