What Makes Your Business Lucky? — Experts Weigh In

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner and we can’t help but reflect on how lucky we are to be in business, have such a great team and partners, and incredible customers! What makes other small businesses lucky? Is it their employees, commitment to service, or all of the above? We spoke to 35 experts and here is what they had to say!

1. “I feel I got lucky when I had to become an Uber driver. While at the time it didn’t feel that way, later when I started a blog on ridesharing helping riders and drivers through quality information, my own experience as an Uber driver was of massive help. I believe luck often comes in the guise of hard work.” — Brett Helling, CEO, Ridester

2. “As the founder of PPC Protect, I’m really lucky to have an excellent team behind my business. Originally, we all started out as friends that had worked on various projects together. After starting this new business, it made perfect sense to bring them on full time and join the team. Since then we’ve grown exceptionally fast in the past few months thanks to our great team. I could have easily brought in new employees that I’d never met before, but there’s always something about friends and their feedback. They’re usually a lot more honest and open compared to people who don’t really know you and can often shy away from sensitive questions.” — Alexander Winston, Managing Director, PPC Protected Limited

3. “Dollarspout.com is a personal finance blog that was started because of how dissatisfied I was at my previous job. As I look back at the success we’ve had the past 3 years we have been in business, I realize just how lucky I was to have that negative work experience so early in my career. Going through that ignited the spark in me to start my own business. It just goes to show that embracing the bad times is important, because you never know where they will lead!” — Jeff Proctor, Co-Founder, DollarSprout 

4. “I feel lucky in that I have designed and manufactured a product where demand was beginning to rise and now it has exploded. We are so busy we can’t keep up with demand. I do feel it all comes down to timing sometimes and you should just go for the opportunity when you see it.” — Elly Wilkinson, CEO, Hollywood Mirrors 

5. “I think luck is just a small fraction of any company’s success. In my opinion, what makes us lucky is our unique set of skills, our versatile team, and a resourceful approach to each project. In an ever-changing market, we provide creative shipping solutions to the fine arts industry. We’ve learned that our readiness coupled with a solution driven philosophy is a key ingredient to our success.” — Konstantin Obuhov, Founder & CEO, EMS Group

6. “We are one of the luckiest businesses I have heard of because of our demand. As one of the earliest producers of these rare and highly demanded instruments, we have had far more demand that we can satiate since the very beginning with our first prototype. Even after 6 years into the business and watching hundreds of new builders come after us, we still cannot keep up with our demand.” — Mark Garner, Owner & Founder, Saraz Handpans

7. “Our startup is lucky because our leaders believe in the power of the mind and we spend time cultivating a positive, lucky, successful mental atmosphere and work environment. Every employee is in the habit of expecting the best and highest outcomes, and most of the time their expectations come to pass. We make our own luck, and it is not toil and effort that creates good luck — plenty of unlucky people work very hard. It is a lucky mental attitude and a belief that one is lucky that causes luck to manifest.” — Robin Salter, Chief Marketing Officer, KWIPPED

8. “We are a store for designer lighting where we keep a tight bond with quite a few amazing lighting designers and brands that are not only our partners, but a source of inspiration! We’re fortunate to deal with polite and understanding clients which makes our job an absolute pleasure. Lamp Twist has a sincere business mission to introduce beautiful interior lighting for solutions to both esthete and newly-came enthusiasts, and the best part is that we’re growing crazy fast!” — Robbie Nevens, Co-Founder & Manager, LampTwist

9. “I think the closest I feel to lucky with my business is my team. It’s been the most difficult thing to perfect, especially with the speed we’re required to grow, but when you realize that all the people around you everyday are incredibly intelligent, hardworking, and teaching you new things as well, there’s not much else that feels as rewarding.” — Lana Elie, CEO, Floom

10. “One of the exceptionally lucky moments we have had since we opened in 1993 in Bellville, Ohio would be fortunate to have our wonderful hardworking and going the extra mile staff. Our team is the forefront of our successful company and are always surprising us week after week with new milestones and accolades, just when you think you couldn’t be any further impressed. I believe our team is such hardworking due to whenever we hit new milestones, we celebrate in terms of bonuses or pizza parties! Who doesn’t love pizza!?” — Michael Russell, Director of Digital Marketing, Shippers Supplies

11. “I’m lucky to work with interesting clients in fields like tech and manufacturing–fields that are sometimes deemed boring, but these companies have great stories just waiting to be told. My business is also lucky to get referrals from colleagues who understand the value of what I bring to my clients. And, I’m lucky to get to collaborate with some very talented marketers and creatives on cool projects.” — Michelle Garrett, Writer/Public Relations Consultant, Garrett Public Relations

12. “My business is lucky on many fronts. Although we are a small business in a big pond of competitors, we have repeat customers for over 5 years. They also recommend us to other new customers. We are also lucky that we have a very strong and innovative team that keeps spinning up new features and enhancements that our customers love and use.” — Nirupama Mallavarupu, Founder, MobileArq

