Proof that your product/service is all that you say and more... is the pre-cursor to trusting customers and repeat business.

Because without proof, no prospect will become a customer in the first place.

If you have a unique product that does something other competing products cannot do, demonstrate it.

If you can't demonstrate it, bring out a sampler.

If you can't bring out samples, encourage your customers to talk about it.

If your business is new, get someone with authority or repute to vouch for it.

If none of that is possible, at least demonstrate (show, don't tell) that your product is in high demand.

If all you can do is talk your own products up, you really have no proof.

Nothing converts prospects into customers/clients as well as proof.

And nobody wants to go to a nightclub that doesn't have a long queue outside.

The end-goal for your business is to maintain and progressively strengthen the relationship you have with your audience.

Everything else... your equipment, your team, your tools, your infrastructure, even your business' systems exist only to facilitate that.

Profits and equity are mere byproducts.

If you rely on third-party service providers such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon and so on for storing your data... and if their cloud is the primary home for your data, it's only a matter of time before you lose access to it... or worse, get breached.

They have their uses, but your data is your responsibility. Especially if it's mission-critical data that your business needs. In-house data servers are so cheap that there really is no excuse for not using one, or more.

I only use third-parties as doomsday backups, and the data stored on there is encrypted so hacks don't scare me anyway.

Whatever gets inspected, gets respected.

Trusting everyone is great, but verification is simply necessary.

If you trust other people to do something, be sure to intermittently verify. This includes your closest associates, partners and even the most dependable colleagues/employees.