Is it possible to avoid the vicious cycle?
Invest in high quality staff aligned to your values. Redefine your recruitment and training to suit your vision and core principles. Aim for self-driven people, but once you get them, you must invest in the people you work with.
Separate yourself and the family/friends from the business. Dragging your family into this arena only introduces needless competition. Think about this: would you hire yourself? Do you have what it takes to run the business with all that it requires? Separate personal finances from your business finances.
Put a vision for the business towards which everyone is working. Let it be clear, tangible and simple to understand so that no one is left out.
Put in the necessary systems and controls by pre-defining how everything is done in the business. Don’t wait for crisis to change; be proactive! To achieve these outcomes, see the above steps above.
Ensure all compliance requirements are religiously met. The opportunity cost of compliance is far more beneficial than that of lacking the same. Compliance is what will enable you as a plane to take off; all systems go.
Lastly, don’t rely on one key customer or few clients. Spread your reliance and ease the burden on each of your clients so that you are able to keep track of present and potential (out of the existing) networks.