Small business

The greatest determinant of the success of your business is you, your character and skills. This you must believe if your business is to have any chance of prospering. The type of a person who blames external factors for failure and believes that his own decisions have little impact on the course of events is not suited to building a business. The conventional image of an entrepreneur is of a strong-minded, positive risk-taker with a sense of destiny, seizing the ever-present opportunities.

Motives for starting a business may range from achieving monetary gain for enhancing status to establishing a comfortable working environment. Generally, when people engage in manufacturing or trade, they do so in order to gain wealth and power, but their activity is good for all of society. The more goods they make or trade, the more goods people will have. The more people who manufacture and trade, the greater the competition. Competition among manufacturers and merchants helps all people by providing even more goods and probably at lower prices. This activity creates jobs and spreads wealth.

When it comes to establishing a business in theory, a well-run business should succeed in any market. In practice, however, you can make success more likely by choosing your product and market carefully. Running your own business doesn't mean that you have to be an expert at everything, but you do have to appreciate the importance of likely causes of failure so that you can control your business properly. Most of these causes of failure are a result of lack of skills. Try to require an appreciation of the crucial factors. Watch out for these factors by seeking training or advice from others in these areas in which you are weak.

The conventional view is that your business is more likely to be successful if it fulfils these criteria. The people involved realistically assess their strengths and weaknesses and try to overcome short-comings (This is the most important criterion). The idea and the market for it has necessary growth potential. Financing is sufficient to cover the short-fall of working capital especially in the early days.

If you can’t fulfill these criteria at the moment, don’t accept defeat; you may be able to in the future. Most of the processes can be learnt and acquired if your personality allows for realistic self-assessment. You will fail if your operation doesn’t match up well to the three criteria mentioned above.

Of course, it's true that small businesses often fail. Often, failure of a small business venture turns out to be a valuable learning experience for the entrepreneur, who may be more successful the second or third time. Unsuccessful attempts to start a business become part of the larger process of sorting out the market and making it more efficient. Small businesses often grow into large ones, adding to the economic stability of the nation.