The first step is to find a purpose.
A successful business must be built on more than the dream of a large profit. Every business needs to have a clear purpose, and if you can't answer why you want to build this particular business or what the business's contribution to the world is, then the likelihood of your success is not very high.

The intention for the company must be that it must make a positive difference for other people, and it is therefore about creating a community among the company's employees, so that everyone works with the same goal in mind. In that community, everyone has responsibility and ownership for tasks and problems rather than making excuses and abdicating responsibility.

This basic attitude; that you want to make a positive difference reduces grumbling and gossip, which can otherwise easily undermine a company. Everything that does not contribute positively to the basic attitude must go, and when the community is there, the negative will naturally disappear.

The next step is to create the right culture.
Why go to work if it's not fun? If you don't like your work, you are either in the wrong company or in the wrong job. As an employee, it is unlikely that you can change so much in your working day that you will be happy with the job, so find the courage to move on to another job that will make you happy.

In a successful company there is no room for dissatisfied employees, because we have just learned that negativity, grumbling and gossip destroys every company. As a business owner, it is your livelihood that is at stake, so the tolerance towards negative employees should not be very high. A warning, and the employee must change his basic attitude or leave the company.

The third step is to share the successes and reward those who have contributed.
It is also the most difficult step for some business owners. When those who do the work earn only a small fraction of what the director reaps each year, you as a business owner will naturally encounter resentment and bitterness. Most employees are fine with the boss earning more than them, as long as they are also rewarded for the successes they help create.

As a business owner, you must invest your profits in your employees, and you will find that job satisfaction increases and that everyone works even harder to contribute positively to the basic attitude of making a difference for other people. And the company is likely to come out with an even better result next year.

The combination of the trinity: having a clear purpose, creating a culture so that employees find it fun to go to work, and rewarding employees for the successes they help to create is a recipe for getting off to a good start in building a company. If you manage to get all three things established, you have created a good and healthy working environment on which success can be built.

Trevor Blake is the author of the book Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life and founder and director of two pharmaceutical companies, QOL Medical and ANU.