Conclusion
Statistically, very few businesses ever go much beyond a subsistence existence and achieve fast growth after their initial startup period—just 3%, according to the SBA research cited at the beginning of this paper. Still, that amounted to almost 140,000 firms in the sample examined by the study's authors in 2007. The researchers behind the famous study of small business growth also cited at the top of this paper concluded there are eight factors prominent in determining the ultimate success or failure of a small business. Four relate to the business itself, four to the owner. For the business, those that matter most include:
- Financial resources, including cash and borrowing power.
- Personnel resources, relating to numbers, depth and quality of people, particularly at the management and staff levels.
- Systems resources, in terms of the degree of sophistication of both information and planning and control systems.
- Business resources, including customer relations, market share, supplier relations, manufacturing and distribution processes, technology and reputation.
For the owner, it comes down to:
- Your goals for yourself and the business.
- Your operational abilities in doing important jobs such as marketing, inventing, producing and managing distribution.
- Your managerial ability and willingness to delegate responsibility and to manage the activities of others.
- Your strategic abilities for looking beyond the present and matching the strengths and weaknesses of the company with your goals.
While a small business's growth, expansion of market reach and ultimate success can be affected by many factors—some within the business owner's control, others not—staying focused on the eight factors mentioned above and taking advantage of all the many resources available to small businesses should greatly increase your chances of ending up in the 3% that go on to bigger and better things.
