What makes a successful small business?
You’ve probably seen daunting statistics about the high failure rate of small businesses. Many don’t make it to their fifth birthday – and yet the entrepreneurial spirit fights on. Those small businesses that survive provide a big chunk of GDP and go on to employ most of the workforce.
So what separates the ones that boom from the ones that go bust?
Researching good traits for a small business owner
XERO recently surveyed 2000 current and former small business owners from the US and UK. Some had succeeded, others had failed. They took all their answers and looked for patterns. Here are the characteristics that defined the two groups.
So now you know
None of these traits will make up for a bad business idea, or even bad luck. You need a huge number of things to line up to launch and maintain a successful business. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to control all of them.
But you can control how you approach your business. And, as this study shows, that actually has an impact on your chances of success. So think about your attitude towards these things.