Small Business: Building Success

We talked with a few small business owners that are successful. Here are some common terms we heard them use in one form or another: 

• Determination - You must be determined, invest time and money in your venture. There will be many decision points when giving up seems the best option, sticking with it and moving forward is the key. 
• Time & Patience - Few businesses become instant successes overnight, or within a few days. Several business owners say they did not make any profit their first year, so plan ahead. 
• Failures & Minor Successes - Each time a new service or product is launched, there is anticipation to see how well it will be received. Business owners have found that some work well while others not so well. It is important to cut loses as soon as reasonable on a new product or service. When there is success, small business owners agree that you must be patient and wait to see the full run of the product or service before making any major changes in business offerings. 

From our observations we identified some common traits among these successful small business owners: 

1. Looking ahead - All have a future focus on what they expect their business to become. They evaluate, plan, re-focus, and plan again looking 2-3 years ahead. 
2. "Win some lose some attitude" - When they failed they re-focused their business and moved on. Failure does not deter them. They examined their wins and identified strengths they could capitalize on. 
3. Outsource - All that we talked to have identified the limits of their time and abilities to manage and run their business. We found that within the first year, all began to outsource various business functions, whether it was accounting, technology services, web page maintenance, advertising, or production. 
4. Listening - (Our initial observation was they had the ability to be humble and accept criticism.) The most important trait seems to be their ability to listen to their customers, consider options or modifications to their products and services. Not all suggestions can be accommodated, but they listened and strategically made changes when it made the most sense.
5. Never on their own - None of the small business owners were successful based on their work alone. Some enlisted the aid friends and family when demands were high, others looked for opportunities to off load some responsibilities whether through outsourcing or partnering with other small businesses.  

We cannot tell you if these traits alone will make you successful. It appears that to be successful you must have an attitude to accept failures, be determined, and expect to invest time and patient in your venture.