13. “My cousin and I merged our companies together back in 2017. I have been doing PR for over 10 years now and she is a business lawyer by trade. It seems like the moment we merged our companies together business has been falling out the sky. We don’t advertise. Everything has been referrals. We have a very good yin and yang effect. I believe it has a lot to do with our chemistry, services, and vision. We are not the media team that is over shading our clients, we work in the background and let them be great.” — Kiedra Tyson, Director of Sales & Marketing, B3 Face Forward Public Relations

14. “I think I’m one of the luckiest business owners alive. Each year, consumer reviews are becoming more and more important to businesses which has made our growth possible. Review websites like Yelp are upsetting off more and more business owners so they come flocking looking for solutions to look better online. we have been fortunate enough to remain in the limelight for many of those businesses.” — Curtis Boyd, CEO & Founder, Future Solutions Media

15. “Starting the business 10 years ago, I quickly realized how luck plays a role in business. In my opinion, there are no lucky or unlucky people in business. It really comes down to showing your business in the best light and putting yourself in the best places to make opportunity happen. As the quote attributed to Roman philosopher Seneca says, ‘Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity.’ My personal examples of luck meets opportunity came in the form of attending tradeshows. By creating an interesting booth, displaying products that standout and giving off a positive persona, my business got discovered by some of the largest retailers in the world; Toys R Us, Amazon, Walmart and Target! It was lucky the CEO and buyers of these companies walked down the aisle where my booth was located but it was not lucky that they decided to stop and take a closer look at our products. By preparing your business for success at every turn, creating a positive image and seeking out the best opportunities, your business will grow, not by chance or luck but by hard work and dedication.” — Christy Cook, Founder & CEO, TeachMy

16. “I am lucky because my Zendoway business is centered around my passion and commitment to wellness and balance. I created 11 soft squeezable cubes based on my love of mindfulness and yoga. I get to use these cubes in classrooms, corporations, and yoga classes. I keep one foot in the corporate world and one foot in the yoga world bringing them all together by blending corporate knowledge with mindful wisdom.” — Kerry Wekelo, Founder, Zendoway

17. “Zibtek has had the luck feels since its founding seven years ago. Our ability to surpass our client’s expectations by providing unique and creative custom software development and management solutions is what makes us exceptional leaders in the technological world. We recently improved our SEO service, which gives us an advantage in gaining the awareness of visitors who browse across the internet spectrum.” — Marci Batchelor, Associate, Zibtek 

18. “PostcardMania is fortunate because of our 200+ dedicated ‘Maniacs’ who show up every day to help America’s small business owners grow their businesses. We’re not just a marketing company though — we’re on a mission to revitalize the U.S. economy. If every small business successfully generated more leads and revenue, and had to hire more staff themselves to manage their growing businesses, there would be more jobs and less unemployment. Everyone wins this way!” — Joy Gendusa, Founder & CEO, PostcardMania

19. “I believe we can all make our own luck by working harder, wanting to learn, making good decisions, continually striving for improvement, taking some calculated risks, and putting ourselves out there. The results of this are we have fantastic team members in our FindMeAGift family and we continually work incredible hard to make our customer happy whenever possible.” — Adam Gore, CEO & Director, Find Me A Gift

20. “Luck would have it, we’ve created our own success through exceptional service and products, which has generated word of mouth and numerous referrals. Our commitment to becoming the leading automotive sales training solution would have everything to do with success. We also pride ourselves on customer experience and generating results for our clients. Luck doesn’t just happen, it’s usually a combination of perseverance, timing, hard work and other things that come together to create opportunities.” — Mark Nicholson, Marketing Director, Absolute Results Productions Ltd.

21. “I consider us lucky because we live by our motto: help first, business second. We are a trauma scene cleaning company and we get ourselves into all sort of situations, but we always remain positive and do our best to help the client through some of the toughest times in their lives. We are franchised, but we are still very much a small business. When potential clients call, they speak directly with the owner in each location and we are constantly getting involved with the local company. We maintain a close relationship with all the over Bio-One locations, so we can keep each other going and reach out if we need extra assistance.” — Jennifer Salomon, Marketing, Bio-One

22. “As cheesy as it may sound, we at Community Tax feel so lucky to be able to help so many Americans who have tax debt. We can make a life-changing impact on the lives of our customers, so we feel lucky that we get to come into work every day knowing that we’re doing some good in our community. To love what you do and to make a difference, now that’s lucky.” — Jacob Dayan, CEO & Co-Founder, Community Tax + Finance Pal

23. “I think passion is about what I do, and my energy has been extremely lucky for me because people can see it, feel it, and want to be part of it. When people can see your heart and soul into what you do, they genuinely give you best wishes and those wishes are what makes me feel lucky.” — Honey Patel, Founder, Launchise

