Know your partner

Do your "due diligence," and do it well.

Check the reliability of the data on your partner or customer from independent sources.

Be careful, you can lose a lot of money if you make a great deal with the wrong partner !

In addition to creating pro forma balance sheets, spend some time at the beginning of a project to create scenarios of what you will do if things go wrong. Try to anticipate possible problem areas. If you can't find any, hire somebody who knows well about the potential problems to help you.

Create a strategy to deal with potential problems. Have an escape strategy for each stage of your project, even though you do not plan to use it.