Yesterday was 20 years since the Memorandum and Articles of Association for our company, Niche Science & Technology Ltd., were formalized. That same day I visited my bank and opened a business checking account with my life’s savings of £1000. I was fired up with the passion and enthusiasm expressed by all new business owners, eager to improve on the sloppy business practices and maniacal leadership decisions I had experienced over my career.

When I think about how little I knew about what was to come, I smile. People told me how brave I was (a lot) in those first few months. In the nicest way, they had warned me that I should not go into business for myself. Many were worried about my lack of experience because I had worked in research for most of the previous 15 years. Others thought I was crazy to think I could do well in the cur-throat pharmaceutical service sector, suspecting that I was experiencing something similar to a midlife crisis. They may have been right. My second marriage had ended, and I had just moved into a squalid, 3 metre by 3 metre room in a North London squat. However, I was possessed of an idea, and I had no option but to throw myself to the mercy of Lady Luck. The dice were rolling and once you start down the road to independence it is almost impossible to stop. Quitting my stable day job and with only the clothes on my back (how many times have people said that?), I began working around the clock on my own business. Early on, I worked from my damp and smelly 'room'. Later, I moved to a shared office in a converted stable. Fortunately (for the sake of my nerves), I was blithely unaware of how much I didn't know about how to run a business. But I lacked in understanding I made up for in enthusiasm, energy and a touch of arrogance – how hard could it be to start a business?

Many businesses fail in their first few years. In the UK, around 4% of new businesses have ceased trading by the end of the first year of operations. Once you have exhausted all your reserves the failure rate rises significantly to more than a third (34%) by the end of the second year and to half (50%) within just 3 years of opening. A great deal is written about what it takes to be successful. Lack of cash is usually the reason a business fails whereas success is generally attributed to the skill set of the new business owner. Clearly, you give your start-up a better chance of survival if you start with substantial funding and keep your overheads low, have access to clients and achieve levels of remuneration that are higher than production costs. Equally, cold logic and a ruthless attention to detail will help. In truth, the one defining characteristic of all new business owners I have met has been the pragmatic application of know-how and passion. Their decision to go into business for themselves has had little to do with feasibility once they have been bitten by ‘the bug,’ infecting them with the idea of running their own show. Considering the failure rates, we must conclude that passion alone is not, therefore, a trait that determines whether (or not) you have what it takes to run a successful business. Passion starts busineses – that’s the easy part – believe me!

To actually succeed you need more than a desire to make money or wanting to be your own boss. I started Niche with plenty of passion and very little cash – so what traits did I find I had that has seen us still in business after 20 years?

1. Resourcefulness: Adaptability is crucial for any business owner. Many business owners will tell you that their ‘idea’ or business plan is somewhat different than what they first imagined. You may have a brilliant idea, but in reality, it isn’t practical or sellable. Successful business owners are flexible enough to adjust their aim and turn a tenuous concept into a feasible proposition. Owners are ready and willing to switch direction in response to I kept money coming in during Niche’s early days by upgrading, rebuilding and reselling computers. When our client’s requirements changed following the 2007–2008 global financial crisis we re-tooled our workforce, adding clinical trial management to our existing regulatory writing services. You need to be able to use the assets you have available to you to navigate challenges.
2. Grit: You will find it relatively easy to convert your passion into energy. Many successful business owners will tell you of the 80–100-hour weeks they worked as well as the overnighters. You can build resilience over time – but it can be a real shock to your system if your body is used to working in a 9-to-5 environment., Running your own business can be physically gruelling – you must ask whether you can motivate yourself to get out of your sick bed and back to work? Self-sacrifice is the name of the game, forget sneaking off it to the gym for an hour. It can be tough on you mentally when clients bully you into accepting lower than market rates simply because they know you are a desperate start-up. Often this comes from people you otherwise thought of as friends (and know how you are struggling). Be prepared to dig deep into your soul. In the film 28-days later, Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston) asks Jim (Cillian Murphy) “Since it began, who have you killed? You wouldn’t be alive now, if you hadn’t killed somebody.” Don’t ask, and I won’t tell you where I buried my bodies.
3. Self-confidence: You have to believe in yourself, no matter how bad things get, no matter how much people talk you down. Why should your customers and your team believe in you If you cannot believe in yourself? The idealist in me wants to tell you that the single virtue that will determine your success is an encyclopaedic knowledge of your industry. However, experience tells me that confidence trumps knowledge every time. Several years ago, I advised a young Clinical Project Manager working for one of our clients on her plan to start a wedding planning business. I showed her that the plan was financially unviable, using my own business as an example. I was clearly convincing as she dropped her plans and started a business similar to ours. Despite her minimal industry experience she has since built a global business.

You don’t have these traits when you start your business – but you better develop them fast if you want to remain in business after 3 years. I found resourcefulness easy thanks to my PhD studies. Resilience had been drilled into me, first as an national athlete and later in the army. Confidence came with time. Your success will not only depend on you finding these skills but also knowing when and how to apply them.

In conclusion, self-help books and business gurus bang-on about the importance of leadership, ambition and passion (among other things). And don't get me wrong, these will all help you thrive. But success in business comes with a huge dollop of luck – often it depends on whether you happen to be in the right (or wrong) place at the right time. I have found that, on those occasions when the dice don't role in your favour, these three traits keep your business alive.