24. “We, at FitSmallBusiness.com are very lucky. Every business must contend with many factors outside its control. Our business is highly dependent on traffic from Google. We are lucky that we have never suffered through a Google update that wiped out 50% or our traffic. Every time there is a major update, such as Panda or Penguin, I hear about websites losing 80% of their traffic. If this happened to us, it would be devastating to our business. We try to avoid doing anything black hat or that is against Google recommended best practices. We take reasonable precautions to avoid getting into trouble, however, there is a still an element of luck!” — Marc Prosser, Co-Founder, Fit Small Business

25. “The two things that made my business lucky are my intentness to my target and my zeal of gathering in depth knowledge to find the ways to reach my target. I had a keen target to run my own online service and for that I gathered versatile knowledge which helped me to be a successful entrepreneur. I am still learning new things every day which helps me to be on the right track to reach the higher targets.” — Andrei Vasilescu, CEO & Digital Marketing Expert, Don’t Pay Full

26. “I’ve actually often thought about this as our company has expanded to quickly to now be making the finest rubber ducks on the market and we are now considered the top custom rubber duck manufacturer in the world. How did it happen? In truth, I was very lucky…lucky that the genius people who make it all happen for me came out of nowhere to join my company and bring their brilliance with them. I would never have found them. When you have the perfect storm of brilliant employees who are also amazingly fun, creative, and inspirational and they somehow drop into your life out of nowhere… Yes, you are very lucky!” — Craig Wolfe, President, CelebriDucks

27. “I actually prefer to say my businesses and I are blessed. I know my businesses continue to be blessed because we are thankful for everything that has happened to us, as well as everyone we have meet. Through these experiences we were able to learn and grow. We were able to build a strong team, thus making us stronger together.” –Vid Lamonte’ Buggs Jr., Founder & Owner, 4-U-Nique Publishing and VLB/VBJ Enterprises, LLC

28. “In our industry, foresight, perfect timing, and instilling good team values have all contributed to our explosive growth. We were very fortunate to create the right business at the right time!” — Ross Palmer, Digital Marketing, Lab Society

29. “I feel my business has been extremely lucky since opening shop because I have a very dedicated customer base. They are the loudest and most effective marketing voices for my business. My brand and business were built on the foundation of creating a great customer experience from the first moment they made a purchase down to reading the care label. Everything in my brand has the same design aesthetics along with a great story in every piece of article clothing we create. I’m very lucky I was able to find my target audience and deliver exactly what they are looking for. I attribute a significant amount of my success to being very lucky.” — Lisa Chu, Business Owner, Black n Bianco

30. “Having a boss stand behind the value of the company goes a long way toward succeeding as a startup. Tempesta Media’s Founder and CEO, didn’t hesitate to turn down multiple buy-out offers through the course of 6 years. This is why today we have grown from 14 to 20,000 content writers to support our quick expanding clientele of enterprises and agencies.” — Olivia Tuttle, Marketing Manager, Tempesta Media

31. “Servicing over 550 client households with a staff of 17, I can’t help but feel that we have a truly lucky business! The combination of having exceptional staff who are dedicated animal lovers, my background in business and IT consulting which has streamlined our professional processes, and our clientele of pet owners in our community who want the best for their pets continue to spur our growth!” — Bethany Stevens, Owner, On the Move Pet Care

32. “My business is lucky because its mission and goals are fueled by passion, first and foremost. I offer the best in customer service and fairy garden miniatures because of my deep passion and adoration for the art and creation of fairy miniatures. It’s this passion that allows me to connect with my customers on a deeper level.” — Ronna Moore, Owner, Fairy Homes & Gardens

33. “I’m a lucky business owner because I’ve always been extremely stubborn and determined. When most people would have quit after all the obstacles I’ve battled, I only hustled harder. I think my personal approach, passion and dedication mixed with my relentless conviction that failure is not an option has been the recipe that has led to my current success. I could be the poster child for the statement ‘what doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger.'” — Lori Cheek, Founder & CEO, Cheekd

34. “My small business has been very lucky. The secret to our success is passion, hard work, and genuine, personalized customer service. I sincerely care about every single customer, and I want them all to achieve their goals and be very successful. My customers are always extremely happy with my work and become long-term customers. They have expressed that I am highly skilled, talented, eloquent, creative, trustworthy, and kind—a rare combination of qualities that they have not been able to find at any other company.” — Ziyah Mallam, President & Senior Copywriter, After12 Tea

35. “We definitely got very lucky with our great and diverse team here at Badger Maps. I’m having a ton of fun helping people be their best in their career, and there has been so much personal and professional growth over the last few years. We’ve managed to build a great culture where people enjoy working together and can develop fulfilling careers, and I feel like this is key to being successful as a business.” — Steven Benson, CEO, Badger Maps

Feeling lucky enough to start your own business? Give us a call at 1-877-692-6772, or visit us at mycorporation.com.