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One highly rated strategic trait for 50% of new ventures studied is being passionate and persistent (Table 2). At the same time new venture operations had to identify what was known (28.6%) and what wasn’t known (28.6 percent, Table 2). A successful new entrepreneur must balance issues of being persistent and dedicated but at the same time have the judgment to know when to seek advice and take training. This is not easy. Having a number of people involved can help clarify these issues.
Networks
Having an effective network is related to success by 42.9 percent (Table 2) of the new ventures and lack of effective network 22.2% (Table 3) to the unsuccessful operations. Networking tends to understood and practiced better by women, and may be related to the issues of successful closures discussed by Bates in the introduction.
Finance issues, business plans and related issues are some of the traditional ways that new ventures were studied in the past. However, strategic and marketing issues seem more connected with success where financial issues were ranked last (Table 1). However, in unsuccessful operations, financial issues were ranked second to strategic (Table 3). It might be that finance issues may be a necessary but not sufficient condition for success. That is, the finance function must be looked after, all the way from bookkeeping and invoices being done and sent in a timely manner to issues of knowing how much capital and the type of cash flow needed to keep the business going; “Most entrepreneurs who start businesses, particularly if they are their first, run out of cash at a faster rate than they bring in customers and profitable sales” (Timmons, 1994, p 1). While the finance function is critical, most issues of being successful are more related to strategic and marketing issues (Table 1).
Strategic
Issues of size and scale are important to success and unsuccessful operations. The second most important strategic issue for successful operations was to start small and grow the business (Table 1). At the same time, one of the issues in the “other” category in strategic was too much start-up capital (Table 3). The issue of ‘too much start-up capital’ seems paradoxical. However, it is related to a sense of strategy and where the new venture is headed. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. Strategic issues, including vision and long-term goals are not clearly and correctly identified, then large amounts of money can be spent on doing the wrong things. If the effects of these actions are irreversible, the results will be catastrophic. Issues of starting small correspond with one of Briscoe’s Ten Start-Up Success Factors to start small and grow the business (Briscoe, 2003).
Issues of family businesses are important for a number of successful and unsuccessful operations in how work gets done. This is because labour issues and the role of family involvement are seen as important. For success, family involvement and support (35.7%, Table 1), family interest and participation (28.6%, Table 2), are considered important. For unsuccessful operations, with not enough appropriate labour skill and strength, (33.7%, Table 3) and limited time, limited labour, vision needs to be communicated and shared and complement of skills needed all rated by 20% of the respondents (Table 4). A family business is defined Litz “a business firm may be considered a family business to the extent that its ownership and management are concentrated within a family unit, and to the extent its members strive to achieve and/or maintain intra-organizational family-based relatedness” (Sirmon, 2002, p 5). The returns achieved by a firm are not only defined by the number and kinds of resources an operation owns or controls, but also the way those resources are managed. “We conclude that resources alone are not likely to produce a sustainable competitive advantage. Rather, the resources must be managed appropriately to produce value” (Sirmon, p 3). Sirmon states, “An entrepreneurial spirit, the desire for growth and wealth creation, characterizes the family firms….” (Sirmon, 2002, p. 5). Where appropriate, our work indicates that success in new ventures may be with family businesses but does not have to be associated with family businesses.
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