Being successful will mean different things to each person and the pictures of success will change as you go through life. Just as life has different stages, every small business will go through different stages of growth.

In an article on studies of small businesses for the Harvard Business Review, Neil C. Churchill and Virginia L. Lewis found that small businesses will go through five stages of growth throughout their existence.

1. Existence. Simply come into being.

2. Survival. Survive at all costs to make it to another day.

3. Success. Maintain a profitable status quo or increase resources for growth.

4. Takeoff. Experiencing growth.

5. Resource maturity. Managing and reaping the return on investment (ROI).

Each stage will have areas that have key factors to overcoming those stages. This article will examine them from a farrier’s viewpoint.

Eight key management factors affect ultimate success or failure at each stage. Four of the factors are related to the business and four are related to the owner. These factors play an important role because how you respond could determine how long you remain in one stage and how quickly you advance to the next, if in fact that you do.

The business-related factors are as follows:

1. Financial resources. This pertains to the financial health of…