Executive Summary
The abundance of small businesses proliferate our world both nationally and internationally, creating new products and services for consumers and providing an opportunity for job growth for many. Consequently, it is important to understand the characteristics and traits that make a business succeed. Not all businesses are successful; some start off strong only to result in failure; some fall flat on their face even before the doors open, and some rise above all others and prosper. The characteristics that make a business succeed are closely observed and researched to provide future business owners with helpful advice. The infrastructure of a business relies on several different factors including, entrepreneur behavior, employee competency, geographic area, and the need for that product. In this paper we are concerned with businesses in other countries, rather than the United States, because the majority of our products are imported from other countries. In other countries, what specific techniques and methods do businesses utilize that result in grow and viability? Providing both qualitative and quantitative research, we are able to determine that smart entrepreneur behavior, employee competency, and the ability to internationalize allow a business to climb that proverbial ladder, while negative aspects tend to be governmental influences, location, and internal weaknesses.
This research involved interviewing numerous business owners in different countries such as, Syria, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Sub-Sahara Africa and obtaining information on the venture growth of each company. Results indicate that success was directly related to entrepreneurial behavior, strategic planning, employee skills, training, drive to internationalize, and utilization of online tools. Alternatively, governmental influences in politically hostile countries, location and weak internal labor negatively impacted small business. With any research there are limitations and...