When it comes to starting a new business there are some startling facts out there. Fortune Magazine claims that 9 out of 10 startups ultimately fail and the US Census Board reports that despite more than 400,000 new businesses being founded each year, 470,000 actually die. With figures like that, you’d be forgiven for believing that getting into business is a near-impossible task, but sometimes the figures can be misleading.
In the above two examples, it is unclear as to what defines the ‘failure’ or ‘death’ of a business and both statistics also neglect to give a time frame. A better statistic to work from would be this, from the Small Business Administration that claims that 50% of businesses fail within their first year of business and of those that remain 66% of them will survive their first two years in business. Suddenly the facts seem more in the entrepreneur’s favor, but what are the key components of starting a successful business? How can you ensure that you end up a part of the favorable 66%? In this article, we’ll take a closer look at 8 of the key components of a successful business.
