Do the ideas in Awesomely Simple apply to small business owners or even soloists that are alone in their business? Yes absolutely!

I can attest from personal experience that the ideas in Awesomely Simple are 100% relevant to virtually any kind of small business or sole practitioner. For more than eight years I worked all by myself out of my apartment in Gainesville, Florida. No employees, no strategic partners, no list of vendors that were selling my services. I was one guy trying to serve a handful of key clients and build a business -- and I focused on the six key areas in this book every single day. Let's take a look at how the six principles apply to a small business or soloist...

A vivid and well-communicated vision: Whether you lead 10,000 people or are the only person on the payroll, it is still essential to have a clear, vivid, compelling vision for where you are trying to take your company.  It is also equally essential to communicate your vision to anyone you are working with including your customers, vendors, suppliers, partners, interns - if they are part of your team then you need to make sure they understand what you're trying to achieve and the values that drive your business.

Best people: To build a successful business you need a vast network of the "best people" on your team to help you achieve your vision. Even when I was working completely independent, I did everything in my power to surround myself with talented mentors, exceptional vendors and suppliers, brilliant strategic partners... and the smartest business people in the world via their books, audio CD's, training DVDs and websites. I honestly believe this quest to surround myself with bright, sharp, smart people made a huge impact on the trajectory of my career. I also learned that one of the most important things to business success is to create this network of really smart people, and then ask them for help, feedback and suggestions often.

Open, honest and courageous communication: To be successful in any size business it is critical to build the skills necessary to become an absolutely superb communicator. With your clients, your vendors and suppliers, your partners – with everyone – you want to have a reputation as an honest, straightforward and superior communicator. The other person you have to be a great communicator with is... yourself. Exercising the discipline to be completely honest with yourself in assessing the progress of your company and your own personal performance is a top skill of successful entrepreneurs.

A culture of urgency: Actually, this might be the most important of all six principles for the small business owner and sole practitioner. The ability to prioritize your work and keep up a fast pace while accomplishing the most important things right now is undeniably critical for success one independent professional. Especially when all the eyes are on just you, delivering fantastic results with speed and precision is a fundamental element of building a highly successful company.

Disciplined execution: As a direct extension of creating a culture of urgency it is uniquely important for the soloists to be superb at disciplined execution, because if you don't get it done – it doesn't get done!

Extreme customer focus: every business... whether it has 30,000 employees, 57 employees, or just a single employ, lives or dies based on their ability to create loyal, satisfied and engaged customers. As an independent business person this means you must become an expert at creating strong bonds with your customers and positioning yourself as a true trusted advisor.

So as you can see, just because you’ve only got a few people on the payroll – or just one – the rules for running a great company aren’t all that much different for you. A clear vision, network of talented people, superior interpersonal communication skills, strong sense of urgency, the ability to execute and deliver results, and incredibly strong customer relationships – are six principles that apply to you as much, maybe more, then big businesses and giant corporations.