Key Business Success Factors

by Victor J. McCoy Sr.

What are the key factors that will make your business a successful? How do you define success for your business? What does success look like to you? Are you more interested in "looking" successful or actually "being" successful?


Success in the dictionary is defined in several ways:

1. The achievement of intention: the achievement of something planned or attempted


2. Attainment of fame, wealth, or power: impressive achievement, especially the attainment of fame, wealth, or power

3. Something that turns out well: something that turns out as planned or intended


While the dictionary writers have defined success, we must execute the activities that will lead us to success in business or life in general. There are many activities (or disciplines) that can lead to business success that have been discovered by researchers over the years. The goal of the small business owner is to first understand the goal of business in general, and how to pursue that end. He or she must also determine what activities in my business life and personal life will best lead me that direction consistently. Those activities must be inculcated into their thought process daily, and become part of normal business activity.

An unsuccessful business (owner) fails to do this either through ignorance (I don’t know), or mental sloth (I don’t want to find out), or arrogance (I think I know). With either, the result will be the same – failure. So, is business success predictable? Is business failure predictable? You could say the answer is yes and no. However, if research has proven that 50% of all businesses fail within the first five years of start up and this is a continual trend, we can conclude that there must be factors that consistently contribute to that trend. Meaning, a measure of success or failure in business is predictable. If that is the case, it would be to our benefit, to reduce the risk of failure being knowing the factors that will contribute to business failure and knowing the factors that will contribute to our success. In this series we will look at both factors.