values

... is the first stage of the growth pattern a business goes through. When you know your own values, you can find out who shares your values. With those people you can easy gain trust, create friendship, do business. "Birds of a feather, flock together". A great example for this effect , lightly twisted you can read in the blog post "Why do people look like their dogs?" from Seth Godin. You find this in the "news for entrepreneurs" section on the top right side of the main page.