Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

It's Only Common Sense: 10 "Breaking Bad" Business Tips

Editor's Note: To listen to Dan's weekly column, as you've always done in the past, click here. For the written transcript, keep reading..."Breaking Bad" is a hit show on AMC that is fascinating to watch. How often to you see a high school chemistry teacher with cancer trade in his second job at a car wash to become a crystal meth fabricator and dealer? Not only does our hero Walter White become a meth producer--he becomes a darn good one. How did he do it? How did he go from being a raw, naïve rookie in the meth business, afraid of danger, to the main man who is now, as he explains to his wife, the danger of which he was once so terrified?

Here are 10 tips we can all learn from White:

1. Find the right partner. When Walt realizes that young Jesse, his former student, is the local meth producer, he approaches him about doing business together. Jesse knows the ropes of the business and Walt knows how to produce the very best product on the market--he doesn’t have a Ph.D. in chemistry for nothing. Operating out of an old RV, he sets up a professional lab and “cooks” the best meth anyone has ever experienced.
2. Fund your business properly. Knowing that it takes a lot of capital to do things right and wanting to get out of their rolling lab on wheels, Walt and Jesse go to work for Gus Fring, the local fast food chicken restaurant owner and drug lord. Gus funds the operation and Walter buys the right equipment to build a world-class laboratory, where they mass produce the best meth the world has ever seen and start to blow away the competition.
3. Have the best product. Walt’s proprietary formula for producing his special blue meth is so superior to anything else on the market that it commands premium pricing. His product is so good that people will pay top dollar for it.
4. Hire the right consultants. Much to his surprise, Walt finds that his biggest problem is what to do with all of the cash. He discovers that it is just not that easy to launder (legitimize) all of that cash so he can use it. He hooks up with shady Saul Goodman, who handles that little chore for him. Along the way, Walt finds other ways to use attorney Goodman’s special skills.
5. Develop the best distribution network. As Walt has learned the hard way, you must rely on your sales force, your distributors. It doesn’t matter how good your product is; if it doesn’t get to out to your customers in the most efficient way possible you are not going to succeed. You’re nowhere without customers.
6. Find the best supply chain. In danger of running out of a key ingredient for producing their special blue meth, Walt and Jesse go to Laura, a special agent gone bad, who supplies them with a railroad car full of what they need. It pays to have the right connections.
7. Watch those receivables: No matter what, you have to get paid for what you do. If you don’t watch those receivables--if you let them slide, letting your customers get away with not paying you what they owe--there’s no sense being in business. Knowing this, Walt hooks up with Mike Ehrmantraut, an excellent and efficient accounts receivable manager.
8. Demand loyalty...or else. In Walt’s business everyone needs to be on the same page. Everyone must work together for a common goal. Everyone on the team must understand and support the organization’s strategies, tactics, and goals. If not, it could cost you your life.
9. Blow away the competition. The less competition there is, the more successful your business will be. Walt understands this implicitly, and by last season’s finale he is pretty much the only game in town. His competitors are gone, his opposition is gone, and now he is the man…or, as he says, the danger.
10. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Whether you’re cooking meth in Albuquerque or fabricating boards in Fraser, Michigan, the game is still the same. You must be the best you can possibly be to succeed. You must make sure you have the right strategy and follow it. You must ensure you have the right distribution network and the right supply chain, and you have to make sure you are making a product so superior that it will blow away your competition and get you those high-profit premium dollars.

It’s only common sense.