The Research Behind The
8 Critical Success Factors:
How to Run a Successful Business
You’re here because you want to learn how to run a business.
You probably want to jump right into all the things you need to learn and practice in your life and business, especially the eight critical factors to success. You might be thinking:
“I’m so ready to transform my business, so just tell me what to do already!”
That’s good.
Keep up that eagerness and excitement. You and your business need it.
But to truly understand the value of these factors, first you’ll need to know their background.
First things first, you are about to embark on a business coaching and mentorship program. In this program, you’ll be learning and applying transformational business strategies and advice to bring your business — and perhaps even your entire life — to its fullest potential. This program
will be conducted and assessed through daily habit tracking, weekly challenges, quizzes, and a summative activity towards the end of the course.
But where do we get these lessons? Where do these habits and areas of focus come from? And how do you know that I’m not just spewing nonsense?
It all boils down to one thing Research.
So what does the research say? There are so many business experts competing with claims and reviews. It’s difficult to find out whose word to take on which subject areas.
Which methods will offer most value to your clients?
What strategies are guaranteed to succeed?
What mistakes should you avoid at all costs?
What will work for your business… and what won’t?
That’s why I enlisted seven research teams and almost a dozen PhDs from various fields so you can get the answer you’re looking for. We scoured every published paper, every meta analysis, every systematic review we could find to answer the pressing question:
What improves the success of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)?
We found thousands upon thousands of resources. But from those thousands, we were able to narrow it down to 10 foundational sources and 14 supporting sources as the best ones.
The foundational sources are large and robust enough to validate critical success for SMEs. On the other hand, the supporting studies emphasized the validity of one or more factors.
And then, we did a meta analysis of these literature.
That is to say, we took these 24 sources in total and examined them to determine overall trends. What we established from that is the hierarchy of scientific evidence for eight factors. We were able to identify effective qualities and conditions that contribute to business improvement. Some of these factors include:
● Leadership behaviors
● Personality traits
● Business plan and performance
● Entrepreneur competence
● Diversity
● Innovative abilities
● Access to capital
… and so much more.
For each study, we determined these factors. If we went through it all, you’d be overwhelmed. After all, we ended up with more than 90 factors on our hands.
But if you want to take a quick look, here’s a sample of our spreadsheet:
It’s a big spreadsheet with results from tens of meta studies… …
with each study collecting information from hundreds of people and studies as well.
As you could see, we’ve listed the factors proven from each foundational study. Then, we found some suppporting studies to validate some of the factors that were proven. And the truth is that the spreadsheet above doesn’t even include ALL the studies we’ve gone through.
There are more studies to peruse, more factors to be proven, more knowledge to be gained.
And we want to upgrade our spreadsheet — and this program — in the future.
But for now, we gathered the best studies to create the Habit Hero Course. We can guarantee these factors we’ve identified, studied, and proven are most critical to ensure business success.
Where do the eight factors come from, then?
We’ve done the agonizing part for you.
No need to rack your brain to figure those factors out, parse them, and narrow them down.
We grouped those 90+ factors into main themes and identified eight critical success factors.
Over the course of this program, you will be well acquainted with these factors as well, so let me introduce you to them as early as now. Dear student, meet:
1. Self Efficacy
2. Strategic Planning
3. Marketing Strategy
4. Sales Strategy & Skills
5. Market Intelligence
6. Money Management
7. Business Operating System
8. Business Intelligence
But wait… there are nine factors in that screenshot, isn’t there?
Yes, there is actually a ninth factor. As the screenshot shows, it is government and economy — however, it’s an uncontrollable variable. It’s far beyond the control of an SME, beyond the scope of what we can measure.
But these eight factors are universal. Doesn’t matter what industry your business is in or in what geographical area you’re located in. Regardless of the products you sell, how many employees and teams you have, and where you want to take your business, optimizing the eight factors will surely increase your success.
And with any government or economy to boot.
