KEY QUESTION: Do you have consistent sources of cash, ideally generated internally, to fuel the growth of your business?

Growth sucks cash. This is the first law of entrepreneurial gravity.

Rudy has achieved some of his greatest successes with rms when following the old adage, “Grow where you’re planted.” In other words, stick to the businesses and markets you know best. For Rudy, this approach shortens the learning curve of entering a new industry, allowing him to better leverage the contacts and knowledge he already has to address the People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash aspects of each new business. (For more on this key point from the founders of Pizza Hut, BostonChicken, Celestial Seasonings, and California Closets, read Verne’s Fortune article “Businesses Worth Repeating.”)

If you’re growing 20% to 100% a year, view each quarter as if it were a year. That means possibly adjusting your strategy every 90 days.

Once you get to 15% profit the first time, you can then add labor dollars across the categories, based on where you see stress — and there will be some initially. Adding dollars means covering raises or bonuses, or adding new people. Labor efficiency does not care how you spend your money, whether on more people or raises. Just keep the same rate of labor productivity.

To tackle the cash conversion cycle, start by reading “How Fast Can Your Company Afford to Grow?” a Harvard Business Review article by Neil C. Churchill and John W. Mullins.