Business - what's luck got to do with it?

by Startacus Admin

Are you a person who places great stock in the power of good fortune? Do you find yourself picking up pennies off the pavement and hanging horse shoes over doorways in the hope of encouraging that elusive lady luck? It's a belief that often seeps into people's expectations for their business. Others however subscribe to a more realistic mantra, viewing their success and failures as nothing more than a product of their own competency level and hard work - or lack thereof, as the case may be.

Our pals at Sage One have just released the results of their investigations into the matter and from what they found it seems that the majority of British SMEs believe that there is no such thing as luck when it comes to matters of business.

Over 1000 small business owners from across the UK were sampled and the majority of these were of the opinion that they are in control of their company's success, but a significant minority, 28% to be precise, expressed a belief that luck has at least some influence over the success of a business. Admittedly we are rather surprised that so many businesses owners adopt a realist approach but Sage One’s research has highlighted a number of other very intriguing notions.

Not least of which is the fact that there appears to be a negative correlation between the success of a business and the significance which their owners place on luck i.e. those that ran less successful businesses were more likely to claim that luck plays a part in the building of a successful one. We can't help but think that this data highlights a fundamental human trait - our desire to claim success as our own and willingness to shirk responsibility for failure.

Overall the top 3 factors stated as important to success were Good customer service (80%), a solid business plan and sound knowledge of the business’ finances (55%) and suppliers (54%) suggesting that the majority of entrepreneurs prefer to rely on insight and control over chance. However the majority of those sampled whose businesses had performed poorly over the previous 12 months, claimed luck to be one of the top 3 contributory factors to business success.

Claire Carter, Head of Sage One says “With growth comes opportunity, but you have to be ready to take advantage of it, Luck will only take you so far. But if you have a good understanding of your firm's finances and operations you can act decisively with confidence and turn a situation into a lucky one.”

As it happens, here at Startacus we also believe in taking control of your business and its destiny - check out this recent tips and advice post 4 Startup things you can’t leave to luck

We would love to hear from you on this issue. Do you believe that luck has much role to play in business or are you an out and out realist? Tweet us and let us know!

If you like what you see here on Startacus, why not become a member of our growing community? It's free! And you'll get all this - exclusive access to our Business Toolkit, discounts and offers galore for your business via our member only business deals, the chance to network and connect with loads of fellow self-starters, and maybe even become our celebrated 'Self-Starter of the Week' and tell the world your startup tale! Join right here for free...

Subscribe to our newsletter

If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.

• #luck
• #
• #sage one
• #business success

Published on: 27th June 2014