Before AI, Let’s get the Basics Right: The 10 Functions Every Business Needs to Run Well

Over the last year, I’ve been deep in the world of AI, testing tools, building workflows, helping teams understand what’s possible. And the more I worked with these systems, the more one truth stood out:

AI is not a substitute for knowing how to run a business.

AI is an accelerant. A multiplier. A force magnifier, but only if your foundations are solid.

Founders are getting sucked into the hype cycle. They’re looking for shortcuts, automations, hacks, and “smart tools”… all while the basics of their business are being ignored and hoping it will magically work out.

So let’s strip it back and talk about what actually keeps a business alive and moving forward.

The Unsexy Truth

Whether you’re a solo operator, an early-stage founder, or a small team fighting to get traction, every business, every single one, runs on the same core functions.

Ignore one, and it will eventually bite you. Ignore several, and your burn rate becomes your obituary. Ignore the wrong ones and you may even end up with legal issues as a Director/Owner.

I’ve run and managed multiple businesses in messy, high-pressure environments and I’ve seen the same pattern over and over: early-stage founders, through no fault of their own, focus on the shiny stuff and skip the structural stuff.

So here’s a simple, clear breakdown of what you actually need to manage.

The 10 Business Functions Every Founder Must Own

These aren’t MBA concepts. These are the real building blocks, the things you end up wrestling with at 2am when you realise something’s on fire.

1. Strategy & Direction

This is your north star:

• What problem are you solving?

• For who?

• Why will they pick you over anyone else?

  
  

Most founders “wing it.” That’s why so many spend months rebranding, pivoting and rewriting their story.

1. Validate the problem.

2. Test the solution.

3. Measure against the north star.

4. Iterate relentlessly.

Strategy feels slow, but it’s what makes everything else faster.

2. Cashflow & Finance

Cash is king. There’s no truer saying in business.

I’ve run businesses on the smell of an oily rag, but the truth is simple: cash is the lifeblood of the business. Less cash means less flexibility, less freedom, less time and more time spent staring at your runway instead of your destination.

Finance covers:

• Budgeting

• Forecasting

• Pricing

• Invoicing

• Runway management

• Understanding where your money actually goes

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Many founders think they’re running a business when they’re actually running an expensive hobby.

3. Operations

This is the engine: the systems, processes, logistics, and rhythms that keep the business running and reliably deliver your product or service. Operations is where chaos becomes order.

This is my bread and butter. I’m a huge believer in periodically mapping every process in a business to identify risks and opportunities and to make sure your setup supports consistent delivery.

Every broken process eventually becomes a customer complaint… or a staff complaint… or a founder meltdown… or even a legal problem.

4. Customers & Service Delivery

You can’t grow a business faster than your ability to deliver what you promise.

This covers:

• Onboarding

• Support

• Service quality

• Feedback loops

• Experience design

A poor customer experience kills momentum. Even a great product can’t compensate for a customer feeling undervalued.

Feedback loops matter at every stage. And honesty goes further than perfection, owning your mistakes buys time, trust and loyalty.

5. Sales

Let’s be blunt: if you don’t sell, you don’t have a business.

Sales isn’t luck, it’s a system:

• Pipeline

• Consistency

• Method

• Messaging

  
  

Founders often love building and hate selling. The market does not care.

Persistence can substitute for skill, but eventually you need a repeatable system, one where rejection isn’t personal, it’s just the next step.

6. Marketing

Marketing isn’t posting on social media and hoping someone notices. It’s:

• Positioning

• Branding

• Messaging

• Awareness

• Knowing which channels actually work

Early marketing is usually random acts of content. Effective marketing is deliberate repetition, reinforced over time.

Great marketing puts you in a customer’s mind the moment they realise they have a problem you solve.

7. People & Culture

Even if it’s just you and a couple of contractors, you’re building a culture. This includes:

• Hiring

• Onboarding

• Expectations

• Values

• Collaboration

• Performance

People problems become business problems very quickly. Culture is the sum of every interaction, fragile, dynamic and influenced constantly.

Set expectations early. Reinforce what’s acceptable. Culture scales when norms scale.

8. Product & Service Development (Innovation)

Ive seen people with great ideas fail and people with average ideas succeed. Ideas are cheap. Execution is hard.

Good product development is about learning, not guessing. Customers rarely know what they want until they see it, so gather data from them, lots of them, and use it to see what they can’t.

There’s no guaranteed path to success, but there are ways to increase your odds of succeeding and reading widely should be mandatory (e.g., How Innovation Works by Matt Ridley).

9. Governance, Compliance & Risk

Founders ignore this until a regulator, lawyer, or accountant emails them something that ruins their weekend. This covers:

• Contracts

• Policies

• Insurance

• Legal obligations

• Data protection

• Safety

• Industry requirements

I don’t enjoy this part of running a business, but it’s non-negotiable:

• Review contracts and policies

• Track legislative changes

• Know compulsory insurance requirements

• Set reminders for tax and reporting

• Create a simple central repository

Future you will be grateful.

10. Technology & Systems

This is where AI belongs, but it’s also where all the noise is.

AI tools aren’t solutions to your problems. They’re levers that strengthen everything else.

Your tech stack should support:

• Workflow

• Collaboration

• Analytics

• Automation

• Customer interaction

  
  

Get the basics right first. Then AI becomes a superpower, not a distraction.

The Simple 3-Part Model

All ten functions fit neatly into this founder-friendly structure:

Run the Business

• Finance

• Operations

• Governance

• People

Grow the Business

• Sales

• Marketing

• Customer Experience

Build the Future

• Strategy

• Product

• Technology (incl. AI)

This framing helps founders stop drowning in detail and see the entire system clearly.

Conclusion: Build the Business First. Then Add the AI.

You can’t automate your way out of chaos. If your fundamentals are shaky (unclear strategy, messy numbers, ad-hoc operations, inconsistent delivery) then AI will only help you fall apart faster.

But when you’ve built the engine proper, ie: when you’ve shaped your model, tightened your operations, understood your customers, stabilised your finances, and set real rhythms in the business:

That’s when AI becomes a weapon. Not a toy. Not a distraction. But a multiplier.

Get the basics right. Do the unsexy work. Build the machine.