What makes small businesses successful?
This question is so broad there is no meaningful way to answer it comprehensively. however, here are some observations:
1) Four components that are very desireable and likely to create a successful business:
a) a clearly definable and reachable market
b) something prospects want as opposed to need
c) a great sales process
d) a back end - meaning additional products and services to sell a customer after the first sale is made.
2) A willingness on the part of the owner to continuously learn and grow including reading, conference attendance, mentoring, support groups (such as Vistage, The Alternate Board, Young Entrepreneurs Organization)
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3) A strong capacity to mine the value out of adversity and learn from her/his mistakes.
All this having been said, there is no substitute for being in the right place at the right time (Microsoft), hard work, and a little luck. There are a lot of moving parts to the simplest business and it takes a long time to really learn them all well.
Lanny Goodman is a strategic planning consultant and president of Management Technologies Inc.. Since 1980 he has helped entrepreneurs build highly vital and productive companies. Lanny has developed a unique process to create self-managing companies based on the emerging scientific principles of self-organizing systems. His company works in a very wide variety of industries in the services, manufacturing and not-profit for industries with clients ranging from $1.5m to over $1b in sales. Contact Lanny at www.lannygoodman.com
