Building a business is hard. Building a successful business with all of its moving parts — from finances to management — is even harder. If you have already started your own business or are thinking of starting your own business, here are five things that every small business and startup owner should know in order to run a tight corporate ship:

1. Know your shortcomings and utilize your strengths

Realizing what strengths your company embodies and which weaknesses it has is important in keeping it successful. When a company doesn't address shortcomings it will undoubtedly be plagued by them — from inception to funding and subsequent growth. Forevermore, their weaknesses crop up like the ghost at the feast, frightening away potential investors, employees and customers.

2. Get your finances in order

Many companies fail because they don't have their books in order. Bookkeepers — whether in-house or from an outside firm — keep companies in the black. You can exemplify all the other qualities in this list, but without a sound financial policy, your efforts are all for naught. Be sure to have your finances looked at so you're not seeing red at the end of the year. There are many companies and online platforms that offer such services for minimal cost, including financial advisors available any time by phone or email.

3. Social engagement and customer support

The companies that have great customer support (Apple, Nordstrom, and Amazon, among others) are the companies that have serious staying power. If you have a supportive and dedicated consumer base, you're unbreakable.

Depending on your target market, develop trust by being there for your customers and building a strong relationship with potential consumers via trusted social media channels like Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Make sure that your communication channels align with your goals and corporate voice.

4. Be ready to be humbled and be ready to learn.

A wise man once said, "whatever you think you know, you know very little of that thing." In business this is particularly true, and you'll learn more about something through the act of building than you could ever learn by researching or studying.

Good CEOs subscribe to this theory and build until they can build no more. These are the same executives that employees rally around and support. Supervisors and executives who accept their fallibility are much more pleasant to work for than the iron fisted manager who thinks he always knows best.

5. Be helpful to everyone.

Take time to help out. Your time is never too valuable to do a favor for someone or give aid to someone who is humble enough to approach you and ask for help. Networking is the name of the game, and this is the most organic and effective way to build out your own Rolodex of capable, modest contacts. Contacts always come back to serve those who made an effort to help others in the first place. Aside from being the right thing to do, it will only help your company in the long run.

6. Leverage talents

After realizing your strengths and acknowledging your shortcomings, you'll know where to focus your time and energy. Hiring the right people to do the jobs you can't do well will save you from the double hit of spending time doing a mediocre job while not being able to accomplish what you actually can do well. Great CEOs and hiring managers hire people that are good at what they themselves are not. Economic specialization is a true principle after all.

Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, perhaps said it best.

For more information on how you can better tackle your business finances, visit bookly.co.

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